“Piper—”
“Let me try.”
He glanced toward the tree, then back at me.“Fine.But what’s wrong with the tree?”He peered at the spot where the bark had been carved away, leaving bare, vulnerable wood.“It looks sick.”
“That’s because the treeissick.Someone’s been taking the bark.”
“And you’re telling me this now?”He groaned.“I have to tell the Council.”
This guy was seriously grinding my last nerve.“You don’t have to tell them anything yet.”The words came out in a low growl, my hand fisting.This mysterious Council could mind their own business for five minutes.I was going to fix the crossing.End of story.
Voss held up his hands in surrender.
“I’ll cover you,” Tani announced.
I glanced over and realized the fairy queen already had an arrow nocked in her bow, ready to fire—eyes suddenly all business.
Good enough for me.
I took a breath, stepped forward—and Owen’s hand caught my shoulder.
“Be careful.”
“I’m always careful.”I flashed him a crooked smile and took another step.
His hand slid from my shoulder to my elbow.He pulled me to him in one swift motion, and before I could say a word, his lips were on mine.
The kiss was fierce, possessive, claiming—staking something in front of Voss and Tani and whatever watched from the other side of the bubbling dark.
Heat flooded through me despite the fear, despite the sludge and rot and certain doom.I kissed him back with a ferocity that surprised even me, a low sound vibrating in my throat.
When he pulled back, his eyes held mine, steady and sure.
“What was that for?”My voice came out breathless.
“Luck,” he grinned.
I smiled back—couldn’t help it—then turned toward the tree.
I pulled the cork from the vial and stepped up to the black sludge, its reek making my eyes water and my stomach pitch.
Without wasting another second, I poured the purple concoction over it.
A hissing sound erupted where liquid met mire.The bubbles stopped.All of them.At once.
I stepped back toward my friends, hope surging in my chest.Steam rose from the muck, curling upward toward the canopy of leaves overhead.The bubbling ceased entirely.The air lightened a fraction.
I’d done it.The crossing was sealed.
“Take that!”The words burst out of me, bright and triumphant.
But the peace lasted only a heartbeat.
The bubbles started again.
Steam rose again, thicker now, darker.The ground shuddered beneath my shoes.
And then a massive shadow-thing dragged itself up from the base of the tree—writhing and furious, its body made of darkness with too many angles, its eyes glowing like coals in the wrong place.
