Page 116 of Trivium

78

AHMINA

The forest was pitch black as Ahmina, Zeina, and Lennox jogged through, trying to avoid any low hanging branches.

“Where are we going?” she called through the darkness.

“The house!” Lennox said.

Zeina somehow appeared confident in her direction. But Ahmina couldn’t tell one way from the other, so she kept her eyes focused on Lennox’s back, trailing his path through the bush.

Something moved beside her—a shadow she sensed more than saw—and she turned.

“You really are stupid.” Barrow’s voice was suddenly in her ear, and she instinctually reached for her chakram. She aimed her throw at the artery in his neck, but shock made her move a second too slow, and the chakram embedded itself in bark behind him. He threw her to the ground, and her head split as she hit the hard forest floor, stars filling her vision.

She felt his cool blade on her neck before she felt the pain. When it came, it seared and spread through her body quickly and ruthlessly. Crawling, twisting, burning. She gasped for air, swinging her arms. Her dagger had disappeared, so she clawed at his face blindly. It did nothing to stop him as a small vile of liquid was forced down her throat.

She was sure her muscles tore from her body. Whatever Barrow gave her had left her painfully paralyzed, unable to defend herself. She felt Barrow dragging her, branches and thorns raking across her bare arms. Lennox and Zeina’s voices were somewhere in the distance, but they felt so far away. She must have cried out, but she couldn’t hear her own voice, the pain consuming her.

She couldn’t see.

She couldn’t hear.

She could barely think.

This is it. This is how I die. She was losing her grip on reality, sinking further and further, the endless nothing calling her. The last thing she heard was screaming, but she couldn’t tell if it was hers.

79

LOVELEENA

Park was alive.

And he was right in front of her.

In tears, she had run from the Academy, leaving it engulfed in flames and destruction from the Firebringers. Without thinking, she’d headed to the closest sanctuary she knew: the abandoned house.

Not long after she had descended into the forest, Loveleena heard the screaming. Stumbling into a small clearing, she found Barrow holding Ahmina down while she clawed at his face. Beside him, a young man forced a vile of liquid down her throat.

All it took was for him to shift slightly, and even in the dark she recognized him easily. Park. Air rushed from her lungs at the sight of him. She lurched forward, but something yanked her back.

Zeina shoved them both behind a tree just as Lennox reached Barrow, driving his dagger into the soft flesh between two ribs. He retaliated by slicing Lennox’s upper thigh, and even in the dark Loveleena could see the gash was grievous.

“Park!” Loveleena screamed, her voice cracking.

Park turned at the sound of her voice, and when their eyes locked, he looked right through her as if she were part of the landscape—as if she were nothing at all.

“Look at his eyes,” Zeina whispered, still holding her against the tree. Loveleena was surprised by her strength. “He’s catatonic.” Park’s hair had been longer when she’d seen him last. Now it was buzzed short, and his soft brown eyes were glazed over and bloodshot.

“What’s—” she stuttered. “What’s happened to him?”

“He’s under the influence.” Zeina paused, studying him. “A potion, maybe. Or magic.”

Loveleena squirmed under Zeina’s grip. “We need to do something!”

“We need a plan or we will all be dead.”

Dead.