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A perfect circle of trees trapped a writhing mass of creatures, the thick trunks forming an inescapable cage. Not that the beasts weren’t trying. They raged against their imprisonment with a fury I’d never seen before, had never imagined. Claws as sharp as knives carved hunks from the trunks, spiked, hairy legs stabbing like daggers through every opening, searching for a way out.
And the sounds…clicking pincers, feral, raspy snarls, the thudding of big, heavy bodies throwing themselves against dense wood. Surely, they’d escape. Surely, all that pent-up strength and fury would tear through that living cage and then…then I would be all that stood between all of them and the worn-down Fae behind me.
I didn’t bother trying to control my fear.
But I didn’t give into terror, either. I might be shaking and lightheaded, but I was going to stand my ground. Whatever escaped that cage would not get past me.
I dragged my heel through the loamy ground in front of me. A line that I would hold, no matter what.
I let panic force magic through me in a torrent, down my arms, through my hands. Let adrenaline sharpen my vision and my senses.
Howlers…I never thought I’d see anything so awful, but the Cave Weavers were far worse. Spiders. Enormous spiders, their swollen abdomens dragging on the ground, pincers clicking as they worked their hairy legs between the trees, trying to pry open a wide enough hole to crawl through.
The forest gave them no quarter, the trees closing in ever so slowly, growing taller, thicker, branches intertwining overhead to form an impenetrable cage.
It was magnificent, and a little scary, all that power and might trapped within a sentient forest.
A forest that listened…to me.
But hope bloomed as the living prison closed in, packing the creatures tight until they were nothing but muscled, hairy bodies and soft, mottled ones fighting for space and air. It didn’t take them long to turn on each other, tearing themselves apart.
The smell was…awful. Rotting.
Death and decay and foulness, all wrapped into one.
Then the ground beneath them opened up like a cavernous mouth and swallowed them whole. The trees stood back, a jagged line of earth at their roots, the screams of dying creatures and the roars of the ones still fighting, even as they fell to their deaths, rang up through that gaping hole, until the earth swept back into place.
In minutes, delicate ferns and flowers unfurled, moss coated the forest floor, and saplings sprang up with acid-green leaves.
If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it.
The silence was as deafening as their desperate roars had been, my ears echoing before the small, quiet sounds of the forest rushed back in—the whispering trees, the hum of tree frogs, the gentle beating of a million tiny wings.
As if the forest, as much as I, never wanted to hear those beasts again.
“Thank you.” I blew out a breath and spooled my magic back into me, my fingers trembling. “If you could watch over these people long enough for them to get to where they are heading, I would owe you another favor.”
Moonbeams dappled the forest floor like quicksilver as I hiked back, my bare feet soundless on the spongy soil. It was like this forest had existed for ten thousand years, not a few days.
My wounds were almost healed, and I pulled a handful of berries out of my pocket, stuffing them into my mouth with a moan.
These things were seriously delicious. Sweet and sour at the same time. All in all, a good night, and a definite win. Now all I had to do was get back to Tavion and get his arse out of there. But first, I needed to tell the Caladrians to head south. I’d almost reached the encampment when the forest blurred into a rush of movement.
Humid, boggy air turned ice cold; darkness turned to the depths of the Great Beyond.
I thought the forest was moving, then realized…Iwas the one hurtling through space, wind tearing the scream from my lips, tears streaming from my burning eyes.
“Godsdamn it, not again.”
For a second, I thought I was back in that portal with infinity stretching out all around me, the silence so dense it swallowed up my startled curse. Then everything just…stopped.
Snowflakes danced in a brisk, merciless wind, like I’d landed in the dead of winter, but this place wasn’t the portal.
Not as vast, but more threatening somehow.
I wasn’t at the Citadelle, either.
And when I looked down, my dirty feet weren’t on the forest floor. They were on cold, black rock, the cold biting into my bare soles like teeth.
