“Please.” Vi brought the edge of the leaf to his lips. Taavin didn’t have the energy to object further. Most of the water dribbled down his chin and onto his lap, but some got into his mouth. Surely, some had. “Good, that’s it.”
The knot in his throat bobbed and Taavin’s eyes closed. Vi set the leaf to the side. He was fading. She didn’t have to be a cleric to know when someone was dying.
“I’m going to find help,” Vi whispered. A foolish and dangerous idea had been forming in her head for days now. One that she became less able to shake with each passing morning as he woke worse than the last. “Stay here, and hang on.”
Vi emerged from the cave into the familiar haze of the Twilight Forest and struck out upstream as she had all those mornings ago. Part of her was already sick with the notion of what she was about to do. But there was no other choice. Inaction would result in Taavin’s death. At least this way he’d have a chance.
How long had she walked that first day? Long enough for her mind to wander… but she hadn’t really been paying attention to any actual distances. Vi’s eyes scanned the trees to the edge of where the horizon became hazy, looking for a tell-tale wobble in reality itself.
Finding none, Vi stepped off the rocky riverbank and onto the leafy carpet of the forest. She hadn’t found the last tear along the water—it had been in the woods itself.
Vi looked back the way she’d come.No other option, she repeated to herself. Going back meant Taavin’s death. And that was a reality Vi was not about to face.
Tree by tree, Vi ran her fingers along the bark. Her spark tingled beneath her flesh, heating the air between her and the tree. She left singed fingerprints in her wake on every tree she passed. They were signposts for her to use to find her way back, and Vi sincerely hoped she would need to use them—that this foolish notion wouldn’t kill her.
The sun was hanging low in the horizon and Vi had lost count of how many trees she’d marked when she finally saw a flash of red light. It was a tiny spark, barely perceptible in the wash of sunset amber. But it was the hope she’d been searching for.
Vi approached the abnormality in the fabric of reality with caution. Another tree had fallen, but this time, rather than landing on the ground, it was propped against its neighboring tree. Tiny bolts of red magic, like ominous fireflies, darted back and forth between the fallen tree and the ground. Scraps of bark were sheered off and hung at an odd angle, dangling in the air—perfectly still, even when breezes swept through the forest enough to rustle the leaves at her feet.
It had been the storm, Vi decided. The bolts of red lightning had struck trees in the forest, creating these abnormalities. She wondered if she went back to the bluffs, would she find red lightning crackling among dead grasses, like footprints of an angry god?
Murmuring returned to the back of her mind, the closer she came to the tree of red lightning. It was a dull, pulsing sensation, but one Vi knew would become sharper if she drew closer.
Whenshe drew closer.
Vi watched the shimmering air in the triangle created by the upright tree, the lightning-struck tree leaning against it, and the ground below. She watched, and waited, keeping her distance. She waited long enough that her feet ached from her toes digging into the ground through the worn-thin soles of her shoes. It wasn’t until twilight had fallen on the forest in earnest that Vi caught the first glimpse of the kingdom shimmering beyond—this time more clearly than the last.
Taavin’s theory was that Raspian’s magic had worn away the shift protecting the Twilight Kingdom—howeverthatworked. It was time to put his theory to the test.
Vi gripped the watch around her neck so tightly that she feared she would break it. But that didn’t prompt her to unfurl her fingers.
“Yargen, protect me.” Vi didn’t know if it was a prayer, a demand, or just a wish. She’d take all three, if that’s what got her through.
Shifting her feet, Vi launched herself forward like an arrow loosed from the bowstring. Each step was wider than her usual gait, intended to build momentum as quickly as possible. Her body tipped forward, running head-first toward the pulsating air that grew more violent with red magic by the second. She threw her entire weight behind every step. There was no turning back.
There was only one way for her now—into the breach.
Every muscle in her body tensed on impact, ready for the agony she knew was coming. Lightning flared on all sides of her, blinding her, trying to snarl her in its brutal embrace. Vi kept pumping her legs, pushing herself forward, but she didn’t know what she was pushing against.
Her eyes had closed instinctively, but now she forced them open. Lightning danced before her vision. It looked as though it was behind her eyes, shooting through her skull—in one ear and out the other. Between every bolt was nothing but pure darkness.
She clutched the watch tighter as the cacophony grew so loud, Vi could barely manage a thought beyondforward. She had to keep moving forward. She’d either free herself and be on the other side of this terrible bramble of magic in a world beyond, or she’d push straight through to the Twilight Kingdom as she’d hoped.
A thousand hands worked to keep her back as a thousand voices screamed at her all at once. Vi ignored the feeling of every electric grasp on her body. She ignored the noise as best she could.
Chapter Seven
The word resoundedin her chest and Vi realized she’d been saying it aloud the whole time. That was fine. It drowned out Raspian’s call for her death. It kept her feet moving. It kept him from claiming her.
Underneath her hand, the watch seared white-hot. It throbbed with every pulse of magic washing over Vi’s body.Forward, and don’t let go. If she let go of the watch, she let go of Yargen. Without Yargen’s magic protecting her, Vi knew she would’ve already been torn apart.
Her long march suddenly had an end. In the distance, beyond the flashes of lightning, there was darkness. Perhaps, it was death waiting for her. Either way, Vi continued relentlessly on and, with a shout, she freed herself of the clutches of Raspian’s magic.
Vi took in a gasping breath, only to find the air suddenly thin. Suffocating darkness was around her, so thick that not even air could exist here. She opened her mouth, not getting enough air through her nose alone. But there was no more to be had in this still, blank space.
Still, she forced herself to take a step, and then another.
With every inch, cool light flared underneath her feet until it condensed into a shimmering, solid form. The glowing blue path of magic hardened into stone guided her through the darkness and toward the twilight. Every step brought magic rippling over her like wind, giving her a brief reprieve before the darkness closed in again. But just when her head was throbbing and her eyes felt as though they might explode from her skull, the world slowly rebuilt itself before her eyes.
