A strange and foreign heat flickered to life in me, and I deignedRorik the briefest of scowls. “I assume Ywena noticed you were occupied and chose to stay away. Smart of her, if you ask me.”
I didn’t know what Rorik was trying to tell me with his eyes, and I didn’t care to try to find out. Instead, I looked away, relieved to see Briar coming through the crowd with a drink in hand. I’d take his creepy, intense stare over Rorik’s gaze any time.
“My, my, Rorik,” Jules purred as she leaned across his body to peer more closely at me. “Someone is jealous.”
“Enough.” Orin’s heady voice carried enough authority to silence even the quiet chirping of insects, and he stood abruptly. “Jules, if you’d be so kind as to join your family, I’d like to speak with my brother. Privately.”
Apparently even Jules knew better than to cross Orin. She let out a belabored sigh, but she didn’t fight otherwise. In a few short steps, she was at her parents’ sides. Without a word from Orin, Seville assumed the role of host and abandoned her chair to engage the Starglens and Waterstones in small talk. Orin didn’t even wait for Rorik to stand. Instead, he gripped the edge of his collar and practically yanked him to his feet. Rorik snarled in answer, baring his fangs and extending his wings. Orin didn’t react. He only shoved him a few feet away, and the two of them stormed off toward the nearby tree line.
“That was eventful.” The quiet lilt of Briar’s voice was so subdued I would’ve mistaken it for the night breeze if I hadn’t glimpsed him nearing the group. Turning to face him, I accepted his proffered glass of wine and took a heavy sip. The familiar taste of dark cherries flooded my mouth, along with an herb I couldn’t quite place. It carried a deep heat and was almost slimy in texture. The sensation settled onto my tongue like a weight, and saliva formed in earnest as my brows drew together.
“Where did you get this?”
“The table.” He gestured to the same space where I’d gotten wine before. But as each breath passed, a purling, sticky warmthseeped into my bones. My lips started to tingle as a funny, light feeling invaded my limbs, and all I wanted to do was laugh. Raising my hands before my face, I studied the odd shapes of my fingers and giggled. I must’ve said something, because Briar actually grinned. And then his form shifted, revealing batlike wings and endless rows of pointed fangs, and somewhere in my mind I knew I should’ve been scared, but the only thought that managed to surface was how hard it must’ve been for him to eat without skewering his lips.
He looped his arm through mine, and we skipped away. Laughing. Twirling around dancers. Moving through the crowd until we broke free on the other side of the fete. We kept going, running through the moonlit fields of lush grass and into the densely packed woods. The trees welcomed us with open arms, their limbs stretching out to finger my hair as I ran. It was so different from the time Rorik chased me into the bowels of the forest. There was no haunting darkness. No echoing, rattling breath. The creeping chilled mist was now a soft, balmy breath against my skin. I wasn’t worried or afraid. I was free.
“Keep up! We’re almost there.” Briar’s voice was like a song, and I longed to hear every note. To follow him to the ends of the earth if he willed it. The world spun around me as I tripped over clouds and stars, until finally I landed on the ground in front of a knotty, worn tree trunk. I grimaced at the scrapes on my knees, the tears in my gown. There was no pain, just an uncomfortably warm and tacky sensation.
“Briar,” I managed, my words slow and full of hope, “can I take a bath? I’m covered in sap.”
“That’s not sap. That’s blood.” A giggle threaded through his words as he stared at me with glee.
My answering laugh was too loud in my ears. “Oh. I see.” I didn’t, but I was already moving on, focused instead on the cut-off trunk before us. “We’re here?”
“The ley line.” His fingers lightly trailed over my Fernglove crest, then wrapped in mine. “Normally humans can’t travel it, but you’ve got Ever magic in you.”
“Like with Seville,” I mumbled. Lazy images of me posing on the shop’s dais in lingerie filled my mind. It’d been such alovelyouting. No doubt this one would be, too.
“You’ve traveled this way before?” His grin was impish. “It won’t feel the same. You’re too incapacitated.”
Then he palmed one particularly knobby section of the bark, and the trunk bloomed like a wooden flower, opening to the night sky. Out of its center rose a swirling orb of faint green mist. Giving my fingers a squeeze, he leaped into the strange sphere and yanked me in with him.
