Page 77 of How to Woo the Undead

“If what works?” He blinked rapidly. There was a moment when Hyacinth almost flew off into the storm without explaining.No, no we’re in this together. We’re figuring this out together. He said I love you, lovers don’t just fly off without explanation.She took a deep breath to keep her vibrating blood from sending her into the rafters of the barn like a bottle rocket.

“Sabine’s not possessing me, like you said.” She flapped her wet hands excitedly, her sleeves slapping at her side. “I think she wasn’t fully dead. Because what if you have to destroy the tree too? What if she’s stuck, not quite dead, but she’s not alive either.”

Austin’s eyes widened. He stumbled up to his feet, waggling a finger at her. “Sabine must be able to regenerate or something, and the tree is a part of her!”

“But when I took root in my body, she was still stuck here with me!” Hyacinth jumped up and down three times before spinning around with excitement. “Austin! What if I can do what she does? What if I just need to pick a tree, huh? Make it my tree! Then-then-then maybe I can do everything she used to? Greggory says if I’m Old Fae, I should be able to do all these things, and clearly she’s doing all these things but I’m not…so what if it’s because I haven’t picked a tree yet!”

Austin glanced over her shoulder at the torrential downpour behind her and grimaced. “Where are we going to find a tree in this weather?”

“The willow.” She beamed, stamping her feet excitedly against the hay. “The willow out front, where we found Snuffles!”

His eyes lit up as he nodded rapidly. “It’s the sturdiest tree in all of this realm! It was here since before even Smith!”

“Austin!” She laughed throwing her arms out to the side as the realization hit her. A cannon ball to her chest, shattering the reflection of a woman who knew what she was doing. “I don’t know how to do this! I could be wrong.”

“Well…” he trailed off, walking to the swinging doors. The pair glanced out at the yard. Grass and hay swirled angrily in the air as the sky roared. Rain fell over the house in buckets. Three bolts of lightning shot through the sky and lit other trees beyond the fence on fire before the storm quickly put it out. The following thunder rolled across the realm and left the pair both shaking.I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know if this is a good idea. I don’t even know if this will work!Austin laughed sheepishly, “It’s just a little rain. We make a break for the front yard, use as much of the porch as we can, then, you know, if it doesn’t work, then we go back inside. We sit by the fire while Greggory does some research, and we try again. We’re necromancers, not necro-giver-uppers!”

Hyacinth sputtered, hysteria and disbelief battling in the cavity of her chest. Laughter bubbled up through her until she was holding onto Austin for dear life. He grinned at her, scooping her up in his arms. He left a kiss to the tip of her nose before turning her toward the door. “I’ll be right behind you!”

She put her hands to the frame much like a cat avoiding a bath, her heart thundering.Because what if this doesn’t work. I saw what my rushing into things did. I felt what it did. We burned nearly to death-death.She squawked, “What does a kiss on the nose mean!”

“That I believe in you!”

A bark of laughter exploded out of her as she launched herself forward. Rain immediately slapped her. It dumped over her and re-drenched her as she pumped her arms. Her intention was tomake it to the porch. Austin said to use the porch as far as they could. The long stretch of gravel was already underwater. Her feet grew heavy, kicking and splashing.. She hiked up her skirt, pocketing it into the crook of each arm to keep the wind from catching it. Hyacinth fought bitter air that sliced against her cheeks, even though the pain was a distance memory, she could still register the wound. She was knocked left and right, her wings tugged like there were fingers wrapped around them. The rain was cruel. Cold and unforgiving, it was like running her face into a multitude of walls. One right after the other. Her legsached.

Exhaustion was the real villain as she stumbled up the steps toward the house. The world tilted and her legs stumbled over each other. If it weren’t for Austin catching her, she’d have hit the creaking wood like a sack of rocks. Hyacinth swiped her dripping hair from her face.We did it!She was bouncing on her numb toes.We made it!Austin shivered under the awning with her. Lightning split the sky behind him, his eyes glowing a bright red. His smile made bigger by his tusks as he swiped droplets off them.Now we just need to…

Her attention followed a dark mass crawling over the banister of the porch. Her stomach bottomed out. Hyacinth stumbled back, dragging Austin with her as Sabine stood up at the other end of the porch.No longer trapped behind a mirror or within dreams.Made of graveyard soil, gravel, bones that were carried away by the storm, and moldy leaves, her body formed slowly. Till her hollow eyes opened, staring directly at Hyacinth.

