Ravens and Crows

Chapter 32 ~Ronan~

I've never ran so fast in my life.

My chest ached as my lungs heaved for oxygen.

My legs spasmed as they were pushed past their limit for just a little bit more, just a little bit more, just a little bit more.

But most of that stuff failed to register in my brain. There wasn't any room for me to think about that kind of stuff. I had to get to Cabeswater. I had to get home. I had to get to Gansey. To Blue.

To Adam.

And these fuckers weren't going to stop me.

Not on my life.

Keep going, I told myself dashing through the city. You have to keep going.

~-~

I plunged into the forest with Wylan and Jesper somewhere behind me.

I bounded through the trees, the branches already swaying in the language I didn't know in my waking moments, but I could tell the point they were trying to get across. They were praying, begging for help.

Greywaren.

Greywaren.

Greywaren.

I know, I tried to tell them. I'm fucking trying my hardest.

Ahead of me a group of people in blue were marching deeper into the forest, a box of matches in the hand of a brunette women.

I tried to push my legs faster but they wouldn't budge so I plowed into the brunette with the speed had.

"Not my forest you pyro bitch!" I yelled as we tumbled to the ground.

The matches fell to the ground and we wrestled for them.

Cabeswater, I thought as the brunette twisted on top of me and pushed my head into the ground. Get the matches.

My connection wasn't as strong with this forest as it was with the one I had created, but whatever this forest was, it dealt with magic and dreams and nightmares, and that was a language we both spoke, that was the life source that fueled beings like us.

A strong wind blew through the forest and the matches were picked up and sent away.

My headed started to blur from the lack of oxygen and I started hitting at the ladies hands and poking at her eyes.

She pressed harder unfazed by my frantic fighting. "Barrel scum don't scare me." She hissed.

"They should," I wheezed out as Wylan swung his rifle, knocking the brunette out with a hit on the back of the head.

I took a grateful gasp of oxygen as her grip around my throat was released.

"Thanks," I wheezed.

"Don't mention it," Wylan dismissed, giving me a hand up.

Wylan and Jesper had knocked out the other four blue clothed people that had entered the forest with the brunette. For the moment, the danger had passed.

I took another heaving breath before closing my eyes and sending out my thoughts and feeling to the forest like the last time I tried to communicate to it.

More are coming, I tried to press. The danger has not passed.

Be ready.

The trees rustled in reply.

"What do we do now?" Jesper asked. "How do we stop the other twenty inferni from lighting up this forest?"

Wylan also turned to me waiting for my order.

How funny, that two people who barely knew me, that barely knew about these trees or this forest or what type of magic ran through it's branches, were willing to give themselves to help.

They wanted to save this forest.

They wanted to help me go back home.

And for what reasons, really?

I stopped believing in the goodness of people's hearts when Greenmantle had my father murdered in my driveway.

But then again, hadn't I seen enough from Gansey and Blue and Adam to believe in it again?

"I don't know," I finally said as we walked towards the front of the forest. "But we have to try something."

"That's not a ton to go on," Jesper said, taking out the bullets of his revolvers and putting them in his hand. "But I guess we're pretty good improvisers."

"Why are you taking the bullets out?" I asked. "They're no good without the spark."

Jesper smirked at me, a gleam in his grey eyes. "Maybe for you, but I've got my own methods."

"Traitor," A voice bit behind us and the three of us whipped around.

The brunette stood with a box of matches in her hand.

"You're the one who wants to burn this place down so no one can get safe parem." Jesper retorted. "Do you want grisha reduced to mindless drug addicts?"

There was blood coming from her head and her legs shook from the effort to keep her up, but that didn't stop her from striking the match. "Only weak grisha need parem."

"No!" Wylan yelled.

"Stop her!" I demanded, sending the urgency into the forest with all I had.

Jesper threw his bullets into the air and they flew toward the lady faster than I could see.

But it was too late.

The match had sparked and caught fire.

And with a psychotic smile, the brunette spread the flames as fast as she could.

And the forest went up in flames.