Page 127 of Into the Heartless Wood
The living branches burst from my fingers, grasp hold of the door, and rip it from its hinges with a horrificscreeeeech.
Then all is stars and pain and blood and there is an iron branch in Owen and he’s screaming.
The Soul Eater leans over him, and he does not frighten me anymore.
He is intent on stealing Owen’s soul. He does not look up when I tear through the door. I do not think he even sees me.
The glass ceiling is alive with stars, blazing and flashing, fearful of the dark magic the Soul Eater has called on.
But it does not work. Owen’s soul does not come.
His body shakes and flops on the table. His blood seeps red. He sweats and strains against the bonds that hold him.
“Stop this.”
The Soul Eater jerks his head up.“Witch!” he seethes. “You cannot be here! I’ve woven protections, grown trees of my own to guard my palace. You cannot be here.”
I grab the iron embedded in Owen’s chest and pull it out in one swift movement. “I am not her.”
Owen screams again. All the breath goes out of him.
His eyes are wandering, wild. He convulses. I rip the collar off of him, then the wrist straps, the ankle straps. He shakes and moans. His leg is bleeding, his face is too. But the wound in his chest is the deepest, the worst. It leaks red onto the iron table.
The Soul Eater grabs my arm, jerks me away from Owen. I wrench free and turn to face him.
“You!” he cries. “How did you get free? Whoareyou?”
“I am the Gwydden’s youngest daughter. And you cannot have his soul.”
Lightning flashes above our heads, an impossibility in a sky full of stars.
The last of my human form falls away from me.
Twiggy growth pushes up from my knuckles.
Bark unfolds on my face.
Leaves and violets whisper in my hair.
My heart does not change, from one moment to the next,
but suddenly,
I
am
different.
No.
Suddenly
I
am
the
