I looked Phoenix in the eyes. They were both savage and sad. Equally scorching and empty. An unloaded chamber, smoke still rising from the last fire. I was beaten, battered, and bruised, but I still felt sorry for him, confident that the only thing he craved was the very thing he could never possess. Was this what was awaiting me after my time with Adora? Would the same ache steal my eyes, too?
Zephyr shoved both palms into my back. “Walk.”
It was a struggle to move one foot in front of the other. Every step felt like my organs were tearing from my body, but I managed to move forward without letting anyone know I was struggling.
Once we stepped outside the barn, a fresh, cold morning breeze slapped my bare chest. The sky was a subdued gray, and I dropped my head back to feel the little light on my face, inhaling the fresh air.
One of them pushed me from behind again, and my gaze fell on the snow sticking to the ground. “Try to keep up,” one of them said.
I didn’t know which one because they were surrounding me.
We continued walking through the snow, which muffled our footfalls.
Half a mile later, we entered a different part of the woods. And these trees spoke a foreign language I somehow understood. All around, light threaded between trunks, and wind slipped over branches like a lover’s caress, not a whistle but a moan; leaves a rustled murmur and twigs a snapping whimper. In my bones, these woods ached for me, for my blood,a welcome home.
To my left, I felt the chill of Julian’s gaze as he studied me.
As though he sensed it, too.
When we reached an iron gate, the four of them stepped away.
“He crossed the border into Weeping Hollow once already. If the town lets him out, we can’t prevent him from returning,” Beck warned the others, no longer caring that I could hear every confusing word they were saying. “Even if we form a wall against him using the carnival, the grounds aren’t strong enough to hold him for long, especially when we can’t all be here to hold it up. Forty-eight hours max. If he’s eager to get back in, he can.”
By this time, my strength had gradually returned, but I didn’t show it, wanting them to believe they had an advantage over me. I looked past them to the other side of the gate. Hovering over a deserted village with torn tents was a large circular structure with swaying carts.
It was a sight I hadn’t seen before in the middle of a forest, and only the unknown awaited me beyond the deserted grounds. What would happen to me if they forced me to the other side?
There was a reason they no longer cared if I heard their every word.
Death was expecting me.
I’d never been able to control the earth on demand. The earth had always just reacted, feeding off my emotions. If I were hungry, angry, grief-stricken, aroused, depending on the extent, it had done what I’d always needed it to do.
A full breath filled my lungs, and I closed my eyes, manifesting this thing inside me, calling upon it, feeling the cool rich soil wrapping its arms around me. I imagined the way roots felt sliding between my fingers and over my skin as leaves quietly murmured in my ears, letting me know we were connected. I shifted in place, sketching the rope in my mind, feeling it untether, unravel, and slide across my wrist before it slithered away.
They weren’t paying attention to me. They believed I was too weak to escape, and they especially didn’t think I would take off at any second. They believed I was a nobody.
Zephyr seemed to be the strongest of the four.
Not strong by muscle but strong by power.
I waited for him to turn his back.
As soon as he did, I sprinted between two trees.
I ran through the cold, my shoes pounding frozen earth, dead leaves, and ruts. Dry winds clawed down my throat and burned my lungs. I fought through it, inhaling through my nose and exhaling through my mouth. I didn’t know where I was headed. The sea, I suppose. Back to my boat, if I could make it that far in one sprint before collapsing. I looked behind me.
Julian was on my tail, sprinting as if he were nothing more than mist.
A shadow. My shadow.
I underestimated him.
He launched at me, tackling me and taking us both into the air.
We landed withthunderand the ground vibrated. We quickly recovered amid snow, mud, and leaves. Our boots slipped on snow as we got back to our feet, then rushed at each other. Julian threw a powerful right hook, me an uppercut with my left fist.
My fist was faster, crashing into his jaw with acrack.
