Page 27 of When Ashes Fall

Briar

My legs dangled over the limb, biting into my ass as I swung my feet back and forth. The tree of unity’s thick, arching branches stretched toward the hole in the ceiling. When it rained, the water funneled through the beautiful limbs to the roots of the tree in the middle of the castle’s grand entry.

Some branches entwined around the beams running across the ceiling. Their leaves added splashes of color to the room’s dark wood.

It was a beautiful, wild tree with multicolored leaves, kept alive by the sprites with a lot of love and care. My potion helped invigorate it, and velvety, thick flower buds adorned the ends of the branches. I couldn’t wait to see what this beautiful tree would look like when it bloomed.

Engraved stones surrounded the hole in the floor and the dirt from where the tree grew. A feline, canine, or dragon carved many of the stones… they represented the three creatures a shifter could become. Four stones with W’s on them, for Wildwood, were set at the four main compass points.

I didn’t know the story behind the stones, but I understood the rocks and tree represented the unity of the shifters. To keep myself distracted from Knox, I studied the stones while Gizzi slept in a branch over my head.

Zephyr’s blue and gold dragonfly wings buzzed as he fluttered around beneath me, watering the tree. The spiky cut of his black hair emphasized the angles of his narrow face and pointed chin.

Like most sprites, he was only about a foot tall, but he was a powerhouse of ideas, movement, and enthusiasm. Right now, he was plotting which plants to use the new potion on first.

“We’ll treat the most damaged ones first. If this potion is better than your last one, we can do a lot of good with it.”

“Uh-huh,” I muttered, my attention riveted on the door.

I didn’t know how long it had been since Knox and the others went to escort the tribunal out of Wildwood, but the sky was growing darker as night descended. I hadn’t heard the roar of the shadow dragon returning, but I didn’t know if it was a fully formed dragon again, or still out there in separate, silent pieces.

If my mother knew what she’d created with her spell, she’d be irate. She’d tried to destroy Wildwood and, in doing so, created a powerful protector for the kingdom.

The dragon was a byproduct of her magic, but she couldn’t destroy it. Maybe, once the curse broke, the dragon would go with it… or it might remain as a constant reminder of my mother’s destructive nature.

Just as Knox would.

Yet, here I was, sitting in a tree, waiting for that asshole to return. I didn’t like being worried about him, but I was.

“We can take the new potion out through the town and get those rosebushes too. Maybe we can start working on the other plants out there too. Maybe even the whole forest!” Zephyr gushed.

“It’s not a miracle cure,” I told him.

“Oh, no, no, of course not.” He absently waved a hand but didn’t look at me. “But once we get more mushrooms, we can start formulating a plan of attack.”

“Uh-huh,” I murmured.

“And then⁠—”

Zephyr stopped speaking when the doorknob rattled. He stared at the door before flying into the rafters and settling above me; Gizzi’s head poked up.

Dromon was the first to enter the hall; he kept his broad shoulders back, but the hollowness in his eyes wasn’t there before. Completely nude, his strides carried him swiftly across the wooden floor.

Lyra followed him. At five-foot-ten, she was tall for a woman, but most shifters were tall. There was an occasional runt who grew into the shorter member of their packs; I was pretty sure I was wearing some of their clothes, but most of those clothes were too big on me.

Lyra was leaner than most shifters, but every inch of her was honed. Her short, golden blonde hair stood up in spikes around her head, and her lime-green eyes were unrelenting.

Like Dromon, she’d lost all her clothes when she shifted into her black panther form. With her full lips and high cheekbones, she was striking and lethal.

Pierce followed them through the door. At six-foot-three, he was average height for a shifter but more thickly muscled than most.

His brown hair usually hung in a braid to his waist, but it had come undone when he shifted. The shaved sides of his head were barely visible beneath the wavy locks.

He kept his brown eyes focused straight ahead as he moved with an almost awkward gait that he never exhibited. Streaks of dirt marred his dark skin.

Finally, Knox entered. I went still, and my breath froze in my chest as he strode forward with silent steps.

His shoulders were rigid, and the set of his jaw looked almost painful as tension vibrated from him. I didn’t think anything had gone wrong with the tribunal leaving; they wouldn’t be back already if that were the case.