Chapter 54
Yvette
Something had wrapped itself around her leg.
Yvette had thought it was just a leaf brushing her ankle before whatever it was had gone taut, grabbing her calf and tugging her off her feet.
Thankfully, she landed on a bed of snow and leaves and did not crack her skull open against a rock.
However, she had little time to consider herself fortunate as the unseen thing began to pull at her with alarming strength.
Yvette screamed again. The first had been a shriek of surprise.
What came from her now was a deep seated wail of panic.
Yvette scrambled, kicking out wildly and clawing at the ground.
There was nothing to grasp onto but loose stones and dead branches buried in the snow.
Her heart raced as real terror washed over her.
Whatever had snaked up her leg was wrapping itself higher.
Worse, she was rapidly losing sensation.
She couldn’t feel her foot anymore, couldn’t move it.
Rolling onto her back, she could see that nearly her entire leg was wrapped in thick black vines.
There were more of them, a dozen more, reaching and flailing frantically through the air.
Their movements were only shadows in the night, but Yvette followed them to the center of whatever this thing was.
As if it could sense her gaze, it opened to reveal a malformed mouth, gaping with rows of needlelike teeth.
It wasn’t large enough to eat all of her, well at least not all at once.
Her hand brushed against something hard in the snow, and Yvette took it, a large jagged stone.
It was a pathetic weapon, but it was better than nothing.
Yvette threw the stone, hoping to give it something else to chew on.
Instead, it struck the monster in the side, sending a jolt through the tendrils, but not stopping it as the vines drug her closer still to its eager teeth.
Immediately her hands began to dig through the snow for another weapon, a lifeline, anything.
Shooting pain seared through her hand and wrist as another vine coiled around her.
Getting a closer look, she could see thin spines lining the tendrils, anchoring into her skin.
Yvette dug her fingers into the vine, madly attempting to tear it off, but it felt like in order to the remove the vine she’d have to peel off her own skin with it.
A growl of desperation left her as she tried once more to rip it off. Movement streaked through the corner of her vision, and she felt a jolt go through the vines. An arrow was protruding from its mouth.
“Yvette!” a male voice called desperately.
“Where is she?” a woman, Rhea, responded.
“It’s got something,” another deeper voice responded.
Another arrow loosed and struck the monster in the mouth, just beside the other. It began to bleed thick yellow muck.
“Help!” Yvette screamed, hoping to draw them nearer.
She heard the wet and brutal sound of vines being sliced around her just as Florian came into view. His eyes were darting around madly, mostly focusing on the area around her leg.
A shot of annoyance went through her as she realized she was invisible. This had happened since she was a child, when she was very frightened, a defensive reflex. Yvette cursed and released the magic.
Florian’s eyes widened as they fixed on her. “Here!” he called out as he pulled out a knife, dropping to his knees beside her in the snow. His voice became softer as he looked down at her. “I’ve got you.”
His blade snapped through the vine on her hand, spewing the same thick yellow liquid.
Rhea appeared by the mess of vines tangled around her leg, bringing down her long handled blade in a savage swing. It severed the twisted mass in a single stroke.
“Get her out of here,” Rhea said without looking back. She planted herself between them and that thing which was flailing erratically in the shadows.
Florian didn’t waste a moment, lifting her by the shoulders and under her knees. Limp vines were still clinging to her as he ran through the trees. She wanted to ask if the others would be okay, but she couldn’t speak. She could hardly string a single thought through her frantic mind.
The shadows of the trees rushed past as Florian ran.
The sounds of the battle grew distant as his panting breaths and crunching footfalls remained steady, constant.
They had come far enough that she could no longer hear the others when Florian hiked her legs back into his arms. She studied his face with clearer focus.
“You’re hurt,” she managed.
His tight expression melted into his familiar crooked smile. “Don’t worry about me, love.” His voice was tight enough to betray his easy expression.
Yvette studied his movements. It was his shoulder, the right one, the one holding up her useless legs. Florian’s steps were beginning to stagger as they reached the camp.
Gareth met them at the outskirts, his wide frame silhouetted by the fire.
“She’s hurt,” Florian explained breathlessly. “She can’t walk.”
Gareth only nodded and reached out to take her.
