But I kept trying, because something was clearly bothering Ven, and it seemed like she expected me to know what it was.
“Wait, you came back, didn’t you?” It was barely there, but I felt like there was a mental image of her standing in the middle of what had once been a wall. “I... I think I remember you trying to distract him.”
“I did,” she said, still so softly. “Because he was going to kill you.”
“Clearly it worked. I’m here and all in one piece.”
“No, you don’t understand.” Suddenly Ven whirled to face me, tears shimmering in her eyes. “He was going to kill you right there in front of me, and then kill everyone else he didn’t take as a slave. Ihadto stop him.”
Had to stop him? “I… I’m not following. What am I missing, baby?”
“You really don’t remember at all? You don’t remember his pipes wrapping around my ankle and yanking me up into the air? You don’t remember offering to trade yourself if he let the rest of us go?” Her voice grew more high-pitched as she spoke. “You don’t remember that he was literally tearing you limb from limb and making all of us watch?”
Oh.
Now that she mentioned it, I could see how it would be upsetting.
“I’m sorry,” I said, ardently trying to access those memories. They had to be somewhere in my cavernous head. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the picture she was painting, and to my surprise, some blurry moments rose to the forefront.
I had been so shocked when she showed up again that I’d mentally begged her to run. There were flashes of metal chasing me, catching me. Alric’s malevolent sneer, so sure he had all of us dead to rights.
Because he did. Faintly, I recalled saying something when I saw that Ven was strung up like the rest of us, hanging upside down like a fish about to be gutted at the market. Panic had swamped me, and I’d outright begged because nothing mattered as long as Ven was safe.
And then… I remembered waking up.
Clearly, I had missed a lot. Like what had actually happened to Alric? How had we all escaped? How was Alric even dead? Because the last thing I remembered was him not only alive and well, but kicking our asses.
“I had to save you, okay? I need you to understand that. I didn’t do it on purpose. I just wanted him to stop.”
Tears fell freely down her cheeks, and I was well and truly baffled. I thought harder, reaching into the depths of my mind to figure out what had upset her so much. I had been so elatedwhen I woke up and heard of our victory, I hadn’t even thought about the greater details of what had happened.
Then I saw it in my mind’s eye. Flashes of green. Vines moving like snakes. Moving like the metal pipes the warlock manipulated. Wait. That couldn’t be right... Could it?
“You did something.”
“I didn’t justdosomething, Leo. I killed him. And it wasn’t like I just ended it. I made it painful. I tortured him! I didn’t mean to. I wanted to save us all. And I’m not sad that he’s dead, I just... I can’t help but feel like a monster for how I did it. I don’t even knowhowI did. None of this makes any sense.”
I put my hand on her shoulder. “Ven, Ven, you’re not a monster. I don’t understand what you could have?—”
“It was the plants! I can’t explain it, but somehow, I… I summoned them. They went wild, and it was like they were listening to me.” She winced. “Well,kind oflistening to me. I didn’t want them to do quite what they did, but it was like they developed a mind of their own. And like I said, I’m not sorry that he’s dead. I... Leo, it was soawful.”
She grabbed my wrist and stared deep into my eyes, her voice utterly beseeching. At the contact, a wave of soothing coolness rolled through my body. It was a pretty strange thing to feel when my partner was so distraught.
Even stranger was that the more she spoke, the more I could remember. How the ballroom had practically turned into the set ofJumanji. How vines moved of their own accord, how thorns flew through the air.
Had Ven done all that? Surely that was impossible. And yet what other explanation did I have for what happened to Alric? If someone else had killed him, I was sure they’d be bragging about it. But then again, if Ven had somehow harnessed some insane green witch powers, wouldn’t someone have told me?
Or had everyone assumed I knew and that we’d kept it a secret for her protection?
There were a lot of discussions to be had.
But first, I needed to take care of my love.
“Hey, hey, Ven, you did what you had to do. We’re all alive because of you. That’s something to be proud of. No more of these tears, okay? You’re not a monster, baby. You’re a hero.”
“Buthowdid I do it, Leo? I’m human. I’ve always been a human! And as far as I know, humans don’t have the ability to spontaneously control plants.”
“Honestly, I don’t know. The only beings I’m aware of who could have anything like that ability are green witches and nymphs.”
