Page 32 of Rot In Knotty Pieces

“Splitting? No. We were a mess; we didn’t even know what happened. Not until much later, and then there were just more of us. It was strange, I remember how startled we all were to find each other.”

“I’m glad it didn’t hurt you,” Rose murmurs.

I turn my face into his chest and exhale deeply. “I’m sorry I hurt you and disappeared, Rose. That I keep doing it.”

“It’s okay. It will be over soon?”

I nod against his skin. “Yes, if we don’t end it soon, he will find out all the things I’ve done, and it will be too late to save us.”

Rose pulls me tighter. “We’ll save you.”

“You will?” I ask, amused.

“Of course, you asked for help,” Rolly says from beside me.

I turn, looking at him, seeing him properly for the first time. The bleakness of the situation and just how many lives I hold in the palms of my hands is staggering.

“If it comes to it, kill me. Don’t let him take me alive.”

Rolly’s expression hardens. Blaze inhales sharply, but Rose lets out a pained sound.

“Promise me!”

Rolly stares at me. “I will free you, one way or another.”

I relax, satisfied, and look up at Rose.

“Have I told you lately that I love you?”

“Shush, you’re clearly delirious.”

I laugh softly. “We have another day of hiking, and I will go, but I will stay until everyone’s safe.”

“Go to sleep, little beta. We’ll take care of everything,” Blaze says confidently.

I believe him, so I do as he suggests.

Raven

The sound of some kind of falcon or kestrel wakes me up, and I roll to my feet, shoving up and out of the tent before I can think it through. There’s this disconnect every time I wake up. Where am I? Who was in my body last? How much time have I lost?

Blaze holds out a mug from where he’s sitting on a log.

“Almost twenty-four hours, nobody woke up. You just slept.”

I exhale, letting the relief slow my racing heart. Fuck. I hate waking up like this. I hate it.

With a huff, I gratefully take the coffee cup and inhale half the mug in one gulp. It’s coffee, made the way I like it with too much sugar and milk. I’m not going to ask where they got the supplies or how he knows that’s how I like my coffee. I’m more interested in knowing where everyone else is.

I wander the clearing, my awe growing as I take in the transformation. It should look like any other patch of forest, and yet, there is wire and string hung between the trees. Shiny bits of metal, coloured bits of string. It looks like we’re in the centre of a massive spider's web.

“Uh…” I gesture to our surroundings.

“Apparently, Daega was a spider in another life.”

I blink. Several times. What do I even say to that? It is beautiful and scary in its uniformity and cohesion. I study it with interest, but only in a because-it’s-Pix kind of way. I have zero interest in building a nest. It’s pretty, but the sun is nice, and I just want to lie in it and absorb the heat like a lizard.

I blow out my cheeks and scrub my face.