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With my heart on fire and fear bolting through me, I leaped, racing down the side at too fast a pace, bellowing my mate’s name. Partway down the steep hill, I found evidence someone had laid in the grass. It was crushed in a small enough circle that I suspected this was where Vanessa lay after she’d fallen. It had to be her. Rising, I peered around. Where was she now?
I worked in widening circles, slowly, until I picked up tracks. Many had been here. And since the tracks leading away were deeper than what I might make, I suspected one of them was carrying a person.
Nevarn had taken my Vanessa.
I was going to kill him.
Chapter 35
Vanessa
My eyes didn’t have time to adjust to the dark before lights bloomed overhead. I peered up to find something glowing. Insects? No, the lights twisted through a vine. A plant then, perhaps. The light outlined a small room carved into the inside of the trunk. I took in smooth wooden walls, an equally smooth wooden floor, and an arched ceiling overhead.
“Come,” the male said, lowering me to my feet but keeping a tight grip on my uninjured arm. “She’s inside.” His hand swept to a door I hadn’t noticed, the seam blending into the far wall.
“We’re inside a tree,” I said.
“Very good observation, female.”
“My name’s Vanessa.” I wouldn’t share my name other than the fact that I hated being calledfemale.
“As you said, I’m Nevarn.”
“I’ve heard about you. You killed your mate.” My skin peppered with goosebumps, and my arm throbbed. I wanted to rip out my hair and scream. “Are you going to kill me too?” At this point, I might welcome it if it meant I’d no longer feel the agony bolting up my arm.
“I didn’t kill her, so you’re safe—for now.”
“You wouldn’t happen to have pain pills on you, would you?”
“Come, silly female.” He pretty much dragged me to the door, and it slid open just like the outer wall of the tree. When we passed through the opening, it closed behind us.
“How did you make the tree do that?” I asked.
“Our god does it for us.”
Despite the agony, I was curious, peering around, taking in the walls that looked like they were made of wood, but I suspected was . . . “Is your tree made of crystal as well?”
“No, wood.”
“But I thought everything was made of crystal.”
“In the Indigan Clan, most of it is. You’re with the Celedar Clan now.” He banged his fist on the wall. “Our god is one of wood.”
I nodded, but even this slight bit of movement made pain rocket through my head. It was all I could do to focus and not flop to the ground, curl into a ball, and weep.
“There are many gods in my world, not only the ones the other clans worship. Ours, however, are real.” His chest puffed.
“That’s what all the clans say.”
“Yet, ours truly are real.” He waved for me to go ahead of him, and since I wasn’t convinced that his gods would let me out even if I beat on the wall, I decided to remain with him for now. I’d plead with the healer to release me.
We walked through a narrow tunnel that ended at yet another door that opened when we got near. The next room was much larger; the ceiling had to be three stories up. It was empty except for a tall, glassy chair with a person sitting on the smooth surface. She rose, equally tall and very slender, with limbs like the roots of a tree, her hair spiking up like spires on the top of a castle. Her face had a smooth flatness I found fascinating, and while she had eyes, they didn’t blink, suggesting she had no eyelids. No nose either. A slash of a mouth without lips completed her face.
She glided across the room and floated around me, making almost no sound other than a subtle whisper. Her gown was blue on the bottom and gold on the top, exactly like the tree around us. Her dress didn’t move or shift on her body, appearing fused to her form.
“You’re injured,” she said. Sort of said. I understood her, though she didn’t speak with words like me or in my mind like the alien on the island. Her voice was a melody floating across my skin, sinking deep until I could understand her.
I should be afraid of a being like this. Her clan considered her a god. And for the first time, I understood why. She was magnificent. But she didn’t frighten me for some reason. “I fell. I’m in a lot of pain.” My words came out in gasps. If I didn’t sit down—lie down—soon, I was going to pass out.
