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Widening my stance and changing my angle, I swing again and the tree crackles with the hit, but a smaller branch comes down, hitting me like a whip on the back.

I bend against the pain, teeth gnashed.

The axe slips from my grip.

As the sharp ache of the hit fades, I reach down to grab the dark green hilt, but just as my hand touches wood, something wraps around my ankles and wrenches me off my feet.

Vines. Vines have a hold of me.

At the last second, I stretch for the axe, getting it in my grip, just as the vines yank me back.

At first, I think it’s the forest, alive and working together, but then I see Rook on the periphery, almost like the conductor of an orchestra.

The vines pull me through the Ancient Forest, and the trees wave to me as I pass, their branches lashing out.

Leaves catch in my hair. Roots grab at my clothing.

I scramble to get some leverage, the axe dragging at my side.

I heft it up and slam it down, slicing one vine in half, freeing one leg.

I dig in my heel. The vine fights me.

I cut again, tearing through the second vine. Another whack and I’m free.

On my feet, I race back to the first tree only to see Rook hitting the trunk so hard with his axe, he’s created a divot two feet long and at least a half foot deep.

Without thinking, I duck beneath a flailing branch and slam into him.

We go down together, me on top of him.

He grunts beneath me, wraps his arm around my waist, and rolls me over so I’m on my back, just as a thick branch strikes the earth where we were.

“Go home, Kansas,” he tells me, and then he’s up, the axe in hand, his hits relentless.

The tree’s attack gets more vicious, more wild.

I charge Rook again, but with the snap of his fingers, I fly sideways, crashing to the ground.

“Using brute force is beneath you, Kansas,” he says over his shoulder. Almost like he’s goading me to go toe-to-toe with him using my magic.

I stand up, teeth gritted—

And a branch smacks into me, lifting me off my feet.

Airborne, I grasp at anything and manage to hang on to a split in the branch as it carries me around and around like I’m on a carnival ride.

Rook gets in another powerful hit and the tree vibrates, almost roaring.

He’s going to be halfway through the trunk in no time.

Down below, Ty and his soldiers are faring about as well as I am. Several of the soldiers are lying on the outskirts of the Ancient Forest, flat on their backs, some people tending to wounds.

We’re losing.

I need to get down.…

The branch changes direction, dipping back toward the earth. The wind sends my hair flying in front of my face and it’s taking everything I have to hold on to the branch and the axe at the same time.