Out out out.I search for a handle on the hatch, shoving sacks of skin aside and groping along the square frame.Out. Let me out.
Milo and Kaleida try to run, but a root grabs Milo’s ankle and drags his body across the floor. His fingers scrabble for a hold. Another follows Kaleida as she darts toward Zandrite’s massive bed.
No! Leave her alone.My heart screams what my mouth can’t.
The root pauses, the tip twisting side to side as if torn on where to go… as if it heard me.I said leave her alone!But it doesn’t stop. And now I’m talking to plants. It jerks free of my mental hold and chases after Kaleida. Why can’t I control them like before?
With his bloody knife gripped tight, Eli battles a root, dodging its attempted blows one after another. It can’t keep up with his pace. He normally controls his strength and hides his senses and speed, but it’s in full effect right now. Every move is swift and flawless, a blur. I can only imagine how he could fight without me holding him back. The root dives toward him again, and he buries his blade to the handle.
The root trembles. My hands quake, my breath sharp and ragged as if I were the one stabbed. My chest aches, pain radiating from my heart and out and out.
Six roots go after Eli at once.
I grab the stone around my neck and squeeze.
Is impending doom a necessity to talk to me?Ametrine lilts.
Hi.That’s it.
Hello, love.
Panic unleashes my words.I can kill this asshole. I slaughtered hundreds of Vaile in the woods. But I have as much control over this magic as I do my mouth.
That’s enough. All you have to do is trust.
You have no idea how hard that is,I mutter.
I do. You’ve carried me in your heart all these years. I’m not asking you to trust me, just to have some faith in yourself, Ever. If you only believe in one thing, let it be you.
With that, she leaves me. I release my necklace and check on Eli again through the gap.
Four roots wrap around the length of his arms and legs in winding loops. He struggles, and another slips around his waist, making the full circle and tightening with a stomach-turning crack of his ribs. He grunts, his head pushing back in pain. The last root inches up his spine as if teasing him, then slowly around his neck, over his mouth.
Fuck no. That man ismine.
Chapter 55
EVER
Ifight with the hatch, not caring how it rattles. My hands dig between the metal and the bodies to reach the lock. I slide it open and push, hands flat to the steel.
But the hatch doesn’t budge. And neither does the root visible through the gap, now wrapped around Eli’s neck three times despite my efforts.
“That isnotokay!” Kaleida yells as she finishes freeing Milo’s ankle. They run to help Eli, only to be blocked by Zandrite and his cruel laugh.
“Let’s see how well you would have fared in the arena,” Zandrite taunts.
I shove my hand back down, wiggling my fingers deeper. I’m up to my shoulder in dead bodies now, my cheek pressed against a flattened face. Finally, I come across a hand wedged inside a hinge. I pull it out while pushing on the hatch with the top of my head. It pops open, bending at the hinges and falling down onto the marble floor with a clatter.
I push the first body out, struggling with the tangled limbs. By this time of my grand entrance, Zandrite is outside the hatch. He reaches in, takes my hair in his fist and pulls. “Look who came back to play.”
My scalp burns, quickly replaced with ringing and pressure when he whacks my head on the metal hatchway frame as he rips my body out. My elbows bang the sides, painful vibrations climbing to my shoulders.
He throws me to the ground.
Like I’m nothing.
Tremulous breaths are all I can manage. But I don’t plan on dying today. I’ve had enough of that.
