Chapter 14

Hanna

Even though we were still deep in the gnarled forest, I felt the moment Thorne and I stepped over the border between the Grey kingdom and the Snake kingdom.

The essence of magic around us shifted. It was palpable as a sudden drop in air pressure before the onslaught of a storm. The wind seemed to sweep shards of power over my skin, sharp like hail.

”Feel that?” Thorne”s voice was hushed.

”Is it the garden? Or does all the Snake Queen”s territory feel like... this?”

Honor hadn”t told me that much about her time in the Snake Kingdom, and most of her stories had been wrapped in humor and adventure: tales of fighting monsters in gladiatorial combat with Branok and Lynx and Arren.

”Her magic...it”s suffocating.” Thorne”s hand had found its way to the hilt of his sword, though glancing at his face I didn”t think he realized he”d assumed a defensive posture.

”Do you think the garden belongs to Seraphine or to the Snake Queen?” I wasn”t sure who I despised more at the moment, the queen or her daughter. “Or does it not matter? Do you think they’re working together?”

They were questions we had hashed out before, and we didn’t have any more answers.

”I don”t know.”

We approached the outer walls. I”d expected it to be heavily guarded, but it wasn”t. Only the magic that prickled my skin guarded the queen”s treasure.

”It feels like a trap,” I muttered.

The stone was old, cloaked in moss and ivy, as if nature herself was trying to wrestle the land from the queen”s toxic grip.

”Look.” Thorne”s voice was hushed, but still seemed to echo through the deep silence. ”The statues.”

My gaze followed his to the stone monsters perched on the wall, who were frozen in mid-attack: fangs bared, leaping with claws outstretched, wings wide with just one foot planted on the parapet. There was something unsettling about them, as if they might spring to life and strike.

”Do you think those are just statues?” The wind seemed to whip my voice away from me.

Thorne didn”t answer.

It didn’t matter. No matter what curses shielded the garden, nothing would stop us from trying to save Kaelan.

Together, we traced the perimeter. The statues watched us with sightless eyes, as if they were judging as we blundered through the thick grass, and as if they found us quite stupid.

They weren”t wrong. I”d never be here if I weren”t stupid and in love, two states that go together seamlessly.

”Here.” He cut through a section of brush near the wall where the vines seemed less dense. I almost lost sight of him inside the brush, and it made my heart stop for a second.

I pushed into the brush to follow him. His voice sounded far away when he called, ”Boost you up?”

Then I was out of the sharp greenery, and up against his hard chest. His dark eyes met mine. I started to push myself back, but when my hands were on his biceps, I found myself pausing.

Thorne”s gaze on me felt like a caress against my skin. Our breaths mingled in the charged air.

I nodded, suppressing the flutter inside my chest as his hands found my waist, strong and unyielding. The contact sent a jolt through me. My pulse quickened, and for a split second, I lost myself in the intensity of his gaze. His eyes could be so dark and intimidating, and yet that deep, intense brown held so much warmth when he looked at me.

”Careful,” he murmured, as if he were reminding himself.

Thorne lifted me with ease, and I scrambled up the wall, my fingers digging into the rough stone. Once I was settled with one leg dangling from each side, I could see the enormous garden spread on the far side.

I didn”t want to go in there.

But I”d do anything for Kaelan.

I reached down, our hands clasping before I helped draw him up. I had the feeling he held my hand more to humor me and salve my feelings, but he took it anyway even though he didn”t let me carry any of his weight.

”Thank you.” I was still gripping his hand, and I let go.

”Always.”

I didn”t know what to make of Thorne anymore, so instead I turned and let my feet dangle before I dropped into the soft soil of the garden.

The garden was tightly controlled, with lush patches of greenery surrounded by weedless soil and rock, as if the Snake Queen even managed to control living things.

The air was thick with magic, the kind that crawled beneath one’s skin and whispered of danger. We moved with caution.

”Don”t touch anything,” Thorne reminded me, voice laced with an edge of command

”Trust me,” I shot back, ”I wasn”t feeling handsy.”

Plants of every conceivable hue surrounded us. Petals that glistened like spilled rubies, leaves that shimmered with iridescence. A flower with enormous red blooms seemed to drip poison from its center, as if that were its mouth, and I knotted my fists at my side, ready for an attack.

