I call to it.Demandit to answer.
A blackened root suddenly surges out from the shadows deep within my core. It stretches from a burst-open seed that’s already begun to sprout, and I feel it sizzle and bead.
Then I sense it—the telltale presence of power.
The cuff at my ankle tries to dampen it, but my liquid gold takes the weight. Distracts it.
Allowing the rot to break free.
My eyes snap open, mouth parting in thrill. Black lines reach up from my palm like searching stems. They latch onto the pulpy fruit, and instantly, the yellow begins to darken. The stickyskin begins to collapse. Mold spreads around it, freckling it with spoil and sucking it dry.
My heart pounds with heady excitement.
I did it.The rot came back.
But now, the true test begins.
My pulse trills with exhilaration as I toss the fruit away. Then I pinch my fingers around one of the rotting roots sprouting from my palm. Without hesitation, I pluck it out of my skin…
And shove it into my ear.
I inwardly beg. Please work.
The magic wriggles for a moment, like a fish that doesn’t know which way to swim. My eyes slam shut, and I screw my face up in determination as I will the magic to do my bidding.
I feel the rot slither in.
Pure grit. That’s the only way I’m able to stay sitting down, to keep my focus instead of jumping up and yanking it out of my ear in a panic.
The sensation is horrible. Shiver-inducing. My fingers curl into fists as it starts to make its way deeper. As it travels further.
Chills scatter down my arms, and my entire body shudders. My neck cricks again, though I try to hold still. Even though it feels awful, I don’t let myself stop, even when my anxiety doubles, triples, and I shake all over.
Keep going…
My back molars grind so hard my jaw aches, but the pain is a good way to distract from the sensation as the rot travels deeper.
As it breaches my brain.
I feel the things there writhe and dig, feel them leaving caverns through my mind and eating away at my memories.
And I tell the rot toattack.
The magic swarms, latching onto one of the worm-like creatures. As soon as that happens, a collision of magic bursts in my brain, making me see stars.
I’m thrown physically back from the crash of power against power. I fall, hitting the ground hard, though I barely feel it.
I feel everything inside so much more.
The intruder in my head screams, and the sound is like a wailing wind I think I’ve heard before. The screeching scrapes against the walls of my skull, making me convulse against the filthy ground.
It fights, tries to flee, but the rot seizes it anyway.
In seconds, my rooting ally constricts around the invading worm and withers it to a pulp. Instantly, memories spew up from its disintegrating corpse like they’ve been sprung from the satchel of a thief.
The memories fall like rain, pooling in the gaps and crevices that have been burrowed through me. As they fill, I get a scattering of memories that bury back in my depths where they belong.
I see myself being dumped in this cell. See Una pressing her bony fingers against my dazed form. See me being dragged there and the palace’s courtyard filled with soldiers. It all flows in backwards.
