My eyes flew open. Despite all odds, I still drew breath. A mountain of mud didn’t entomb me. No demigod to attack. I sucked in a lungful of air. A pair of hands grabbed my shoulders, jostling me back to life.
“You all right, B?”
Merrick studied me, green eyes restless and frightened. We stood in a different part of Letum Wood. High ground, away from the flooding trees. Thunder crashed and wind gusted by, driving rain and hail into my skin like needles.
I grabbed his arms, anchored again.
“Fine. I mean, no. I’m not. I don’t know. Where’s Papa? Regina?”
He squeezed my shoulders. “They’re all right, I’m sure. The good gods, what were you doing? I was with Baxter and an amulet appeared. I came to find you as soon as I saw it. I landed at your cottage, but it was . . . I couldn’t see you. Then . . . the forest took me, I think . . . I figured . . .”
He paused, then shook his head as if nothing made sense. With a growl, he jerked me back into him. My hands shook as I wrapped my arms around his waist, let him hold me close. He pressed a kiss onto the top of my head.
“You’ve got to stop almost-dying,” he muttered. “This isn’t good for my heart.”
Arborra? I inquired.
A tremulous voice replied. The forest mourns.
Silence followed.
Without livid demigods or racing mudslides, this area of the forest was oddly silent. The type of quiet that only comes after violence. My heart settled into a slow, steady plod again.
Reality descended too quickly. I gasped, shoved away.
“My cottage?”
Merrick put a hand on my cheek. Pain filled his eyes. “It’s gone, B. A demigod conjured a landslide, from what I could tell. They . . . moved the land. All the trees are demolished.”
“But her amulet. I took it. I—”
He shrugged. “I don’t know how.”
None of it made sense. The mortals disappeared unexpectedly, and the mud slide came after I had taken the amulet. Had there been a hidden demigod, perhaps? Such an animalistic force couldn’t have been natural—someone had created that powerful mudslide.
“I want to see my cottage,” I rasped.
“B—”
“I’ll go with or without you.”
He sighed. “Together, then. But prepare yourself. It’s . . . well, you’ll see.”
With a firm hand on my arm, Merrick brought me back to the house. He transported us to the branch of a nearby tree—an old one hundreds of paces away and barely outside the devastation. He held me when my knees weakened.
Nothing remained.
No cottage.
No forest.
No life.
Goat and Other Goat’s pen, the manulele hedges, my garden, the paths that created my internal map of my world. The one my heart knew forward and backward.
Gone.
A river of mud swept through. It hurried along now, swift as a torrential flood. The powerful wall that had punched a hole in Letum Wood oozed by with terrifying strength. Entire tree trunks bobbed out of it, like giant corks. More timbers crashed and fell as it continued to plunder the wood with a wide scar, a gash. The slide overtook my home and then some.
Numbness rippled through me from the inside out. I could only stare, uncomprehending. Merrick tightened his arm around me.
“Come. Let’s go back to the castle. Your father just told me to meet him there.”
* * *
Merrick remained glued to my side while we congregated at Grandfather’s apartment, wearing half armor, his hair in a messy braid. Papa and Regina, slicked with drying mud and scratches, spoke quietly near the fire. They didn’t touch, but Papa stood close enough to her that I knew they wanted to.
Grandfather handed out glasses of water, which they gulped, while he spoke with them on the other side of the room. I stared out the window, forehead pressed to the cool pane. The quiet gave me a chance to reorient, like a compass finding north again.
Darkness—and more rain—lingered beyond the glass panes. Also demigods and wrath and destruction and emptiness.
Arborra?
A moment passed.
We mourn.
Are there other demigods?
Yes, but we cannot see them. They are invisible to us right before the trees fall. They have learned.
More mudslides?
Yes.
I asked nothing more.
Maybe I’d been a fool all this time. Tontes and Ventis were gods that craved revenge. Who were witches to stop two gods?
My heart ached with a dozen prickling pangs when I pushed away from the window. Merrick eyed me, worry in his gaze. I tried to reassure him with a smile that turned into a grimace. Flashes of my cottage flapped like wild birds through my mind. My bed, Isadora’s teacups, thick mantle, warm hearth.
Gone.
“All of the mortals escaped?” I asked.
Merrick nodded. “Your father reported that the trees appeared to try to stop the mortals. One mortal hung upside down, vines wrapped around his legs. A woman was pinned against a tree with a cage of branches, but she disappeared. The other one as well.”
“Do you need to return to Baxter?”
“No. I’m staying.”
Papa spoke from off to the side. “There were two demigods. It’s the only explanation.”
I whirled to find him standing a few paces away, arms folded over his chest. Fatigue tugged at his expression. Mud smeared his half-armor, saturating a filthy, sweat-stained shirt. His sword stuck out near his hip at his side. Regina stood there, her expression long with fatigue.
“You saw two demigods?” I asked.
Papa drove a hand through his hair, causing muddy strands to stick straight up.
“No, but it’s the only explanation. We saw you fighting the female demigod. Tried to get there faster, but mortals swamped us. The moment we caught them, they’d disappear. Sometimes they returned, unless we injured them enough. Took awhile,” he muttered, hand on his jaw. He worked it up and down with a grimace.
“Tontes has learned from past mistakes,” Merrick said. “Had a decoy amulet awhile ago, now a hidden demigod to preserve his fighters, who appeared to be well-cared for. Not emaciated, the way you described, B. Not too shabby a plan, if you think about it.”
My fingers closed in a fist. Only one amulet against the eight that we needed. Somehow, we had to locate seven more amulets and obtain them so that Ignis and Gelas could destroy them. Assuming that Baxter found Nicomedianthekus, of course.
