Page 35 of Messenger of Death
“Uh, sure buddy.”
We finally stepped through the portal. We were able to direct Morgana to close to the place we found Lola and started walking. Sage said the animals wouldn’t go near her, but the fauna would have seen who did it and I could get them to talk to me now.
Except I couldfeelwhen we got close to the scene because the fauna wasscreaming.And I was the only one who could hear it. I took off at a run and when I came to the clearing, the grass was all black. If the plants weren’t already dead, they were dying. There were ancient trees that looked like they were struggling with rot.
I threw back my head and howled. These weremine.I’d only learned the basics of talking to plants to find out what they needed. We hadn’t gotten to the part of my fairy classes where I actually learned how to heal anything.
Whoever was doing this wasn’t just hurting other people. They were hurtingme.Those trees wereme.The plants and grasses wereme.I felt something just explode out of me.
My friends went flying back, and I passed out.
Wow. Liam not only got pissed and healed this entire clearing, it was now overflowing with native flowers. When I could stand again, I rushed over to him because he was crumpled on his back. Most of the vines and flowers were reaching for him. I brushed his black hair off his forehead and his eyes fluttered open. Those stunning blue eyes stared up at me.
“Pretend I’m Snow White and still sleeping and kiss me?”
“That’s cheating,” I said, pressing my lips to his.
Liam took that opportunity to yank me on top of him and kiss my breath away. I had to drag myself away from his lips because we technically had a job to do.
“No one said I fight fair,” Liam smirked. “Holy fuck, did I do all this?”
“Yeah, you kind of exploded,” Khalid said.
“That’s grand. The trees were screaming in pain.”
“What do they say now?” Lucian asked.
“That something has come back who can destroy everything if we don’t kill it first. I know why I got reincarnated. This planet has had several extinction events, but nature always finds a way. It might not be able to this time. If this is what destroyed Fairy, then not even fairies could stop it from making their planet inhospitable and a lot of them can talk to and heal nature.”
Well, fuck. I didn’t speak tree, but could they be a little more helpful than that? Lucian got it.
“Did your tree friends happen to see what happened and describe a suspect?” Lucian asked.
“I keep kicking you in the kidneys to see if there are any soft parts to that prickly exterior. The trees weretraumatized.They were attacked. Just because they weren’t covered in blood doesn’t mean they didn’t go through shite. And they already told me the reason they didn’t see anything is the same reason they were dying.”
“Explain,” Khalid said.
“They said the little predator came into the clearing and then everything went pitch black. It was some kind of blackness that seeped into their roots and infected them. They sensed another predator come into the clearing and then blood soaked the ground. They were disoriented and feeling sick, but theydidtry to see who did it. They were gone before it was clear enough to see anything. All that was left was the broken predator bleeding on the ground.”
Fuck. So, this Forsaken One had some weird darkness power that not only obscured them while they were working, it made dragons powerless, and it poisoned any flora in the area.
“They’d have to beawakeawake,” Morgana said. “Portalling is tricky. They don’t teach us that until we’re upper classmen. Some people don’t listen and try to figure it out on their own. I already knew the basics because I went to a supernatural high school. Some of us just unlock our magic, but others remembereverything.They remember their original lives and how to use their magic. It’s justreallyrare.
“The only way someone could have hurt the trees and completely disappeared without any of the other trees knowing would be if they opened a portal. The trees are all connected so they would have followed them back to their team so they could warn anyone who came asking. They are all aware the Horned God is back, but fairies talk to them, too.”
“Well, that complicates things,” Lucian said. “It means someone could have come to our quadrant, hurt Lola, and portalled back and if they left their phone, I couldn’t tell you they were there. If this darkness kills plants, then it would explain why Lola’s GPS stopped tracking. It messes with electronics.”
Well, fuck. We were back to square one. Liam stood up and brushed himself off.
“We need to check where Star and Erica went missing and then go where Kira died because the plants there might need my help.”
No one was talking about Erica. I’d only met her that once, but Radames and Mazen didn’t seem all that concerned about her when she had been on their team.
That felt important.
We decided to figure out where Erica went missing next because it felt likesomeoneshould. Lucian wasgood.He had already found Erica’s phone and where it went offline. Except when we got to the spot, someone was already there. The plants looked sick like where Lola was hurt, but Mazen was there pacing and ranting to himself.
He looked and sounded deranged. I knew what Sage said, and I trusted her instincts, but it looked like Mazen had already gone over to the dark side.
