Christopher’s lip curled. “Don’t spew your lies, Ivy! You were always easily manipulated. What have these monsters told you?”
“Iwaseasily manipulated,” Ivy yelled. “Manipulated byyou! I tried so hard to make you happy, to prove I wasuseful! And you would have let me get eaten so you could take back your ‘rightful place’! You know what, Uncle? I think the king was right about you! Youarea backstabbing, power-hungry wretch!”
Christopher scowled. “Enough of this! My loyal Circle of the Jeweled Fist,fulfill your promise!”
His hand flexed around his trapped staff. The forest lit up as the symbols on the Circle members’ chests started glowing once more, the campfire flaring so high they almost reached the tops of the trees.
“No!” Ivy cried. “Vale, help! Get up!”
Vale tried to stand. But none of the mortals lifted the malblossom net off him. Especially when they started bleeding from their nose and mouths, muffling their choked cries.
“Wipe them off,” Ivy yelled, turning her attention back to the mortals. “Damn it, wipe the symbols off!”
One freckled mortal’s hand worked feverishly at her chest. She broke the symbol, and it instantly stopped glowing. She fellto her knees, gasping, before pushing herself back up and wiping desperately at the symbol of the man next to her.
“No,” Christopher spat, gaunt and glowing in the campfire light. “No, don’t! We must get into the void!”
But the freckled mortal’s work was done: her husband’s symbol was broken. He staggered into her, his eyes full of shock as he stemmed the blood pouring from his nose. He grabbed his wife’s hand and tugged her away, stumbling into the trees.
“That’s it,” Ivy called. “Free each other! Free each other or die for him!”
Christopher let out an outraged cry as more mortals rubbed their symbols off. The only ones who did not free themselves from their symbols started to choke on their own blood, their eyes turning white and empty as the life left them.
“Zax,” Ivy yelled. “Free Vale!”
But Vale was busy chasing the mortals who were foolish enough to run. The freckled woman screamed as her husband was dragged to the ground, his neck torn open by Zax’s huge fangs.
The light from Christopher’s spell faded. The impossibly high campfire died. The few mortals who did not save themselves fell to the ground.
“NO,” Christopher bellowed as ivy trapped his now-useless staff against his chest. “It’s not enough!”
“You—you killed them,” someone yelled from the fringes of the group. “Hekilledthem!”
“He did,” Ivy said, her lips covered in blood trickling from her nose. Nowhere near as much as Christopher had done to his victims, but enough for Vale to know she was nearing her limit. “Just as he would’ve killed you all. Now, can somebody pleaseletVale up?”
No one moved. Not until Zax loped through the corpses, his chin still dripping with blood from chasing down the ones whoran. The man’s freckled wife stood behind him, her face wet with tears and her husband’s lifeblood.
“It is not good to burn,” Zax said, inclining his scarred head at Vale. Then he began to cut the malblossom nets off Vale’s trapped body.
An older mortal backed away, clutching a dagger at his belt. “What are you doing? It will devour us all!”
“He won’t,” Ivy said, muffled through the blood. “Not unless you attack him first.”
“Or run,” Zax added as he sliced Vale free. “If something runs from me, I will chase it.”
He snapped the last rope. Vale stood, his knees wobbling underneath him. His vision blurred, the wilderness void a distant echo in his head.
He needed to get back. But he couldn’t do that without the vial. He turned to Christopher once more, stalking toward him.
Christopher pointed his staff threateningly at him. At least, he tried. The ivy was still creeping over his limbs, forcing his staff to point up at the trees.
“You think this monster deserves the void?” Christopher spat. “You thinkhewill make use of its resources? OnlyIcan do that!Iwill take back our rightful place in this kingdom!”
Ivy curled her hand into a fist. The plants around Christopher tightened, and he let out a hoarse scream.
Vale strode up to him, every muscle threatening to give way. He was visibly worn and covered in burns. But Christopher’s face still flickered with the appropriate amount of fear as he watched Vale approach.
“Come back to us, my beloved niece,” Christopher called across the dead campfire as smoke rose into the trees. “I see your power now. You are glorious, just like you always wanted!”