With more mudslides and destruction, Letum Wood weakened every moment. I could feel the losses. Slashes across the heart. Paper cuts of pain on the soul. Minuscule, but mighty.
A piece of parchment popped into the air in front of me. I reached for it, unfolded the edges. Baxter’s handwriting filled the interior.
Ignis reported that Tontes will make his final push tonight and confirmed that it will happen at the circle of the ancients.
Scarlett and Niko have been informed. If I don’t find Nicomedianthekus, our plan will dissolve.
Get whatever amulets you can.
Buy me time.
I passed the note to Papa. Regina read it over his shoulder, then nodded to indicate she finished. Papa passed it to Grandfather. A somber expression rose as Grandfather comprehended the words. He passed it to Merrick with a frown.
“I need to report to Scarlett as well as Network delegations,” Grandfather said, running a hand over his eyes. “Our defensive plan must go into effect immediately. Thank the goddesses that we have one, with Scarlett’s pressing and cajoling other Networks to form one with her.”
I glanced at him, amused by the catchphrase.
“Thank the goddesses?”
Grandfather smiled wryly. “Well, considering the state of the gods . . .”
He trailed away and my hilarity faded. His gaze flickered to mine.
“Thank you for your guidance days back. Evidence of gathering mortals and demigods appears that you were right—the attack on Deasylva is happening at the circle of the ancients.”
“You’re going to report to Scarlett, but not the Council?” I asked.
He shook his head. “This is a matter of life-or-death, military might, and Guardian prowess. Scarlett will make these decisions herself. The Council will have to focus on keeping our witches as safe as possible while the Guardians focus on finding amulets. Forgive me, but I must leave immediately. Whatever you do, keep yourselves alive and available for messages. Once the gods directly attack, we’re going to need all the help we can get.”
* * *
Michelle, Sanna, and baby Isadora filled Leda’s small apartment in Chatham Castle to bursting.
A bed of blankets near the fire held a sleeping Sanna, who snored softly, her full lips parted. Isadora dozed in a pulled-out drawer at the bottom of an armoire. She reminded me of a cocooned caterpillar in her rolled-up bundle of blankets. Candlelight illuminated the room just enough to reveal the distress in Michelle’s downturned lips. She tapped her thumb against her palm and stared at the clock.
Leda was nowhere in sight, likely with Scarlett at the meeting of Network leadership. While Merrick changed clothes and grabbed something to eat, I found Michelle. Grandfather promised to send word on Scarlett’s plan, which meant that all of Alkarra existed like a held breath. Paused. Life waiting. The world stilled.
The trees whispered about silence in the forest. Outside, the rain and wind paused. Mist crawled across the world.
“Where’s Nicholas?”
My voice broke Michelle out of a trance. She shook her head, adjusted where she sat at the edge of the couch, and reached into a burlap bag of clothes. Based on the general wear-and-tear, the varying sizes, and the light scent of lavender, they’d come from Leda’s mother. The mudslide would have wiped out everything Michelle owned as well, baby clothes included. A tightening sensation overcame my stomach at the thought.
“Nicholas is somewhere with the dragons, I think. He told me to leave once Reebis saw the mudslide coming. I grabbed the girls and came here. I could . . . I could hear it crashing through the trees.” She shuddered. “The castle was the only place I could think of at the time. I just . . . left in a panic.”
“You did great, and I’m sure Nicholas is fine.”
“I sent him a note to tell him we were staying here. He didn’t reply, but how would he? I . . . I’m not worried for him. Reebis will take care of him. I’m, well, worried for everything else.”
I nodded, unable to say much more.
“Priscilla is in Scarlett’s apartments,” she continued, anticipating my next question. “Celia and Scarlett’s butler, Marjorie, get along very well. Leda was so kind to give me her place to stay. I . . . I just couldn’t bring myself to stay in the High Priestess’s personal quarters, though Leda said that Scarlett offered.”
A woman who lived in the forest her whole life, ate the same meals everyday, in the grand opulence of Scarlett’s apartments, made no sense.
“I’m sure you’ll be more comfortable here.”
Michelle cast her gaze around, then nodded. She sank to the couch, her knees still trembling. A ripple of shock seemed to move through her as she reached for another small shirt with shaking hands. One fold at a time, she created a perfect square out of the garment.
I straightened. “You’ll be safer here, too. The attacks are centered on Letum Wood so far. I haven’t heard of any demigod sightings near the Castle.”
Michelle said nothing. I wanted to ask her about Nicholas and the dragons, but I didn’t know what to ask. How should I contact Reebis when we needed her? Would Nicholas come to our side as well? The words failed to materialize.
Instead, I let the silence ride.
A note popped into the air a handbreadth from my face. I frowned at the unfamiliar scrawl, tapped the edge. It rolled open.
Bianca,
Would you please join the Council in our meeting room? Immediately.
—Rosanna
Council Member of the Letum Wood Covens
After today, not much shocked me. Not even a summons from Council Member Rosanna. I sighed, and sent the scroll into the fire.
“I need to go find Merrick, then deal with something that just came up,” I said. “I’m glad you’re safe and I hope you see Nicholas soon.”
My mouth opened to say the words, everything is going to be fine, but they wouldn’t form. I didn’t know that. Perhaps part of me didn’t believe it would be fine, either. I could only say, “We’re going to fight with everything we have.”
Michelle met my gaze for the first time since I entered the room. Trepidation, terror, hope. I saw all of them at the same time. They faded back into a restless fear, haunting in their own quiet way.
“Thank you, Bianca. I know we will.”