Page 138 of Blue Arrow Island
Several hours later, we’re searching as close to the Rising Tide camp as we’re willing to get when a snowflake lands on my cheek, immediately followed by one on my arm. I look up.
“Oh shit.”
This time, the dark cloud is inside the jungle instead of high in the sky. It’s a floating haze in the trees above us, heavy snow descending from it.
“Marcus,” I murmur, a sense of dread falling over me.
He stands beside me, his expression masked by thick sheets of enormous snowflakes.
“Virginia must be in a rage over losing those fours,” he says near my ear. “They’ll come on fast and hard.”
“I can’t see. How will I know if I’m fighting them or you?”
He’s silent as he considers. Then he shakes his head. “I don’t know what will happen if we split up. This cloud can follow our heat signatures, but I don’t know what it will do if there’s only one person to follow.”
“No splitting up. We stay together.”
My breath clouds in front of my face, thoughts of fighting a bunch of Tiders while I can’t see making my worry spiral. One-on-one, I could hold my own. But a dozen of them against the two of us, when none of us can see? I’ll be too worried about wounding Marcus by accident.
“I’m not doing so great with controlling my emotions,” I murmur.
“Don’t.”
I huff my annoyance. “I’m trying, but it’s h?—”
He cuts me off. “No, I mean don’t control them. Call out to the vines with your mind. If there’s a way to help you, they’ll find it.”
“But what about you? I don’t want them to hurt you.”
The faint sound of a woman’s sharp voice makes me reach for my knife. Virginia. A bullet is too quick and merciful for her.
“They’ll respond to your feelings,” Marcus says in my ear. “Don’t send out anger. Send fear. Ask for protection. Do it right now. I can’t see and I don’t want to hurt you.”
He presses a quick, firm kiss to my temple. It’s the first time I’ve heard worry in his voice. I wrap my arms around myself and close my eyes, the giant icy flakes on my skin and clothes making me cold even though I’m in a hot rainforest.
Help me. Protect me. Help me. Protect me.
I ignore the approaching voices, focusing only on sending the message out with my mind over and over.
The keening howl of a wolf sounds close by. A chill races through me and I feel a rumble in the ground beneath my feet.
“Watch yourself! They have guns!” a man yells.
I think it’s Pax. More voices follow, but they’re drowned out by a whooshing sound, vines arriving and whipping around my feet in a big circle.
Something zings past my head, missing it by just a few inches. I think it was a spear. I crouch, knife in my shaking hand, as the vines rapidly build a cocoon around me. It’s like a small igloo, the snowfall stopping once I’m fully encased in darkness.
For a few minutes, I can’t hear anything but the vines cutting through the air, more layers being added to my protective enclosure. Then it stops. Everything is muffled, but I think I hear the metallic clang of a knife hitting another one.
A man’s deep, primal cry sounds, and somehow, I know it’s Marcus. He sounds like hell itself, unleashed fury descending on anyone unfortunate enough to be within his reach.
There’s snarling. The clacking of an animal’s jaws. And voices. Long minutes pass as I listen to the fighting, helpless.
The thwack of something hard against my shell of vines makes me jump.
“The fuck?” a muted voice says, hitting it again.
There’s a squelching noise, followed by a thud that I think is the drop of a body.
