The trees thrashed, their branches suddenly swinging violently. All at once,everythingattacked me.
I cried out in terror as a vine ensnared me around the neck, wrapping around my windpipe. The seekerill made a high-pitched whining noise, alerting me to the fact that I’d almost reached the Stone, but before I could search for it, a foreign consciousness entered my mind.
Who are you, daring female of Mistvale Kingdom?
I jolted upright, and my fire element flamed from my hands, burning through the vine that was choking me. Gasping, I coughed and sputtered, then ripped the vine off me and gripped my throat. The plant fluttered away into nothing but ash.
I continued coughing violently, but before I could answer whatever being had mentally projected to me, another treeswung for me, and then a new creature launched itself from a branch, barreling right toward me.
I commanded my carpet to veer right at the last second and zoom away, but pounding footsteps came in my wake. Animals were chasing me. Pursuing me. I no longer had control of them.
The seekerill whined even higher, and I looked every which way. Magic cascaded out of me, and I managed to grab hold of some animals near me, ensnaring their minds and commanding them to protect me, but the entire forest wasattackingme.
Those aremycreatures you toy with, the ancient voice hissed.
“Who are you?” I called, so breathless I barely got the words out.
Another ear-piercing whine came from the seekerill, and then I saw it.
A glowing, shimmering light rose from the black Wood’s floor, only fifty paces away. It sparkled with magic, pulsing rays of starlight emitting from its core. Its beauty and exotic power called to me. Begging. Demanding. Coaxing.
The Wishing Stone.
Stars Above, I was nearly upon it. I was so close. I’d actuallyfoundit!
I pushed the carpet to move faster, not to stop, and flooded the air around me with more fire, anything to stop the trees and plants from reaching me.
Answer me, you insolent girl!That ancient, primal all-seeing presence clouded my thoughts again.
“I’m sorry,” I said aloud. “I’m so sorry. My name is Primelle Hollaran, and I’m only here to take the Wishing Stone. I mean you, the creatures of this land, and this forest no harm or disrespect.”
Yet you kill my children. You toy with them as though you own them.
“I’m sorry,” I sobbed as the Stone loomed. “Please forgive me.”
I do not forgive. I only punish.
A crashing wave of magic rose like a tidal wave around me.
The glow from the Stone plunged into darkness, and all sense of where I was cut off.
Magic pushed me down, down, down.
And in that moment, I knew that the rumors had been right. It was the only thing that could explain any of this. A god’s soul indeed slumbered within Silventine Wood. Its terrible power and might cascaded all around me. Through me. In me. Everywhere I felt, a galaxy of power responded.
I screamed. Terror exploded inside me.Oh Gods. He’s going to kill me.
The feel of the carpet disappeared from beneath me, and the sentries I’d once commanded vanished entirely. I knew that I was seconds away from death. The ancient force, perhaps a god thought long extinct, had awoken in the forest, and he wouldn’t stop until I was dead. Until I was nothingbut ash, just like the dead plant life I’d scattered on the wind.
I’d failed. Failed Timith. Failed Gwenery. Failed myself. It’d all been for naught.
I clutched the lock of hair from Goddess Nuleef even harder, then grabbed Kole’s charm too. The warrior would never know what’d happened to me. Neither would my family. Or Ree. I would just be another fairy who’d ventured into Silventine Wood and was never heard from again.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry, Gwen and Timith. I’m sorry that I failed you.”
The pressure upon me built.
You deserve to be punished. My vengeance is all you’ll get in this Wood.
