Darkly Devoted (Book 1, 2, 3)

DD Chapter 20 - Segais

Chapter 20

VIVIENNE BLINKED. The thought popped into her head as though it were her own. Yet, she heard it in his voice. He was communicating with her through their bond. Vivienne glanced at him, but his eyes weren't on her. He was staring at the Segais stake lying an inch away from her fingertips.

What did he expect to happen? Was the Segais going to behave differently just because he asked nicely? Vivienne placed her left hand over the cameo necklace beneath her shirt. She reached for the stake with her right hand again. As soon as her skin made contact with the darkened wood, light appeared. It was a beautiful, blinding light, spiraling over every crevasse and porous capillary.

It didn't stop there. Vivienne watched helplessly as, through the gold threads, new life flowed into the dead scrap wood. The branch began to stretch as though it were growing anew—a leaf sprouted at the tip of the stake.

"What in the —" Sam gasped. Vivienne snatched her hand from the stake. Without her touch, the wood died again, and the light faded like bits of ash blown away by the wind.

"W-who are you?" Ashlar said as he was drawn over by the sight. "I've never seen anything like that."

"Ashlar," Zissa scolded, as he was drunkenly saying much more than she wanted disclosed.

"The Segais didn't just answer your call. You breathed new life into it. That's something I've only heard of in stories."

"Ashlar, enough!"

"No, you shut up, Zissa. Vivienne is the real thing. She doesn't just stand a chance at passing these trials; she can take down Tercel. Power like that, it could only be divine. Orienne sent her to stop these corporate dogs from taking what isn't theirs."

"Does she even want to help us?" Zissa snapped. "What are we to her?"

"Listen, Vivienne Minthe," Ashlar stated as he got down on one knee before her like he was preparing to propose. "There's a canopy of Segais trees that used to block the underground lake from the surface. The demons are escaping through that opening in the forest. If you can do what you just did here, if you can convince those branches to regrow, you can not only stop the demons from attacking innocents, you stop those Tercel pigs from sticking their noses where it doesn't belong."

"Is this power really all that?"

"YES!" Ashlar exclaimed and squeezed her hand so hard she felt as though he was a hair away from breaking her bones. "You have the opportunity to do a really great thing here."

"There's one thing I don't understand," Vivienne whispered softly. "What's wrong with giving Satan's Hollow over to Tercel? They'll take care of the demons. I don't understand why everyone thinks they are evil." Vivienne's eyes drifted to Blake's hand, which was still resting on her shoulder. "Perhaps, Ashlar, you are not the right person for me to ask."

"You're right," Blake finally spoke up and gave her a reassuring pat. "Let's go. You don't have to agree to anything tonight. There is time yet before these games begin."

"The Solstice Trials," Zissa snapped, correcting his flippant tone more so than his words. She turned her fury back to Vivienne as though Blake wasn't even there. Vivienne realized that she was the center of everyone's attention. Suddenly, with whatever she had done to Segais' branch, her opinion finally mattered. "As for Tercel, are you serious? How is it that you have this power, and you don't understand anything?"

"What is it that you understand?" Blake retorted. Vivienne could tell by his tone that his mask was slipping. Suddenly, she wished that they had left when he tugged at her shoulder. "That Tercel will awaken a monster from the deep? The Reaper will bring about a rainstorm that will end the world?"