My eyes snap to one of the vines, which is trailing and wrapping around the trunk of a tree, reaching further up into the branches. It’s spiralling around and webbing through the tree to create a soft platform way up in the leaves, far, far off the ground.
A defensible position. Raiden said we needed height, and she created it.
I can’t help but marvel at their magic and what they can do.
“Right.” Raiden brings my attention back to her. “Now. Let’s see what we can do.” She and Capella stand before me. “Ravi, Micah, keep watch.”
“What… what if it does the reverse? Like, instead of growing things, we?—”
“Then we can use it to reinforce this position. We need to try,” she interrupts, leaving no room for doubt. She’s right. I know that, but the idea of death won’t leave my mind.
Capella smiles and encourages me towards them.
They place one of their hands atop the other and rest them just above the ground. I mirror them and add my hand to theirs before we lower them to the earth. Breathing in deeply, my mind slips to the water, the sound of the river trickling past. It calls to the still lake in my chest like it wants to be joined, pulling the power from both.
The flow and the energy rush, gathering speed, and it races through me, under my skin and down into the ground through where our hands meet.
There’s a collective gasp, but my eyes are shut, concentrating on the feeling. It’s vast and old, as if the ground is a gateway to a whole other world. One that’s cold and creeping and restless.
Dormant.
I don’t like it. The energy is different. Not the heat and flare when I touch Ten or some of the others. Even with Capella, with Calix or others, this isn’t the same. I shift to pull back…
“Don’t. Not yet. We need to see,” Raiden warns, and I open my eyes to see her watching me.
No. Not me.
Thethingsaround me.
Plants, flowers, small animals and insects, all in varying states of decay and rot, rise from the ground around us.
“Er, guys?” Micah calls.
I try to pull my hand away, needing to stop this, but Raiden slams hers over the top, keeping it there.
“No. Wait. Hold,” she commands, and I consider her mad.
“Please. No, I don’t want this. I don’t want to be responsible—” I beg.
“We are all doing this, Ever. Don’t think it’s just you,” Capella offers, her other hand resting on Raiden’s, ensuring I don’t break the connection.
Panic pounds at my heart and wars with the well of power that seems to flow unchecked now. The air turns putrid, thick with death and decay, and I keep my eyes on Capella, not daring to look at what’s emerging from the ground.
“Ever, did you know your eyes turn dark when you use magic?” Raiden asks.
Now? She asks this now?
“Please. This is wrong.” I try again, ignoring her question.
“Guys, whatever the fuck you’re doing, stop. Right fucking now!” Ravi’s panic rings in the air, and we all look at him, staggering backwards towards us.
Something is dragging itself after him.
“Wh-What is that?” I ask.
Raiden and Capella snatch their hands away, dropping the connection, but unlike in class, nothing stops. Nothing changes. It doesn’t die back into the earth, and we all stand and survey the small clearing we’ve created. Whatever is coming for Ravi is still moving, and death is all around us.
Corpses of dead animals and birds lie on the ground, as if raised through the earth with mulch, rotting wood, and tree branches. Stars, it looked like a deathly bog, oozing and smelling.
