Towering trunks marched away from the road like pillars, their branches knotted with moss and leaves. Green dappled the path ahead in shifting patterns of light.
I settled into the seat but didn't relax. Heightened awareness had kept me alive before. I was listening to my instincts now.
Wind moved through the canopy above us, and something stirred in the underbrush. Too small to be dangerous, too quiet to be sure what it could be. Underneath the natural sounds I sensed something else. A presence, maybe. Familiar, but not exactly friendly. I couldn’t see it, but I felt it in my bones, that small prickle that warned when a spell brushed against the edge of your wards.
No words passed between us, but we didn’t need to speak aloud. Our bond had reshaped everything. How I heard him. How Ifelthim. His unease was now mine, and mine was his, a warning whispered into my ear.
We traveled farther, the vehicle creaking, the brisk trot of zephyl hooves almost soothing. After a quick lunch with guards patrolling around us, we continued. I soon began to believe that the uneasy feeling I’d had earlier meant nothing. Nerves. The normal worry about whether we’d be able to grab the talisman and fuse the three in time.
Until the forest suddenly went still in an eerie, breath-held kind of way. The birdsong ceased. Wind didn’t even rustle through the branches. Even the creak of the vehicle wheels sounded muffled. Unease scraped across my skin, and I shifted in my seat to peer out the narrow window.
The trees pressed in close to the road here, their trunks as gnarled as ancient knuckles. Their shadows swallowed the path ahead, and something in the air crackled in an electric way.
The zephyl pulling our carriage gave a low growl.
One of our guards brought his horse up beside us and leaned close, keeping his voice low. “Something’s?—”
The road heaved beneath us, and our vehicle rocked. My shoulder smacked against the wall.
Behind us, my ladies shrieked.
Farris let out a guttural growl unlike his usual whine. His hackles rose, fur bristling silver in every direction.
A zephyl roar was followed by the crash of splintering wood.
“Down,” Lore hissed.
I threw myself flat across the seat across from us as something slammed into my side of the vehicle hard enough to jolt my teeth together. Lore followed, covering my body with his own. My heart surged, and I scrambled out from underneath him and into a crouch, squinting up through the window while he took the other side.
Damn skirts were in my way. I hitched them up fast, tucking the hem into my waistband.
Shouts rang out from the guards, along with cries of terror. I yanked open the carriage door, barreling out with both blades snug in my hands and power ready to blaze around us.
Lore followed.
Even Farris darted after me, low to the ground and utterly fearless.
Roots the thickness of a man’s thigh burst from the soil, tearing up the road. One had already tangled around the back axle of my ladies’ vehicle, jerking it to a halt. The zephyl pulling it snarled and thrashed, its tail cracking like a whip.
Tall, shambling figures of bark and vine slithered out from between, their limbs too long, their branches clawing fingers.
“Witherroots,” Lore snarled from beside me. “Dead trees bound with blood magic. Quite dangerous.”
Great. Just great. I should’ve worn leathers.
One surged toward our zephyl, lashing out with a branch arm. The beast roared and shot a blast of burning mist at the witherroot. But while the magical tree staggered, it didn’t fall.
Lore summoned fire. Flames flickered down his arms, and he hurled it at the witherroot liketwin comets.
The magical plant howled as a blaze licked up its torso, but it didn’t drop or back away. Flamed scorched its bark, leaving blackened streaks as it continued to lumber toward the zephyl.
With witherrroots coiling up along its sides, the second vehicle rocked wildly. Moira and Calista screamed, and a guard shouted for them to stay put.
I rushed toward them, pulling in power and thrust out my hand, sweeping nullification magic across the trees.
Nothing happened. If I couldn’t break this spell, then how were they bound?
Alright, then. Shadows it is. I called them and asked them to destroy the witherrroots, but whoever cast this spell must’ve warded the creatures in some way. When my shadows slid across the bark, they shrieked and jerked backward as if burned, but with a shudder, they kept coming.
