Page 1128 of One More Kiss

I could hear the plodding steps through the forest then, the heavy footfalls of several golems searching for Asa and me. If I could hear them, they were already too close. I didn’t have much of a choice but to make this deal.

“That claim isn’t going to do much for me if I’m dead, so yeah,” I said hastily as I searched the woods for what was likely a mini army of eight-foot-tall golem. “My family only gets to keep the house and what’s in it if I live. If I die, Beatrice will find a way to take it all. Do you really want to guess what she’ll do to your forest? Especially after she’s already tricked you once?”

Vita seemed to think about it for less than a nanosecond. “Deal. I will help you live in exchange to a claim on the forest. I will allow safe passage for you and yours, as well as provide spell ingredients and adhere to the boundary you set.” Vita’s eyes lit like balls of green fire as she gave me a chilling smile that turned all my hopeful feelings to dust. “We will work well together, daughter of Mercy.”

I fought the urge to audibly swallow, but I couldn’t talk over the growing lump in my throat. I really hoped I hadn’t just fucked up.

But I didn’t have too much time to worry—at least not on that. Five golems broke through the brush, their giant bodies moving at a slow run. The faceless things moved at a decent clip, getting closer and closer to us. Vita seemed to be doing nothing, letting the clay men close the gap unimpeded.

I whipped my head to Asa, and the rueful twist to his lips told me all I needed to know. She wasn’t going to help us. She was going to break her word. But he wasn’t giving up. Asa tightened his grip on his sword while yanking another from the scabbard at his back. In answer, I dug two potion bottles from my pouch which miraculously was not only full, but still on my body after being towed through the forest.

Before I could haul my arm back to let loose, the ground beneath us began to quake hard enough that I nearly dropped the red bottle.

What was red again?

The earth beneath our feet pitched and swayed as a crack opened wide in the middle of the clearing. As far as I knew, golems didn’t have a self-preservation button. They were essentially automatons with a programmed purpose. Like a Terminator without the fancy gadgets or all the metal. The fissure in the earth swallowed two immediately, while the other three kept coming, clinging to the side of the crevasse before clawing their way out again and finding their feet on the other side.

“Oh, so that’s how you want to play it?” Vita growled under her breath as her sharp teeth flashed in a sneering smile. “Fine.”

Vita lifted her arms in the air as the wind whipped through the forest I’d promised her. Trees bent and swayed, their branches moving more like arms and less like actual trees. I’d always thought trees as stationary beings until that second. I thought their roots actually meant something.

Boy, I was wrong.

A thick oak tree seemed to yank its roots up like feet and move, striding across the forest floor like a sentient being ready for war. A heavy branch struck the closest golem, sending it sailing through the air. Another branch pierced through a golem, skewering it like a shish kebab. The golem’s legs and arms waved and struck the tree, but it could do little against the towering oak.

Vines broke free from the ground, snaking like fingers up the legs of the last golem, tethering it to the forest floor.

“You are made of the earth. I will return you to it,” Vita whispered with a smile, her hands fists at her sides as her eyes glowed brighter and brighter.

The golem’s body seemed to freeze for a moment before it started to crumble like a too-dry sandcastle. Its head fell into itself, and the rest of its body collapsed to the earth in a pile of loose dirt. The vines twisted in and through the heap until even that was gone.

Note to self: do not cross Vita.

An enraged scream tore through the air before two balls of fire streaked through the trees. Before any of us could duck, Asa and Vita were slammed with what I could only assume was a spell from Beatrice herself. The spell knocked Vita off her feet, hurtling her back until she crashed into one of her trees, knocked unconscious, the fire petering out.

But the fire bloomed over Asa, his scream of agony piercing the air. He dropped, trying to smother the flames, but the spell was too strong. The incantation that popped into my brain was not one I’d learned in my lightning round of knowledge infusion. But I was no slouch in the Latin department and knew enough about Mercy’s spell work that blood was required. Diving for the sword Asa dropped, I sliced into my palm and focused my mind with my intent.

“Ut omnes irriget,” I hissed, praying I wasn’t wrong. To drench.

Water seemed to be pulled from the air itself, forming a raincloud over Asa’s smoldering body before it burst, raining on him and only him. Drenching the flames and his poor burned skin.

Beatrice staggered through the foliage not a second later, errant leaves snarled in her hair and dirt streaking her cheeks. Apparently, Vita had been doing a hell of a lot more than just standing there while Asa and I were doubting her.

Without much thought on my part, I took the potion bottle in my hand and lobbed it as hard as I could at Beatrice. Unfortunately, my aim, ability, and physical strength weren’t really up to the task. The bottle lost momentum as it bobbled in the air, landing about twenty feet too short. Unbroken, the red potion just sat tangled in the ivy like a glittering jewel.

Beatrice gave an unladylike snort before she let out a cackle. “As if I wouldn’t protect myself from anything you could throw at me. Mercy really should have taught you better.” Beatrice’s smile widened as her eyes rounded in fake alarm. “Oops.”

Rage hit me like a flash fire, and my feet moved before I told them to. A scream of fury broke from my throat as I took off in a dead sprint, lobbing another bottle at her. The glowing purple orb sailed with purpose before it broke against thin air, a cloud of noxious smoke coating Beatrice’s protection like tar.

I feltthe growl rip past my lips long before I realized my hands were moving. Seeming to rise of their own accord, my arms radiated power as they reached for the sky before knifing downward. The protection around Beatrice cracked, the sound of glass breaking echoing through the trees. Purple smoke found the fissure and filtered into what was left of her protective bubble.

I wondered which spell the purple bottle held for a split second before the noxious smoke reached her skin. Beatrice’s scream rent the air for a single moment before cutting off, and with it, pieces of her body began dropping to the ground. The smoke sliced through her bit by bit until she was nothing but a pile of bloody body parts.

Then for the second time that day, I passed out.

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