Lucille
Chapter
Forty-One
Decaying leaves permeated the air as we paraded through Verdant Forest toward the Eternal Forest. We could’ve luscelered to our destination, but I wanted to give Ronen enough time to plant the seed with Sam.
So far, our journey had been as uneventful as Oliver and Matt bickering and cursing at one another could be.
I’d planned to intervene, but when I caught the tiny smirk tugging at Oliver’s mouth, I decided to let him have his fun.
That was until Matt decided to spit on his back.
“That’s what you get, fa—”
MJ notched and released an arrow before I had a chance to react. It sliced Matt’s ear, cutting off his disgusting insult and ripping out a satisfying hiss.
“You crazy, psychotic, b—”
MJ raised another arrow as Aspen stuck out his foot and tripped Matt. He sprawled face-first into mud and leaves. Aspen stood over him with his arms crossed while Matt spat and glared up at him.
“Just be grateful it was my foot and not an arrow to the forehead.”
“She’s not allowed to kill me. She’s in our squad,” Matt hissed through clenched teeth.
MJ chuckled.
I crouched beside Matt and grinned, satisfied by the blood matting his blond hair. My Hellfire hummed hauntingly in my ear. “Didn’t I mention something about your ego?”
If only Matt knew how truly dangerous I was.
“The general’s third has my—and I presume the general’s—full permission to release that arrow through your insignificant brain if you disrespect one of us again.” I patted his cheek, meaning every word.
Rune growled and snapped her jaws at Matt while Hadrian sat beside her, licking his teeth.
“Seems the Soulhounds give their permission too,” I added, standing.
A small part of me wondered if I was becoming like her—them. Ruthless. Unforgiving. Almost cruel. Was that the shift I was beginning to feel? Or did I simply know that if Matt didn’t get in line, it could hurt all of us? Protecting the many and culling the rot that threatened them.
Something malicious churned in Matt’s brown eyes. Something that filled my mouth with bitterness. This was the male who told Dusty he should’ve slit my throat when I first replaced them. I was only repaying the favor.
I leashed my creeping Hellfire, sending it back to my core with all the other deadly melodies, and motioned for my squad to continue.
Oliver leaned closer and whispered, “And this is why I’ll never get on your bad side.”
I smiled, but doubt festered in my mind. Doubt that I let Matt live? Or doubt that I was changing, and I wasn’t sure if it was for the best.
Rune bumped her wet nose against my hand as if she could feel my distress. I ran a finger through her wispy fur.
“Thanks, beastie.”
After a good amount of walking, and a quick conversation with Aspen regarding time, we luscelered the rest of the way to the Eternal Forest.
A woosh of sweet violet and vanilla hit me once we entered.
Energy hummed in the air, teasing my skin with the bits of souls soaking the earth.
My chest twinged with a sudden sense of loss.
I reached for my mom’s necklace and ran my thumb across the faceted glass.
It wasn’t the only chain I pulled free. Ichi’s dragon flopped into my hand, clinking against my mother’s pendant, the past and present tangling in my palm.
Every choice, every warring decision reduced to two charms—to me.
We headed toward the infected trees that Ronen and his Dreads had found, each footstep strategically placed among the soft blue violets.
My ears rang with the vibrations of the forest and the strain of listening for any sound.
My eyes dissected every shadow, every movement between the large brown trunks.
This would work. Ronen would be near, if he wasn’t already. It’d work.
The mantra barely helped the thing that had crawled out of its cave with two eyes open and a hovering hand, ready to puppeteer my actions in favor of Aspen.
He trailed behind me with MJ in the middle of the squad.
He wasn’t particularly happy with that decision, but the safer he was, the better our bond behaved.
Oliver and Rune walked quietly at my side.
Rune’s ears twitched, and she lifted her nose into the air, sniffing.
Something black caught my eye before I smelled that familiar rotting-flesh odor.
A black, shrunken tree hid within the dim shadows of the behemoths beside it.
We strode toward the unsightly thing and rounded the larger tree partially blocking it.
My stomach plummeted. Ronen had told me what we’d find, but hearing it and seeing it were two very different things.
“What is wrong with them?” Enora choked out, horrified.
“What’s that smell?” Oliver groaned, holding his nose.
The blood-infected trees stretched for miles. Their vibrancy and nutrients had been sucked out, reducing them to twigs compared to what they once were. Everything was black. The grass. The soil. The shriveled, sticky flowers melding into the lumpy ground.
