Page 151 of Into the Heartless Wood
We ride hard across the plain, to where the battle rages on. If there is the smallest chance that Elynion, in all his brutality, can stand against the Gwydden, can keep her wood from devouring the world, I must fight with him. When it’s over, I’ll kill him for what he did to my father.
We hurtle toward the sirens and the wood, and I wonder where Seren is, if she remembers our nights on the hill, if she will come and help to turn the tide against her mother.
Or if she has chosen to become, once more, a monster.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
SEREN
MY MOTHER DISMOUNTS FROM THE HEARTLESS LION.
The bones of her dress clack and clatter,
a twisted music
for a soulless queen.
The trees carrying my cage set me on the ground. With a wave of her hand, my mother sends them on to fight with the rest. Her eyes do not leave mine. “As for you, my youngest.” She flicks her wrist and the bone cage bursts outward.
My terror brings me to my knees.
This is the moment
of my death.
When my mother has slain me,
I will go into darkness
if I go into anything at all.
I
do
not
have
a
soul.
Beyond this world,
there is nothing for me.
I bow before her. My head presses into the grass. It reeks of blood and waste, the tangible scent of fear chased with the tang of the burgeoning storm.
She commands me: “Get up.”
I do not. How can I?
“GET UP!”
I lift my head, drag myself to my feet.
“Death is too easy for you, little one. Do not think I will grant it to you. You will live to see my triumph. You will help to make it happen. When the boy comes, you will kill him. After he is dead, I will pluck your heart from your body, and tear you apart limb by limb, keeping you alive long enough to feel every possible ounce of pain. Then, and only then, will I let you die. Do you understand?”
