Tighter.
Tighter.
The laughter from earlier returned, closer this time. With a gasp, I realized it wasmine; a faint, ghostlike version of me was moving through the forest. Mesmerized, I watched her approach. My mother and father abandoned me and turned her way, stretching out their arms to her.
“No,” I whispered—though I’m not sure any sound came out. “No,she’sthe ghost. I’m real. I’m…”
I frantically stepped toward my spectral self, pressing closer and closer until we became one; it was like fusing back into myself after using one of my projection spells. I didn’t remember using any spell, but maybe I had. Maybe I’d actually severed myself in two long ago, without even realizing it, and that was why I’d felt so off balance for so long.
But now I was whole again.
Wewere whole again.
So I laid down my sword.
I let my mother take me in her embrace once more, melting into her as my father wrapped his arms around both of us.
I don’t know how much time passed before something ripped them away from me—something that jerked hard enough to knock me off balance again. I landed hard on my hands and knees, my fall painfully broken by sharp rocks and pine needles.
I blinked, snapping out of a daze I didn’t remember falling into.
Thalia stood in front of me, staff in hand. Torn vines hung from the weapon—the weapon that had just freed me from a potentially deadly embrace of the forest, I realized. Zayn stood near Aleks, similar evidence of ripped bindings hanging from his sword.
“Th-thank you,” I told them, getting to my feet and hastily swiping away the last bits of vine clinging to my arms and shoulders. “But how did you…”
Thalia twisted a newly-acquired bracelet around her wrist. It was woven with threads in various shades of silver, with a faintly pulsing grey stone in its center. Zayn had a similar one; they looked like Orin’s handiwork.
“Gifts from my—from Orin,” Thalia confirmed. “They won’t fend off the grove’s entrapment spells indefinitely, though, so we need to keep moving.” She swept a concerned look over me. “He seemed to think you wouldn’t need one…and that it would be better if you weren’t encumbered by any protections that might interfere with your power.”
“We’re fine. We just got sidetracked,” Aleks told her—and I eagerly agreed.
We’d been caught off-guard, but I was determined not to let it happen again.
“Let’s hurry up, then,” Zayn urged. “Any ideas on where we should go next?”
Grimnor—still on the ground, several paces away—shuddered with enough force to rattle the dead leaves around it. It flipped onto its edge, spinning once before settling back against the forest floor.
We all stared at it for a moment, silent and uneasy.
“…To wherever it’s pointing,” I said.
Zayn gave me a dubious look.
“I think it’s able to sense the shard of Lorien’s soul better than any of us,” I explained.
“And we’re just going to trust it?”
“Unless you have a better plan.”
“He rarely does,” Aleks said, picking up the sword and handing it to me.
Zayn ignored the jab. “Gentle reminder that there’s an evil demon contained within that blade.”
“Yes, which is what’s making it capable of giving us directions to the soul of said evil demon,” I said, dryly.
“He could very well be leading us into a trap.”
“I love a good trap,” Thalia muttered, starting to walk. “Keeps things interesting.”
