Except the infected Damned weren’t just trying to destroy Hell. They wanted to rule it. And what kept souls—or even blood-banded like Matt—from switching from a side that inflicted pain to one that offered power?
“You’re misinformed,” Ichi said, turning toward Matt. She stood at least two heads shorter than him, and her thick, inky hair was pulled into two braided buns that screamedcute, while the huge sword slung over her back said,mess with me and find out. “You let your bitterness cloud your judgment.”
Matt laughed in her face. “Are you saying you enjoy being part of a military whose sole purpose is making us suffer?”
Ichi gave him a long, patient look before sighing. “The weak never understand.”
Matt stepped toward her. “Call me weak again.”
Before MJ could notch an arrow or my Infernus decided to come out and play, a low growl rumbled in Rune’s throat.
She gazed between the black trees.
Everyone stilled, the tension breaking only to build again. We waited. Watched. A moment passed. Then I heard it. A thump. It vibrated the ground, shaking the dead plants. It happened again and again until movement caught my peripheral, sharpening my attention.
Far in the distance, weaving slowly between the skinny trees, appeared to be a… moving tree?
MJ relaxed, lowering her bow. “It’s a Spinewalker.”
“Why…” Oliver started, trailing off as the Spinewalker paused directly inour line of sight.
Eerie interlocking knobs ridged the back of its textured body. It lifted one of its stumped legs and slowly set it down. The forest softened the sound, but the tremors still worked up my legs. I thought its spine and size creeped me out, then it turned its oval, faceless head.
My Infernus sang quietly in my ear, its presence crawling beneath my skin like tiny insects ready to burst free.
“Not sure I ever thought I could be more creeped out by a tree. What’d it do? Eat someone and regurgitate them through its back?”
“They’re harmless,” Valarus chided.
MJ chuckled. “For the most part.” She patted Oliver’s shoulder. “Just don’t touch them unless you want to be absorbed into their darkness forever.”
“That’s harmless?” Oliver side-eyed her and Valarus.
Valarus pursed her lips and shrugged. “It’s not like they chase after you.”
“Don’t they stay in the Veil Forest?” I asked.
“I mean, this is starting to look like it. Maybe it got confused,” Zera said, blowing her bleach-blonde pixie cut back with her elemental power, only for it to fall back into her eyes. She really should’ve braided it back like the rest of us.
The Spinewalker carried on, slowly creeping between the trees with its elongated limbs. I wasn’t sure what prompted me to say it, but I had a feeling.
“Let’s follow it.”
“Why?” Enora replied, the usual glow of her brown skin gone sickly.
“I agree with Enora. I think it’s better to leave the void of darkness alone.” Oliver nodded enthusiastically.
“And I think we’re here to find the infected.” And parade Aspen around as bait. “A Spinewalker in the Eternal Forest, whether diseased or not, is odd,” I insisted.
“Stupid, faceless, body-absorbing trees,” Oliver grumbled.
Valarus leveled Oliver with ayou’ve got to be kidding melook. “You were there during our training exercise, weren’t you?”
“Those were illusions,” he exclaimed.
“Demons aren’t pretty,” she countered.
Oliver threw out an arm. “Then after you, baby-bangs assassin.”
