“How do you know woody here's gonna keep his part of the bargain?”
Their gazes lock. “I don't.” She gently extracts herself from his grip and walks toward the enchanted tree.
“Where is the rest of your kind?” Beth asks, stalling the inevitable, trying to skate around her nervousness through conversation.
“Everywhere.” The limbs that were so still spread wide. “We are in every sector.”
Beth’s eyes sweep the depth of the forest, and dozens of eyes blink open to look down at her.
She quiets her trembling through sheer will alone.
When a branch touches her arm tentatively, the feather-light caress is as insidiously eerie as it is reverent.
Beth inhales oxygen laced with her own fear.
Thorns burst from the wood, piercing her forearm. Beth gasps, instinctively jerking away, and the barbs set hard.
The burn is incredible, as though instead of taking blood, the tree being is giving some of its life force to her.
Fire whips through her veins, scorching a pathway to her heart.
Beth opens her eyes. Her blood mingles with the emerald of the forest floor that feeds the tree creatures. The shimmering colors pulse red and green then turn a brilliant violet. Like liquid fire, it races to the tree creature's heart. A burst of light changes the bark to deeply riveted opaque jewels.
“Our true form.”
Leaves rustle.
“Beautiful,” Maddie whispers.
“Let her go, tree dude. Right now.”
“Just… one more pull.”
Beth's body is a husk, and she falls where she stands. A second limb scoops her up, gently laying her on her back.
She stares up at the trees, who look down at her. Many eyes blink back at her.
The thorns retract from her body. The ground flashes around her as what Beth gave the tree is flung to the trunks of the others. Their pulsing colors are dizzyingly bright in the depths of the wood.
“Our essence will remain in you, offering you protection until you leave this sector.”
Beth tries to speak—but can't.
She's so thirsty, she can't think of anything else. “What—” She swallows. “How long?”
The tree bends at what appears to be a natural waist, coming so close that Beth can smell the rich loam of his breath.
Those eyelashes, so small and lacy from his upright height, fall like palm fronds to cover Beth's body. She doesn't have the strength to shy away.
Cold wisps of leafy material glide across her arms.
“You will know our forests for the rest of your life, Beth Jasper. In every sector you jump to, there will be those of the Tree.”
Beth's eyes go round and her lips part, but the tree is already rising. “You will know us, and we shall know you.”
Jacky and Maddie cautiously move forward.
Beth struggles even with their help. She sways as she stands.
The sun hovers. Somehow nighttime is near—two hours have come and gone.
“Oh no,” Beth says softly.
The trees rustle, and Beth's chin lifts.
The tree’s eyes catch hers. “Go now. Your gift of blood will be used wisely.”
Yips, snuffles, and barks float on the wind. The nightlopers are rising for the night.
“Beth!” Maddie chokes.
“Go,” the tree hisses, turning to face the sounds.
Beth doesn't have to be told twice. She's still lethargic, but she doesn't have to be strong to jump. She's never had to be.
“The lake,” Beth manages from between the two of them. “Run!”
But Maddie's frozen like a statue, her eyes glued on whatever pursues them.
Maddie's face rocks back with the force of Beth's slap.
“Now,” Beth demands with quiet authority.
Maddie blinks, crocodile tears filling her eyes.
But they don't fall.
The trio runs. Beth brings up the rear as the two Threes sprint toward the water, which sparkles like a sea of fresh blood in the dying sun.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Merrick
Merrick doesn't waste time on self-recrimination. He should never have trusted the Bloodling. He went against his instincts, gambling on Slade’s history of protecting Beth.
That's exactly it. Beth. Slade was protecting Beth—and ridding himself of me.
Now they have Jeb locked down.
Ryan obviously is in charge of Jeb's immediate fate. He made sure there wasn't one speck of a reflective surface, organism, or material worthy of even a skipping hop in the all-stone prison Jeb finds himself in.
He is shackled against a wall naked of anything but the bindings and stone. He tests the bindings with a jerk, and nothing gives. He licks his chapped lips and winces. They're cut and scabbed, like the rest of his body.
His powers of rejuvenation have already kicked in, but without fuel in the form of food—he can heal only at half-speed.
His mind aches for Beth, his other half. Familiar wrenching anxiety fills him.
Fucking