I stopped myself. We couldn’t spend all our time worried the other might get killed in some fashion. Somehow Charlie and Rowan made their relationship work despite the constant danger. If only I could ask her how they managed it, but she’d gone on an important mission, and I didn’t know when I’d see her again.
Thoughts of our relationship should be the last things on my mind. I pushed them away as we made it to Antonio, Vinya, and Kiana. My mouth went dry as my aunt and I exchanged loaded glances.
“Tallyndra.” She was filthy head to toe, dirtier than one beach run could have provided. I wondered if she’d been jailed or possibly beaten, though I didn’t see any cuts or bruises. However, the Habermanns could do many things that didn’t leave external marks.
“Queen Kiana,” I greeted her without the usual bow, finding it hard to respect her after all she’d done.
She lifted her head high. Always a queen no matter what the circumstances.
“No time for that,” Vinya said. “We need to get to the take-off point now.”
She was right. The vehicles were coming. Plumes of churned-up sand clouded the horizon as the Jeeps tore in our direction. Without another word, we took off through the jungle.
As we went through the trees, I flew slightly above everyone, scanning behind us and ahead. Kiana kept up with the others, loping like a two-legged gazelle, but I could tell it pained her.
Vinya seemed to notice also, either through some witchy senses or good observation powers. The witch dropped back, closer to my aunt, keeping stride with her while saying, “It’s just a little bit further.”
Kiana lifted her horned head high, her long spotted neck growing even longer as she took on the posture of the eternally regal. “I’m perfectly fine. I could go on like this for days.”
Vinya blinked, glancing up at me as if she hoped I could make sense of my aunt, but I had nothing to offer. Kiana and I had never seen eye to eye, even during the best of times and now…
She’d given them her only son.
I shuddered as the image of Sinasre, mangled beyond recognition, flashed before me.
Crashing sounds behind us dragged my attention back to the here and now. The guards had found us. They’d abandoned the Jeeps at the tree line, and they were on our tail.
And, worse, huge thundering sounds drew closer, sounds like those we’d heard when we tried to save Sinasre. Was it Wally and Daniella again? Sinasre back for his mother? Bael? Some other awful beast? We needed to know what was coming so we could fight it.
“Go on,” I said to Vaughn below me, dropping back a bit. “I’ll see what’s coming.”
He shook his large wolf head, but I ignored it. “I’ll be safe. I’ll stay up in the trees and be back in a minute.”
His wolf eyes narrowed, but he didn’t try to stop me.
I dropped back and circled around, flying toward the sounds of crashing trees. My heart pounding, I looped around two huge tree branches, and there she was below me.
Daniella.
Or, at least, the version of Daniella that existed now. She blended into the jungle so well I would have missed her except that she was in motion, taking long strides through the underbrush. Everywhere she went, vines sprouted up like angry snakes, spiraling high before their weight made them drop back onto the jungle bed.
Even though she was terrifying, she was incredible to behold in her half-human, half-tree state. She’d be beautiful with her long legs and green skin if I hadn’t known her before this.
If I didn’t know how she’d been mangled…
Silently, I watched her churn through the trees on our trail. If she was here, it was likely Wally was somewhere too. I had all the information I needed. I turned to go warn the others.
That was when she spotted me.
Her green head snapped in my direction, her eyes zeroing in. For a moment, I locked eyes with her, wondering if any part of Daniella still lived inside that cold gaze. Maybe if I could get her to see it was me—
Her arm shot out and the jungle around me shivered. I’d seen her plant magic before and knew what came next. As I turned to fly away, vines dropped down from the branches around me, wrapping around my wrists and ankles, cinching tight like ropes.
Grunting, I fought against them, twisting my arms and legs, but the vines wound even tighter. They pinched my skin as they dragged me up into the branches. Pinned like an animal caught in a snare, I thrashed as Daniella walked toward me and stopped directly underneath.
“Daniella,” I said, staring down. “Don’t do this. Fight them.”
For a second, I thought I saw a flicker in her eyes.
Then her hand shot out again. A vine snaked around my neck like a noose. Tightening. Tightening.
I gagged, my airway cut off. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t fight. Small gasping sounds escaped my throat, but the vine just squeezed tighter. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t talk.
My vision dimmed.
Movement out of the corner of my eye made me drag myself back from oblivion. A figure ran up behind Daniella before bringing a huge branch down on her head. Daniella toppled like a giant oak before crashing into a bed of vines.
The figure who saved me stepped into the light.
Kiana.
As the vines loosened around me, no longer commanded by their creator, Kiana began to climb the tree I was tangled in. Because of her large size and long limbs, she got to me in seconds and made quick work of the vines around my neck, then working on those that bound my feet and wrists.
“Thank you.” I breathed hard, sucking air and touching my tender throat.
Kiana glanced up before ripping away another vine. “You are my kin. I will always come for you.”
I was her kin? This statement didn’t seem to fit with her behavior, nor her cooperation with the Habermanns, letting them disfigure her own son. My questioning gaze told her all she needed to know.
“You think I wanted to work for those monsters?” she asked as she yanked at a particularly strong branch. “When I found where they’d taken you, I came to make a deal, but they kidnapped me. They said if I didn’t obey they would kill you and Sinasre and then track down Anama. I had to act like I was a part of it. They made me talk to people on a screen and tell them what a wonderful program they were building here. They made me act that way toward you.”
I swallowed past my swollen throat. “I thought… I thought I’d given them your location. I thought it was my fault you were captured.”
She shook her head. “I came here on my own as soon as we figured out where you and Sinasre were. No one came to Palo Alto.”
My eyelids fluttered as I took this all in. I’d thought when I’d told them my aunt’s location, I’d betrayed my family and my queen, but she’d been headed here already to procure a release? All this time I’d thought she was angry with me, but here she was saving my life.
I blinked up at her, reevaluating her.
She dangled over the branch, holding it tight in her strong lean arms as she looked me in the eyes. “You are blood. I will always come for you.” Gently, she put a hand on my cheek. “Now, let’s get you out of these fhèiner vines.”
Between the two of us, we managed to untangle the rest of the vines. I dropped down, spurring my wings into flight just before crashing into the jungle floor. Nearly landing on the unconscious Daniella, I fluttered over her as Kiana dropped down from the tree.