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CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
Molev hadme in his arms and was running as the call rang out.
The infected erupted from the field around us. Dozens of them. Molev jumped over some and spun out to kick others back. But it wasn’t enough. I could feel hands brush my legs.
Gunfire filled the air.
“Run!” someone yelled.
Who wasn’t?
I looked ahead and saw Katie and Roni. Ben carried Katie like me. Brog wore Roni like a backward backpack. She had a handgun in both hands and was firing over his shoulders as he hauled ass.
I couldn’t look back to see how the others were faring or to help cover them. So I held still and trusted Molev to do his thing and watched as the distance closed between us and the trees. More infected ran from the side fields, trying to cut us off before we could reach the grove. The fey sprinted faster, over and around obstacles.
We passed the first tree. Then the second.
I wasn’t sure why until I finally spotted a tree with nubby indents slowly spiraling up its massive trunk. Ben was up that tree without slowing. Brog was right behind him. I wasn’t squeamish about heights, but the gravity-defying way they climbed had me closing my eyes when Molev jumped.
Seconds later, he exhaled heavily and dropped my legs to crush me against his chest.
“I’m okay,” I said, patting him. “I’m fine. We’re fine.”
His heavy breathing slowed, and his hold loosened enough for me to look at the others.
“Was anyone bitten? Katie? Roni? Guys?” I asked.
Everyone shook their heads even as they patted themselves down.
Katie slowly collapsed to her knees, shaking hard.
“Keep it together, Katie,” I said. “You’re in a tree surrounded by infected. You don’t want to fall off.”
She nodded and closed her eyes, focusing on her breathing to pull herself together while Ben squatted beside her and rubbed her back.
“I won’t let her fall,” he said to me.
Another fey walked out onto a smaller branch. Smaller was a relative term. It was still as wide and flat as a sidewalk at its center.
He leaned out and looked down.
“They cannot climb it,” he said.
“Are we stuck up here until they leave?” Steve asked.
“No,” Molev said. “We cannot wait for that. Go to the storage huts on this tree and the next and gather what you can.”
The storage huts he referred to were a combination of burl growths on the main branch that had been hollowed out and actual huts woven together from the smaller branch limbs. The time and patience it had to have taken to create those and wait for them to grow together astounded me. I couldn’t even imagine.
And that wasn’t the only branch with huts. There were many. And they intersected between trees, creating a highway. Not always a stable highway but still a way for us to cross from one tree to the next without having to go to the ground.
Molev led me into a hut filled with leathers and baskets. He folded a few of the thicker leathers and packed them in my bag. It weighed more than I cared to admit after that. Then he took a pouch off the hook on the wall.
“These are the seeds from our home trees,” he said. “Along with a few other kinds.”
“I really hope they grow on the surface. The idea of destroying this forever isn’t okay.” I shook my head.
“If it saves you, I will give anything. Endure anything.”
