I clenched my jaw to hold back the words. I dug the nails of my free hand into the heel of my palm, focusing on that bite of pain.
Anger and frustration sizzled from him. More power came, punching me. It set fire to my skin and scraped down my bones. Agony flash-boiled my blood. It hurt so badly that I thought I might black out. But still I resisted.
“Damn you, Finley,” he growled. He reached forward and grabbed me by the throat, yanking me toward him. His golden eyes locked with mine. “Why?”
That presence within me poured out fire. Anger. Rage.
I had the pocketknife in my hand without thinking. Opened it without knowing how.
I stabbed him in the chest.
He hissed and tossed me away. A hand came up quickly to the knife now sticking out of his pec. I hadn’t stabbed in nearly far enough. It was nothing but a flesh wound. Given the state of his body, he’d had plenty. Given his thick slab of muscle, it wouldn’t slow him down much.
This was going to work out very badly for me.
I was up and running in a flash. I couldn’t go home, though. That would just bring him back to my family. Instead, I turned right and dodged around the birch tree, which surged to life. It shook and waved and did its jig. On the other side, I felt his pounding command to halt, but I ignored it. I ran out into the everlass, watching my footfalls until I got to the middle. There I stopped, breathing hard, and faced him again.
If the everlass was personal to him, he’d understand its fragility. He wouldn’t want to tramp through the field and destroy it. Hopefully.
He appeared at the edge of the field with blood streaming down the new hole in his pec, dipping into the groove between his stomach muscles and lats.
He spread his arms. “Where are you going to go? If you run back to your village, I’ll kill them all. Do you want that? Your life is forfeit, Finley. You stole from this land, and now you belong to me.”
“And who are you? The demon king’s puppet? His minion?”
Confusion crossed his face. He tilted his head and then started laughing without humor. He lowered his arms.
“This just keeps getting better and better,” he said to himself. Then to me: “In the absence of the king, as the only noble left standing, I am the keeper of these lands. I am their protector. I am your jailer and your master.”
“Their protector? Are you joking? People are dying. The sickness from that curse is killing them. If anything, I am the protector. I am the one who keeps them alive when the curse’s sickness tries to rot their bodies as it has rotted this wood. You should be thanking me, not threatening me. All you do is wander around these woods in beast form and kill trespassers. Who the fuck are you protecting it from? Its subjects? You’re either misguided or an idiot. Exact your punishment and be done with it. You’re wasting my time.”
His fists opened and closed. He looked down at the everlass at his feet, then back up at me. It seemed like he was warring with himself over something. He walked forward, picking his way carefully. A sudden insight ripped through me. He’d said only my village was using this field, and none of them were great at pruning. He was the one who had been pruning and taking care of these plants. Showing them love.
I didn’t have time for the confusion I felt.
I lifted a foot and braced it over the nearest plant.
He paused. “That’s just one plant, Finley.”
“By the time you get to me, it’ll be a lot more than one plant. We both know they share a root system. If one of them is crushed, they’ll all share the pain. They’ll all dwindle if I take out enough of them. I know how many that has to be.”
I wasn’t sure that was true. I thought I had read it once.
He immediately froze, though, so perhaps it was accurate. He slowly brought his palms up in a placating gesture.
“Your brother entered these grounds not long ago with two others.”
My heart stopped beating. I lowered my foot in case I accidentally lost balance and crushed a plant anyway.
“His life—their lives—also belong to me. I will forgive their trespassing and theft if you cooperate.”
“We can make a deal,” I said quickly, licking my lips. “I’ll tell you my secrets if you spare the village. They’re having a hard enough time. They aren’t trying to hurt anyone. They certainly don’t have the resources to kill you.”
He contemplated that for a moment.
“I will consent to spare those who treat the everlass well. Everyone else will die,” he snarled.
It had to be good enough.