It’s strange. After so long alone, after moving through Briargrave with only the forest and the King for company, having another person at my side feels like wearing clothes that don’t fit.
But I don’t push. Don’t pull ahead or let her fall behind. I match my pace to hers, and when she stumbles on a hidden root, my hand shoots out to steady her without thought.
“Thanks.” She doesn’t pull away from my grip immediately. Her arm is warm under my fingers, her muscles taut beneath the leather of her armor.
“Watch the ground.” My voice comes out rougher than I intend. “The forest is testing you.”
“Then I’ll pass.” She straightens, and I let her go. “How much further?”
“Not far. There’s a clearing ahead—one of the outer graves. We can observe the Consortium’s position from there.”
The clearing opens before us like a wound in the forest’s flesh. I’ve been here before, many times. Walked among these bones, these bodies frozen in their final moments. The Briarbound Dead watch us enter with hollow eyes, their skulls turning slightly to track our movement.
“There are so many.” Xela’s voice is quiet. Controlled. But I can hear an undercurrent—not horror, exactly. Recognition. “All of them claimed by the forest?”
“Over centuries. Some were enemies who came to destroy Briargrave. Others were victims who wandered in by accident.” I move through the clearing, careful not to disturb the bones. “The forest doesn’t distinguish between them. It just takes.”
She follows, her gaze moving from body to body. I watch her stop before a skeleton that’s been absorbed into a tree trunk, its spine curved around the bark in an embrace that looks almost willing.
“Does it hurt?” Her hand hovers over the skull but doesn’t touch. “When the forest takes them?”
“Some of the Briarbound Dead can still communicate, in a way. They remember what they were. What happened to them.” I stop beside her, looking at the same skeleton. “Most of them beg for release. But I can’t give it to them. They’re part of Briargrave now, as much as the trees or the roots. Destroying them would destroy pieces of the forest itself.”
“So they just... exist. Trapped in wood and bone. Aware.”
“The ones the forest valued enough to keep conscious.” I turn to face her, finding her harder to read than usual. “This is what Briargrave does to trespassers. This is what I’ve let it do since I took the binding. Every body in this clearing, every face frozen in the bark—I could have stopped it. Could have pushed the forestto kill them quickly, cleanly, instead of absorbing them. But I didn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because the forest needed them. The Briarbound Dead serve as sensors, warning systems, extensions of Briargrave’s awareness. Without them, I’d be blind to half the threats that enter this territory.” I force her to see what I am. What I’ve become.
“I’ve seen monsters.” Her voice is fierce now, cutting. “I’ve hunted them, killed them, collected bounties on creatures that committed atrocities I won’t describe. And if that’s the worst thing you have to show me—” She gestures at the Briarbound Dead, at the clearing full of absorbed bodies. “Then you’re going to have to try harder to scare me away.”
I stare at her. This woman who should be running. Who should be horrified, disgusted, desperate to escape the forest and the creature who guards it. Instead, she’s standing among the bones of my victims, telling me I’m not as terrible as I believe.
A barrier gives way inside me. One that’s been locked tight for so long I’d forgotten it existed.
“You’re either very brave,” I say, “or very foolish.”
“Probably both.” She turns back toward the clearing’s edge, toward the glow of firelight visible through the trees. “Now. Are we going to stand here discussing my character flaws, or are we going to stop an army?”
The fire is closer than it was. I can feel the Consortium’s advance through the forest’s pain, each burned tree a spike of agony in my awareness. They’re moving fast. Faster than I expected.
“Stay close,” I say, moving toward the firelight. “And remember—these hunters came to wake an entity that’s beendreaming of destruction for eight centuries. Whatever happens next, whatever we have to do to stop them... don’t hesitate.”
She falls into step beside me, blades ready, jaw set with determination.
“I never do.”
The forest shudders around us. Somewhere ahead, the Consortium’s siege engine roars, its runes tearing at the fabric of the binding that holds the King in check.
FOURTEEN
XELA
The Briarbound Dead won’t stop staring.
Tharos left to scout the Consortium’s position, promising to return within the hour. That was forty minutes ago. I told him I’d be fine. Told him I didn’t need a babysitter. Both statements were lies, but he was too focused on the enemy to call me on it.
