“Let’s stay close,” Aleks said.
I nodded, stopping just short of pointing out thathe’dbeen the one who had leftme. He’d seemed so completely overcome by the song, that lure meant for divine beings…
But now he didn’t seem bothered by it at all.
Yet another shift in him that I couldn’t make sense of.
The forest loomed, full of overgrown trails that looked foreboding, at best. I glanced over my shoulder, briefly considering turning back for the others—strength in numbers seemed like a good idea—but the trees were moving, rattling and twisting, obscuring the trails until it was impossible to say which way wasback.
“Maybe we could try to sense the energy coming from the fragment?” Aleks suggested. “If it’s here, I’d think it would feel obvious to us and our magic.”
I agreed. Neither of us mentioned what we’d do after that, how we were going to make our way out of this place once we found the fragment…ifwe even managed that first part.
I exhaled slowly, letting shadows lift and curl from my skin. Their cold was comforting. Familiar. Blinking a lens of magic over my eyes, I scanned the white trees for some sign of the powerful object we sought.
I’d never seen so many different energies competing for dominance in one place.
“This could get tricky,” I muttered. Quickly, I explained what Orin had told me about the purpose of the grove.
Aleks frowned. “So, I imagine this place is a mess of residue from all the magic buried in it, and from the spells used to contain and absorb that magic…”
“It is. I don’t even know where to start looking for the fragment. It could be?—”
The mark on my wrist started to itch, startling me. It had all but faded on my skin, and I’d given little thought to that outward proof of the bargain I’d struck with my enemy. But now it stung in a way that couldn’t be ignored. Grimnor rattled violently as well, not stopping until I withdrew it to find bluish-white energy twisting along the blade.
Lorien?
My chest tightened.
I couldn’t stop what happened next; Grimnor lifted on its own, the tip pointing and pulling as if to encourage me forward.
“…I guess that’s a start,” I muttered, staring past the blade, eyes narrowing on the path it had indicated. Rolling the tension from my shoulders, I started to walk. Aleks hesitated, but then he withdrew his own sword and walked side-by-side with me down the darkening path.
As we made our way deeper into the woods, even the light Aleks summoned didn’t pierce the dark haze around us. What little birdsong there was disappeared. The breeze stilled…butsomethingwas still making the skeletal tree limbs rattle and dance in a haunting rhythm.
We’d been walking for several minutes when a low, resonant hum rippled through the grove. We drew closer to one another, standing back-to-back, weapons raised, as the ground began to tremble faintly beneath our feet.
Something tickled my cheek.
Glancing up, I saw pale blue flowers dotting the branches above. More bloomed in slow waves, petals glowing faintly in the half-light. A few of those petals shook free and fell over us, their touch soft and cold as they brushed over my skin.
I continued to watch the falling blooms as Aleks took a few cautious steps onward, his expression fixed on the path ahead. I realized quickly that the flowers were unfurling in sync with his steps—following him, almost, like watchful eyes opening as he passed.
“Aleks...stop!”
He slowed for an instant, glancing back at me in confusion.
I never heard his reply.
A thick swirl of petals descended, engulfing me. As they pressed against my skin, an exhaustion unlike any I’d ever feltovercame me, sinking deep into my bones until all I could think about was how much easier it would be to just keep still.To juststay.
An instant after the thought crossed my mind, the cyclone of petals froze in mid-air before dropping straight to the ground.
I felt something else wrapping around my body—a gentle pressure that slowly increased, like a hesitant embrace. For some reason, I imagined my mother’s arms circling around me, her body rigid with shock and disbelief after so much time spent apart.
Then, she was actuallythere.
And my father somehow was, too. Alive. In one piece. We were complete. Astonished to see each other, and certain, at first, that it had to be a trap. But then we slowly accepted what was happening, and tears of relief trickled down my cheeks as our embrace grew tighter.
