But that was impossible, because I wasn’t actuallyhealingthem. As far as I knew that was the stuff of fantasy books. I was just using what homeopathic medicine and herbalist strategies I happened to know.
I tottered again, and my feet got tangled together, and it really seemed like I was about to face plant this time. But then an absolutely wretched-smelling wolf bounded up, turning at the last moment so I could catch his fur and slump over his back.
God, he smelled disgusting.
The stench overwhelmed me, but then my vision cleared enough to see it was Ricky below me. God, I was so happy to see him, I didn’t even care how he smelled.
“Hey.” I grinned slightly. That was all I got out before the marble below our feet fractured and dozens of vines shot up like a water spigot.
It felt like going quite literally from zero to one hundred as I was blasted upward, my body feeling like it had been hit with a dozen paintballs at once. The air was driven from my lungs when my back slammed into the ceiling, and once more my vision went a little fuzzy. God, I’d have to see a doctor when this was over. Did my insurance cover life-and-death battles with malevolent magical colonizers?
“Ugh!” I groaned, and Ricky echoed the sound. But that discomfort began to shift into outright pain as I realized the vines were still pushing, trying to drill through our skin.
There was a special kind of horror that came with something trying to burrow its way into one’s body, and the fact that it was something I loved so much didn’t help. I gritted my teeth, and that churning energy within me made itself known. I was no longer drained. Instead, a simmeringsomethingfilled me. It spilled out into the world all around me, painting every surface in colors only my mind could see.
Once that energy touched those vines, it was like baking soda touching vinegar. Everything was fizzing, reacting, and that burning anger inside me ordered those vines to put. Us.Down!
They did.
It wasn’t exactly the smoothest landing, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that Ricky and I were on the ground. The plants writhed around us as if they weren’t sure what they should do. Well, if they needed orders, I was more than happy to give them. Did I understand that by doing so I would likely to be drawn into battle? Yes. But it was time. I had helped the injuredfor as long as I could, but the way the plants were running wild told me they needed to be reined in before the brothers got the upper hand. I knew personally just how pervasive and powerful foliage could be.
“Go,” I said, feeling along the spiderweb of sensation for the heart of where they were coming from. I’d lost sight of the brother, but I was certain I would sense him.
Sure enough, after a beat or two, my magic pulsed somewhere across the oversized room, almost like a powerful heartbeat pushing shock waves through the air. That was my target.
There was an inherent foolhardiness to taking on someone who had been communing with and manipulating plants for most of their life when I’d only done it once, but all I could do was hope the stress of fighting off nearly three dozen shifters had been enough to weaken him a bit.
Once I had him anchored in my mind’s eye, I let every plant my energy had bled through surge toward him.
I didn’t tell the plants to shred this time. Going for the kill would be an error. There was no way he wouldn’t find a way to stop them before they could eviscerate him. Instead, I channeled all my thoughts into binding him, wrapping him up until he couldn’t move. Would he be able to get out? Certainly. But not before he was surrounded by shifters and unable to get his momentum back.
Hopefully, the other brother and his mini tornadoes didn’t interfere.
“What’s going on here?”Ricky said—at least, that was how I interpreted the howl from Ricky. That was certainly how it sounded as all the plants around us surged away from us and started growing again. I didn’t answer him, of course, as I didn’t actually know how accurate my translation was, but I did take off in the direction of the vines.
They moved like a snake and like a wave, leaves fluttering this way and that. The plants were faster than me, pushing aside or moving past combatants in much more agile ways than I could. Hopefully, Frederick couldn’t sense my interference and would be just as surprised as Ricky was by the sudden change in energy.
I felt them reach my target before I saw them, having thrown myself to the side to avoid a lightning strike that lanced down from the ceiling. It hadn’t been aiming for me, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying.
Once I righted myself, I decided it would be best to stick to the perimeter of the room. Hunching over, I moved as fast as I could until Frederick was in my sights.
He wasn’t floating for once, but he was red in the face as hundreds of plants wrapped around him tightly. My mind flashed to the gala. It had been horrific. Terrifying.
But this? This situation was entirely different.
“What are you doing? I said attack!”
Unfortunately, the plants I hadn’t sent were still entirely under his thrall. They surged up over the vines, wrapping down into them with the intent to tear.
That wouldn’t do at all.
Brow furrowing, I focused on that fizzing, sizzling magic within me and the plants I affected. I let it grow, bloom, even feed back on itself until it was spilling out of me again and across any plant it touched. Across other plants thatmyplants touched.
Wonder cascaded over me as I gained control over the new plants. It was a mass of organic wonder, and I told it all tosqueeze.
For one brief, blissful moment, I could feel Frederick’s bones creak under my control. Could it really be so easy? Was I really about to bring him down? It seemed like it would be even easier than Alric.
I probably should have known better.
