CHAPTER NINETEEN
Kent trailed a fewfeet behind them as they moved through the impossible forest.
"Why are you with them?" Eva asked Meredith. "They only mean you harm."
"You mean like you do?" Meredith asked, cocking her head.
Eva studied her. "I don't want to hurt you."
"Hmm." Meredith seemed less than convinced. "Then why do you keep killing all of my babies."
Eva's frowned, not understanding.
Meredith cupped her hand, picking up a bug, smaller than the rest, its carapace the color of red apples and in the form of a leaf from a red bud tree. On the forest floor, it would have been nearly impossible to spot given how much it resembled that particular type of leaf, broad and vaguely heart shaped. Meredith set it on her shoulder where it nestled into her hair.
Understanding dawned.
"They would have hurt us. We were only defending ourselves," Eva argued.
"Humans are deceitful, awful creatures. Better you all become my creations," Meredith said.
Meredith kissed the bug’s head and offered it one of her fingers. The gesture was loving. What the bug did was not. It struck, savaging Meredith's finger. The other woman's expression remained adoring, as blood the color of spring growth welled and dripped. It fell on the forest floor, rolling into emerald balls that shivered before sprouting legs and scuttling away.
That's what she had meant by babies. Those things were created from her blood.
"Even before I ascended to this form, humans treated me poorly because of how I looked," Meredith said. "They called me ghost. Said I was cursed because I was albino. I showed them what a curse truly was."
As they traveled, Eva caught glimpses of other woodlings frozen in various positions, horror at what had been done to them echoing in their expressions.
Whatever events had shaped Meredith, they didn't excuse what she had done. She was a monster, more so than any of the mythologicals Eva had known. She chose to be this thing, this stealer of life. For that, Eva had no sympathy for what was coming to her.
Because something would happen to end Meredith. Eva would make sure of it. There would be no more lost cities, changed at this woman's whim. No more bugs, no more woodlings, no more friends trapped in that unnatural state.
They came to a wall of brambles, thorns the length of daggers decorating them. They were so tightly interwoven there would be no getting through them unless you wanted to shred your skin to ribbons.
"I can feel you calling to me, whispering of all sorts of things." Meredith stopped and stared at the bramble wall. With a start, Eva realized she was speaking to her. "It won't work. I'm too strong for you."
