Page 75 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part Two

I cracked a single eye open from where I was slumped over in my little plant cocoon. Katarina’s back was completely exposed to me. Leo had somehow managed to get a mouthful of her dress. It was the first significant physical contact any of them made. Leo had come through for me, just like I knew he would. I couldn’t do it without him.

“Do you have any idea how old this is? The designer isdead!” Katarina cried, her hands raised, no doubt ready to cast some sort of awfulness at the people I loved.

The bitch really should have made sure I was dead.

Drawing in a deep breath, I grabbed all the magic I possibly could within me, reaching deeper and further than I ever had before. I poured it out into the air around me. I let it flow like the very waterfall I’d passed on my climb up the tree, spilling over anything and everything it touched.

A host of sensations I couldn’t really understand flooded my every sense with its bubbling, popping, fizzing nature. But then I finally felt a connection. Something slow and ancient but resolute. Something eternal.

I had tapped into the tree’s life force.

I couldn’t quite describe how it felt to be connected to the wellspring of knowledge and power that resided inside the living wood around us. It had seen things. Terrible things. It had absorbed blood, magic, and tears. It wasn’t evil by nature, but it loathed what it had been turned into. It wanted peace.

A peace it could never get while Katarina Morgana was inside of it.

Letting my plants drop me down to the floor, I placed my palms on it and pressed my power through the marble. It was as if the tree and I were both inhabiting my body. Me, the one sentient enough to understand battle, and it being the one with the power to end the witch.

Focusing my mind’s eye, I watched as the marble floor cracked in two below the witch, and she dropped down into the hole. She let out a sharp shout of surprise, but before she could fly out of it, the opening sealed shut around her. I could feel her magic crackling against it, but the tree absorbed it, drinking it down like it had consumed so much of her poison throughout the years.

“What is this? What the hell have you done?”

She tried to pull one arm out, but the floor sucked her farther down, sealing her entire body until only her shoulders and head remained. I knew it was squeezing her and squeezing her, and by the time I reached her, she seemed to know she was beaten.

“You think you can end me so easily?” she asked, her eyes flashing malevolently. Her hair was mussed, her face was covered with a thin sheen of sweat, and a thin line of blood trickled down her forehead. It was the messiest I’d ever seen her, and I took no pride in it. What I was about to do would be violent. Merciless. But it needed to be done. Mercy was a luxury, and with people like Katarina Morgana, it wasn’t something we could afford.

The hatred in her expression only blazed more as the shifters behind me skidded to a stop.

“Disperge animas vestras o?—”

I knew a curse when I heard one, and yet again, I reacted before I could think. The vines burst back to life, shooting forward and around the witch before shoving their way into her mouth. It was an awful sight as more and more of them continued to push down. And down. And down. Katarina letout an awful, muffled scream before her face went gray and she stilled completely.

Had we done it? Had we really done it? Or was she playing dead?

Our answer came when her skin began to crack. It was like a fine spiderweb that spread out all across her face and neck until she crumbled into dust. The moment she did, magic surged out from where she had been, and although I didn’t know what changed, I could feel that something had.

“Vanessa!”

Suddenly, I was swept up in a crushing embrace, but I didn’t panic as my nose was filled with Leo’s familiar scent. He hugged me tightly before kissing me for all he was worth.

We were both breathless and filthy, but I didn’t give a damn. Finally, finally, we would have true peace.

Katarina’s entire bloodline was gone.

We were free.

“I thought you were dead,” Leo whispered before kissing me again. I melted into it, craving the affection I thought I’d never have again. “How did you even find me?”

I reached into what remained of his tattered pants and removed a thick seed I’d slid into it after Katarina’s offer, when I’d gotten a sense that he was going to play the noble hero. “Thousand-year squash seeds. I got them from a native preservation group. They’re unique enough that I was sure I’d be able to track it even through her magic. When I got lost, I asked the trees for directions.”

“Since when could you do that?”

I shrugged. Explaining how my powers worked was a bit like explaining breathing. “Since I decided I could.”

Leo shook his head, then laughed and kissed me again. God, I loved kissing him. Once we parted, I shoved his chest.

“You are never going to do anything like this again, do you understand me?”

He was clearly surprised at first, but then he grinned. “You got it.”

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