An army of trees and bushes stretched out before us. Even in the dark of night, the colorful fruits and flowers were clearly visible among the leaves. Some even emitted a faint glow. I shifted my gaze to Callan, who stood beside me and was also staring out at the forbidden landscape.
“This is a bad idea.”
He glanced down at me. “Agreed.”
I nodded. “Let’s do it.”
“Yep.”
After drawing in a deep breath, we snuck into Harvey Grant’s strange gardens.
Immediately, the air changed. When we had walked over from where we had tied our horses, the air had smelled like grass warmed from a long day of bright summer sunlight. But with every step into the gardens, the scent changed to something sweeter. Heavier. Like a jumble of flowers and ripe fruit.
I ran my gaze over the vegetation as we walked. So far, there were only flowers on the trees and bushes next to us, which meant that we had to move even farther in to get to our target. While we walked, I glanced over at Callan again.
Using my poison magic to take revenge on him hadn’t been nearly as satisfying as I had expected it to be. Maybe it was because he had volunteered for it. I had given him every opportunity to fight back. To touch his palms together and throw a force wall at me. But he had just looked back at me with those eyes that shone with far too much worry for his friend, while taking my punishment.
Logically, everything that Callan had done back there in his study should have made me lose respect for him. We were dark mages and power was our currency. And he had gotten down on his knees to beg me for help and then done nothing to stop me when I poisoned him. But for some strange reason, it hadn’t made me see him as weak. On the contrary. It had actually made me respect the bastard more.
Irritation crackled through me. I wasn’t supposed to respect Callan Blackwell. I was supposed to find ways to screw him over and then ultimately kill him. Which was why I had agreed to help him save Henry. As soon as I had my magic back, I could technically just have left without fulfilling my end of the bargain. But I still wanted Lance. And I still wanted revenge, real revenge, on Callan. So while he might think that we were on the same side until we had freed Henry, I was actually plotting out ways to betray him when he least expected it. And then I would never have to let my annoyingly confusing feelings about that damn force mage worry me again.
I was jolted out of my nefarious plans when Callan suddenly grabbed my arm. Drawing my brows down in a scowl, I turned to face him.
“We’ve reached the fruit,” he said before I could spit out a single word.
Returning my gaze to the path ahead, I realized that he was right. While flowers still bloomed on the branches around us, some of the trees and bushes were now heavy with different fruits.
“We shouldn’t go any deeper than we absolutely have to,” Callan continued while keeping his grip on my forearm. “Grant might talk a lot of shit, but I’m pretty sure there’s a reason why the people who go here to attack him never make it out again.”
I yanked my arm away and rolled my shoulder, but said, “I agree. So let’s just grab two of everything here and get out again.”
“Yeah.” He leveled a commanding stare at me. “Stay where I can see you.”
“Aw,” I said in a mocking tone. “Are you afraid I’ll leave you?”
He snorted. “We both know that you could’ve left already if you wanted to. So the fact that you’re still here means that you want to be here.”
While giving him a smile dripping with sweet poison, I reached up and patted his cheek. “Don’t flatter yourself, pretty boy. I’m still here because, as opposed to you, I actually keep my promises.”
Letting out a dark chuckle, he wrapped his fingers around my wrist and moved my hand away from his face. “Oh that’s gotta be the lie of the century.” He released my wrist and took a step back. “Now, stay in sight. We don’t know what the hell is lurking in here.”
Before I could answer, he unslung his pack and strode over to the closest bush. Reaching out, he picked one of the large round pieces of fruit on it and dropped it in the pack. I slid mine off my shoulders as well and moved to a different bush.
Fruit that almost looked like apples, except they had a glowing blue color, hung on the leaf-clad branches. I pulled one off and placed it in my pack before grabbing another one.
My bag was slowly filled as I picked two of every fruit I could see, while still staying in sight of Callan. While I hated his commanding tone, he was right. There was no telling what Grant had put in these gardens, so it was best not to get separated.