Austin bellowed. “Hyacinth…run!”

She didn’t have to be told twice. Twisting on her wet, bare feet, she bolted across the porch. It wrapped around the manor and she hit the corner a little too sharply. Her feet spun like carriage wheels in mud, going nowhere and everywhere all at once. Her left side hit the railing first and the air was knocked from herlungs. She danced away from the banister, gasping for air and holding her side. The wet fabric of her dress weighed her down as she stumbled over herself. Wind yanked her by the wings, and she fell down the side stairs into the thick, uncut side yard.

The willow was so far and yet so close. Austin called her name, urging her on. Hyacinth made the mistake of turning to see why he wasn’t racing ahead. Hand to claw, he struggled to keep the snapping maw of Sabine from closing around his jugular. Hyacinth tilted toward him only for him to bellow, “GO! She can’t hurt me! She needs you!”

Hyacinth was slapped by the rain on one side, then sucked into the side of the fence. A cry of pain was pulled out of her lungs as she felt the bones in her shoulder blades crunch. Something small but important snapped. She heard it echo in her skull. Putting her hands and feet against the fence, she peeled herself off the metal. When she looked out, the tornado’s funnel was right by the fence, little hands made of vines and dark clouds reached for her. They grabbed at any inch of her they could get. Tearing, ripping, shredding, their grubby fingers took a chunk of her hair along with parts of her dress. The fabric didn’t even fight them, melting off her like wet tissue paper. Hyacinth fell into a massive puddle in the yard in only her underdress.

Feet kicking at the slimy mud beneath her, she propelled herself across the grass. When the wind grew stronger, she clawed her way through the mud. Rain pummeled her, weighing her down till she was crawling on her hands and knees.

Thief!

That’s all the warning she got before bloody fingers got ahold of her hair and wrenched her back. Hyacinth screamed, flailing arms and legs as she was sucked back into the fence. Another crack told her something else snapped. The shock of it caused her to yell. There was no actual pain. Either she was too numbfrom the cold rain that froze her down to the bone, or it didn’t count when it was ghost hands of Sabine’s victims.

Hyacinth grit her teeth, peeling herself off the metal bars a second time before Sabine could attack again.

“This isMY body!” Hyacinth shrieked against the roar of the storm. Sabine’s eyes flashed as four bolts of lightning hit the ground outside the house. Hyacinth wrenched herself out of the hands of the wind funnel and dug her toes into the mud beneath her.This isn’t her.Hyacinth knew for a fact, seeing the skin flaking off the Sabine’s cheek, made of nothing but dead debris. This was a makeshift dryad. This was a vessel…but it wasn’t Sabine. “And I won’t let you have it!”

Sabine’s creature hunched over, mouth open to bare all her teeth at Hyacinth as she screamed. Hyacinthknewbetter. Fighting this creature was useless. It wasn’t Sabine. She broke left, pumping her arms and racing for the willow tree. She heard the creature following her, the sound of it crashing through the puddles filled Hyacinth with panic. Her veins vibrated, full of angry wasps and locusts as she leapt over roots and knocked over flowerpots. The tornado snatched up most of the debris from around her, trying to take her with it.

And it would have if Austin didn’t come out of the rain and rammed himself into Sabine’s creation. It howled as he pressed it into the fence with his shoulder. Hyacinth didn’t turn back at that time. She kept her eye on the tree as Austin turned the thing into paste. It’s shrieking died with a clap of thunder. Hyacinth had no plan. Had no idea what she was doing. Had nothing but pure instinct as she threw herself through the air and the spindly branches of the willow.

Her arms wrapped around the thick trunk, burrowing her fingernails into its bark. Heaving for air, she begged the willow, “Be my grove! Please, you’ve got to be my grove.”

Nothing.

The tornado’s continued to rip up everything. The rain dumped viciously over their heads. And dread crept up her spine.

Come on!