I wasn’t ready to face him, wasn’t ready to sort through that tangle inside me, but my heart still stuttered as he opened his mouth to speak, and—
That tug ofshiverI’d felt somewhere in the distance suddenly flared, and the world around us exploded.
40
Treefall
Everythingshifted.
I was thrown forward, and I flung out an arm to catch myself as I tumbled down onto the platform, the deathless rose clutched to my chest with my other hand. The world shuddered again, and a hard, muscular body threw itself across me, shielding me.
Alastor, I realized with a start as his cedary scent washed over me.
Octavian had been knocked down to his knees as well. He was just in front of us, his face mere inches from mine, and his gaze darted around, scanning our immediate surroundings for danger before finally landing on me.
His eyes burned into mine, searching deep, and then he gave a small nod as if to assure himself that I was, for the moment, uninjured.
It took me a few seconds to notice everything else happening around me—to hear the shouts of people both above and below, and the unmistakable crack of wood—
A scream, then an avalanche of screams, split through the chaos from somewhere to my left, and the platform beneath us shuddered, then leaned.
“Quickly!” I wasn’t even sure which of the brothers spoke, or which of them grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet, pulling me up and away. To our left, there was a great groan of wood as one of the tree’s huge branches bent, then snapped, and an entire piece of it—with its platforms, and people—plummeted to the Hill below. When it hit the ground, the earth trembled.
My body froze. People were still falling, tumbling off into nothing as the walkways fell apart beneath their feet, supports collapsing and boards giving way—
“Marigold!” A hand yanked me back into motion, pulling me into the sea of people now running from the collapsing section of platforms.
Somewhere nearby, there was more wood creaking. I couldn’t tell where. I was pressed against the crowd, Alastor on one side and Octavian on the other. There were so many people we could hardly move.
And my skin was tingling, burning as thatshiverbuilt inside me. Even with the pearls still on my wrist, for me to feel so much—
“Mordren,” Octavian rumbled beside me.
“Or Laitha.” It was Alastor who gripped my arm, his fingers like steel. “Maybe both. How—”
Another strong surge ofshiverwas the only warning I had before the world shifted again. Alastor was thrown into me, and me into Octavian, and it was only Octavian’s ability to keep his footing—strong and steady as an oak tree—that kept the three of us from toppling right over the rail.
Others weren’t so lucky. A woman near us let out a terrified wail as she was knocked over the side, and her soul-wrenching scream could be heard through the rest of the noise right until its abrupt, sickening end.
Our platform was leaning further. The boards beneath our feet shuddered as the supports started to give way. Maybe the tree was leaning, too—I couldn’t tell.
The brothers shared a look above my head. I had no idea what they meant to do, but I saw no way out of this. Even if we could push through this crowd, make it back to the elevator, there were so many people…
“Are they here for me?” I asked.
I could hardly hear myself over the shouts of the people all around, but both brothers’ attention snapped to me immediately.
“Are they here for me?” I said again, more firmly this time. “If I go to them—”
“Out of the question,” Octavian growled. Then added, in a gentler rumble, “We don’t know why they’re here. It’s just as likely they’re here for us.”
And none of it mattered if we all fell to our deaths. Maybe that was the plan—simply to kill us. It didn’t matter if their target was the brothers or me—or both. The result would be the same.
The platform beneath us inclined a little bit more, and the crowd shifted with it. People were shoving towards the trunk of the tree, pushing away from the perilous outer edge of the platform that dipped ever lower beneath our collective weight.
Alastor still had me by the arm, and he pushed me forward with the crowd. Octavian shoved ahead, trying to clear a path for us. But while the crowds in the street below had happily split around his huge form, no one made way for him here. All around us, the panic was rising. People continued to scream, to push, to claw at each other as they tried to get away, away—
“Oak.” Alastor’s voice was sharp. When my head jerked in his direction, I found him looking across me at his brother and pointing to something above us.
