Page 204 of The Demon Tide

Black Witch. Black Witch. Black Witch, the Forest pulses at me as I run, the crackling roar of the battle behind me spurring me on.

My foot slams into a huge root, lodging under it, and I pitch forward, a cry escaping me, my trapped ankle twisting so hard I can hear the bone crack. I fall facedown on the loamy ground, pain lancing through my leg. Pulse thundering, I jerk my head toward the direction of the Mages, knowing that there’s only one way out now.

Gritting my teeth, I thrust my bound hands against the broad trunk before me, a huge Noilaan Spruce.

The Forest’s hatred turns seismic.

Tangle my lines, I plead.Tangle them, and I’ll send a spell through them that will double back and destroy me.

A collective pause. As if every tree in the world has suddenly set its focus directly on me.

Please, I beg the Forest as Vogel’s power bears down on mine.

Vast elemental power surges toward me from all directions, all of it converging on a single target—the Black Witch.

Agony explodes through me with the pain of a thousand spears. I clench my teeth against the scream, my nails digging into the bark as the Forest seizes hold of my corrupted lines and strains to force them into a knot in my center.

Vogel’s power rears up, slashing Shadow against the trees’ power, and I gasp for air, my body spasming as I grip the spruce and the battle rages inside me with unbearable ferocity, my knotting lines about to give way to Vogel’s superior force. Knowing it’s now or never, I ready the elemental strike spell that will kill me.

Shimmering white light blasts over me from above, suffusing the woods with a starlight glow. Startled, I glance up.

Watchers.Looking down at me from the trees with serene focus.

And that’s all it takes, that split second of distraction.

Vogel wrenches my lines away from the Forest, brutally unknots them and links them back to my wand hand. A burning line of agony shoots straight through my arm and I cry out, his Shadow power knifing through me with heightened force. I glance down at my bound hands in disbelieving horror—Shadow seeps from the fastlines beneath my bindings, thicker than before.

A sense of devastating surrealness wends through my chest in an ever-tightening spiral. I lift my gaze toward the Watchers. “What do you want?” I croak at them, loss crushing me, my shoulders bowing under the weight of it.Lukas. Yvan. So many innocents in Voloi...

Outrage sparks, rising up in a fiery riptide. “Do you know what you’ve just done?” I hurl out.

They don’t budge. They simply sit there, being their unforgivably pristine, otherworldly selves.

“Why are you here?!” I rage. “To keep me linked to my power?Why?So Vogel can destroy everything?”

Nothing. No movement. No reaction. They remain still as fixed stars.

“What good are you?” I cry. “The Gardnerians are going towin! Everyone I love is going to die! One of the best men I’ve ever known just sacrificed hislife to save mine, to try to save usall, while you sit there watching and watching while evil takes over and you do absolutelynothing!” I try to rise, but my broken ankle buckles with pain. “Vogel’s going to destroy the world,” I lash out at them, my voice coarsening with tears. “And he’s going to do it with your image plastered all over everything. Because yourimageis stronger than you are!”

And then the Watchers blink out of sight and the darkness rushes in, which only stokes my despair higher.

“Go ahead!” I rage after them. “Disappear! It’s what you do best!”

“Elloren!”

Shock surges through me and I whip my head in the direction of Ariel’s voice, blinking away tears as I squint into the darkness. Her bootsteps sound, rustling through the brush, and the sheer impossibility of the situation strikes me.

She’s survived. And now, after everything she’s been through...after everything I put her through in Verpacia...she’s doggedly coming back to help me.

The desperate thought lights—Maybe she’s right.Maybe prophecies should be fought and subverted rather than numbly accepted. No matter the odds. Lukas never stopped fighting. Neither did Yvan. And then there’s Ariel, who, in spite of everything, rises again and again.

“Ariel!” I cry out to her. “I’m here!”

More rustling in the woods. And then...an unnaturally large amount of rustling, coming not only from Ariel’s direction, but from both sides of her, as well.

Ariel snarls. Ravens caw. The sounds of struggle crackle in the brush, and a loudthumpreverberates before ravens explode from the trees in panicked flight. Then silence.

Fear jolts through me. “Ariel?” I call, my voice high-pitched with fear.

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