”Predatory,” I mused, eyeing a blossom that seemed to follow our movements with an unsettling attentiveness.

”Like everything else in the Snake Queen”s realm,” Thorne agreed, his hand finding the small of my back. Somehow his touch steadied me and seared at the same time.

Suddenly, the ground beneath us shifted, and a low hum vibrated through the earth.

Vines erupted from the soil, their thorns glinting like daggers in the dappled sunlight.

”Thorne!” I cried out.

We moved back to back. The vines writhed and lashed around us as we parried and struck out, moving in quick rhythm together. The air was thick with the scent of sap as we cut through one plant after another.

The plant lunged toward me, scattering beads of dark soil as the roots rose from the ground so it could track us. I ducked beneath its whirling tendrils to slash its roots–and the plant fell, motionless, its leaves curling in and darkening at the tips.

”Cut it off at the roots!” My breath came in jagged bursts.

Thorne grunted in response, but ducked beneath writhing tendrils, caught the attacking plant in one hand, and slashed brutally at its roots.

”Thorne, on your left!” I deflected a particularly vicious tendril aimed at his heart. I flashed him a grin in the heartbeat before I turned and struck at another plant. ”You”re welcome.”

Thorne”s gaze flickered to the ground where the dark soil pulsed with sinister energy. “We need to get to the deep roots.”

I leapt toward the center of the writhing mass. ”Cover me!”

Thorne let out a curse, but leapt to protect me. I”d moved before he could. His sword arched around me, keeping me safe at the center as he cut down vine after vine.

Concentrating my own magic into the tip of my weapon, I thrust it into the earth. The ground rose up beneath my feet as if in protest, and I almost stumbled, but I thrust my sword into the ground over and over again.

”Run!” Thorne yelled.

His hand found my shoulder, drawing me back with him as the two of us retreated step by step. The vines shuddered and writhed.

The vines shuddered, their movements becoming erratic.

Then suddenly, it was over. Silence hushed the garden, broken only by our heavy breathing and the distant call of some bird that seemed far too cheerful at the moment.

We shared a glance of triumph.

”Let”s get Ekardo his gods-damned plant,” Thorne said, his tone lighter now. “And hopefully earn Kaelan’s undying gratitude.”

”Right behind you.” I needed a moment to breathe and process that we were still alive. It was not every day I was almost torn apart by plants, though it happened more often than it should.

And here I had already hated salads.

It wasn”t long before Thorne”s keen eyes spotted the telltale shimmer of gabardi root nestled among a patch of innocuous-looking ferns.

”There.” He stepped aside, allowing me to pull the roots, as if he knew how much it meant to me to be the one who ripped from the earth Kaelan’s salvation.

My hand trembled with anticipation as I reached out, fingers brushing the delicate leaves before grasping the plant firmly at the root. When I gave it a steady pull, it came free.

”We”ll save Kaelan from himself,” I breathed, cradling the prize against my chest.

”And he”ll be ever so thankful,” Thorne said flatly, but his hand came to rest on my shoulder and he squeezed gently, full of relief too.

Our eyes met, and his smile transformed his stoic face, filling it with warmth. I couldn’t resist grinning back.

”Let”s get out of here before things go to shit again,” I suggested. “We need to find Kaelan.”

”Agreed,” he replied, but the way he said it, low and with a note of sadness, was hard for me to read.

With the gabardi root securely tucked into our pouches, Thorne and I turned toward the garden”s perimeter, where the towering walls loomed like silent sentinels.

As we hurried along the winding paths, unease prickled at the nape of my neck as if we were being watched.

”Thorne,” I murmured, my voice barely above a breath as I scanned oue surroundings, ”the statues. They”re gone.”

His sharp gaze darted to where the stone figures had once stood, now replaced by nothing but empty plinths and the ghostly imprints of their absence. His hand reflexively found the hilt of his sword, the muscles in his arm tensing.

We moved in tandem, shoulders pressed together, every sense heightened to the whispers of wind through the garden. The air itself seemed to coil around us, thick with malice.

Thorne blasted open a doorway through the garden wall.

The ground shuddered violently beneath our feet.

