The Root of the Problem

The first light of dawn brightens the sky as we unload from Levi's Jeep at the western border of town.

I shiver, hugging my thermos filled with hot chocolate, while Haut's breath puffs out in white clouds beside me. He's got that rugged, ‘just-shook-off-my-fur' vibe going that almost makes the cold sexy.

Haut's gaze catches mine, and he lifts his arms to brush back his hair, the sleeves of his thermal stretching over his muscles.

Tris's glare shifts from me to Haut. "Did you and Haut get enough sleep last night?"

I rip my attention away from Haut's flexing biceps to look at Tris. His sandy blond locks are tousled from a night spent monitoring Aspen, and he eyes me with a mixture of frustration and jealousy.

Obviously, he knows Haut and I broke the no-nooky rule, and a lack of good rest only adds to his grumpiness.

"Oh, check out that owl!" I jab a finger toward a tree where absolutely no owl is perched.

"Nice try." Tris chugs from his coffee thermos. "I'm running on fumes here, making sure Aspen didn't cross over into ghost territory, while you were canoodling with the enemy when you should have been resting your concussion."

"We don't know that I have a concussion. And it was very kind of you to make sure Aspen didn't die again." I pat Tris's arm, then yank back my hand when it looks like he'll bite. "Such a sacrificer."

"I didn't need to be observed overnight." Bags hang under Aspen's eyes, giving testament to a sleepless night. "My counter-curse eradicated the poison from my system."

"Which only activated because of Rowe, on account of you being unconscious and dying." Tris takes another long swig of coffee. "But good to know my concern was in vain. Next time, I'll leave you to meet your maker alone."

"My apologies, Tris." Aspen pulls his walking stick from the Jeep and closes the door. "I know you were only looking out for me, and I appreciate it."

"Could have fooled me," Tris grumbles.

"So…" Levi glances around at the woods in front of us. "Why'd you drag our tired butts out here, Rowe?"

"Right." Down to business. "Yesterday, Tris and I went up to the lookout, and I was able to get a full view of the barrier from up there. This side has a higher concentration of dark spots, so whatever is affecting it is coming from over here."

"Well, that's something." Levi gestures to the waiting forest. "Shall we?"

As we head into the trees, I sip from my hot chocolate, trying to stave off the frost in the air. It smells like snow, metallic with a slight burn. It's colder in Silver Hollow than in Hartford Cove, and I huddle deeper into my jacket.

As Aspen limps along, he turns to me, his brow furrowed. "Did you connect to the barrier before climbing up to the lookout?"

"No, I wasn't planning to check out the barrier when we went up to the turret." I give a sheepish shrug. "But as soon as we were up in the open, the tingles started."

"Rowe connects better with her magic on the widow's walk back home, too," Tris points out.

"It could be the trees." Aspen strokes his chin, where golden stubble forms the beginning of a beard. "They might disrupt your magic."

"But I connect fine when I'm barefoot." I shake my head. "And it's not like I have an air affinity."

We all remember the bowl test and my complete failure there.

"No, you're not an elemental witch. But magic's in everything." Aspen gestures around us. "Air, earth, fire, water… The ethereal is in all things. When you stand barefoot, you're connecting to the ethereal in the earth, and when you go up high, where nothing blocks the wind, you're connecting to the ethereal in the air."

His lips quirk. "I wouldn't suggest trying to connect to the ethereal in fire and water."

I shudder. "No, thank you. I'll pass."

"It's why you don't feel comfortable in your grandmother's sanctuary and struggled so much when we tried to hold lessons down there." He grimaces. "I should have realized that sooner."

"All I'm hearing is that I get a free run of the widow's walk." I cast Haut a smirk. "For magic reasons."

"Only after we have it repaired." He gives me a stern stare. "And you agree to use the stairs and not to climb down the roof."

Sad at his lack of enthusiasm for my adventures up high, I sigh. "You just like to take all the fun out of life."

