At that same moment, a deep rattle echoed a few yards ahead.A low groan. Emilio’s eyes darted in the direction of the noise—the willow tree. Something strange was happening to its trunk…the edges warping and shifting.
Emilio cocked his head in confusion.
The trunk is moving.
Pieces of bark shifted and fell away, forming what first appeared to be symbols and shapes. Emilio watched in fascination as the jagged shapes slowly morphed into letters, until he could fully understand what was written on the bark.
Run from me, yet still I cling. The healer of wounds, the slayer of kings.
A thief, a collector, an enemy to some.
The keeper of the past…the seer of what’s to come.
“It’s a riddle,” Catherine remarked, looking around the group. A tree root coiled itself tightly about her waist and she cringed away from it. “That must be the way out. Solving the riddle.”
“Any ideas?” asked Analisa with a soft smile.
Dina let out a furious groan and extended her one free arm in front of her. An electrifying jolt of corporeal magic shot out of her arm like a bolt of lightning, bursting against the trunk of the tree.
She dropped her hand, chest heaving.
But the tree remained perfectly intact. Not a blemish to beseen.
Catherine sighed. “Are you done?”
Dina scowled and slumped. “Yes.”
As the others continued to bicker about the best way to solve the riddle, Emilio sank into the chaotic void of his own mind. Something about the first part of the riddle stuck out to him.Runfrom me, yet still I cling.And there it was—prickling at the edges of his consciousness. What had they always been running from? What had always continued to chase them, despite how hard they all might have tried to evade it?
The slayer of kings.
The healer of wounds.
Emilio hadn’t even meant to whisper the word out loud. It simply tumbled out of him.
“Time.”
As soon as the word left his lips, the roots coiling around his body dropped away with a loud thump. They slowly slithered back into the ground, disappearing beneath the dirt. Relief rushing through him, Emilio quickly scooped Benji into his arms. The little creature appeared to be equally relieved, thanking Emilio with a kiss on the nose. But Emilio wasn’t the only one who had been freed. The roots trapping Analisa fell away as well.
“Huh…” She wiggled her freed hands at the group. “It appears as though wehavefound the way out.”
“Well, if that’s the case, I suggest we hurry.” Olivier gritted his teeth, craning his neck away from the tree root currently attempting to wrap itself around his jaw. “Because I’m afraid we don’t have too much time left.”
Olivier was right. The roots were doubling in size and speed. His bottom half was completely buried beneath tree roots, and Catherine, Dina and Masika were close behind. If they didn’t hurry…the ones who remained would be lost to the willow…forever.
Just as that terrifying thought shot into Emilio’s mind, the tree bark began to shift again, revealing the next riddle. This time, Masika read it out loud.
“Reach for me, and I’ll hold under strain,”she began, her voice echoing throughout the clearing.“For I fear no phantom, no burden, no pain. Some may forget me, but I’ll never stray. For I am your beacon, and here I’ll remain.”Silence fell upon the group, the only sound the deep rumble of the roots slowly devouring them.
“Ugh…I don’t know!” Dina let out a throaty groan. Her arms had been tightly pinned to her sides by the roots. “Death? Life? Love?” As the guesses sprang out of her, not only did the tree roots remain coiled around the group, but they suddenly picked up speed, inching faster and faster.
“Shit—” Catherine gasped as the roots around her chest doubled in size, completely swallowing her torso.
Masika let out a muffled gasp. “Stop, Dina! It gets worse if you guess incorrectly. We have to be strategic.”
“We don’t have time to be strategic!” Dina bellowed, terror etched on her features as one of the branches began to slither toward her mouth. “We’re not going to make it. We’re not going tofucking—”
“Wait,” whispered Emilio, so softly that the group didn’t hear him. Except for Olivier, of course. His green eyes flitted to Emilio instantly. The other boy was always aware of his presence, listening intently.
