“With plants?”
“With the Root itself.”
I made my way back to my tent, pausing when I passed Kaelren. He was destroying training dummies with ruthless efficiency, corruption spreading from his strikes like disease.
“You’re pushing too hard,” I said without thinking.
He froze mid-strike. “Excuse me?”
“Your marks. The corruption’s spreading faster when you push them.”
“And you care because?”
“I don’t. But Josephine would be pissed if you died before helping me figure this out.”
“Josephine is dead. Her opinions are irrelevant.”
“Wow. Cold even for you.”
He turned to face me fully, silver eyes like winter. “Focus on your owntransformation. Mine is not your concern.”
“Fine. Die of stubbornness.”
“I intend to. After I fulfill my promise.”
The threat was clear. I was just a task to complete before his own end.
“Good to know where we stand,” I said, and walked away.
Inside my tent, I collapsed onto my bedroll, staring at my changing hands. The green veins were spreading, creating patterns that were beautiful if you didn’t think about what they meant.
Julian would have called me reckless,I thought bitterly.Said I was being ‘unnecessarily dramatic’ about a few scratches. He never understood that sometimes you had to bleed to grow stronger. Then again, he never understood much about growth at all—just control.
“Your life is a disaster,” I said to the tent ceiling.
“But an interesting disaster,” Peeble replied, apparently having followed me.
“Is interesting worth dying for?”
“Better than dying of boredom with that imbecile you called a fiance.”
They had a point. Even with the whole turning-into-a-plant thing and the assassin-bodyguard who’d kill me without hesitation, this was better than slowly disappearing into Julian’s shadow.
“That’s depressing.”
“That’s growth,” Peeble said.
“Terrible pun.”
“I’m a beetle. Terrible puns are my only joy.”
Despite everything, I smiled. Then exhaustion pulled me under, and I dreamed of roots and roses and silver eyes that calculated the exact angle needed to end me efficiently.
8
Kaelren
She emerged from her tent the next morning looking like death warmed over, and I had to bite back several observations about her deteriorating condition.
