This was why Trew had given me this outfit. He’d known I’d face death today. That I’d need protection, and I’d need to be ready for violence that could come from any direction. The leather hugging my skin was his promise that he wanted me to survive, though I had no idea why he cared if I lived or died.
Someone gagged behind me.
My heart thundered loud enough I could barely hear my own ragged breathing.
“By the fates,” Fara whispered. “Itatehim.”
Around the tables, more flowers jerked up from the ground.
12
ISI
I’d spent my whole life being told what to do, where to go, and who to be. It turned out all I needed was mortal danger to find my voice.
The meadow ignited in a single heartbeat.
A woman with copper hair to her waist rushed toward the table covered with weapons. With a shrill laugh, she grabbed a serrated dagger, pivoting and crouching, daring anyone to try to take it from her. Another flower the size of a wagon wheel unfurled between her and the table. Its petals snapped around her legs from behind, yanking her off-balance. Crying out, she slammed forward onto the ground. The dagger flew from her hand, gouging into the grass while the blossom’s center dilated, rows of teeth glistening with viscous fluid.
She screamed, clawing at the grass as the plant dragged her under the table, its jaws chomping on her feet. Her shins. Her thighs… Her nails left furrows in the dirt.
I moved, rushing forward. A healthy surge of adrenaline blocked pain. I barely felt my arm. Barely felt my back.
But I came to a stop and backed away as the flower finishedgobbling her down. Her shrieks turned wet and gurgling as blood frothed from her mouth. Then she was gone, the blossom shuddering as its stem distended to accommodate her body.
Around me, sixty-some-odd recruits split into chaos.
“They’ll let us back in,” a man with a thick beard bellowed, racing toward the stone wall behind us. Dozens followed, their boots slashing through the deep grass. “This is all just a test. They wouldn’t really?—”
They reached the walls and clawed at the doors, pounding fists and trying to pry open the panels. One woman fell to her knees, sobbing as she tried to dig beneath the wall with her bare hands.
Others snatched up weapons from the tables and returned to those still trying to get back inside, handing them out. They started trying to pry their way through the doors. The stone wall.
A shadow rippled through the nest of trees to the right of the wall. Vines plunged down from the branches, coiling around necks and limbs. Recruits holding weapons were jerked off their feet, dangling as the plants reeled them into the canopy.
The man with the beard screamed as he disappeared into the thick vegetation that rumbled and fluttered feverishly before it went still. A few leaves drifted down to the ground, glistening with redness.
“The forest,” someone in the group yelled. “Hide in the trees!”
After what happened to the others?
“Stop,” I yelled, but panic had set in, and no one even glanced my way.
About half the recruits sprinted for the tree line to the right of the tables. They crashed through undergrowth, their shrill voices gouging through the air until they’d disappeared into the vegetation.
“Listen to me,” I shouted, rushing to the middle of the meadow. My friends clustered where they were, watching the ongoing carnage with panic on their faces. “Take only food and water! Nothing else!”
Above the shrieking bedlam, a dark blur swooped low.
The cinderhawk circled once, its wings slicing the air. For a second, it hovered over the central table holding most of the food before lifting off again, its talons catching the sunlight. It banked toward the wall.
A woman with short blonde hair charged past me toward the tables, her face stark with desperation. I lunged forward, into her path, grabbing her shoulders.
“Don’t,” I said, staring her in the eyes. “The plants are triggered by the weapons and tools. Take food and?—”
She shoved me, and I stumbled backward. “Fucking get out of my way.” Reaching the tables, she snagged a dagger and tucked it into the back of her pants, pivoting and bolting toward the forest.
Vines grabbed her before she could disappear into the foliage, hauling her up into the canopy that consumed her.
