‘Maybe tomorrow. I’m tired.’
He scans my face, seeing the shadows there, and for once, he nods and lets me slink away.
When I reach Caz, she spins me gently around so that our backs are facing Kyor. ‘Looked like you were getting quite close to doing something you might regret,’ she says. ‘Thought I’d giveyou an out if you wanted one.’
‘What happened to the bone mending stronger than before?’
‘Is that what you were doing?’ she asks.
‘Maybe …’ It definitely felt honest, if nothing else. ‘Maybe.’
I pick up one of the blankets she placed down and move it a little. The bottom of the tree trunk might be mossy, but it’s too sloped for my liking.
As I lie down, my eyes drift up to the canopy above and the dense sea of dark leaves that blocks our view of the sky. My thoughts drift to Kyor, as they so often do.
What’s the point of wanting a man,lovinga man, with whom there’s no future?
With my head still whirring, I think of Llin. I’m sure her advice would have been terrible, but I find myself craving it nonetheless. She probably would have told me to fuck him out of my system.
I turn towards Caz to share that thought, the words forming on my tongue, but when I look at her, a gasp catches in my throat.
‘Caz!’ I scream.
Chapter 29
The ground is swallowing Caz. There’s no other explanation for it. Her ankles and wrists have already been consumed by the writhing mass of earth and roots, yet even that is less terrifying than the red hue now colouring her eyes.
‘What the fuck is happening?’ I scream again. I reach forward, ready to grab her, when a hand snatches me back.
‘Don’t!’ Kyor yanks me back sharply. ‘It’ll take you too if you get too close!’ His mouth is set grimly as he stares at Caz’s bowed body.
If I can’t physically pull her back, then I’ll command the plants to give her back!
Fighting the hammering in my chest, I reach out with my magic the way I’ve done with dozens of plants.
And yet before I can latch onto the plant, it pushes me back, as if it knows what I want and won’t give up its control. But how can that be? It’s aplant. Living, yes. Sentient, no. I try again.
This time, when it pushes me back, I physically stagger from the force of its shove.
‘Rose!’ Caz’s eyes flicker back to white as she chokes outmy name in panic. ‘Rose!’
‘It’s okay. Everything will be okay. I’ve got you,’ I call back confidently.
But I don’t. I fucking don’t! Panic surges again, and thanks to her gift, she knows I’m lying through my teeth.
That I can’t help her.
But just because I can’t control the plant, doesn’t mean I can’t do something else. Could I freeze it?
I need to do something,anything, rather than stand here and watch Caz be dragged into the bowels of the earth.
Before I can attack the tree with ice, Ruben tries with fire. ‘Mind out!’ he shouts as he hurls a fireball straight at the tree trunk. It’s by far the biggest flame I’ve seen him produce, easily rivalling the ones Mattieu from Rowell and some of the other fire-wielding Rettlings created in the trials. For a second, I think it might work, but though the fire sizzles and sparks upon the trunk, it doesn’t catch.
He tries again, but this time the fire he conjures is smaller and even less effective.
We need somethingmore.And if there’s one man we can rely on to always bring the hammer down, it’s the prince.
‘Kyor!’ I cry.