"Excuse me for wanting to prevent you from breaking your neck," he huffs, the air puffing white in front of his face.

Ahead of us, Levi slows to a stop. "We're at the edge of the barrier."

"I guess that means it's go-time." I take another long swallow of hot chocolate before passing the thermos to Tris and wiggling out of my shoes and socks.

The cold earth sends shivers up my spine, but I push through, focusing on the tingles— I mean, the ethereal energy beneath me.

The silver lines of the barrier blaze to life, like someone plugged me into a power socket. This would be a piece of cake if not for all the trees making it hard to get a good look at the issue.

"Sure would be nice if I could fly." I turn to the right and walk in that direction. "The storybooks promised broomsticks."

"That's just a fairytale," Aspen says, as if he thinks I really expect to be flying around on a broom, the wind whipping through my hair, cackling like a maniac…

Ah, that's the dream.

"You and Haut should get together and start a club," I mutter as I continue forward. "You can call it TheOld Fuddy-Duddies, and your mission can be to crap on rainbows."

Wisely, no one comments, and I march on ahead, the others following behind as I skirt close to the shimmer of the barrier.

Within a dozen yards, I realize that the black spots are thinning out, which means I zigged when I should have zagged.

When I turn, I run nose-first into Haut, where he sticks close enough to be joined at the hip.

"Back the way we came." I wave for him to move aside. "It's in the other direction."

His dark brows arch. "You couldn't have figured that out faster?"

I jab a finger into his face. "Do you want to be the witch here?"

He smirks down at me. "With the amount of training I have, I'd be a better one than you."

"Rude!" I pound a fist against his chest, which makes him flinch not at all.

Since he's not moving, I walk around him, grumbling about my grandma's mental state when she trained a wolf shifter as her apprentice while we trek back to where we started and head in the opposite direction.

Here, the dark spots become more frequent, breaking up the silver lines of magic until only a few threads cling together.

"Guys, I think we're almost there!" I bounce forward, excited to reach the weakest point in the barrier.

"Rowe, stop!"

Aspen's shout cracks through the quiet of the forest, and I freeze with one bare, dirty foot poised in the air.

Heart pounding, I peer at him over my shoulder. "What's wrong? Are we playing Green Light Red Light now?"

"No. Carefully step backward and put your shoes on." He limps to the front of the line. "The woods ahead are poisoned."

"Poisoned?" Concern furrows Levi's brow. "The physical kind? Not magical?"

"Yes, I believe so." Aspen stares at the trees in front of us. "We need to be extra careful moving forward."

Haut brings me my socks and shoes, and I lean against him, wiping away the dirt that clings to my feet before slipping them back on.

As we venture deeper, the surrounding foliage lose their fullness, and dry pine needles crunch beneath our feet. They turn from green to brown, and the constant tingle I attributed to the cold fades away.

The magic here is dying, and when it does, it will take the barrier with it.

We come to a stop surrounded by a dead forest.

A bewildered expression twists Levi's features. "How did we miss this? We've searched this area before in our quest to figure out what was happening to the barrier."

"The poison may not be magical in nature, but there's a spell at work here." Aspen leans heavily on his stick. "I felt an aversion toward moving forward, like something was telling me to go around. If Rowe hadn't been leading the way, I would have avoided it."

Levi opens his mouth to protest, but then pauses and nods thoughtfully. "You know, now that you mention it, I would have done the same."

Tris and Haut nod in agreement.

"Is it like the misdirection spells we set when the huntsmen invaded Hartford Cove?" I ask, recalling how we'd used magic to funnel our enemy toward Front Street, where we had an ambush in place.

Aspen shakes his head. "No, this spell isn't as powerful, which is why I almost missed it. For someone like a wolf, though, who relies heavily on instinct, it would turn them away."

Levi's hands clench into fists, coals simmering in his pupils. "Would it turn an earth witch like Elana away?"

Aspen hesitates before nodding. "It would affect weaker witches."

"Ugh, that woman!" I kick the dead needles at our feet. "She's a giant pain in the ass!"