Florian passed her gently. Once Gareth had her, holding her as though she weighed nothing at all, Florian’s shoulders sagged, favoring his right side. Garteh had to hunch down to fit inside the tent before settling her in her bed.
“Do the others need help?” Gareth asked, turning to Florian as he entered the tent behind them.
“They seemed to have it well in hand,” Florian said, “but I need Knox.”
Gareth nodded in one short, definitive motion. “I’ll send him right to you.”
Then Gareth left.
Florian was at Yvette’s side again. Her entire leg up to the left side of her lower back was entirely numb, as was her right hand. She tried not to look at either of them in an effort to stay calm. It was temporary, right? It had to be.
“Knox will be back soon. He’ll know what to do,” Florian said.
“Get them off,” Yvette begged, panic coloring her voice until it was almost unrecogniseable.
Florian hesitated a moment before he nodded. “Right. Hold as still as you can.”
Yvette nodded as he took her arm. She clenched her eyes shut. It was better that way. She felt nothing but a vague tugging movement.
“Did that hurt?” Worry was coloring his voice.
Yvette shook her head. It hadn’t hurt, but it most certainly should have. She was bleeding from her wrist where the vine had attached itself. It was hard to tell through the blood, but it looked like dozens of tiny punctures.
Even Florian’s warm skin was looking pale at the sight.
“We need Knox,” he said, glancing outside anxiously. “He’ll help you, I promise.”
“You’re hurt too.”
He looked down at her as if she were being ridiculous.
“Let me see it,” she insisted.
Florian hesitated for another moment before he turned. Yvette stifled a gasp.
“It’s that bad, huh?” he asked.
There was a large black thorn sticking out of his back, through his clothes.
“No,” Yvette said, the lie in her voice so obvious that Florian actually laughed.
“I can’t feel it,” he said more soberly as he turned back so she could not see it anymore.
A cool dread came over her as she wondered how much pain she would be feeling if she weren’t numb as well. Suddenly, the idea of regaining her sensation was less appealing.
Knox joined them with no prelude whatsoever. His silver eyes took them both in wordlessly before turning to poke his head back outside.
“Gareth, I need hot water and salt. Quick as you can.” Then he moved to the other side of the tent, digging through one of his bags. “We need to remove the vines before the venom wears off,” he said without looking at them.
“Or what?” Yvette asked, dreading the answer.
Knox met her stare. “Or it’s going to hurt.”
Yvette lay back down. It could have been worse, she supposed.
Knox tended to Florian first. His brow remained low and focused as he worked, removing the thorn and washing the wound.
It wasn’t long before Lilith entered the tent with a bucket of steaming water.
Knox left Florian’s side and went to work with her in tandem.
Yvette knew they were siblings, twins even, but had never really seen the resemblance between them.
Lilith’s blonde hair was so contrasting to Knox’s deep brown.
Though there was some similarity in the harshness of their cheekbones, otherwise there was no startling resemblance.
Yet seeing them side by side, they moved almost as one, as if they had truly been together all their lives.
“We’re going to have to pour this on the vines,” Lilith explained, her hands still moving. “The saltwater gets them to release their grip.”
“It would work better if we had a tub,” Knox grumbled.
“That stuff is boiling, Lil’,” Florian said, echoing Yvette’s fears.
“Better than forcing them off,” Lilith said without hesitation.
Florian turned to Yvette, blocking her view of the twin’s work. “You won’t feel a thing, right?” he said, a shaky smile on his lips. She must have looked terrified because his gaze was soft in the way one reassures sick people and hurt children.
Yvette nodded even though it wasn’t true.
She was regaining a tingling sensation in her hand and the upper portion of her leg.
Her teeth clenched just before the first splash of scalding water hit her skin.
A growl ripped through her throat, back arching from the ground as she rode out the wave of pain, though she knew even in this moment that it was being mercifully dulled.
Florian was looking down at her, smile tense and a real glimmer of fear in his eyes as he smoothed back a lock of her hair.
“Beginning to regret coming with us?” he asked, voice low enough for only her to hear.
As ridiculous as it was, despite every bit of pain that she was certainly feeling, Yvette’s ribs began to shake with laughter.
Florian’s smile widened, flashing his white teeth just before the next boiling splash tore a scream from her throat.