The vine uncoiled around my neck. “Dill!” I struggled against the bindings around my wrists. My eyes welled with tears as he flopped on the ground. “Let me go!”
My chest tightened. I struggled for air, close to hyperventilating. My eyes followed Dill’s labored breathing. I’m not too late. I can still save him. I pulled at my bindings; they didn’t budge. When I tore my eyes from Dill, I searched for Scarlet.
She stood frozen, eyes wide, hand clutching her knife. “She’s after you. This is…this is your fault?” Confusion, terror, and anger laced through her words.
I shook my head. “No, it’s her. Please, I’ll explain later. Scarlet, cut my wrists free. Please, I can help him before she’s even off the ground. Scarlet, please.”
“Who are you? I’m not untying you! You’re the reason this happened in the first place.” She pointed her dagger at me, hands trembling.
I writhed, kicking my legs up and jerking my arms. “Cut me loose, please. If you don’t…he’ll die. Please, I can stop this. Just cut me loose!” I barely held back a sob.
She yelled, “What can you do to save him? Honestly, what? Because I’m certainly dying to know!” Vines crawled up her legs. “What is this?”
Dill coughed, a sickly small and fleeting sound.
“Cut me loose, and I’ll tell you everything!” My voice was rising in frustration.
Scarlet tripped as she tried to shake the grasses curled around her knees. With panic in her eyes, she fumbled around for her dagger. When it was within reach, she slashed the vines and scampered backward. “Tell me everything, and I’ll cut you loose!”
“Scarlet, if you won’t do it for me, do it for Dill!”
Her face softened. “You really can stop this?”
“Only if you make haste.” When she stalked toward me and bent to one knee, I steadied my breathing. I tried to find the despair I’d felt when I’d healed my mother.
With her knife, she flicked the knife up and tore the vines. “If you’ve deceived me, I’ll hunt you down and gut you.” She pointed it at me.
A vine tickled my ankle, but before it could latch onto me, Scarlet grabbed it. “If you manage to save him, I’ll keep her at bay.” She stabbed it into the ground.
“If I manage to save him, grab him and run. She wants me anyway.”
Two vines wrapped her arms. “If she gets you, then I don’t get my answers. Go!”
I pushed past her to where Dill was laying; he smiled, grim and delirious, when he saw me. Blood stained his teeth. “You never wrote me.” His skin was slick with sweat.
I shushed him. “We’ll talk about it later.” My hands curled around the log, still piercing his gut. “Just hold on. It’ll feel better in a moment.” I set myself in a solid stance and pulled it out; he howled in pain. Heart pounding, I kneeled beside him and held my hands over the gaping hole in his stomach. I averted my gaze away from the entrails threatening to poke out of the skin. When nothing happened, I cursed myself. “Not now. Why not now? I haven’t healed anyone in weeks. Please, not now.”
Dill groaned. “Jen,” he started. “It has to be now. I don’t think—” He broke into a whimper. “I don’t think I have a later.”
Quieting him again, I shook my hands in a vain attempt to flick a bit of magic out of them. “No, Dill. I can heal you. I can make you better.” I laid my hands on his stomach, paying no heed to the blood soaking them. Doubt coated my thoughts. “I can do this.” My words were weak and broken. “I can do this.”
YOU ARE READING
Earthrumbler
FantasyBook two. It's been months since I've seen my mother. And despite her warning, no other gods know of my existence. On the day of my father's wedding, Persephone's curse leads me straight into the hands of the one god who'd like nothing more than to...
