Page 56 of The Cursed Crown

The sky darkened, clouds gathering overhead, blocking the sunlight. She wasn't ordering that. If it was the price for her magic, she was more than willing to pay it.

Behind the warriors, the forest trembled, as if by a stampede. Vines, roots, and branches shot out straight. The five men started to run. She grinned at them, showing teeth. Oh, it was far too late for that. She watched as their bones were crushed and twisted, savoring each scream, each crack.

Then there was nothing but silence. Roots and branches and vines curved back where they belonged. She was left with nothing. Emptiness. Guilt.

She liked Khal. He was fun, loyal, protective, and funny, although his sense of humor had mostly been focused on aggravating Teoran. And now he was gone. Nothing, no amount of blood could fill that void.

"He was a good man," Teoran said.

"You hated him," Rissa retorted, spitting the accusation. "You hated him because he was unseelie. How stupid is that? Rydekar was right. We're weak and blind and stupid because we're divided by nonsense. He was good, and you hated him for no reason!" She wanted to yell, but she couldn't manage more than a whisper.

Too shocked to move, too guilty to let herself feel anything else—even sorrow—she remained on her knees and let herself cry.

Teoran placed a hand on her shoulder, attempting no other words. Good thing too; she would have jumped at his throat given half a chance. Anger was easier than this. Anything was easier than the loss of something that she didn't quite understand. Khal felt like he'd been part of her; part of a life she'd never get the chance to live now.

"I didn't hate him. I envied him."

Rissa would have called bullshit if she had the strength.

"Like me, he's a youngest son, yet he was valued by everyone. Wherever he went, people respected him at first glance. He was a candle in the dark—someone we naturally gravitate to. Khal was beautiful in and—"

"Don't be shy. Keep going. Maybe throw me a rope first, though?"

Shock jolted her upright, and she advanced so fast she almost fell through the gap.

A single root twisted around his middle,Khal was climbing up the smooth surface of the rift as best he could.

"You arse! Didn't it occur to you to, oh, I don't know, let us know you were alive!" Teoran screeched.

Rissa seconded the sentiment, but she was too busy laughing to formulate any word.

"I tried. You guys seemed too busy screaming and everything."

"Come up here. I'm going to strangle you. You hear? Strangle you!"

Rissa called to the branches again. She'd never done so before in her life, but it came naturally to her now. They stretched out from their side of the rift, curling around Khal to lift him up to their level.

"Just so you know, this is creepy," he said when he reached them.

Rissa jumped into his arm, stuffing her wet face against his chest.

"Oh, all right. We're hugging now." He grimaced. "Can you try not to mention that to Rydekar?"

"How did you hang on?" Teoran questioned.

"I didn't," he admitted, pointing to the branch still twisting around him. "This just caught me. It's stronger than it looks."

The branch wasn't hanging on to anything at all. Inspecting it, Rissa would have sworn it was familiar. Too thin for a bigger tree, it seemed to belong to a briar of sorts, maybe roses.

As she watched it, the vine-like branch untwisted itself, and crawled along Khal's torso, reaching Rissa, although she stepped back. It glided along her hand, then snaked inside her skin, inserting itself painlessly in her veins like it belonged there.

Which it did.

This thing was one of her branches, the ones that had slithered along her skin since the day she was born. They'd never left her before.

She kept watching at her empty end, stunned.

"Well, thank you for that, I guess."

---