Page 77 of Curse of Thorns
Rev
Iwatch in horror asthe disheveled Caelynn is swallowed by the very tree that tried to take me. I can’t figure out what’s real and what’s not.
She seems so real. And if... if this place is the forest of desires, meant to tempt you with all the things you want most in order to lure you to your death—why would it be showing her dying? Why would her agonized screams be so life like?
And why would she have helped me escape?
Is it a trick? If I try to help her...
The wraith I’d seen earlier barrels into the forest toward her, its echoing screams rumbling, shaking the ground. He blasts magic into the tree, and Caelynn’s body drops like a rock.
“Shit!” he groans, fighting with more vines that have already begun wrapping around her fallen body. She’s unconscious. “Help me!” the wraith calls. “I can’t move her!”
I cannot figure this out. Why would Caelynn be here? And why would a wraith care about her death?
I shake my head and make a snap decision. I go with my gut, and I rush into the deadly forest to help someone who very well may be a demon in disguise.
At best, it’s a fae who ripped my heart to shreds. Who I’m supposed to hate. But what I’m supposed to feel and what I really feel are nowhere near the same.
The wraith blasts away the vines covering her, and I grab her limp body, groaning with the effort it takes to throw her over my shoulder.
She’s bleeding from a wound in her back. It drips down my shoulder, warming me. My stomach turns, leaving me nauseous.
The wraith continues throwing his magic at the trees surrounding us, carving out a pathway for me to reach the opening.
I drop Caelynn’s limp body onto the ground and gasp in breaths. “What the hell?”
“Don’t just leave her there, foolish lumi. Pick her up.”
“You’re rather demanding.”
“You nearly got her killed and ruined my chances of freedom, so pardon me if I’m not all roses and sunshine at the moment.”
“Isn’t she already doomed just by being here?” I say under my breath. My stomach sinks as that reality sinks in. I stare at the soft lines of her face.
Caelynn is really here. And she’s never going to leave.
“Indeed. But there is hope yet, princeling.”
I roll my eyes but gently lift Caelynn into my arms. One arm cradling her head and another under her legs.
“That’s right, come on, kid.”
“If you’re going to chat incessantly, you might as well tell me what the hell is happening? Why is she here? Is she even real? And why are you helping us?”
“Her. I am helping her; there is no us as far as I’m concerned.”
I narrow my eyes. Don’t trust the wraith. Got it. Not that I’d intended to trust him.
“However, to my displeasure, I require your assistance. So, consider yourself on my team. For now.” He continues grumbling about the stupidity of living folk.
I’m already exhausted from my trip through the swamp and the forest, so carrying a dead weight fae—even one as slight as Caelynn—is not particularly easy. I walk slowly through the forest with some random wraith grumbling pathetically in my wake.
I am careful with each step, knowing any moment I step off the narrow pathway, I am within reach of the trees—or whatever they actually are. Those white-barked trees are exponentially creepier now that I’ve seen what they can do, how their hands claw at you like human limbs. I shiver.
In the shadows between the trees, there is a slideshow of memories. I blink and turn away as my attention catches on an entirely naked Caelynn standing right at the edge of the forest.
