Page 65 of Witch Unbound
I shoved hair out of my eyes and stared at my friend suspended in mid-air by black, twisted tree branches. They were wrapped around her limbs like ivy, as if they’d reached out to grab her before she could peer over the forest canopy.
“No, no, no….” Wren shook his head vehemently. “Bad things, bad things will come.”
Bramble bucked and twisted. “Fuckin gerroff!” Blood bloomed at her wrist and she let out a squeal of pain.
The branches were tightening. “Don’t struggle. The more you struggle, the tighter they’ll hold you.”
God, this was insane.
Bramble stopped fighting the fauna. “Get me out of this. Fuck, it hurts.”
I locked gazes with her, momentarily struck by helplessness.
“Cora…” She glared at me. “No. Don’t freeze up on me. Get me out.”
My heart thundered, body flooding with the need to do something.
Think.
My power! It worked here.
My hands lit up.
“Yes!” Bramble said.
“Do it,” Lauris demanded.
I blasted the branches, expecting them to sizzle and char, but my power bounced off the wood ineffectively, killing the spark of triumph in my chest. “Dammit!”
“The trees must be immune to your power,” Rune said.
Okay, what else did we have?
The potion bombs! We had a spell to slow time and explosive potions. Slowing time wouldn’t help here, and the explosive potions risked hurting Bramble. Crap.
There had to be a way to get her free of the branches.
“Cora… It hurts.”
Her voice sounded small and vulnerable now, nothing like the kickass pixie I’d become accustomed to. The pain must be getting worse.
“We need to get her down.” Lauris paced beneath her. “Bramble, hold on.”
A soft sob drifted down to us along with more drops of blood. Was it tightening around her? My pulse beat erratically as I scoured my mind for a solution.
Fire. We needed basic fire. “Lauris, do we have a way to make fire in that pack?”
He shrugged the bag off his shoulder and rummaged quickly through it, coming up with a box of matches. “Yes!”
“But how the hell are we going to get up to her to burn away the branches?” Rune asked.
I scanned the branches holding her above us and followed them back to the trees they belonged to. “We won’t need to. Rune, help me gather some kindling. Lauris, get ready to catch her.” I looked up at Bramble. “I’ve got this, babe. I’m gonna get you down.”
“I trust you. Just do it. Whatever, just, fuuuck…”
“Shit.” Lauris wiped blood off his face. Bramble’s blood. “Hurry up!”
My gut twisted. We were running out of time. I scrambled to gather twigs and dried leaves, and two minutes later we had a small campfire burning right up against one of the trees assaulting my friend. The fire flared to life and began to lap at the tree trunk.
