Page 59 of Once the Skies Fade

As I crawled onto the branch, inching along on my belly, I noted the vines appearing behind me, slithering straight for my feet like two blind snakes.

What the fuck had I gotten myself into?

Connor was going to owe me multiple bottles of that damned brandy when I made it home.

I managed to reach the vines that held Oryn hostage—pulled taut under the weight of his now-still body—and with one quick movement sliced through all of them. Waiting only long enough to ensure no new vines caught him, I swung my legs over the side of the branch just as the vines reached my heels. I smirked as if they could see me and dropped to the ground beside Oryn.

My friend’s coloring was slowly returning to normal, his lips no longer that ghostly blue. His eyelids fluttered but didn’t open as I shouted his name. “Oryn! Oryn, you need to wake up. We need to keep moving.” I slapped him on the cheek in an effort to rouse him.

Without warning something clamped down on my ankle and pulled.

“Fuck,” I barked as one of the stars-damned vines started to drag me away. Twisting around onto my back, I hauled myself up to sitting and slashed through the vine with my dagger. At least General Isa had supplied us with good weapons. That did little good for me here, though, because no sooner had I freed myself from that one, than another latched onto my wrist. It yanked me toward the tree, spinning me around on my backside so that I now faced Oryn, who still appeared only semi-conscious. The forest appeared to be leaving him alone—for now, at least.

But I was on my own.

The vine squeezed my arm until I dropped my weapon, though I managed to draw my second dagger from my belt even as the possessed plant continued to pull me along the ground. Grimacing from the vine’s grip, I twisted my wrist until my hand could grab the vine, and then, with one burst of energy, I hauled myself up closer to it so my other hand could cut me free.

Immediately I tucked the blade back into my belt.

“There!” I shouted at the forest around labored breaths. “I’m unarmed. Not a threat. You can leave me the fuck alone now.”

Surprisingly, it seemed to work—well enough, anyway—even when I reached down to retrieve my other dagger I’d dropped. The vines still crept toward me from multiple directions, but they kept their distance as I rose to my feet and backed away to check on Oryn. His eyes were fully open now, but he didn’t seem at all aware of where he was.

“You okay?” I asked, though he was obviously not.

He slowly looked my way, his features relaxing when reality dawned on him.

“What in the fuck is wrong with these woods?” He choked out the question in a hoarse whisper.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” I asked, surveying the surrounding woods and noting how the vines and branches and ferns—every living piece of this forest—all seemed to be watching us, waiting for us to make a wrong move.

Oryn scoffed, and his voice came out a strained croak. “If you find possessed flora intriguing, I suppose.”

Offering my outstretched hand to help him up, I laughed. “We can discuss its merits once we survive this, but if we’re going to do that, we need to keep moving. Think you can walk?”

He nodded as he slowly pushed himself to stand, stumbling a bit and muttering his gratitude when I steadied him.

“I dropped my blades somewhere around here when that demon plant grabbed me,” he said, searching the ground.

I joined him in his hunt for the blade, all the while keeping my eye on the encroaching forest.

“Aha, here’s one at least,” he finally said a few minutes later, pulling a blade out of the leaves and wiping the dirt off on his pants.

“Make sure you keep it sheathed unless you absolutely need it. This forest doesn’t seem fond of weapons.”

“It doesn’t seem fond of anything.” He slipped his dagger into his belt and gave it a couple taps with his hand. “So where to now?”

“Wander aimlessly until sunset?” I suggested.

“And hope we come across two medallions?”

I pulled my mouth into a casual frown as I bobbed my head in affirmation. “Would have been nice if they’d given us some clue as to where to find them. Even hidden in plain sight, it could take us forever to find one of the twelve, let alone two of them.”

“Should we split up?” Oryn asked, stepping over a fallen log and eying it suspiciously as if expecting it to try and eat his foot. “We could cover more ground that way.”

“Perhaps,” I said, continuing to trudge on. “But what if you get in a mess again?”

“What ifyouget in a mess? They’re after you just as much as they are me,” he argued, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

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