The Secret World of Briar Rose(59)

Briar didn’t flinch, even as Corin raised her voice. Malicine stepped forward and said, “That’s enough.”

“No. I’m not listening to either of you anymore.”

Her anger returned like a bright, burning ball. The waterfall roiled in her ears, a bitter sound that sloshed over rocks and crashed into the pool below. The figures surrounding her blurred in her shaky vision. She refused to see them with clarity. Her legs moved before she thought twice, closer to the roaring water. A rumble of thunder breathed in the distance as an island revealed itself on the horizon.

She stared at the patch of gray spreading in the sky. Thick clouds turned black as they choked out the sun. The darkness had an alluring quality, calling her name. She knew unspeakable things were buried in Autumnland and had only a taste of them when she drowned in the ocean. What other painful things had Briar buried during the last autumn of her life? And what would happen if Corin fully uncovered the truth?

She stepped to the edge of the cliff, where the waterfall sputtered into the ocean. The threat of leaping made Briar and the others move. Their arms reached forward to stop her, but it was too late. She had already jumped and let the water take her.

As her body descended into the rapids, she felt Malicine’s magic grasping for her, a force of energy that curled around her ankles. The presence weakened within seconds. She’d descended too quickly for them to catch up.

Crashing into the ocean felt like hitting concrete. Her body fractured into pieces before the waves washed the shards back together. Even in the black trenches of the sea, she knew where the currents would take her next.

The tides carried her along the ebbs and flows of time, following her rage like a moon that pulled the waves. Sunset colors shifted in the water, gold bleeding into silver, silver into dusk. The stars reflecting in the water pricked her skin until, eventually, she washed ashore in a new body, one hardened by resentment. The ocean salt tasted bitter on her lips.

On the island, the air whistled through her stringy hair, a kind of cold that nibbled beneath her skin and scraped her bones. She squeezed water from the ends of her shirt and pants so that the wet fabric wouldn’t weigh her down. Her eyes scanned the island’s outskirts, where the trees looked like skeletons and piles of mulch covered the forest floor. Dead leaves wilted from branches, crumbling to dust as they scattered from the wind. The bark looked brittle, like it would disintegrate under a single touch. That was what happened when winds stripped leaves from trees, once tall and grand. They revealed how small and vulnerable things were behind the facade.

Behind Corin, the ocean was barely visible from the fog, which meant that she would not be seen by Briar, Malicine, or Elly if they looked for her. If she became lost, perhaps they would never find her.

“They betrayed you. You can’t return now,” a distorted voice said. “Not until you get answers first.”

Corin turned to the shadow standing in the mist. Ezran’s form blurred in the shifting currents of the wind, yet she could feel vitriol radiating from his mirage, for it had been shared by her as well.

“Briar Rose forced you to bear your vulnerabilities. She made you slice yourself open just to be hung dry,” he hissed. “But if you do the same to her, you can prove she is worse.”

Corin’s fingers wrapped into a tight fist. She stared at the endless pathway of dead trees and blackened leaves. Swathed in a silvery fog, she had no idea what would lie inside. Still, she took a deep breath and walked forward into the darkness.

? ? ?


NONEXISTENT HOURS CREPT by like the scatter of dead leaves from a weakening wind throughout Corin’s trek. Nightfall came by the time blisters oozed between her toes and she slowed her pace. If Malicine were here, she’d tell the demon that they had exaggerated the terrors of the island. The truth was that the forest was mostly uneventful, more a monotonous slog than a nightmare.

There had been expected sights, of course. Trees with screaming faces carved into bark, spiders the size of her head hanging from branches in silky trails. The bark stretched into arms and swayed back and forth. They looked like creatures stalking her in the night, yet as they breathed down her neck, she was not afraid. She had witnessed more terrifying things in the real world.

This couldn’t be it, Corin thought. She was supposed to uncover secrets, monsters that people kept hidden in the dark, skeletons that would be unearthed. She expected to find clues for what Briar was hiding, perhaps even signs that would lead to the real treasure. These visions gave her nothing in return.

“You’re lost,” the wind hissed.

Shadows lengthened into Ezran’s tall figure between the trees. He slinked between twisted branches, his face as hollowed as the creatures around her. A scowl marred his lips.

“I wouldn’t have hunted her for a hundred years just to wander listlessly,” he said. “You know she’s hiding something. Hurry up and find it.”

Corin’s knee crushed dirt as she bent down to make a torch and see better in the dark. After a few minutes spent rubbing together sticks, she created a decent flame, one that melted away Ezran’s shadow and made room for something else glistening in the light. She followed the shining object and found small, white orbs half buried in soil. Her fingers carefully picked up one of the tiny spheres and scrutinized the object. Pearls.

There were several of them, lined over the ground as a trail, leading deeper inside the forest. The familiarity of the object gave Corin a flicker of hope. She followed the trail, picking up the pearls one by one, collecting them in her fist. As she traveled farther into the woods, the ground turned softer, a muddy expanse that clung to her boots. Her feet took extra effort pulling her forward so she wouldn’t sink.