Melissa walked forward.

  The eldir lunged, fast and low on the ground; her first barrier snapped into place an instant before impact. The creature slammed into it with enough force to crack it, but the shield held. Before the eldir could recover, another smaller barrier appeared at its ankles, angled just enough to throw it off balance.

  She moved constantly. Small steps, precise, never overextending.

  The monster lashed out with claws and horns, but every strike met an obstacle. A barrier to block. Another to deflect. A third to clip its legs and ruin its footing. She wasn’t just defending. She was harassing it, shaving away its momentum piece by piece.

  Then the mana ray came out.

  A thin lance of light snapped forward, striking the eldir’s torso. Flesh sizzled, but it barely slowed. Melissa adjusted without hesitation, her jaw tightening.

  The next ray went straight for its face.

  It struck the bone mask with a sharp crack, leaving a scorched line across the pale surface. She hit it again. And again. Each time the ray burned a little deeper, the mask spiderwebbed with fractures. The monster howled, charging harder, smashing through barriers that shattered under the assault.

  And every time one got hit or broke, I felt it with my boosted arcane sense.

  The power didn’t vanish.

  One of her barriers, hovering just behind her, was growing brighter. Thicker. Dense with stored force. Melissa kept it there, untouched, while the others rose and fell around her like disposable shields.

  She let the eldir think it had an opening.

  She dropped two barriers in quick succession and stepped back half a pace. The monster took the bait, lowering its head and ramming forward in a straight, furious charge.

  Melissa placed the charged barrier directly in front of its face.

  The unaware monster slammed its head right on the barrier; a small explosion blasted outward, violent and contained. A concussive bloom of light and sound that tore outward. The monster screamed as it was thrown back several metres, crashing through the undergrowth. When it staggered upright again, part of its bone mask was gone. Beneath it was ruined flesh, charred roots writhing wildly. Both pink flowers were missing, torn away in the blast.

  Melissa was shaking now. Pale. Sweating hard.

  She did it again.

  Another barrier charged as she kept defending against its attack and firing into the exposed wound, cooking its brain. The eldir’s movements grew erratic and twitchy, its coordination breaking down. Melissa sent the second charged barrier slamming into the monster, and the blast shattered what was left of its exposed head. Blood and sap sprayed across the forest floor.

  The creature collapsed and didn’t rise.

  Melissa did it.

  Barely.

  She dropped to her knees, then to the ground, gasping for air, completely spent. She looked up long enough to raise her thumb towards us, a crooked, exhausted grin on her face.

  That was enough for me.

  More than enough.

  As I finished draining the parasite trapped in my barrier, its roots shrivelled to dry husks. I directed the others, pointing out where to strike to end the remaining eldir cleanly. They moved with cold efficiency now, stabbing into parasite cores, killing host and invader together.

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  Mary threw a barrier around the corpse Melissa had killed just as the parasite tried to escape. Quinn appeared out of nowhere and ended it in one smooth motion, his long knife bisecting the creature with the same ease as cutting a sheet of paper. He offered Melissa a hand, smiling.

  She took it. When he glanced at me and winked, I almost smiled back.

  The kid learnt fast.

  I assessed the situation around me; everyone was still standing, and luckily nobody had serious injuries. Marcus had a few shallow cuts, already being treated.

  I was about to call for a break when my senses flared.

  Something was approaching.

  A man stepped out of the trees.

  Human. Armed with a longsword. And wrong.

  Vines and roots burst from his flesh, crawling over his body, piercing skin. A single flower bloomed from one eye socket, the other eye wide and terrified. He rasped something under his breath, voice wet and broken.

  The group froze, not knowing how to respond to this.

  Quinn vanished. I felt him move in a circle around us to reach the man’s back. Good thinking.

  I met the man’s gaze. “Are you still in there?”

  He tilted his head, listening to something only he could hear. Then he looked at me and spoke in two voices at once.

  “Help me,” one begged.

  “Follow me,” the other, more raspy voice whispered.

  Nobody spoke.

  Whatever this was, it wasn’t just human anymore. It was a talking monster. A risk. One mistake away from getting roots in our guts ourselves, and flowers instead of eyes.

  I could end it in a second.

  The thought barely finished forming before the pain hit.

  My curse twisted inside my chest like a hooked wire being yanked. A pressure bloomed behind my sternum, sharp enough to steal my breath. It wasn’t a metaphor. It was physical. Real. My vision dimmed at the edges as that familiar, hated compulsion surged up, screaming at me to act.

  Help. Do something. Don’t let it stand there.

  I clenched my jaw hard enough that it ached.

  No. I wasn’t following him. Not into whatever nest or ambush those roots were guiding us towards. I wasn’t walking my team into a trap because my curse demanded it.

  But I couldn’t do nothing either; I wanted to gather some more information before acting, but Marco spoke first. He let out a sharp laugh, the sound brittle around the edges. “So let me get this straight. We just saw these things coming out of you, wearing you like a coat, and now we’re supposed to follow one into the woods?”

  Alya shot him a look. “Lower your voice,” she hissed, then glanced at the man again. Her grip tightened on the axe. “But… yeah. I’m with him on that part.”

  Melissa wiped sweat from her brow, still pale from the fight. “Guys, I’m sorry, but I can barely stand,” she said quietly. “If this turns into another ambush, I don’t have a second round in me.”

  “Nobody’s going anywhere near that thing,” I said.

  Rhea's gaze was darting between the roots and the dark forest beyond. “But he’s not attacking us,” she said, uncertainty creeping into her voice. “And he did ask for help. Maybe he’s… resisting it?”

  “That’s not comforting,” Marcus muttered, twirling one of his spears once before steadying it. “That just means it can think.”

  Marco snorted. “Finally, something sensible. Let him deal with his own mess. He chose to go solo instead of helping the community. Why should we risk ourselves now? And that’s assuming he’s even still in there.”

  Mary’s reply came sharp and immediate. “Maybe because we’re decent people? At least some of us are.”

  She didn’t raise her voice; she didn’t need to. “He’s still a person. He’s in pain, or danger, or both. We don’t have to march into a trap, but we can at least try to help. Or are we already pretending that means nothing?”

  That shut Marco up.

  Every eye turned to me.

  The pressure in my chest pulsed again. Not painful this time. Insistent. Like a new heart pressing between my ribs, reminding me I couldn’t just walk away.

  I looked at the parasitised man.

  Fine.

  Information first.

  I forced my shoulders to loosen, even as that second heartbeat throbbed inside me. I took a single step forward, stopping well outside his reach. A barrier shimmered around me, thin and almost invisible but coiled tight, ready.

  “Why?” I asked, keeping my voice level. “Why should we follow you?”

  His head jerked, like something had tugged a string inside his skull. His remaining human eye locked onto me, wide with something raw and desperate.

  “I need you,” he rasped.

  The ruts along his jaw flexed as he spoke. “To open the door.”

  “What door?” I said. “And whatever it is you need, it’s not our problem. We’re perfectly fine right here.”

  The flower eye trembled, petals quivering. The vines around his ribs tightened, and he sucked in a ragged breath, his body bowing as if crushed from the inside.

  When he spoke again, his words came from his human part.

  “I’m… I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I couldn’t resist. The pain. It hurt too much.”

  Then his voice shifted. Clearer. Colder. Not quite his.

  “They know,” he said. “Where you are.”

  His human eye flicked to the trees behind us.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  20 chapters ahead!