I nodded and moved ahead, searching the forest floor for the purple flower I needed to heal Morco. I didn’t have unlimited time, couldn’t rest when my eyes got tired. I had to do this, and I had to do it quickly.
I came to a sudden halt when the memory smacked me in the face. The incident had happened during such a traumatizing event that it had escaped my memory until it was elicited by fear.
Caius noticed the way I stiffened. “What is it?”
“When I fell and crawled out of the lake…I saw it.”
“What?” he whispered.
“The Pedalium flower. I remember seeing it at the base of the trees near the water. Outside the fence around their base.” Right in plain view of their fortress.
He bowed his head in defeat. “Of course it is.”
My heart pumped in my chest, pumped so hard it was about to burst from behind my ribs. I would have to return the way I’d come, step right into their line of sight and hope I made it back alive.
Caius continued to stare at me. “What do you want to do?”
“I’m not leaving without that flower.”
“You’re lucky you got away the first time, Hanne.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed.
“And as I said, they’ll be on alert this time.”
I nodded in agreement. “I know.”
He continued to watch me. “I wouldn’t think less of you?—”
“Wait for me here. They’re more likely to notice if there are two of us.”
Caius looked like he wanted to argue but never did. He glanced back to the crevasse where the hidden passage was located. He stared for a while before he looked at me again. “I’ll wait for you there. That way, I can put the boulder back in time. Otherwise, everyone will be fucked.”
I nodded in understanding, sick to my stomach, with acid in my throat.
“Come back, Hanne.”
“I—” I was about to say I’d try, but I changed the words midsentence. “I will.”
He nodded in agreement then headed back to the rocks where the hidden passage was located.
I didn’t watch him go and instead focused on my path through the trees and around the rock—back to the lake, the last place I wanted to go. Crossing paths with the beings that had decimated the Obsidians—my people.
After a breath, I moved, staying low in the brush, moving quietly and slowly as I surveyed my surroundings with a level of detail only a terrified mind could accomplish. Whenever I spotted a patch of emptiness between trees, I crossed it at a sprint and ducked for cover once again.
I remembered the forest was long and dense, and it took a while to cross, even at a full run. I took my time getting through it, stopping to listen to anything, the sound of a footfall, the howl of a wolf.
Slowly, I inched closer, passing the rocky outcropping I remembered the first time, hiding behind the tip as I peered over, trying to get a view of the fortress that I knew was up ahead. But I couldn’t see anything, not when the trees were so surrounded by the brush.
I continued to move forward, and that was when I smelled the lake.
I was close.
On all fours, I moved, choosing to crawl rather than walk, even when it seemed like no one was in sight. I inched forward, quiet as a snake, acting as if the enemy was just a foot away when I appeared to be alone.
I finally had a view of their fortress ahead in the distance, the wood of the fence visible, movement of something in the far background.
My heart raced like they were right in front of me.
