Hidden in the Heartwood {sapphic paranormal}

CHAPTER THIRTY

30. || ring of fire.

"Your wife?" River echoed. Finley could see the realization build in their eyes. "Your ex. The Demon you've been runnin' from."

Finley's hands went numb as she watched blood spread out around her wife, but not the bright red blood like what still coursed through her own veins. This was that sludge that filled the dead; the toxic waste that had seeped into the forest. It stained the stark white snow, oozing from her wife's foot as she stood back up, unfazed.

"River, I told you she's not well," her wife murmured. "But thank you for taking care of her." She hid her anger behind a perfected feigned concern. "I see she's been eating well."

Finley lowered the rifle to try to hide her belly, but she seemed to notice. Her eyes sharpened with vile surprise.

"I think you'd best be goin' now," River warned.

"It took, didn't it?" She ignored River and stepped towards Finley, foot still bleeding through her boot. The gunshot didn't slow her down. She wasn't some zombified revenant that a shot to the head would take her out. In these woods, she truly was a demon. "You're pregnant."

Finley's spine went rigid. Her throat tightened. Her wife's fingers slipped beneath her coat and dragged over her belly like the cold edge of a blade. Deep within her, she could feel that little bud desperate to wriggle away. All the old traumas, those hungry white worms, came crawling to the surface of her skin, to the tips of her fingers. The palm of her hand throbbed where the thornberry had punctured her flesh.

The useless rifle fell from her trembling hands as her wife knelt down to her belly. "Finny, this changes everything."

River's eyes darted to her waist where the bone handled knife was sheathed.

"You're right," Finley choked out. "She has changed everything. But you'll never—"

Her wife caught her wrist before she could grab the knife.

As River lunged towards them, that sludge that bled from her foot lifted out of the snow like the tentacles they'd fought weeks ago, wrapping their ankle and River fell.

"You're not the only ones who made a deal with the devil," her wife snickered. Finley tried to jerk herself free, but she tightened her grip. "Once upon a time, there was a charming, but not-so-smart brute woodsman who lured a pair of misguided boys into the woods by way of a logging road on the heavily trail-cammed property of Hart's Content... Do I need to go on?"

"Boots, ya do what ya gotta do," River groaned, trying to free their foot, but more sludge crept around them. "I can handle ever what comes my way."

Finley stopped struggling. "I'll go back to the lodge with you, just leave River out of this."

"Finley, no—" River stumbled to their feet, held back by the sludge that encased their boot.

"Good girl." Her wife stood up, keeping her hold on Finley. "River, if you don't mind, I'd like to borrow your jeep."

Finley's eyes flicked to River before settling back on her wife. "You really wanna get into another vehicle with me?"

Fingernails dug into Finley's wrist as she jerked her towards the woods. "I guess we're walking."

Finley looked towards River one final time, knowing this could be the last. The gloaming sun set fast over the ridge, leaving River alone in its remaining golden rays. Her wife tugged her along as they trudged over the brush and brambles through the snow up the mountainside. At her hip, the bone handled knife rubbed against her side.