Page 42 of The First Trial
What I saw didn’t make much sense. A black cloud, like pollen congealing into an enormous airborne mass, settled over those who hadn’t moved fast enough. It dispersed as it made contact with someone, condensing into a stream that then poured itself into any available orifice it could find. Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, it was like they were sucking it inside themselves despite their frantic attempts to get away.
Black veins spread out from where it entered them, and even from here, I could see their eyes bleeding into black as they choked on it, gasping for air they could no longer receive. They fell to their knees and heaved, then convulsed on the ground and contorted into painful angles as the infection took over their bodies.
I didn’t need to see any more.
Still holding onto Enid’s hand, I yanked her with me as I sprinted as fast as I could, as far from the black smoke as possible. ‘Move, move, move!’I shouted, praying to the gods that those closest to me, Human or not, would catch on and fuckingrun.
A chilling shriek pierced through the air, followed by another, and then another. I didn’t turn to check if those who had been infected were giving chase. All that mattered was the next leap. The next breath. The distance we put between us and certain death.
I lost track of how long we ran. Whenever we felt ourselves begin to slow as exhaustion took hold, we muttered an emergency spell to replenish our energy to keep going. We couldn’t stop. It wasn’t an option. But we would run out of energy eventually.
The trees finally began to slow enough for us to catch up when the sun started to dip below the horizon. I should have felt waryabout entering as Enid and I wedged ourselves into their closed ranks, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel anything other than relief. The shrieking had long since softened to a mild resonance in the wind, and I would have rather been with Oz in whatever hell he was facing than go head-to-head with a malicious cloud again.
I wasn’t sure how happy I was that the trees didn’t bother us when we joined them. They behaved as if they didn’t even know we were here, though I didn’t entirely trust them. Their focus was on digging their roots deeper into the soil and getting comfortable. No vines or branches whipped out to drag us to wherever they had taken Oz and the others, and there was no sign of Juniper and the first group either, but we were safe for now beneath the multicoloured canopy, the equally bright trunks now stationary like any ordinary forest.
Exhaustion pulled at me, and I took the risk of sitting down with my back leaning against the particularly vibrant blue bark of a nearby trunk. We were deep enough inside their ranks that we could no longer see beyond into the vast plains we had just escaped, and though I knew it was a false sense of safety since we were still stuck in these damn trials, I felt a little better at having the added barrier of the trees between us and that smoke.
Enid practically fell into my lap as she collapsed beside me, leaning heavily against me. I wrapped my arms around her, seeking the comfort we both needed.
‘What are we going to do?’ she asked in a small voice.
I sighed tiredly through my nose. ‘Whatever we have to do to survive.’
And, because the Universe wasn’t quite done fucking with me yet, my muscles seized. I groaned in dismay as the telltale signs of an incoming vision took control of my body. My eyes rolled into the back of my head, and I ached as my muscles began to convulse, the reaction beyond my control. I felt Enid lower megently to the ground and whisper soothing words in my ear, and that was the last I felt or heard before the vision sucked me in.
For the third time, I was forced to endure the heart-shattering scene of Juniper being intimate with another man. At least this one wasn’t as inhuman as the others. There were no brightly coloured skin tones or rippling scales, but he certainly wasn’t Human either. In fact, this one was remarkably familiar, and it took a moment for the memory to resurface. He was one of the Fae that had been hypnotised alongside Juniper, one of the two that had walked out of the forest with her as they were pulled to the portal.
Long silvery hair that was falling out of its braids in the heat of their passion cascaded around their faces like a thin curtain blocking them off from the rest of the world. The tips of his pointed ears poked through that curtain that she reached up to tenderly caress his face. He seemed to like that, a deep, vibrating groan vibrating from his chest at her touch, and I wanted to hurl at the way his muscles bunched and sweat rolled down his pale skin as he entered her, his thrusts powerful and intentional.
She cried out, enjoying the rough way he fucked her and grabbed at him as she attempted to pull him closer. What hurt the most wasn’t even seeing her with another man. It was the way they looked at each other with so much awe and wonder, the love shining through so clearly as they came together.
I had wanted that with her for what seemed like my entire life. I could hardly remember a time when I hadn’t been in love with Juniper Olwyn, and now I had just been forced to watch her fall in love with three other men, and none of them were me.
As the vision dissipated around me, I caught sight of the other two in my periphery. Lilac and onyx watched over the couple lost in their passion. Which one would she choose?
It seemed an important question, like the fate of everything in existence depended on the answer. Why Juniper’s love life wasso imperative to our survival, I didn’t know. I just knew that her decision would make or break us all.
When I blinked away the last vestiges of the vision, my power sinking back beneath my skin, I was greeted by the sight of Enid looming above me. She had my head in her lap and was stroking my hair away from my face, a look of tender concern creating a deep V between her brows.
‘Hey, you. That was a rough one, huh?’ she spoke in a low voice, considerate of the wicked headache she knew I’d have as a result of the amount of power it took to receive a vision that potent.
I groaned, my entire body throbbing as I moved to sit up, ignoring the fact that my cock was a part of that, and willed it to go down. Enid helped, supporting my back and helping me scoot backwards until I was once again resting against the tree. Sweat stuck my shirt to my torso, chafing uncomfortably against my skin. My nipples pebbled through the material, scraping roughly against my shirt whenever I breathed.
‘Here,’ Enid said as she held out a large leaf filled with water.
‘Where did you get that?’ I asked her, my movements slow as I took it from her hands and lifted it to my mouth.
‘Believe it or not, the trees.’
I almost choked on the cool liquid at her words. ‘What?’
Her answering smile was one of disbelief as she gestured to where more leaves lay filled with water, fruits, nuts, and berries. ‘The trees noticed you having your vision, and they brought these.’
I glanced between her and the brimming leaves, then up to the tree I was resting against. Tentatively, I pressed a hand against a root that was poking from the ground and gave it a gentle pat. ‘Thank you.’
A branch suddenly descended from above, slowly reaching down to ruffle my hair, and then rose to rest facing the sky.
‘Holy shit,’ I gaped, and Enid giggled. It was a sweet sound that caused the cogs in my brain to start moving. It was a similar giggle to the woman I wanted, but it was familiar and comforting in its own way.
