Page 110 of When Roses Burn

“I wish I could play with it!”

“Do you hear that?” I asked.

I searched for another animal in the trees or perched in the branches. I’d searched for something when we first arrived to see if I could communicate with it, but the woods were eerily still, and they remained that way.

“Hear what?” Zephyr asked from where he sat on a branch across the clearing from Gizzi. He still didn’t know I could communicate with Gizzi, but he didn’t question Gizzi’s ability to keep watch.

“That voice,” I muttered.

Zephyr frowned at me as Gizzi turned on his branch. “Do you hear another animal?” he asked me.

“I’m not sure, but I don’t see or sense anything.”

“What did it say?” Zephyr asked.

“It wants to play with Gizzi.”

“She heard me! She heard me! No one’s ever heard me!” the voice cried.

When cool air brushed my right arm, I turned toward it, but though I sensed something there, I didn’t see anything.

“She felt me too! She felt me!”

Before I could begin to process what was happening, a thunderous crash jerked my head toward the castle. My heart leapt into my throat as trees snapped with an echoing crack that reverberated throughout the day.

In the distance, three-hundred-foot-tall trees toppled like they were no more than twigs, and their impact caused the ground to quake. Whatever was causing them to fall like that was coming our way as the trees were plummeting toward us.

“What is that?” Zephyr shouted.

“We have to go!” Gizzi yelled in my head as he leapt off his branch, sprinted across the clearing, and scampered up to my shoulder.

He didn’t have to tell me twice, but as I was clasping the basket against my chest and preparing to run, a tree crashed into the clearing twenty feet away from me. Its branches shattered on impact; it hit the earth so hard it bounced me a foot off the ground while smashing the precious patch of mushrooms beneath it.

My heart ached for the mushrooms, but my survival instincts screamed at me to run, and while I’d been stupid enough to sneak out here, I wasn’t dumb enough to stand here and wait for my death. The only problem was silence had descended with the crash of the last tree.

The absolute hush was far more unnerving than the crashing trees. At least then, I’d known some monster was coming at us from the direction of the castle, but now, I had no idea where it was.

All the hair on my arms and nape stood on end as the creature hunted us, and I didn’t doubt it was out there, stalking. It was big enough to topple trees, so I couldn’t imagine how it went so quiet, but I sensed it closing in.

I had to move, but I wasn’t sure which way to go. I couldn’t run further away from the castle; that would be suicide. That thing had come from the castle.

“Which way do we go?” I breathed.

“I’m not sure,” Zephyr whispered. “But we shouldn’t go further away from the castle.”

“I agree,” Gizzi said.

I clutched the basket against my chest as I debated my options. It would probably be smarter to leave it behind, but if I were going to die for these mushrooms, then I’d die with them.

“If it becomes necessary, I’ll bite them,” Gizzi said.

“I’m going to hold you to that,” I told him.

“It’s coming!” the childlike voice whispered in my head.

I had no idea who or what was speaking, and I’d stopped caring. “Where?”

“She can talk to me too! No one can talk to me!”