Page 36 of Trapped By Clocks and Hearts

“Ah, dammit!” Allie’s face twisted in the effort as she tried to tug at the leafy cords wrapped around her arms. “It’s fine!” she called out to dismiss. “It’s just a plant. I can get myself out.”

The tangle of vines rose higher from the ground with Allie in its grasp, her legs dangling beneath her, suspended nearly as high as some of the trees around us. Then this bramble of vines, slowly but surely, began to crawl along the forest floor.

I stepped back, preparing to get some momentum to take a run at the vines—but instead, I collapsed to one knee. I clutched at my throat as it threatened to close up. I shot the menacing plant a dark glare.

With an almost sentient malevolence, the unrelenting grip of the leafy vines around Allie was constricting tighter in a coil. She was starting to suffocate.

The rainbow was showing its true colors. It was a beast that lured its prey with the sweetest of honeys before it devoured them, a predatory trap for those with flights of fancy. Its shadowy monstrous form swelled from the ground with Allie still in its python grip.

She choked out a cry and I groaned at the same time as the monster squeezed harder.

It was like I was in a vise. Large red welts forming on my arms began to sting like hell.

Allie cried out again.

I hissed as I tried to keep up. My eyes could only widen as the menacing vines began to sprout a nightmare of thorns all over. Telltale bleeding cuts were forming on my arms. If this went on, I would lose my strength too.

Allie’s next whine was fainter. The mere sound tore at my insides.

Almost with a shout of outrage, I forced my body straight, darting back to bound off of a nearby tree so I could pounce on the rainbow monster’s elevated tangle of vines.

Coming to reach Allie, I clawed on the rough tendrils constricted around her even as the monster rumbled on, possibly looking for somewhere to quietly digest its meal.

Allie’s eyelids were drooping. She was about to lose consciousness. I didn’t have much time.

A surge of energy shot through my body as my magic reawakened. I blinked in realization. The monster must have finally moved us far enough away from the river.

With my renewed strength, I tore at the vines again. This time, they disintegrated under my hands. I scooped Allie up in my arms and shot off to fly us away.

But the darkness of the monster’s insides had taken over the bright colors surrounding us. It was sucking us in and was going to swallow us whole. No matter how fast I flew us upward, we couldn’t seem to escape its pitch-dark clutches. I could barely even tell if we were flying out or getting sucked in deeper.

Dammit!

Slowly regaining consciousness, Allie mumbled a complaint in my arms.

“I told you rainbows were dangerous!” I couldn’t resist pointing out.

Her face was still sour but as she got her bearings back, her grip around my neck tightened. “Oh, come on. I thought you were the most powerful sorcerer in Wünder?”

“Sorcerers are one thing. Beasts are another,” I pointed out, struggling to keep up our pace.

The wind whipping past her face, her eyelids seemed to droop again. She still seemed halfway lucid. “Kill it. Kill it with fire.”

“What?”

Fire magic was a tricky thing to conjure, perhaps the trickiest. Wary of the considerable drain on my powers, I would likely only have one shot at the beast. It was too big for me to stab with my dagger.

“I have a theory,” Allie proposed.

I barely stifled the urge to groan. Oh, here we go again.

“No, listen, it only makes sense. Rainbows are light reflected in water droplets. Subjected to extreme heat, if those drops were to evaporate, there would be nothing for light to pass through, so—”

Screw it. I didn’t bother waiting for her to finish. I had to try something.

Gritting my teeth, I waved my hand to conjure a fire to repel the beast. A bright orange flame from my hand grew larger and larger until it enveloped Allie and me. I squinted at my hand. This fire was somehow more intense than I’d ever conjured before.

Not stopping to analyze my surprise, I took a deep breath and flicked my wrist to disperse my fire at the beast.