Page 45 of Ozma

“Ignore him,” Jack said.

She focused back on Jack, his hands on the oars, the boat bobbing against the silver water.

Closing her eyes for a moment, she thought of the dark place, the beasts she and Reva had escaped from. Although there had never been as many creatures as this, the beasts there were much faster, their movements unpredictable.

A splash came from near the shore, drawing her gaze straight ahead to two female humans with matted hair hobbling into the water. Ozma placed her hand on the dagger at her hip, but the humans didn’t swim. They continued to walk forward, hissing, until their bodies, inch by inch, were taken by the water.

She waited for them to rise to the surface. But they didn’t. Not until moments later when their unmoving bodies floated to the top of the swells.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Jack said, one orange brow lifted.

Ozma’s heart thudded rapidly. They couldn’t continue sitting in this boat with Tik-Tok gloating down at them. And if they lingered near the ship too long, would he hunt them down himself?

The vines on the island gave her an idea. She clasped her hand around Jack’s arm. “Can you use your magic from here?” He’d been able to do it in the cave, but the vines there had been much closer than these.

Jack thrust a hand forward and twisted it to the side, his teeth clenching. His fingers tightened and loosened, then he shook his head. “No. We’re not close enough for me to feel the life in them.”

The swarm of corrupted humans and fae opened their mouths wide, hissing, baring their teeth. Their skin was peeling away in areas, revealing inky black muscles.Rotting. They were alive but decaying. Another idea came to Ozma, one that would hopefully work. Besides, it was her turn to save Jack.

Standing from the wooden seat, she faced Jack. “I want you to row to shore. Let me distract them.”

“Oh no, you don’t.” Jack reached for her, but it was too late.

She jumped into the warm water, then kicked her legs and pumped her arms, swimming beneath the waves. The sea seemed to caress her flesh, as though it were trying to lure her into staying below the surface.

Silently, she said Jack’s name over and over inside her head to not give in to the temptation to turn back. Cutting through the liquid with long motions, Ozma stayed underwater. She would do it for as long as she could before needing air. This was as familiar to her as walking or sleeping. She’d done it at the lake by the pumpkin patch and beneath the eerie waters of the dark place.

Below her, purple and blue striped eels laced through one another. But she couldn’t see anything much farther than that—the water wasn’t clear enough because of the silver tint and the glittery sheen.

A slow burn started to develop in her lungs. She would need air soon, but she held on a little longer, stroking harder, faster, before finally rising to the surface. As her head broke through the swells, she gulped in as much air as she could. Her gaze darted to the shore, so very near.

The fae hadn’t seen her—all their focus was on Jack, who was rowing and glaring at her at the same time. She smiled and shrugged, because he would see her purpose soon enough.

Ozma cut across the water, until she could touch the ground, then ran the rest of the way, her bare feet finally striking dry sand. Her body was soaking wet, her dress heavy, as she drew the blade from her hip. “Over here!” she shouted.

All eyes turned to her in sync. Ozma bounced on the sand, waving her hands in the air. “That’s right! Come on!” As soon as the swarm started toward her, she jolted for the trees. Two fae, with black gore dripping from their lips, pushed out from the forest before she could get to her destination. As they growled, their bodies swaying, Ozma lifted her dagger and drove it through the male’s chest, then the female’s heart. Dark red blood oozed from the wounds as the two fae slumped to the ground with a thump.

A human crawling near Ozma’s leg snapped her blackened teeth, and she drew a blade across the female’s throat. There’d be no saving any of these humans. Whatever Mombi did to them was too dark to bring them back. Unintelligible noises escaped the human’s lips as Ozma lunged for a tree, striking it with her foot to give her leverage. Her arms easily caught the branch above, just as another fae swiped at her legs and missed.

Swinging herself up, Ozma folded her legs around the branch and quickly scanned the area for Jack. The boat stood empty at the edge of the water, but then she spotted him farther away, moving toward her with both his hands raised, shaking, like using his magic was too much.

The swarm must have heard his footsteps because they stopped batting their hands at the air below her branch. Slowly, they turned to face him, hissing, their jaws unclamping.

Ozma was about to leap from the tree, when a white thorn-covered vine shot forward, piercing a fae through the eye, spraying blood. It drove out the back of his head and struck two more behind him. Then two more behind them. More vines came, snaking and curving around the remaining fae and humans. The vines snapped and cracked, and with one fluid motion, they pulled tight, cutting all the bodies in two through their middles.

Jack continued to slash his shaking hands in the air, making the vines whip, then slicing the heads clean off another group. Blood splashed across the sand until all that was left were torn bodies.

In the distance, growling reverberated within the trees.More… And they would be heading this way. This time it sounded like too many.

“I think we need to go.” Jack ran toward her, his curls damp with sweat. “My magic is still too new, and I don’t know how much longer it will last.”

“Let’s hurry.” Grabbing a twisted branch above her, she swung across it to another and another, then let her feet hit the ground a bit farther into the forest. She wiped the blood on her arm, from her kills, against her dress.

Jack was already beside her, brow arched. “I like how you move.”

She grasped him by the tunic and yanked him forward.

As they hurried past trees, stepping over fields of black mushrooms with lavender spots, she still wondered if Tik-Tok and the others from the ship would come after them.

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