She shushed him, peering closer. But before she could make out the symbol, Vale’s knee gave out. He crumbled to the forest floor, breathing hard.
“Vale!” Ivy abandoned her creeping plant and touched his face, wiping away the sweat. “Oh, gods. How bad is it?”
“The… void…” Vale coughed, his lip curling in annoyance as his body failed him. “It is dying.”
“What?” Ivy thought back to the white rot spreading from the silver pool. “But… but it hasn’t spread that far! We have time!”
“We do not,” Vale said, every breath an effort. He forced himself up, bracing his elbows in the dirt. “Do not worry about me. Focus on the antidote.”
Eyes burning, Ivy turned back to the Circle. She stretched out her hand, and the ivy that had stopped just before her uncle’s boot began to climb his robes.
“Remember,” Christopher yelled over the crowd, oblivious to the ivy stretching up the back of his robes. “This spell might make you feel weak! But never fear, your energy will return to you.”
“Ivy,” Vale gritted.
“I know!” Ivy focused back on the plant creeping up her uncle’s robes, her hands shaking with effort. Her uncle always said using magic was exhausting, but she had never felt it before. Even in so much danger, it filled Ivy with a thrill. The void had changed her to her marrow.
“When I cast this spell,” Christopher continued as Ivy watched the vines creep up his arm, “You will be able to move through the door I once summoned the Skullstalker through! Do not be alarmed by whatever horrors you encounter. Focus on restraining the monster—another weapon for our army to take back our rightful place!”
A cheer rippled through the crowd. Ivy frowned. They needed a spell to move through the door? What was he talking about? That didn’t sound like any spell Ivy knew. Why focus on the people and not the barrier itself?
“And revenge,” Christopher bellowed, his eyes bright with firelight as the ivy climbed his arm. “On the beast who took our people from us!”
The cheer grew louder. Christopher thrust his broken staff into the air, and Ivy grimaced. She wasalmostthere. She directed it further up Christopher’s arm, sweat beading on her scalp. The vine was climbing the staff now. Just a few more inches until she reached the vial…
Christopher shook the staff, making the ivy shake with it. “Expose your symbols!”
The Circle yanked down their shirts. A strange circular symbol had been drawn over their hearts with clay. It looked so strange that Ivy frowned, almost forgetting to concentrate on the ivy creeping toward the staff.
She might not be a mage like her uncle, but those symbols on everyone’s chests did not look like they were going to do anythingtothem. It looked like it was going to do somethingwiththem.
“He’s lying,” Ivy realized. “He’s not casting a spellonthem. He’s using themina spell.”
“To do what?” Zax demanded.
Ivy didn’t answer. She had a horrible suspicion, but her uncle couldn’t be capable ofthat. Right?
“Ivy,” Vale panted.
“I’m almost there,” Ivy replied. But she reached down with her spare hand to squeeze his claws.
He batted her hand away and touched her collarbone. At first, Ivy was confused, thinking he was tracing a symbol into her chest like her uncle had gotten his followers to do. Then it struck her. He wasn’t tracing a symbol; he was tracing herscar. The one her uncle had caused when he shot a bolt into her chest.
“Glory is coming,” Christopher bellowed, the campfire crackling so bright it made him look like he was glowing. No—hewasglowing. The symbols on his followers’ chests followed suit, and Ivy went cold with dread.
“He’s not letting them into the void,” she realized. “He’s using their life force to open a door! He’skillingthem!”
Her voice rang through the forest just as vines wrapped around the vial.
The campfire glow faded. The symbols painted on the Circle’s chests faded with it. Several of them stumbled, dazed with the weight of having their life force start to drain from them.
Christopher looked around wildly, the smile dropping off his face as his spell was interrupted.
“Who said that?” he yelled. “Where is she?”
“Shit,” Ivy whispered. She hunched lower, curling her hands into fists. The vine tightened around the vial, but it was too late. Her uncle looked down, his eyes going wide as he noticed the plant tugging at it.
Christopher swore and yanked the vial off the staff. The vine around it snapped, and Ivy felt her connection fade.
