“Try to get some rest, Miss Tannovic. We’re stopping here for the night anyway. I’ll just be off t’set some traps. Hopefully we’ll wake on the morrow to something o’ substance.”
“Come sit by me, sister,” Belle said, tugging me toward the edge of the group. “Let’s get some rest while we can, yes?”
How could I sleep with the space my father had occupied nothing more than a blank, numb void? How could I rest knowing the man who’d slaughtered him lived? Or that the captain hadknownwhy his army was parked in our courtyard, but had said nothing to warn me. That he’d tried to take me for himself, instead, knowing exactly what it would mean.
But I followed without a word, Glaith biting my palm as I settled down beside her, wide awake even as the others began to nod off. I sat there, watching through the night, listening to the forest whisper.
Tiny woodland creatures foraging through the underbrush became the footfalls of a thousand Elites, tireless in their pursuit of Tritan’s refugees. The song of the night-beasts waking for the hunt sent my pulse pounding at the hollow of my throat, and I would have dropped the Glaith, would have lost myself in the seductive promise of Elite ki, if it weren’t for the captain. For the fear that doing so would unmask my ki, and draw him to me.
When a nameless, winged shadow floated overhead, however, I jumped, doing just that. The Glaith tumbled from my sweaty palm as I sank my teeth into the back of my wrist to avoid screaming at the top of my lungs. The shadow landed in the trees above our pitiful little camp, great luminous eyes the only visible feature as it watched over us, unblinking. I almost laughed. A night-bird of some sort, and hardly the terrifying thing of nightmares. If he were here, my father would know what it was.
But of course, he wasn’t. Not anymore.
A ragged breath burst from my chest, carrying with it a tiny sob as I reclaimed the Glaith and stood, slipping away from the group. It was too much! This pain—it eclipsedeverything. I stumbled through the brush, blind to my surroundings for the tears burning my eyes.
Ancaster groaned from somewhere off to my right. “In other news,” he said, hunched at the edge of the clearing, “it should be noted that those red berries are, in fact, not fit for human consumption.”
I coughed, nails scoring my palms. “Are you ill?”
“Quite,” he said, punctuating his admission with an intense round of dry heaving, veins bulging on his sweaty, flushed forehead.
“Belle will help you. Go to her,” I said and abandoned my countryman in his hour of need, for I knew nothing of curing a poisoning. Knew nothing but the all-consuming pain beating a savage rhythm against my ribs. Knowing it was fruitless and reckless, but unable to stop myself, I dropped the Glaith into my pocket and reached for him. Reached for the space he’d occupied since I’d first tasted ki all those years ago.
Gone! Teeth clenched so hard I could feel them shifting in my gums, I slammed my fists to the earth, burying my fingers in the soil. Goddess, but ithurt! He was gone. There was nothing left—nothing but that accursed link with the captain lurking somewhere in my heart, roused by my use of ki.
But it didn’t matter. I sobbed, trying to force the poisonous ki from my heart before the Void consumed my blackened soul—and why shouldn’t I let it? Why shouldn’t I leave this tattered group of my people before they too saw my Truth? Why shouldn’t I turn and face the Caledonians head on, offer myself as distraction? Why shouldn’t I simply unleash this pain thattheyhad caused? Why should I be the one to suffer for their sins?
Ki spiked free from my hands, bursting into the soil and the tiny root fragments hidden beneath the earth.
Awareness exploded in my mind as I purged the anguish from my heart. The secret heartbeat of the forest was at my fingertips—a massive oak tree standing tall and proud in the middle of this great wood. The largest being in this forest by far, and although it was several days away by foot, its roots spanned many times the circumference of the canopy above. The majestic giant snared my attention, leaves shivering as my ki pulsed through it. Thick bark-armor groaned as sap began to run out of season, and a dozen tiny feet prickled my mind—the mammals and birds who called the great grandmother home. I reached for them too, my ki whipping through each little body as I searched them, familiarizing myself with their patterns.
Without making conscious decision, I expanded my search, stumbling across the refugees, for they too filled the forest, dotting the edge of my awareness. Families trying to flee the tattered, burning carcass of everything they’d ever known. Each making the pilgrimage north, to Elora, pursued by the Caledonian forces. Just as we were.
Lips curled back, I fed from the forest, gorging on that ancient power in exchange for the sorrow burning my heart. Pure, wild ki filled me, restoring all I had lost in the interaction with the captain, though it wasn’t enough to break free of him. The betrayer fought my attempt, curbing my efforts withmypendant clutched tight in his fist.
Filled with primal, elemental fury, I snarled and felt him recoil.
But the captain was a man apart. An Elite with impossible strength, and he knew how to use it. Power surged between us, striking me with a terrible force, flooding my system with a seduction as sweet as it was laced with shadowy intent.
I could go to him… It would besoeasy to slip away… he’d be good to me…
My father hadn’t raised a slave.
Eyes unseeing, I seized every life force around me, sipping at hundreds—thousands—harming none even as I hurled their collective energies toward him. The animals of the forest screamed with me, disturbing the evening quiet with their alarm. And still, it was not enough to break the link we shared, though for now, the captain conceded defeat. Forced to withdraw from my might.
With a gasp, I wrenched my hands from the dirt, falling back. “Goddess,” I breathed, staring at my filthy palms, gooseflesh rising up all over my body. Before my very eyes, the angry red flesh of my scarred right hand began to fade, reducing the swollen, puffy skin to something that might have resembled normal in the right light. “Such power.” I laughed, voice high and thin. Why should I flee? When the forest was filled with the screams of my people and the footfalls of the army who’d made us all homeless? We’d lost everything thanks to those filthy, traitorous Caledonians. Goddess be damned if I’d make it easy for them now by running. Why should I flee with this new power pulsing through my veins? Not even Captain Rawlings could hope to match me. Not now.
Trembling, I caressed the earth. “Beautiful…”
There, hiding in the dark beneath my feet, was so much potential. All it needed was a little… nudge. Careful this time, I blended with the forest, feeding the earth my poison. My pain. For a moment, nothing happened but the exchange of energy and incomprehensible information. And then, as I stood witness, little green shoots sprang up through the detritus, reaching for the sky as they grew with unnatural, ki-fed speed.
With roots plunged deep into the earth, they were connected. To everything. And with my hands buried in the earth, I drew upon the forest’s bounty, guiding it. Letting it take root in my raw and bleeding heart. I did not have to continue living with the Void where my father had once been. Did not have to suffer the agony of his absence, for the forest was a willing recipient of my torment. The trees did not speak in the language of emotion. They were the seasons and the elements. They took what I had to offer without judgment, and in return, fed me the secrets of their wild magic.
Seeds buried beneath the soil sprouted at my command, eating the footprints we’d left behind as they flourished, disguising our tracks. Already established saplings pulsed with new life, shivering without a breeze, their roots swelling with ki as their thin trunks thickened—the growth too insignificant to be seen by the naked eye, but there all the same. Vines—dormant for the late hour of the season—coiled around the trees, glossy green leaves bursting with new life.
Yet all, each and every one touched by my senses, were stained by my Truth.
Moonlight petals streaked with shadows.
