A quiet dread throbbed behind my ribs.
What if the cycle wasn’t going to stop at its pinnacle of full bloom? It would burn through Faelan until there was nothing more to fuel it. And then everything would simply…die.
Urgently, I pressed a hand to Faelan’s chest, waiting for him to stir, for his breath to change, for some sign that he wasn’t slipping away faster than I could help him.
“Faelan,” I whispered. “Stay with me.”
His eyes didn’t open.
And another small cascade of petals dropped from a flower like silent snow.
The land wasn’t evolving him—it was consuming him.
We had to stop it. Now.
11
Sam
I lunged for the ancient book that lay forgotten on the floor of the hunting blind with its pages splayed open where we’d dropped it. My hands trembled as I picked it up, scanning the strange symbols and characters that covered the yellowed paper. I expected them to be incomprehensible—some archaic language lost to time.
But as tears gathered in my eyes, the markings shifted and blurred, suddenly resolving into actual words. It was as if my grief had become a lens, translating what should have been impossible.
“I can read it,” I whispered.
Callie crouched beside me, her brow furrowed. “But how?”
“I don’t know how, but I can.” I ran my finger along the text, and the symbols shimmered beneath my touch. “I see the words.”
Bethany peered over my shoulder. “That can’t be. Those aren’t even letters.”
“They are to me.” I turned the pages with growing urgency until I found what I was looking for. “This was the spell Randy did. And I know exactly where it went wrong.”
Carefully, I picked through the strange language. The symbols matched the cadence of the words I remembered him saying, and caught on the spot where he’d stumbled.
But more importantly, I could see where he’d stopped.
“Not only did he screw it up,” I said. “He didn’t finish it.” I scanned the page again. “This isn’t just a summoning, it’s a complete cycle. There’s supposed to be an exchange.”
“What kind of exchange?” Callie’s voice was small in the flower-scented air.
I swallowed hard. “A sacrifice.”
Bethany’s face went pale. “I really don’t think we know enough to mess with this.”
“It’s not like we can make it any worse.” One of the sentences called out to me, and I put all my focus there. “It says ‘that which is valued by the summoner shall be given freely to the land.’”
Callie and Bethany exchanged worried glances.
“We have to complete the ritual,” I said, surprising myself with the steadiness in my voice. “We have to do it right.”
Callie placed a gentle hand on my arm. “Sam, think about what you’re saying. We don’t know what this means.”
“Idoknow what it means,” I insisted, my eyes fixed on Faelan. The vines that had seemed so vigorous were curling at the edges, the flowers in his beard dropping petals one by one. “We started something we didn’t understand, and now we have to finish it.”
Bethany nervously fiddled with the edge of her sleeve. “Maybe we should try to find someone who really knows about these things—”
“There’s no time,” I cut in, gesturing to Faelan. Another cascade of petals fell from his hair. “I’m doing this. And either you’re going to help me, or stay out of my way.”
