As the new, thicker vines fused together once again, Lorelai reached Leo, who was struggling to his feet, the reckless light that usually gleamed in his eyes replaced with fear. Wrapping her gloved hands firmly around his, she hauled him toward the last open space between the chimney and the catwalk.
“She’s making one large snake thing,” Leo said as they stumbled and slid toward the next catwalk. “I give her points for flair, though black is a dull color choice.” His voice shook, a blend of bravado and terror. He clung to Lorelai’s hand, steadying her when she needed it, and using her as his anchor when his feet began to slip.
“Don’t look back.” Lorelai assessed the catwalk, her heart pounding as beneath the hiss of the vines behind them, the building groaned and shuddered. “Just run.”
“This is the last building on the street. We’ll have to jump and run the rest of the way on the ground.”
“Stay with me,” Lorelai said as the hanging vines finished fusing together and became an enormous, monstrous thing as wide as the weaponsmith’s shop and nearly twice as tall. “Go!”
They ran, feet pounding over the iron catwalk as the vines behind them hissed and snapped and the enormous thing in the alley stretched toward the sky, its skin sounding like fabric tearing as it doubled, then tripled in size.
Lorelai’s boots hit the roof of the next shop, following instantly by Leo’s. She was already running, heading for the chimney as the vines behind them ripped the weaponsmith’s apart, rending wood and brick like they was paper and scattering the pieces to the cobblestones below.
Leo rushed to her side, and together they skidded down the eastern edge of the roof while the vines burst into the building beneath them. “Hurry!”
The monstrous thing above them writhed and stretched, its bulk casting a long shadow across the rooftops of Nordenberg. Beneath their feet, the shingles buckled and cracked as smaller vines pushed their way through the shop and onto the roof.
Lorelai reached the roof’s edge first and launched herself into the air. She rolled as her feet touched the ground, and came up to find Leo right beside her. A short distance away, vines snaked across the alley, rushing toward them in the shadow of the monster that now towered over the entire village.
“I never thought I’d be grateful for all the land sprints Gabril makes us do,” Leo said.
“Nakhgor. Kaz`prin,” Irina shouted, her voice raw with power but edged with weariness.
“She’s tiring. We just have to outrun these things a little longer,” Lorelai said, and hoped she was telling the truth. Maybe Irina’s magic stopped when she grew exhausted from the strain of overpowering the heart of Ravenspire for her own uses.
Or maybe her magic, once unleashed, took on a life of its own.
They ran toward edge of the village, their boots pounding the cobblestones as the vines closed in behind them, hissing and writhing with incredible speed. Leo held himself back, keeping pace beside her, his brown eyes wide as he glanced over his shoulder to assess the towering threat behind them. Buildings flew past, and Lorelai could see the sloping meadow of wild grass that hugged the village entrance, and beyond that, the line of trees that seemed like a beacon of safety to the princess.
They’d hide in the trees. Wait out the remnants of Irina’s spell, and when it was over, they’d do what they’d come here to do: go to the apothecary’s and find medicine for Gabril.
They were almost to the gate, almost to the meadow, when Leo cried out and stumbled to a halt. She whirled to find a vine wrapped around his ankle, its serrated edges slicing through his trousers and drawing blood.
“Leo!” She grabbed the dagger from its sheath at her ankle as another vine slammed into her, sending her skidding across the cobblestones. She rolled to her left before it could wrap around her arm and sent the dagger sliding toward Leo. He snatched it and stabbed at the vine’s bulbous head. A viscous black liquid foamed out of the vine, over his glove, and onto the bare skin of his wrist.
He screamed, a terrible wail of agony that sent a shaft of desperate panic into Lorelai and had the heat in her hands blazing. She lunged for him, dodging vines and buckled cobblestones. Slipping her hands beneath his arms, she pulled with all her might.
He slid toward the gate.
The vine slid with him, its grip unchanged by the gaping wound in its head. The black liquid wrapped around his wrist and burrowed in, a shackle beneath his skin.
The monstrous vine that towered over the village trembled violently and then, with a tremendous crack, unfurled hundreds of glistening snakelike tendrils that arced through the air toward the edges of the village.
“Oh no. It’s a cage.” The air felt too thick to breathe as Lorelai’s pulse pounded against her skin in frantic beats. It was a cage, and it was going to trap them here with Irina if Lorelai couldn’t get them free. Digging her boots into the ground, she pulled with all her might. Leo slid closer to the gate as the vine around his ankle stretched thin. “We have to leave now. Help me, Leo. Push with your feet. Slide back.”