The Wishing Tree - Book Two [Completed]

Burst the box - Part 15

Rocco and Riven are tasked with checking me for any injuries while Mason goes back to the colony. He won't tell me what he intends to do and so the outcome is left to my overactive imagination.

Rocco sits back on his feet after going over my joints a second time. "Nothing hurts? It's hard to really feel what I'm doing around this dress." He gestures to my wedding dress.

I shrug, noticing that my shoulders rise at different angles. "Nope. I feel awesome. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were looking for an excuse to take off my dress." I wink at him.

Rocco looks at Riven. "Something isn't right with her. Do you think she could have a head injury?"

Riven nods. "Perhaps several."

"I'm right here. I feel great. You should be glad."

"You must be injured somewhere. You should have been torn apart. The storm was vicious and we could see you flailing around from Mason's hiding spot. You looked unconscious." Rocco's brief pause is thoughtful. "Maybe the pain made you pass out." Rocco looks me over from head to toe again.

They are being ridiculous. I feel perfectly fine.

"How did you guys get away?" I ask.

Riven grins. "Mason. I have to tell you, having that guy on our side is not all that bad. He was amazing!" He laughs a little. "Although, I think it would have been scary as anything to be on the other side of that. They didn't know who he was. I think they must have thought their sacrifice angered the gods rather than appeasing them."

"Sacrifice?" I look sharply at Rocco and Riven. "Did they hurt either of you?"

Rocco shakes his head. "You were the sacrifice."

"Oh." I look up at the canopy of the trees again, seeing the tattered remains of the ribbons.

"You should be dead." Riven's grin is gone and his eyebrows are pulled closer together. "You should at least be injured."

Mason wanders up and there is blood covering his shirt. "She is injured; she just doesn't know it."

I look over at him, feeling oddly shy, which makes heat rise to my cheeks. "I'm not injured. I feel great."

Mason rolls his eyes. "Close your eyes, take down the damn wall and then tell me what I need to fix."

"Oh, right. I forgot I did that." I give the boys a sheepish grin. "Ah, Mason?"

"What?"

"Is there any other way to fix me? I'm a little worried about taking down that wall."

"No." His face is blank. "Take it down."

"How did you know about the wall?" Rocco asks.

"It's the only way anyone could have survived that. Her body needed to be relaxed enough to allow those unnatural movements. If she tried to fight it because of her pain, she'd have been torn apart."

I close my eyes and start removing the bricks and as I go, each one becomes heavier and heavier. My joints start to ache, as though I have been handling the bricks for hours rather than moments. I look at the neat box in the center of my mind and hesitate. This is going to hurt...a lot. I give a slight tug on the bow and the box bursts open.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the super short chapter - I needed to break it here for clarity. What do you think happens to Hannah? Did Mason know what would happen?