When only the same kinds of fruits remained, I turned back to Callan. He was scowling up at the assortment of colorful fruits that hung too far up to reach.
“What about these?” he said, as if he could feel me looking at him.
While holding my now half-full pack in one hand, I drifted over to stand next to him. “I’m not climbing any trees.”
“Me neither.”
“Then let’s leave them.”
“What if they’re the ones we need?”
I sucked my teeth. “Good point.”
For a while, only the nightly song of crickets broke the silence. Moonlight bathed the garden in silver light, making some of the fruits above our heads glitter as if they were covered in liquid starlight.
“I could always mount you.”
Callan snapped his gaze to me. “What?”
“You know…” A sly smile stretched my lips. “I could climb onto your shoulders, and then I’d be able to reach the fruit.”
He shook his head in exasperation, but then let out a huff of amusement. “That’s actually not a bad idea. Though the presentation could use some work.” Crouching down, he shot me a pointed look. “Come on then. Let’s get this over with.”
After shifting the grip on my pack, I moved over to Callan and swung my leg over his back until it was draped over his shoulder. He placed his hands over my shins as I slid fully onto his shoulders and moved my other leg into position as well.
He pushed to his feet.
My muscles clenched tight, trying to prevent me from toppling backwards, but there was no need. His broad shoulders were steady and he had wrapped his hands around my legs to make sure I didn’t fall.
That word, that word that should never be used in the same sentence as Callan’s name, shot through my mind again. Safe.
I gave my head a violent shake to clear the insanity from it. Lifting my arm, I instead began picking the fruits that were now within reach. When I was done with one tree, Callan moved to the next one. His warm, muscular body remained steady underneath me as he walked while I filled my pack.
This suggestion had been a half joke on my part. I hadn’t thought he would actually agree to carry me on his shoulders. Mostly, it surprised me that he had listened at all. As if he valued my opinion. Or maybe it was just because he was so desperate to save Henry that he didn’t immediately shoot down my ideas.
Lightning crackled through my body.
I paused halfway to some kind of yellow fruit and snapped my gaze downwards instead.
Another jolt passed through me, drawing a shudder from my body.
While holding on to my legs, Callan had started absentmindedly tracing circles on my calves with his thumbs. It was such a casually intimate thing to do that I momentarily forgot what I had been about to say.
Another shiver racked my frame.
“Stop that,” I snapped as I tried to suppress the wave of pleasure that made my skin prickle.
Callan tilted his head all the way back so that he could meet my gaze. From that angle, starlight reflected in his dark brown eyes and made them look like they were dusted with silver glitter.
My heart did a double beat.
“Stop what?” he asked, a smirk playing over his lips.
I glared down at him. “You know what.”
A chuckle rumbled from his chest, but he thankfully stopped tracing his thumbs over my legs.
Once I was done picking the fruits, he crouched down again and helped me off his shoulders. I brushed my hands down my clothes in a move that suddenly felt a bit awkward. Shaking my head, I shoved the feeling aside and hoisted my now full pack instead.
“Let’s go,” I said.
Callan gave me a knowing look, but said nothing as he slung his own pack over his shoulders.
We turned back towards the direction we had come from.
Then we stopped.
“Audrey…” Callan began.
“Yeah?”
“Where’s the path?”
We had followed a narrow path between the trees and bushes when we walked in here, but that small opening was suddenly nowhere to be found. It was as if the vegetation had just grown right over it, leaving only a thick leaf-covered wall.
I flicked my gaze up and down it. “We can probably still squeeze through.”
A dubious expression drifted over Callan’s features, but he only nodded in reply. Keeping my eyes on the green barrier before me, I started in the direction that the path should have been in. Callan fell in beside me.
Leaves rustled around us as a warm night wind swept through the gardens.
When we reached the wall that blocked our way out, we stopped and exchanged a glance.
