Page 101 of When Ashes Fall

“What’s happening?”

“Come with me.”

Gizzi raced up to my shoulder before I left the room. I followed Lyra down the stairs and passed wilting rosebushes in the hallway. Some only had one or two petals clinging to them. Others were just starting to die as the sickness spread.

I was so focused on the roses that I didn’t notice the tree of unity until we reached the first floor. My hand flew to my throat as horror filled me.

The beautiful, multicolored leaves all drooped; their ends had shriveled and browned. Some of them broke free and drifted to the ground; they settled around the stones where more of them lay. The flower petals littered the ground; almost all had fallen, and the entry was silent as the bees had left.

“Oh!” I cried as I raced toward the tree. “Oh no. Please, please, no!”

I didn’t know who I was pleading to, as all the gods seemed to have abandoned this place and I was unbound. I stumbled over the stones and fell at the base of the tree. My knees smacked off the dirt as my hand collided with the trunk.

The second I touched the tree, grief erupted within me. Before I could stop it, a wail of anguish tore from my throat and rebounded around the room, but it was full of more than my misery; it was also the tree’s.

Just days ago, its power strengthened me, but now its dying filled my veins. I didn’t realize I was weeping until wetness flowed over my hands to soak through my pants.

“What happened?” I breathed, wishing the tree could talk to me like Gizzi, but all it gave me was its agony.

“I’m going to stop this,” I choked out. “I will find a way to stop this.”

I had no idea how, but there had to be a way. Knox wouldn’t allow me to make another potion, and I didn’t dare put anything else on these plants without knowing what was happening.

“It’s spreading amongst the roses too,” Lyra said from behind me.

With tears streaming down my face, I turned to look at her. I hadn’t realized Knox, Dromon, Pierce, Bertie, Zephyr, and some of the other sprites had entered the room. They stood and floated near the doorway, watching me.

Bertie and the sprites at least looked sympathetic, but the shifters’ faces were all expressionless. I didn’t know why Knox had let me out to see this. Maybe he wanted to witness my reaction, or maybe he hoped there was some way I could still help, but his eyes were flat and cold when they met mine.

The sprites all looked drained. Their wings weren’t as vibrant, and their skin was paler. They thrived on nature, but much of the plants’ vitality was taken from this realm by the curse. With no way to help the dying plants, the sprites were fading.

There had to be some way to stop this before I lost them.

I wiped the snot from my nose before focusing on Lyra. “Your parents?”

When she bowed her head, I knew the answer to my question. Pulling my hand away from the tree, I shuddered when my connection to it broke. I was free of it, but its anguish continued to batter my heart.

I would never be free of its misery… unless I could somehow save it.

“Everything is dying,” Knox stated.

I gulped; I really didn’t want to ask my next question, but I had to. “Even the king and queen?”

“Everything,” Knox growled.

My heart sank into my toes. If they died, he might kill me.

“Could it be the rat?” Knox asked. “He’s venomous.”

“No!” I shouted as I recoiled from him. “His bite is venomous, and he’s not running around biting the plants and trees.”

“Of course I’m not,” Gizzi said angrily. “This guy’s an idiot.”

“Lowleetos don’t work that way,” Bertie said.

“Besides, he’s been here the whole time, and the plants were all getting better.”

“If I find out you, or him, had anything⁠—”