Page 152 of Into the Heartless Wood
I am ragged with terror, every fiber raw.
Her mouth twists. “Do not doubt I have the power to make certain one smallhuman boyappears when I wish him to.”
I reach out for his soul without meaning to.
She is right.
I can feel him, not far away.
I shake.
I weep.
She grabs my chin and forces her claws deep, deep, down to the wood of my bones.
Sap runs down my neck, sticky, warm. “You cannot make me kill him.”
She flings me away, and I land
on a corpse the earth has not yet swallowed.
I cry and leap off of it.
I try not to look.
But still I see:
a soldier,
a boy.
His neck is twisted.
His eyes are vacant.
The wind rises.
My mother is still smiling. Her hand is amber with my blood. “Oh, daughter. When will you understand that your heart belongs to me? When will you understand that you will do whatever I command?”
“Never.” It hurts to talk. I press one hand under my jaw. There is a feeling like fire in my throat, burning, burning. I choke.
My mother peers at me. She closes the distance between us in two long strides. The heartless lion growls at her heels.
She plunges her hand into my chest.
The pain is
sharp,
hot,
an all-consuming
agony.
She hisses in my ear: “I made you what you are. Whatever magic your wretched brothers worked on you has long since fallen away. They cannot save you now. You aremycreature, and you will obey my every command.”
I can’t see through the haze of sap and tears. My mother holds my heart in her hand. She always has. The pulses of my life are spent, one by one. “Please.” The word creeps past my lips. “Ple—” The word chokes off. I try again. I cannot speak.
