Page 126 of Wings of Lies
“The energy around us.”
We slowly walked, not going far but wandering around the giant beasts. My fingers grazed the rough bark. “No, but I can feel it in the trees.”
“It’s in the air too.”
I stopped. “I can’t feel it.”
He shrugged. “Well, I can, and I’ll tell you no insect or animal with enough survival instincts would come near here. I wasn’t joking when I said this place was said to be enchanted. Weird stuff happens here.”
“Does this weird forest graveyard have a name?”
“The Forest of Damatha.” He gestured wide and spoke dramatically. “It’s an old word for weeping. The Forest of Weeping, fitting for a graveyard.”
It was almost too perfect of a name. “So, we aren’t in Drune Forest anymore?”
Oliver side-eyed me. “They connect, but no, which is a good thing. You don’t want to mess with those Drunes.” He shuddered. “Blood-sucking beasts.”
Reaching my hand up to my ear, I touched the spot where the Drune sucked. Even if I lost some of my power, it was worth it. Partially. I escaped but still didn’t have any information on my mom. My mood soured.
With each step, I bounced between thoughts of my mom, the king, and the dead angels beneath the moist ground, especially when flowers moved without cause. After the third time, I showed Oliver, but he just shrugged.
“So…can you get those cuffs off, or will I have to suffer through the sounds of a jail yard for the foreseeable future?”
I shot him a glare. “The king said they can’t come off without the key.”
“Super.”
A seed of guilt grew within my annoyance at his attitude. But I shouldn’t feel any guilt. I didn’t have the key.
“You do know if we are going to try to evade Aspen, we need to muffle those. I might dislike him a whole lot, but he isn’t some stupid brute. He’s trained to track, among other things. She made him into the perfect weapon.”
True. Plus, with how fast he melted the ice last time, we needed to move faster.
“I don’t have anything to muffle them.”
“Have you tried to burn them off?” he asked.
“I can’t. They block my angelic powers, so save transforming into a monster for someone else.” I couldn’t try my black Infernus flames yet with how little energy I had left. Not that I thought it would work. The king was right about the tampering and everything else, so I doubted anything would unlock them but Aspen’s key.
He raised a brow. “I don’t transform into a monster.”
“But when we camped?—”
“That’s not my power. It’s much worse than that,” he said.
“Then what is it?”
Oliver paused, staring into the darkening forest as the sun we couldn’t see lowered. “It’s fear.” He met my questioning gaze. “I can sense it and invade anyone’s mind and pry out their worst fears. Or any fears. It depends on how far I go in. The farther I dive, the more power I use to dredge them up. Surface-level fears are easier to manipulate, and I don’t have to touch someone to use them.”
“The monster was one of my surface-level fears?”
He nodded.
“Why are you so reluctant to talk about it?”
He let out a breath, running a hand through his hair. “Because I hate it. The surface-level ones are easier. But my power isn’t some pretty walk in the park. No, I have to suffer through nightmares topull it to the surface and scare the living shit out of them. Sometimes, even break them. I have to see the horrors in their minds.” From the little light left, I watched the blood seep from his cheeks. “I’ve seen unimaginable things that still haunt my thoughts.”
If my surface-level fear could demolish a tree, I couldn’t imagine the damage a deeper fear could create.
