Page 78 of The Tree of Spirits
“Someone get a bucket. She looks like she’s going to hurl,” Cedar’s voice cut through the abyss.
“Not helping,” I mumbled, then quickly covered my mouth with both hands.
“Here, drink this.”
I blinked, forcing my eyes to focus. Conner was holding out a tiny bottle made of bright blue glass.
“What is it? Magic in a bottle?” I attempted a smile, but it didn’t really work.
“No, there’s no such thing as free magic,” he replied, his smile a far greater success story than mine. “It always comes with a price. It’s just a question of who has to pay it.”
He put his arm around my back, helping me sit up a little. “This is just something to make everything stop spinning,” he said, lifting the bottle to my lips.
I gripped the bottle eagerly, and our fingers touched. “I’m all for that.”
I drank it down in one go. It tasted like strawberries. And felt cool and comforting going down my throat. That soothing coolness spread across my whole body, melting my muscles. I hugged the pillow, closed my eyes, and fell fast asleep.
CHAPTER 6
FOREST OF DREAMS
Idreamt of crazy, impossible things. I was walking through a forest of dead trees. Poison lightning, green and putrid, dripped from the dry branches.
I had to get somewhere. I had to get there now. To the conference center! I had to save my friends!
I started running. But the forest was dense. And I kept getting zapped by the liquid lightning. It filled the puddles on the ground. I ran faster, trying to pick up enough speed to hop over them.
Something exploded, knocking me down. I staggered to my feet, dizzy and disoriented. The trees had turned into boxes. And they were exploding, sending tremors into the ground, such powerful tremors that I almost lost my footing again.
The last explosion went off, but there was still one box left. I moved toward it.
“Careful,” Rane said, setting her hand on my shoulder. “It could be dangerous.”
I moved forward cautiously, reaching for the box, daring to open it.
I found a set of black armor inside. “I know this armor,” I mumbled.
Then, suddenly, there were three people in front of me: the fiends who’d kidnapped the Apprentices. The Templars. I tried to see their faces, but they were blurry.
They’d stolen the box of armor. They were carrying it away. Off to the conference center.
I tried to run after them, but a big truck swerved in front of me, cutting me off. I couldn’t get through. The loopy, cursive text on the side of the truck read:Intelli-move, the intelligent way to move.
“You have to move the truck,” I told the Elves loading up chunks of dead tree into the back. “They’re getting away!”
Isidora stood in front of me, tall and proud, her long bell sleeves folded regally in front of her. “We can’t do that. We have a job to do.”
Rane tugged on my arm, pulling me back. “Let them work, Savannah. I’m lucky they had a cancellation so they could come today. They have to move the treenow. I don’t want my family to get evicted from the Emporium because our dead tree dropped a branch on Prince Fenris’s head.”
“But the fiends are getting away!” I pulled against her hold. “They’re going to kidnap my friends!”
“You should have booked my services.” Raytan was here now too. He wore a t-shirt that read:Big Muscles Move Big Things. “My company doesn’t block the road with our trucks.”
“That’s because you don’t have any trucks anymore!” Isidora laughed.
Raytan glowered at her. “And whose fault is that?”
“Mine.” Xael stepped between them.
