My chest was on fire all over again.
“Holy Hour—guys, youhaveto see this!”
Mimi’s voice reached us from somewhere far away, down the turn on the right, beyond the darkness. My heart jumped, even though she didn’t sound particularly afraid. The others rushed into the darkness, and March nodded his head, waiting for me to go first.
“Tick-tock, Velvet. We have a trial to unwin.”
A small smile escaped me before I could control myself. With a deep breath, I followed the others deeper into the maze, and March was right behind me.
38
Atree within a tree within a tree. The most unusual forest I’d ever seen, folded into itself.
Its interior was carved into spiraling chambers and hollowed trunks that stacked upward and downward in impossible layers. Wildflowers clung to the inner bark, some bright and vibrant, others dry and brittle, as if they’d bloomed too long ago and never been allowed to fall. Cobwebs hung between branches. Mushrooms grew everywhere.
These rings were carved on the surface of the branches and trunks, paler than the rest of the bark. The sight of them disturbed me, but I had no idea why. Almost like I’d seen it before.
It was just rings, one after the other, about five inches wide each, yet I could have sworn there was something missing. Something…offabout them.
“What in the Everstill happened here?” someone whispered. I couldn’t focus long enough to recognize the voice, but the damage they were talking about was unmistakable.Much of the wood was eaten away, and though some leaves and flowers still had color, they weredead.They’d died a long time ago, but whatever magic ruled things here hadn’t let them wither as they should have.
That wasn’t all. Whole sections of the tree had collapsed inward. Lanterns hung on branches, the fires pale, though alive. The Tree wasn’t dead exactly, but it felt…hollow. Exhausted. Like something inside it was missing.
“Probably us,” Seth said.
I moved deeper down the pathways, analyzing the flowers and the branches, the plastic-looking leaves.
“Why would we dothisto a tree?” asked Anika.
“Who knows? Historically speaking, the second trial is always the hardest,” Erith said.
“And the longest,” said Russ. “Still, we couldn’t have done allthisto this tree.” He was right behind me.
“Be careful, guys,” Helen said. “Watch your every step. This wood is rotten to the core in some places. It will give.”
She was right. The ground beneath our feet wasn’t solid wood or stone like at that doorway. Here, it was a mess of twisted roots and knotted vines, thick as wrists in some places and wire-thin in others. They were all fused together so tightly, but every now and again I felt it when I stepped onto a specific root. I felt how weak it was, how easily it would give if I stood on it too long. Every step felt uncertain, the wood flexing and creaking as if the tree was constantly deciding whether to let us fall or not.
So unnerving.
“We’re supposed to be going down, though. Aren’t we?” asked Mimi. “Maybe we should just dig our way to the ground and be done with it.”
“I don’t think that’s how you unwin this trial,” March said. “And if this tree doesn’t hold us, we’ll be long dead before we hit the ground.”
He was right, too.
“So,howthen? Because I don’t recall the speaker giving any real advice—do you?” Seth asked.
Nobody answered because nobody had. The only advice we were given was to move downward and get to the ground to unwin the trial.
“What about…there?”
We all stopped, looked at where Erith was pointing, far to our left.
We all stopped at the same time.
It was another doorway, except this one wasdark.Not just for lack of light, no—the color of the leaves and the branches twisting to make it look like some sort of a tunnel had faded to near black. It almost looked like aportalof some kind, and whatever was on the other side of it had sucked the life out of the plants completely. A monster’s mouth, indeed, one that was patient until it didn’t have to be anymore. One that would swallow us up if we dared to go close.
Every instinct in my body screamed at me to get as far away from that place as possible—and I wasn’t the only one.