“Should we just…?” I motioned towards it.
“Yeah.”
As one, we reached out and placed our hands on the leaves, trying to push them aside.
The world spun around me. Or maybe I was the one who was spinning. Green leaves flashed in my vision, fluttering around me like a tornado.
Then it stopped.
I blinked, trying to get my bearings.
Panic pulsed at the base of my skull.
The bushes and trees had disappeared on all sides. And so had the grass. Callan and I were now standing on the only bit of solid ground as far as the eye could see. Beyond the edge on all sides was a drop that looked to be at least a thousand feet.
“What the hell just happened?” Callan said, his eyes wide as he stared out at the nothingness around us.
“I don’t know.”
“It has to be some kind of trick.”
“Yeah.”
He slid his gaze to me. “So, how do we snap out of it?”
“I could always try punching you in the face.”
“Careful now.”
“Or what?” I raised my eyebrows at him. “You’ll throw me off the platform?”
“Tempting.”
“Well, in that case, make sure you push me in the right direction because you only get one chance before you have to throw yourself off it too in order to test which way might be hiding a path out.”
That tore a laugh from his throat.
It made something warm swirl in my chest. I promptly drowned it in a bucket of cold water. Massaging my brows, I forced my mind back on track.
“The path disappeared and then everything disappeared,” I said, thinking out loud. “And all we did was touch the leaves.”
Realization struck like a lightning bolt.
Of course. That had to be it.
Touching my palms together, I directed the poison through my own body until that smooth cool feeling flowed through every part of me.
The steep drop wobbled before my eyes. A second later, the scenery disappeared as if someone had yanked up a curtain. Only a darkened garden waited before me now. I flicked my gaze to the sides. The path we had taken to get here was now back where it should be, a few steps to our left.
I chuckled. That was a clever trick. I had to commend Grant for going to the trouble of importing dream foil. We must have been breathing in the hallucinogenic pollen that the bushes emitted from the moment we walked through, which created the illusion that the path had disappeared. And then when we touched them while trying to get out, we were hit with an even stronger dose that had messed with our heads and made it seem like we were stranded on a pillar. It’s a pretty nasty plant. But the problem is that you can’t poison a poisoner.
“What?” Callan growled from next to me. “Why are you laughing?”
Twisting my head, I looked over at him. He was still shifting his gaze back and forth as if he was scanning a vast empty area around him.
I might be able to kill the hallucinogenic substance that we had breathed in, but Callan certainly couldn’t.
“I found the way out,” I answered at last.
“Where?”
If I wanted to, I could send poison into his body as well so that the imaginary drop would disappear. But I still had a lot of revenge to exact before I was satisfied, so I was going to wait to save him from the illusion until we were already outside the tree line. If he wanted out of here, he was going to have to step right out into what to him still looked like a massive chasm. That should teach him some humility. And fear.
Reaching out, I took his hand. “Over here.”
His large hand was warm against my skin as he threaded his fingers through mine and held me tightly. Then he nodded. “Alright, lead the way.”
Surprise flashed through me. He still only saw a thousand-foot drop before him. There was absolutely no way for him to know whether I was really leading him towards a safe path. I could just as easily be pulling him towards the edge while I stepped onto the path alone instead. But when I moved towards the narrow opening we had come from, he followed me without hesitation.
It took everything I had to keep from staring at him in disbelief. Did he actually trust me that much? Or at all?
Reason bloomed inside me. Of course he didn’t trust me. He was following my lead because he simply had no other choice.
It was either walk where I told him to, or be trapped inside the illusion in Grant’s garden until one of two things happened. One. He stumbled around blindly until Grant found him, which would most likely end in his death. Or, two. He stumbled around blindly until he eventually died of thirst. The third option was to follow my lead.
When I put it like that, it didn’t appear as outlandish as I had first thought.
Of course Callan Blackwell didn’t trust me.
Why would he?
