Page 139

The wind swells upward, carrying me farther.

I let out a yelp as the dark cloud rushes down to greet me.

“Stop, stop, stop,” I yell, and the wind backs off.

I hover in midair.

From up here, I can see all the fighting trees. Blue was wrong, there are five in total. The rest of the Ancient Forest spreads out behind us, docile and silent.

These are the problem children of the forest. The angry geese, as Blue put it.

All five are spinning and twisting and whipping branches. Ty and his soldiers are dwindling in numbers, and in the canopy of the half-fallen tree, Rook and Tin are locked in combat.

If I’m going to do something, I need to do it now.

Axe still in hand, I lift it up. It weighs nothing up here and I don’t bother examining why that is or what it means.

I start spinning it. Round and round and round, picking up momentum.

I did this once before—sent an axe flying on the wind—but this time I will guide it exactly where I want it and I will hold the safety of everyone else at the forefront.

No one gets hurt.

The words ring out in my head like a lightning rod.

And then I let the axe go and it flies on the wind.

FORTY-THREERook

The first crack reverberates through the forest.

The tree beside us is split right through the heart and teeters on its stump.

“Get back!” Silas yells, shoving me to the side. We are beaten and bloody and yet he seeks to save me?

We dodge the felling of the tree just as it crashes to the ground.

Something shoots through the air with the sharp whistle of an arrow.

Another crack.

A second tree sways in the wind and then topples over, the hit like the aftershock of a firework.

Then a third.

A fourth.

“What the fuck is that?” I say.

Tin stands beside me, eyes wide. “I think that’s my axe. And I think that’s Dorothy.”

I follow his nod and spot a dark figure looming in the dark sky.

She’s flying?

Envy flares to life like a matchstick. Quickly followed by something I rarely feel: awe.

The axe cuts cleanly through the last of the fighting trees, and when the tree tips over, the ground trembles.