Page 51 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part Two

I didn’t tell the plants to shred this time. Going for the kill would be an error. There was no way he wouldn’t find a way to stop them before they could eviscerate him. Instead, I channeled all my thoughts into binding him, wrapping him up until he couldn’t move. Would he be able to get out? Certainly. But not before he was surrounded by shifters and unable to get his momentum back.

Hopefully, the other brother and his mini tornadoes didn’t interfere.

“What’s going on here?”Ricky said—at least, that was how I interpreted the howl from Ricky. That was certainly how it sounded as all the plants around us surged away from us and started growing again. I didn’t answer him, of course, as I didn’t actually know how accurate my translation was, but I did take off in the direction of the vines.

They moved like a snake and like a wave, leaves fluttering this way and that. The plants were faster than me, pushing aside or moving past combatants in much more agile ways than I could. Hopefully, Frederick couldn’t sense my interference and would be just as surprised as Ricky was by the sudden change in energy.

I felt them reach my target before I saw them, having thrown myself to the side to avoid a lightning strike that lanced down from the ceiling. It hadn’t been aiming for me, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying.

Once I righted myself, I decided it would be best to stick to the perimeter of the room. Hunching over, I moved as fast as I could until Frederick was in my sights.

He wasn’t floating for once, but he was red in the face as hundreds of plants wrapped around him tightly. My mind flashed to the gala. It had been horrific. Terrifying.

But this? This situation was entirely different.

“What are you doing? I said attack!”

Unfortunately, the plants I hadn’t sent were still entirely under his thrall. They surged up over the vines, wrapping down into them with the intent to tear.

That wouldn’t do at all.

Brow furrowing, I focused on that fizzing, sizzling magic within me and the plants I affected. I let it grow, bloom, even feed back on itself until it was spilling out of me again and across any plant it touched. Across other plants thatmyplants touched.

Wonder cascaded over me as I gained control over the new plants. It was a mass of organic wonder, and I told it all tosqueeze.

For one brief, blissful moment, I could feel Frederick’s bones creak under my control. Could it really be so easy? Was I really about to bring him down? It seemed like it would be even easier than Alric.

I probably should have known better.

Right when I really felt like I had the most solid grip on the brother, his head jerked to me, and his eyes went wide.

“It’s you! You’re doing this!”

Uh oh.

I didn’t reply. I needed to react as quickly as possible. I squeezed my fingers together, my nails biting into my palm as I imagined those plants crushing him with all their strength.

Maybe if Frederick had only been a plant manipulator like me, I would have bested him. Unfortunately, he was awarlock, and that meant he had a whole school of magic spells I would never even know about.

He sent out a burst of that magic, and a blinding, white-hot pain surged through the network of foliage. The next thing I knew, fire blasted out of him, reducing all the plants binding him to ash. It was hot enough that I threw out my arms to shield myself even from this distance. However, that distance shrank rapidly as he practically teleported over to me. He moved so fast through the battle that one moment I blinked and then he was a few feet away from me.

Shit.

I called upon all the plants around me, creating a defensive barrier between the two of us, but he raised his hands and flicked his fingers downward like he was swatting cobwebs out of the air, then all the plants settled to the ground.

“Itisyou!” The strangest thing was that he looked happy rather than upset. Actually, he looked downrightecstatic.Something definitely wasn’t right.

Was it a trick to disarm me? I didn’t want to take the chance. So, I ignored the broad smile that crossed his features and tried to wrestle back control of the plants. They stirred, shimmering with the same feeling inside me, but before I could issue any order, Frederick shook his head and snapped his fingers, and theplants ignored me again. Clearly, I was outclassed. Not exactly a surprise, but I had hoped that some of the shifters?—

As if they could hear my thoughts, a wolf leaped onto Frederick’s back while a coyote shifter went for his ankle. The warlock whirled, sending the wolf flying away, but that left enough of an opening for the coyote’s teeth to sink into his designer pants. Frederick let out an angry curse before waving his hand. A crackle of green light rippled through the air before the floor beneath the coyote suddenly turned to liquid and it began to sink in.

It didn’t take a genius or a battle strategist to figure out that he was going to make the floor solid again to crush the coyote, so I quickly reached for the plants that had slackened under his control and had them rip the coyote out of the mire, depositing him a few feet away. I tried to press, using the sudden slack in the warlock’s concentration, but I took too long to redirect them after helping the coyote. Frederick moved at an unnatural speed again, and then suddenly, he was in my face. His hot breath fanned across my skin, and every muscle in my body locked up.

Despite my repeat run-ins with the brothers, I’d never actually been so close to one of them. I could see the individual pores on his nose, could smell the sandalwood in his cologne. My heartbeat rushed in my ears as I wondered if I had inadvertently caused my own death.

He looked so thrilled to see me, his eyes traveling up and down my body—not in a lecherous way as that action would usually suggest, but as if he had been reunited with an old friend.

What the fuck was going on?

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