Page 41 of The First Trial
‘I have an Affinity for Earth. I just used my magic to scan our surroundings to determine which direction to take,’ she told me.
‘An Earth Bender?’ I asked in astonishment, suddenly realising it was she who had created the net of vines to catch those of us who had been tossed into the pit by the sentient trees. Those who wielded the elements were rare among Daemons, and I was even more impressed with my little mate. She was strong and she was capable. I was a lucky man.
‘If that’s what you want to call it, sure. What about you? I’m not really that familiar with Daemon lore, and I don’t know how much of it I’ve learned is actually true.’
I hesitated, my earlier decision springing to the forefront of my mind. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her the truth, but my reasons behind withholding that particular piece of information remained, and so I deflected.
‘I am from the House of Greed,’ I told her instead.
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means different things for different Daemons, but for me it means that I… horde things. Books, mostly. Knowledge.’ I almost said ‘you’ but bit my tongue at the last moment. I didn’t want to come off too strong and scare her off. Well, I didn’t want to come off any stronger than I already had. I had the feeling that her kind didn’t go around sleeping with strangers within moments of meeting very often, if the reaction of Oz and their friends was anything to go by. From the little interaction I’d had with Humans so far, Juniper seemed a lot more carefree than the others. Significantly so. Except maybe for that Human female who was bothering her before she came to bother Oz, buther intentions had been blatantly distasteful. There was no real comparison.
Juniper surprised me when she halted suddenly, tilting her head as if listening for something. I did the same, straining my ears to hear what had caught her attention, but there was nothing. Then she walked over to the wall and placed her palms against it, a wistful sigh leaving her luscious lips before she kept on walking like nothing had happened.
I debated asking her what that was about, but I somehow knew I wouldn’t get an answer. My Juniper was brimming with secrets and mysteries, but I was looking forward to uncovering them all.
Chapter 15
Hawthorne
Ididn’t dare move. Enid’s hand gripped mine to the point of pain as we lay as still as possible and tried not to breathe. I listened, waiting for more sounds of the trees attacking, but there was nothing but silence. Silence and the roaring of my blood thundering through my ears.
‘Thorne,’ Enid’s shaky voice cut through the quiet, and I startled. ‘Thorne, I think it’s over now.’
Well, there was only one way to be sure, and if we were taken, then at least we’d be with Oz again.
Slowly, carefully, I sat upright. Soil and long, torn blades of grass fell from my body like they were a rockslide and I was a mountain, the noise soft in reality but echoed loudly to my own ears. I winced, my heart rate increasing as another round of adrenaline coursed through my veins, and I had to work extra hard to keep the volume of my shallow breaths from drawing any attention.
My gut twisted with dread in that way I knew was a physical manifestation of my Clairvoyance, but my power was telling me that the trees weren’t a threat any longer. No, something more terrifying was coming, and we needed to get ahead of it before it had the chance to catch up to us.
‘Get up,’ I ordered Enid in a firm tone that brooked no argument.
‘What is it?’ she asked, obediently following my commands. She knew well enough that when I started throwing out orders, it was best to just do it and ask questions later.
‘Something’s coming.’
‘More killer trees?’
‘No. Something else. We need to move.’
‘What about the others?’ she asked, grief colouring her tone. I could sense that Oz was still alive, and I said as much to assuage her fears, but he was on his own now. Or not, if that purple guy truly had his back. I hoped so, but right now we had to focus on ourselves.
‘Come on. We have to go.Now,’I urged restlessly. We were running out of time.
I helped haul her up the rest of the way to standing and held onto her hand as we sprinted across the meadow. My steps faltered when I finally took in our surroundings and how much had changed. All the trees were gone, the meadow now an open field of haphazardly tossed soil as the shadow of the trees moved off into the distance.
Magic twisted in my gut again as I ran in the opposite direction, but my gut screamed at me again, and I stopped with a groan. ‘You’re not going to like this, Enid.’
‘Like what? Just tell me.’
‘We need to follow the trees.’
She cursed. Loudly. It roused the few others that had escaped the roots’ clutches, and heads popped out of the ground like the Hun army after the avalanche inMulan, mounds of dust and dirt cascading from their heads as they emerged. There weren’t many, perhaps a dozen or so of various races, but I didn’t stick around to count.
Enid and I took off in the direction my Affinity was leading me, ditching those who didn’t follow but not stopping those who did.
A scream echoed behind us that was quickly cut off with a garbled, strangled noise like someone was choking. I didn’t want to look, but I couldn’t stop Enid from turning to glance over her shoulder. She stumbled, a whimper catching in her throat atwhatever it was she saw, and I couldn’t help myself. I needed to know what the new threat was that we were facing.
