The Ancient wanted me here.
I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but I was absolutely certain that tug I felt was her beckoning me forward.
“The mother of trees,” Rust said, his voice so low and full of awe, I half expected him to kneel in reverence. “I thought she was only a myth.”
“She’s real, all right,” the alpha said, his voice heavy with apprehension even as determination glowed in his eyes. “And she’s gonna lead us to the next artifact we need to help our pack.”
My brain stuttered. There was a ‘next artifact’ after this?
But I wouldn’t be with them.
Who would provide the demon-wolf’s blood they’d need? Witches and werewolves weren’t exactly out there getting freaky to produce an influx of hell spawns like me.
But that wasn’t my problem to figure out.
At the base of a root, Dad gestured for us to hold back. He tentatively stepped onto it. When nothing happened, he strode forward with more confidence, signaling for us to follow. I went next, with Rust on my heels and Mackiel watching our six.
The root served as a ramp and was wide enough to walk on comfortably. The bark surface was rough enough to provide solid footing. As we climbed, the air grew warmer. Magic thickened until I could taste it at the back of my throat. Sweet to the point of intoxicating, each breath made my head swim.
A gust of wind blew through the canyon, stirring the canopy of the majestic tree. Leaves shuddered, and then, one by one, they turned. Not with the wind, but against it. Toward us with a sound that started as a rustling noise but evolved into the whispers of thousands of voices, some high and shaky with age, others deep enough to vibrate in my molars. They passed from leaf to leaf like a wave, building in volume until the entire canopy hissed with the same two words.
“She’s here.”
Fear danced up my spine, sprouting goosebumps across my flesh that only seemed to multiply when the whispers abruptly cut off, leaving us in unnatural silence.
A glance over my shoulder at Mack’s expression confirmed everything I felt.
“That was fucking disturbing,”he signed.
I nodded, because yes. Yes, it was.
The chattering leaves didn’t slow the alpha down, though. He led on, trudging up the ramp-like root as if the leaves hadn’t just announced my arrival in the eeriest way possible.
As we neared the trunk, crimson dripped in front of me,splattering the root at my feet. Confused, I looked up at the dense green canopy, beautiful until I caught sight of the flowers. Deep crimson, they hung in clusters that looked less like blossoms and more like the tree was hemorrhaging. Blood-red sap dripped down the leaves and trunk, staining everything it touched.
Cheery.
The alpha summoned me forward. I went with my head down, and when his hand found my shoulder, it didn’t carry the firm grip of the alpha I’d come to recognize. Dad’s hand trembled. His eyes held the uncertainty of a man about to shove his daughter off a cliff, hoping she’d forgive him on the way down.
“Ziara, the pack needs you to?—”
That was as far as he got.
Something wrapped around my ankles.
With my head bowed, I caught a glimpse of baby roots, thin as whips, as they tightened around me with a speed that made my stomach lurch. My brain screamedmove,but I failed to process what the hell I was witnessing before the roots jerked tight and launched me toward the tree.
The tree reeled me in as if I were some little forage fish caught on its line. I closed my eyes, bracing for the impact of slamming into the trunk.
Behind me, Mack screamed. Rust’s rifle clicked.
Impact never came. The bark parted like a mouth opening wide, and the tree swallowed me whole.
Sunlight blinded me when I flew inside the tree, which made no sense whatsoever. The air thickened, slowing my ascent and enabling me to get my feet beneath me. I landed on soft sand in a crouch, hands hovering above my daggers as I took in the scene. Beach on my left, dragon blood trees on the ledge to my right, same honey-sweet smell.
But I was just standing on the root of a giant tree.
The Ancient was now nowhere in sight.
