I sighed and twisted my lips to the side, but relented. Reaching across the carriage, I slid open the console between us and the driver and directed him toward the hill.
“Quickly,” I added, and he snapped the reins.
We flew down the path, the rotted land drawing nearer with every passing minute. It slowly descended down the hill like blackened fingers crawling over rocks and trees, unspooling onto the unsuspecting town. When we took a sharp right turn, it disappeared onto the other side of the carriage, and I had to crane my neck up as it loomed larger.
Commotion from the village reached our ears the closer we got. They had definitely noticed the blight. It was a small community, maybe a couple dozen houses closer to the bottom of the hill and a large town square near the main path. Families were scrambling around, trying to wrangle their possessions into wagons and carts, hurried voices and shouts filling the air as the blight edged closer.
I flung open the carriage door and rushed forward, Thorne close on my heels. “Why is this happening?” I hissed. “I know Galen doesn’t have control over it, but something has to be able to stop it!”
“I don’t know. Sometimes I think it’s triggered by an emotional reaction,” he confessed as we ran. “He’s…in distress. Worried about what happened yesterday and how bad it’s gotten. Maybe that’s why this one is so much bigger.”
We came upon a man giving orders to a group, and I slowed to a stop. “We’re here from Silenus Manor,” I said. “Tell us how we can help.”
“The border of the village,” the man replied without question, barely looking at me as he ran his fingers over his balding head. “We don’t know who’s left over there. I don’t have eyes on it, and we need to evacuate.”
“Got it.” I turned on my heel, heading to the base of the hill, when Thorne grabbed my hand. I swung to face him. “If you tell me not to go, I swear?—”
“Be careful,” he said. “Be smart. This magic is potent. Don’t get too close to it, alright?”
I blinked in surprise and slowly nodded. “I’ll be careful.”
His thumb grazed the sensitive skin at my palm before he released his grip. “Then let’s go.”
We raced toward the hill. The sky darkened as its large shadow fell over us, replacing the sun with the rotted hillside. The edge of the curse crept ever nearer, now reaching the bottom of the slope. It was as if a blanket had been thrown over the entire land, twisting every tree into a gnarled stump, eating away at the grass and turning rocks to dust.
Barely a quarter mile from the incline stood the first row of houses. The occupants were running around their yards, gathering children and supplies into wagons, some even attempting to herd horses and cattle.
Thorne and I threw ourselves into action. We helped tie down covers and secure supplies, making sure all the children were accounted for and reining in as many of the animals as we could.
“We’re out of time!” I shouted as the curse crested the first stretch of farmland. “We have to move!”
It was a mad dash out of there. Family after family rushed away in their wagons or on horseback, fleeing the scene as quickly as they could. A group of them stayed behind with Thorne and me as we knocked down the doors of each house to make sure no one was left behind.
The curse reached the closest house to the hill.
“Come on,” Thorne said. “We’ve done what we can. We need to go.”
We headed back to the main path when one of the men behind us called out, “Help me! It’s stuck!”
I turned to find him pulling at the enclosure to a paddock near the edge, where a dozen horses and a handful of cows pawed anxiously at the ground. The animals converged on the entrance, their senses heightened by the nearby threat. The rot was swiftly closing in on the opposite end of the pasture.
Thorne sprinted back to the man, and I sucked in a breath. “Thorne, wait?—”
“I’ll be fine, Empress. Stay there!” he called. “Make sure the others don’t need anything.”
I watched from across the road as the two of them struggled with the latch, which had something wedged in it, keeping it from opening.
Still, the curse snaked closer. Inching its way across the paddock, the edge of it trailed along the grass toward the animals, making them go wild with fear. The horses snorted, tossing their manes back and rearing up on their hind legs to kick the paddock enclosure.
Crack.
My body doubled over at the sound, as if it had come from my own spine. I gasped against the wave of panic that made my vision waver.Fight it, fight it, fight it?—
The tall fence had snapped. Voices of the other men rang around me in alarm. Animal after animal bolted out of the pasture, trampling everything in sight. Including?—
“Thorne!” I wheezed, my mind clearing away the memories of bones fracturing, only to be replaced with a new terror.
The other man had moved out of the way in time, but Thorne had been thrown onto his back. He tried to pull himself up using the fence, his legs dragging and his face contorted in pain. The broken fence buckled beneath his weight, and he went crashing back to the ground.
