Chapter Forty-Six
I n answer, a rumbling runs through the stone beneath my feet and greenery begins to snake its way up the terret. It startles me at first, causing me to fall back in a nest of tulle. This dress is hopeless, and as I rise again to see what’s creeping up toward me, I step on the edges and the bottommost layers tear away.
The satisfying rip of tulle is only matched by the instant freedom I feel from its confines. Layers continue to peel away as I pull forward, leaning back over the railing. Unsure what I expect, vines making their way up the balcony isn’t it, but here they come. First thin as if tentative in their answer to my rage. But now, they spread over the railings in heaps as thick as my fists. As they land, cracks spread in thick plunks through the balcony stone itself.
Skittering back into my bedroom, the vines follow, summoned by me. The thought is a heady one, that this much power truly flows through my veins.
Looking across my bedroom, toward the locked door, I question whether the vines are strong enough. Only for a moment, though.
They churn around me and over the furniture toward the locked door, already aware of my need to leave this prison. They curl into thick waves, winding up like a snake before it strikes. With full force, they slam through in one blow and wooden splinters fly across the room at the impact. The sound reverberates in my soul and my heart brims with belief that this is happening. I can do this, just as Gryphon said.
I follow the destruction out of the newly demolished door and met with a sleepy and confused guard. His stricken face takes in my appearance, then the vines. His hand moves with a practiced grace toward his sword belt. He does not hesitate, but instead, makes quick work of unsheathing it, and then attacks.
But I’m not the threat. At least he must not perceive me as such. With the way the vines continue to wreath around the hallway, I must look like I’m running from whatever is happening within this room because he attempts to go after the vines. In doing so, unfortunately for him, he puts himself between me and my looping vines.
A flash of a memory strikes just as the vines begin to wrap and twirl around the guard. Except for a moment, it's Avicii staring back at me. But I shake my head and just as quickly, the nameless guard returns, just as the vines make their way up his body.
First, his ankles and then slowly up his thighs to his torso. He looks from the flora to me with a look that goes from incredulity to fear and whispers, “What—?”
“Not what. Who,” I reply. His confusion only grows, but the dawning that the vines are with me, and for me, begins to bloom across his features.
“Unhand me! Prince Killian must know. Merula will know—” His eyes bulge just as his words are swallowed by a vine sliding with ease into his open mouth and down his throat.
I wince as his body goes limp, quickly disappearing under the swaths of green flowing farther down the hall. That was not in my plan. The fewer casualties the better, but this man would’ve set off the alarms. And for as long as I can, I’d like to remain in the shadows. Before the vines can swallow his sword up as well, I lunge for it, knowing it will be better than nothing with whatever I’m about to face.
Just as that thought of remaining in the shadows crosses my mind, I look over my shoulder to the splintering sounds following me out the door. Our room, or what’s left of it, is cracking apart under the weight of the continuous climbing vines. They coil up the terret, over the marble trellis, and are now serpentining down the hall around me. The old power of the earth within them hums and reverberates through me in answer. I realize I’m no longer a part of the shadows. Just like the vines surrounding me, I twist and curl in search of sunlight. I will climb until I’m seen.
For a brief moment, I remember the fear and pain in Avicii’s eyes in his last moments, when he realized there was no taming me and no breaking me.
I will rise and grow like a seed rises from the dirt; I will overcome. This, I will do for my people.
Know yourself, know your path.