Page 124 of Wraithwound

At first, nothing happened, and doubt threatened to flood her conviction, but then, she felt it, something like a shift in the air around her, and a crackle of power came to life in her palm. She couldn’t see the energy but knew it was there. Now if only she could figure out how to aim it. Lena took a step outside of the cave to gain a clearer shot, and the animal attacked. Rotating its flat, oval-shaped body faster than Lena could have anticipated, it jabbed its stinger at her, barely missing her face. She lost the energy she’d collected in her hand and ducked into the cave, avoiding the creature’s second attack.

She could feel Runa’s emotions shift from mild amusement to bewilderment, which threw her focus.

“Stupid, human!”

“Shut up! Unless you’re going to be helpful!”

But speaking had been the wrong thing to do because the creature went into a frenzy, crawling on spindly legs around the entrance of the cave and jabbing its stinger into the stone all around her. Lena exhaled a shaky breath and summoned her focus, working to pull the energy back. When she’d gathered it in her hand once more, she attempted to aim it, by extending her hand. A sorry gust of black wind blew over the creature.

EverGods!

Dodging several more strikes, just barely, Lena ducked back into the tunnel and pulled more into her hand, this time holding it there until it felt stable. Hopefully she’d be able to send a more concentrated blast toward the creature.

“No! Not concentrated, spread it out like a net to attribute for the creature’s weight!” Runa hissed, guessing at what she intended to do.

Well, that was helpful. Lena visualized a net and sent the energy outwards. A powerful blast knocked the creature back, forcing it to retreat to level ground above the cave. A tiny spark of hope ignited in her chest, and Lena stepped out onto the ledge, waiting. She held her focus on the building energy in her palm, but the creature did not come. Just when she’d thought that she’d scared it off, she felt a sharp pinch at her ankle and yelped as she was yanked toward the edge. Lena dug her clawed hands into the stone to keep from being pulled off entirely. One hand embedded into the stone; she peered down to see the creature turning to aim its stinger.

Lena lost control of her free arm, and black veins spiderwebbed up her fingers and into her wrist, disappearing underneath her blouse. The power there grew, but so did Runa’s influence.

No.

“I will not die in this pathetic body,” Runa growled as she fought Lena for control.

But this pathetic body belonged to her, and she would see to it that Runa never regained control of it ever again. Lena let that thought work its way through her. She let it steel her veins and fortify her resolve. Lena pulled strength from the desperation she felt and shut Runa out once more.

She didn’t have the leverage to pull herself back up, and kicking at the stinger wasn’t an option lest she accidentally graze the needle-sharp point. Instead, she wrenched as much power as she could from inside, gathering up a sizable amount in her palm and extended her hand. A concentrated blast was the only thing she could manage, but it hit its mark, striking the creature’s abdomen and sending it plummeting into the abyss below. After several long seconds, she heard the impact of its body splattering.

Heart pounding, arms trembling, she pulled herself onto the ledge and scrambled through the tunnel toward Cross. She had not missed Runa’s taunt earlier. There was something nearby that could heal him, and apparently it had something to do with a riddle.

Cross moaned, and her breath hitched, but he didn’t stir again.

Lena checked his stomach, relieved to see it had healed a smaller degree more, but his injuries were still devastating. She looked through her supplies again, the disappointment somehow greater the second time, but there truly weren’t any other options.

She thought back to the words Laney had recited, and the warning Taryk had shared about the environment here. Unbalanced, he’d said. And it had been. The first realm skewed toward Cross’s strengths, and the second realm skewed to hers. But there had been other signs too. Where one might typically find safety, there’d been danger.

In Reimar, the trees had grown abnormally large to protect the realm. In the white realm, the trees morphed into dangerous creatures. But what about here? She drew a blank, bringing her hands to her face. She wanted to scream, but that would likely only serve to draw other creatures to them. Lena took another breath, willing her heart to slow and her mind to clear. To examine the logic.

If this realm somehow mirrored her own—which was a safe bet because for something to be unbalanced that would indicate there was balance to be found elsewhere—then whatever Runa said could help Cross had to be something that might kill him there.

But what?

“Tell me!” she demanded, but the wraith was silent.

Lena shook her head, no doubt if the wraith told her, the information would come with some sort of condition. But she didn’t know what it could be. And if she didn’t figure it out⁠—

Her anger rose swiftly, and she cursed the gods-damned realm and the fact that she’d come to care deeply for a man who should be her enemy. A man whose oath dictated he should have tried to kill her, just like everything else in this realm had tried to kill them.

Well, everything, except . . .

Chapter

Seventy

Lena broke off a piece of the vine hanging over the cave entrance and examined the plant. It was the only thing here she’d touched that hadn’t tried to kill her. It had vibrant green leaves and a sturdy stem. Lena considered. In Reimar, sometimes it was the unassuming plants you had to watch out for, but then she remembered how the flowers growing from the cracks above had given off a black aura. This plant did not.

And then she felt it. A reluctant beat of approval from within. Was that approval coming from Runa? It was. Despite her current predicament with the wraith, she was grateful for the confirmation, lest she kill Cross herself by poisoning him further.

Taking the plant back into the cave, Lena got to work. Never in her time as a healer had she worked so meticulously to sterilize a wound and create a dressing made from the xylem sap and the leaves themselves.