“That’s what we’re trying to stop.” I faced my squad and witnessed something new in most of their expressions. Matt appeared as unmoved as Dusty was sickened.
“You’ve seen the melting snow, heard about the demons and dying trees from other squads. Now you get to see firsthand what their blood is doing.”
“But how do we stop them?” Dusty asked.
“Completely? I don’t know. Temporarily? Our only method is to recycle them back through the circles with fire or ice. But first we need to find them.”
Hence why Aspen was here and not handcuffed to the bed in his room.
“This kingdom is built on pain and suffering. Why should we care if it falls apart?” Matt sneered at the decrepit trees. He echoed the sentiment of the voice possessing Ni.
“Maybe so you don’t fall apart with it,” Oliver muttered in a tone suggesting he found Matt stupid.
Except the infected Damned weren’t just trying to destroy Hell. They wanted to rule it. And what kept souls—or even blood-banded like Matt—from switching from a side that inflicted pain to one that offered power?
“You’re misinformed,” Ichi said, turning toward Matt. She stood at least two heads shorter than him, and her thick, inky hair was pulled into two braided buns that screamed cute, while the huge sword slung over her back said, mess with me and find out. “You let your bitterness cloud your judgment.”
Matt laughed in her face. “Are you saying you enjoy being part of a military whose sole purpose is making us suffer?”
Ichi gave him a long, patient look before sighing. “The weak never understand.”
Matt stepped toward her. “Call me weak again.”
Before MJ could notch an arrow or my Infernus decided to come out and play, a low growl rumbled in Rune’s throat.
She gazed between the black trees.
Everyone stilled, the tension breaking only to build again. We waited. Watched. A moment passed. Then I heard it. A thump. It vibrated the ground, shaking the dead plants. It happened again and again until movement caught my peripheral, sharpening my attention.
Far in the distance, weaving slowly between the skinny trees, appeared to be a… moving tree?
MJ relaxed, lowering her bow. “It’s a Spinewalker.”
“Why…” Oliver started, trailing off as the Spinewalker paused directly in our line of sight.
Eerie interlocking knobs ridged the back of its textured body. It lifted one of its stumped legs and slowly set it down. The forest softened the sound, but the tremors still worked up my legs. I thought its spine and size creeped me out, then it turned its oval, faceless head.
My Infernus sang quietly in my ear, its presence crawling beneath my skin like tiny insects ready to burst free.
“Not sure I ever thought I could be more creeped out by a tree. What’d it do? Eat someone and regurgitate them through its back?”
“They’re harmless,” Valarus chided.
MJ chuckled. “For the most part.” She patted Oliver’s shoulder. “Just don’t touch them unless you want to be absorbed into their darkness forever.”
“That’s harmless?” Oliver side-eyed her and Valarus.
Valarus pursed her lips and shrugged. “It’s not like they chase after you.”
“Don’t they stay in the Veil Forest?” I asked.
“I mean, this is starting to look like it. Maybe it got confused,” Zera said, blowing her bleach-blonde pixie cut back with her elemental power, only for it to fall back into her eyes. She really should’ve braided it back like the rest of us.
The Spinewalker carried on, slowly creeping between the trees with its elongated limbs. I wasn’t sure what prompted me to say it, but I had a feeling.
“Let’s follow it.”
“Why?” Enora replied, the usual glow of her brown skin gone sickly.
“I agree with Enora. I think it’s better to leave the void of darkness alone.” Oliver nodded enthusiastically.
“And I think we’re here to find the infected.” And parade Aspen around as bait. “A Spinewalker in the Eternal Forest, whether diseased or not, is odd,” I insisted.
“Stupid, faceless, body-absorbing trees,” Oliver grumbled.
Valarus leveled Oliver with a you’ve got to be kidding me look. “You were there during our training exercise, weren’t you?”
“Those were illusions,” he exclaimed.
“Demons aren’t pretty,” she countered.
Oliver threw out an arm. “Then after you, baby-bangs assassin.”
Zera and Dusty snickered. Rissa looked as unamused as the day I’d met her.
Enora still seemed freaked out, making me wonder if she’d ever fought a real demon in her life.
MJ smirked at Oliver, looking close to taunting him.
Matt almost appeared left out, glaring at Dusty.
Only Ichi and Aspen ignored the antics, keeping their attention on our surroundings.
“Whatever you say—”
I held up a hand. “Keep your mouths shut and your weapons and powers ready. If, for some reason, we need to distinguish each other, whistle. If you see a squadmate go down and they need help, whistle twice.”