And Caz?—
She shoots free of the earth as if the dirt itself spits her out.
Benny dives and catches her before she hits the ground.
‘Caz! Caz, you’re all right. I’ve got you,’ Benny reassures her, voice breaking, but for a moment, there is nothing – nothing but silence emanating from her frozen frame.
Was I too late? I can’t bear it. I can’t!
‘No … no …’ I whisper as I crumple to my knees. The echo of the darkness that tried to take me is weakening my limbs. But I don’t care about myself. Not right now. My eyes are still fixed on Caz.
She can’t be. She can’t.
As I struggle to move, a choked, ragged sound cracks from Caz, then another and another as she gasps for air.
‘Thank fuck.’ I drop my head between my knees, unable to move as relief and exhaustion claim me.
‘She’s okay,’ Benny sobs out. ‘She’s going to be okay.’
I try to smile but find I can’t so much as lift my head. Instead, I remain on the ground, limbs trembling as the Quiet Ones withdraw the blade from the roots. Sap, thick and dark as old blood, hisses where the metal leaves the wound.
‘The Sannthrall will remember this,’ one of the Quiet Ones says with worry, glancing at the other.
Kyor steps forward, sword raised menacingly. ‘Give back the dagger.’
But the fox-headed creature simply lifts her chin, her face unreadable behind the skull mask. ‘We returned what mattered.’ She gestures to Caz.
The roots behind her shudder, slowly beginning to twitch again.
‘We suggest you leave the area,’ the other says. ‘Before it finishes waking.’
They’re right. There’s no way I can do that again – fight whatever the fuck that was. I can still feel the way its magic tried to take hold of me, and I’m not naïve enough to think I’ve got out of this unscathed.
Still struggling to find strength in my legs, I crawl to Caz and touch her dirt-streaked cheek.
Her eyes flutter open. ‘Rose?’
My vision blurs with tears.
‘I’ve got you,’ I whisper. ‘I’ve got you.’ And this time, it’s the truth.
I reach my hand down to take hers, only for my entire chest to seize with pain.
‘Argh!’ I scream out as a burning agony tears through me.
‘Rose!’
Something has a hold of me from the inside, as if it is pulling at my very being, drawing on me, the way I draw on my magic.
A whipcrack of agony lashes up both my arms. My breath punches out of me and something races beneath my skin like a thousand barbed roots trying to tear free.The Sannthrall! That’s the only thing it can be. Its magic is still within me. Not a shadow – a shard. I didn’t push it from me. Not entirely.
I scramble backward, trying to get away from it. But there is no getting away. As I look down, I see the dark spider veins weaving across my forearms, pulsing with green-white light. My fingertips feel numb. Hollow. As if something enormous has just flowedthroughme and is still looking for a way back out.
Kyor is suddenly at my side, dropping to his knees. ‘Rose. Rose, look at me.’
‘I … I can’t—’ I try to speak, but my tongue feels thick. The world tilts.
I need to get it out of me, but I’m losing control. I can feel it. Like the mint that I grow and shrink at will, or the leaves that flourish at my command, this shard wants to claim me for its own.