And the statutes rushed in through the hole in the wall, their movements jerky and unnatural.

The first statue lunged, its stone fingers aiming for my throat. We didn”t want to fly if we could help it; that powerful shifting magic would alert the Snake Queen to our presence within her borders.

I ducked, rolling away as Thorne”s blade sang through the air, cleaving off the statue”s reaching hand. Dust and magic erupted from the wound, the creature”s form splintering but not yielding.

”Steel won”t hold them long,” I shouted. ”We’ve got to move.”

I thrust my hand forward, releasing a burst of raw power that sent one statue reeling back into another. Using my magic like this, unfocused, without an object to guide it, always chewed up my powers too quickly. I needed to think.

The statues, relentless and unfeeling, pressed in on us. We parried their attacks, trying to protect each other with each desperate, overextended strike back, that left ourselves bared for a split second too long each time.

”Left flank!” Thorne called out, his warning coming just in time for me to evade a monster that had been crawling through the underbrush. It leapt at me with bared teeth.

I cast a searing bolt of light that shattered the stone assailant”s head just as it reached me. Stone fragments pelted my legs and I let out a pained cry, but at least I was still upright and moving—though bruised.

But if I had to use my magic… how long would it be before the Snake Queen knew we were here?

And what if she tracked us to Kaelan’s side?

Thorne expertly parried the relentless attacks of the statues, every movement calculated and precise. He lunged forward, his blade finding its mark with deadly accuracy, shattering the stone behemoth into a shower of shards.

“We can destroy them!” he shouted in relief.

But there were still so many.

As the dust settled, more monsters seemed to materialize. The two of us moved in sync, our movements fluid as if we shared a single mind. Without exchanging a word, we knew our next move.

I conjured a barrier of crackling energy to shield us from the remaining statues” onslaught, buying us precious moments to strategize. Thorne sprinted towards the nearest statue, his footsteps thundering against the ancient stone floor. With a mighty leap, he vaulted over its outstretched arm, landing gracefully behind the statue”s formidable form.

Thorne struck out to shatter this one, but he didn’t see the monster that leapt at him from behind.

“Thorne, look out!” I shouted, my voice echoing through the garden as time seemed to slow down. Thorne spun around just in time to see the looming figure of another statue bearing down on him, its jagged stone claws poised to strike. In that split second, I could see the realization dawn in his eyes that he wouldn”t be able to evade the attack.

Without a second thought, I channeled all my magic into a protective beam to save Thorne. Any attempt to protect myself fell away as I focused on him.

The energy surged through me, blazing hot and wild in its intensity, and I raised my outstretched hand, still gripping my sword with the other. With a primal scream, I unleashed a torrent of raw power that erupted from my outstretched palm.

The force of my magic hit the statue with the impact of a meteor strike, sending shards of stone flying in all directions. The monster flew back, its form destabilizing and crumbling. Two other monsters were caught in the onslaught and they exploded into a thousand shards, blasting away from us and raining down on the earth.

Thorne’s gaze met mine, astonished, full of pride.

But I found myself exhausted, too tired to even raise my sword arm, though I tried desperately as the monsters closed around us.

Thorne leapt to catch me, drawing me up with one arm as he whirled to fight the monsters around us with the other.

He let out a muttered curse and raised an icy wind. It blasted around us both, and he threw his arm around me with his cloak, trying to use his body to shield me from the fierce cold. All around us, statues toppled and crumbled, the garden echoing with their destruction.

And I was safe in his arms, warm despite the brutal cold whipping around us from his fierce magic.

Thorne carried me as we left behind the statues, now nothing but rubble. I clung to his chest, safe in his arms, letting my head fall onto his powerful shoulder.

I should make him put me down. I should walk on my own… but not quite yet. His arms around me were warm, his chest hard but comforting. The beat of his heart against my cheek felt like home.

“You were incredible, Hanna,” he murmured into my ear. “You saved my life.”

“And you saved mine,” I reminded him. I wanted to stay this close to him—hell, I wanted him to lean down and kiss me instead of being so focused on plunging ahead through the forest—but we were still in danger. I tried to push at his chest. “I can walk.”

“I know. But rest. Let me carry you.”

I wondered what might follow us now.

But safe in his arms, I let myself rest… for a little while.