The oppressive weight of ancient, otherworldly magic battered into me with the force of stormy waters. An unbearable ringing crested in my ears as my limbs trembled. My skin was being peeled from my bones inch by inch, and my insides were becoming shriveled and twisted like the ingredients I kept in my apothecary jars. I screamed, and my lungs were shredded as magic raced down my throat. Beside me, Briar only watched in sick fascination. And just when I was about to claw my eyes out from their sockets, the energy halted.
Briar stepped out of the ley line with practiced ease, his booted feet meeting solid ground in a place I didn’t recognize.
I fell to earth on all fours and hurled.
“That’s it. Get it all out.” He rubbed my back, and I retreated from his fingers.
“You drugged me.” The rough rasp of my voice made me cringe. That foreign herb in my wine I couldn’t place. He’d slipped me something. My bones creaked as I craned my neck upward to glare at him. “Why? Why did you do this?”
Instead of answering, he clamped one clawed hand around my wrist and yanked me to my feet. Stars danced across my vision,and I cursed. Briar didn’t wait for my body to settle, and instead he forcefully dragged me across an open stretch of mulch and filth toward a monstrous, lone hill covered in swaying reeds. The last dregs of tainted wine made me clumsy, and I hobbled behind him as I tried in vain to rid myself of his iron grip. With every shaky breath, my throat burned. I wanted to fight harder, to pull away from this impossibly strong Ever, but it took everything in me simply not to fall with each uneven step. The ground was muddy and slick, and it gave way beneath my feet as we edged closer to the looming mound.
When we reached the base, a cavernous maw came into view. Withered roots ran along the dirt ceiling and stretched to the ground like gnarled teeth. Lichen coated the packed walls, showering the space in a faint green glow. Once we crossed the threshold, we made our way to the back of the cave, and Briar pushed aside a sheet of brittle ivy strands, revealing a narrow corridor that plunged deep into the earth.
“This way.” With another tug, he set us down the spiraling path. At first, there was nothing but packed dirt all around us. As the lichen died off, so, too, did the light. Briar kept moving. Whether familiarity or magic helped him navigate the cave, I couldn’t say. But it wasn’t until I slipped and nearly pulled him down with me that he seemed to realize a need for light.
With his free hand, he summoned a cluster of stars that hung about his fingers. Their blistering glow illuminated the path with ease, and he continued onward without losing his grip on my arm. The air cooled as we descended farther into the ground, and eventually the path beneath our feet shifted to stairs made of something akin to black glass. The walls transitioned to the same material, and the path opened into a large, circular room. An enormous hole was cut out of the ceiling, and moonlight poured through the opening to drench the space in a soft glow. Thousands of winking specks shimmered from the depths of the onyx wallsand floor, as if I’d stepped out into the night sky itself. Directly beneath the opening stood a decaying tree with knobby limbs and bone-white flowers.
That’s the same type of tree as the Ferngloves’.
A chill swept down my spine. “What am I doing here?”
Briar didn’t answer as he let his power recede. Then he shoved me toward the tree, and I stumbled over the worn roots that’d erupted from the strange black earth. Something caught my arm before I could fall, and as I craned my neck toward my elbow, my stomach plummeted to my feet. An arm had unwrapped itself from the base of the tree, and disjointed fingers had gripped me tight. And then three more limbs were suddenly peeling away from the trunk. In less than a breath, I was snared. I’d been flipped around so my back was against the now writhing bark, and the limbs snapped at odd angles as they locked me in place. My brain rioted at the eerie feel of leathery skin rubbing against my exposed shoulders, and I yelped as a finger scraped along the length of my neck.
Alarm bells crashed in my mind. The last effects of the wine had finally ebbed, and I strained against the tree’s hold. A weighted groan—like a mixture of creaking branches and breaking bones—cut through the ringing in my ears. I was trapped. Trapped in an Ever’s lair with absolutely no power to break free. No one to help me. No one to come to my rescue. I’d never longed for Ywena’s presence more than in that moment. She’d saved me before—flown off to get help when I’d been tricked by Amalyss and Tasia. But now, I was utterly alone.
