The Passion of Hades - Eliza Raine Page 0,63

in one pounce, I launched my vines from both palms at a branch thirty feet above me. They flew fast, wrapping tight around the branch as they reached it, and I tugged, willing them to retract. I was lurched off my feet, my hair whipping around my face as I flew up towards the branch. I looked down, just able to see the cat past my billowing red skirt as he leaped for me and missed.

Within seconds I had reached the branch, and only then realized just how high up I was. The forest around me began to spin again, and this time I didn't know if it was vertigo or the drugged wine.

Your vines have got you, your vines have got you, I chanted in my head, but as soon as my addled brain pictured me falling, I felt the vines slacken.

'No!' I shrieked, as I started to slip, and they tightened instantly, wrenching my shoulders as my descent stopped abruptly. Heart hammering against my ribcage and my breath shortening, I forced them to pull me back up, then started trying to swing my legs up, attempting to hook my feet over the branch. Eventually, stomach and arm muscles burning, I managed to get my legs firmly enough around the wood to pull my body up and over the wide branch, my vines staying firmly wrapped around it too. Panting and nauseous, I eased myself into a sitting position, dimly noticing how torn my skirt was.

All I had to do was sit and not look at the forest floor below me until the ten minutes was up. It felt like I'd been here for an hour already, there couldn't be long left. A low roar snapped my attention to the main trunk of the tree and my vision wobbled even more as my blood turned to ice. The winged cat was prowling along the branch towards me, its massive claws gripping the bark like glue.

Twenty-Eight

Persephone

Sense forced its way through the drug-induced fog swamping my brain as I scrambled backwards. It had wings, why the fuck did I think I'd be safe up a tree? The cat sprang forward, swiping at me with a huge paw, its glowing scorpion tail rearing back behind it. I ducked my body instinctively, fear of the cat overtaking my fear of falling, and it snarled as my right leg slipped and I cried out. Within a heartbeat my other leg gave way, not strong enough to keep me upright on the branch, and the world seemed to turn to slow-motion as the rest of my body followed my legs.

I couldn't breath at all as my fingers left the branch and weightlessness took me, the only thing in my head the certain knowledge that I was going to die. Then my shoulders wrenched again, harder, as the vines from my palms caught my weight and then I was swinging thirty feet above the ground, my whole body shaking violently and everything around me spinning.

I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this. The hysterical words pinballed around my head as the ground beneath me began to become obscured by the black dots overtaking my vision. I was going to pass out. And then my vines wouldn't stop me from falling at all.

Give up. I had to give up. No, get to the ground! The fierce voice sounded loud in my head, all the more shocking because it was my own thought, my own voice. Extend the damned vines! You've already fallen from the branch, and you're still alive! You're stronger than this!

Shaking my head, I willed the vines to grow, lowering me towards the ground. Looking down at the forest floor made the black dots come back, so I looked up instead, just in time to see the cat swipe at the exact spot my vines were coiled around the tree.

I willed the vines faster as his huge claws made contact, severing the vine from my left hand. I swung violently, but the right vine held strong, and now I was only ten feet from the ground and still moving fast. The cat swiped again, and weightlessness took me once more as I fell the last five feet to the moss covered earth. I landed awkwardly on my hip, and swore as I rolled and something hard cut into my thigh. Scrambling to my feet, I looked for the cat.

He was still up on the branch, but the dappled sunlight streaming through