"We don't have proof that it's her," Aspen says. "Let's focus on what we do know."

"We know she's holding her coven hostage and that she's a weak leader who needs to be replaced." I take deep breaths, trying to keep my frustration in check. "So, what's our next step? How do we fix this?"

A gust of wind rattles the dying branches above us, sending a shower of brittle needles to the ground.

Tris brushes debris off his shoulders. "Is it even possible to heal these trees? They look like they're about to fall over any second."

I shiver, not just from the cold, but from the eerie silence in this poisoned part of the forest. No wildlife lives here.

Aspen inspects the sickly tree beside him. "No, I can't save them. All I can do is stop the spread."

Levi's expression darkens. "If the poison is here, why is the barrier weakening on all sides?"

"Forests share a root system. It's how they communicate, distribute nutrients, and support one another." Aspen gestures toward the base of the tree, where a white film coats the thick bark. "The rot is being carried through the roots."

He turns to me. "How much of the barrier is left here?"

I shake my head. "There are only a few silver threads holding it together."

"Given time, without intervention, the poison will continue to spread," Aspen says gravely. "But the barrier will fall before then. Once the western side loses its anchor, the rest will collapse."

"I can strengthen the threads that remain," I offer. "That will buy us some time, at least."

Aspen nods. "Do it."

I catch Tris's hands. "I need you to help boost my magic, since I can't touch the ground."

"I got you, sparky." Tris moves behind me, and his hands curl loosely around my throat, skin to skin.

Prickles shiver through me, and the barrier snaps back into focus. Or what's left of it, anyway.

Tris lets out a sharp breath, his fingers twitching, but he doesn't break contact.

As I work on reconnecting the broken threads, Aspen says, "We have no choice but to set up a barrier like Hartford Cove's until we figure out how to recreate the original one here. It'll keep Silver Hollow hidden while I stop the spread of rot."

"Sounds like a plan," I say, focusing all my energy on repairing and reinforcing the shimmering threads. "It takes a day to prep the goop, unless you're as strong as Mel's moms and can pop one up by yourself?"

"No, I am not as powerful as a trinity of witches," he says dryly. "We should bring Elana here to help with the poison."

"Can we trust her?" Levi asks, skepticism heavy in his voice.

"Either she will help, or she'll show her hand. If she's behind all this…" Aspen shrugs.

"The Alpha will deal with her," Levi finishes darkly, making it clear that Elana won't survive her betrayal if she's found responsible for the poisoned forest. "Because of this poison, my people will be forced back into cages."

"I'll get into the Rothaven grimoire before it comes to that," I say as I concentrate on the delicate, silver threads in front of me, where they glow brighter as they mend together.

"You're doing great, sparky." Tris's thumbs massage the back of my neck. "It's getting stronger already."

"Thanks." Despite the dire circumstances, I can't help but feel a flicker of pride at my newfound magical prowess.

For once, I'm not a failure of a witch.

Aspen turns to me with a furrowed brow. "Rowe, did you tell anyone else about the western woods before the party last night?"

"Only Tris." I peer over my shoulder at him in question.

"We were out in the open, though, surrounded by werewolves with superhuman hearing." Tris frowns and glances toward Levi. "Anyone could have heard her."

Levi stiffens at the implication that someone in his pack might be behind this. "The man who attacked Rowe wasn't a werewolf, and he definitely wasn't one of my people."

"True," Haut concedes, "but the monster who chased us in the woods had similarities to a werewolf. Magic was also in play."

Levi shakes his head. "It wasn't the full moon."

I rise onto my toes to reach the end of a broken thread. "What about your moon-madness amulets? Are you confident that they're secure?"

"Locked up tight," Levi confirms, though his expression remains wary. "At least, they should be."

"Are you positive?" Aspen raises an eyebrow. "Because if one of those is missing?—"

"We'll make damn sure they're all accounted for when we get home," Levi cuts in, his tone final.