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They’re not fast enough.

We’ve barely taken ten steps when a slew of vines drops from the treetops, reaching for one of the soldiers.

It happens in less than a second.

They wrap around his arms and shoulders and jerk him up into the canopy overhead.

“Oh,shit,” I curse.

I’ve never seenthatbefore.

The soldier’s feet kick at empty air as the treetops swallow him up.

My wings open on reflex.

Not going to lose another soldier.

Before any of the others can stop me, I leap into the air. My wings beat furiously, lifting me toward the guard. He’s still tangled in vines, and they pin his body to the trunk of the tree.

Using my claws, I slash through the plants. But as quickly as I cut through them, more form, winding around the soldier.

What in the world?

I manage to free one of his hands, and with it, he pulls out his own sword and hacks away at the vines.

One of the ropy branches darts out, wrapping around his wrist and squeezing,squeezing. I hear the crack of his bones breaking. The soldier cries out, his weapon falling uselessly to the forest floor beneath us.

I rip through the plants, freeing his mangled wrist. As I do so, vines snake around my own body, twisting around my torso.

Shit.

I’m pried away from the guard, and my body is flung to the ground. I land on my hands and knees, and for several seconds, I just rest there, breathing heavily.

The four remaining soldiers close in around me, helping me to my feet. Already several of them have their wings out. No doubt they were about to join me up in the canopy.

I glance above me. As I watch, the vines completely ensnare the soldier, cleaving him to the tree.

And then—horror of horrors—with a wet rip, the trunk of the tree parts around the fairy and begins to suck him in.

“Holyfuck.”

Once more, my wings flare out, but the remaining soldiers hold me fast.

“We need to leave,” one of them says.

But I can’t look away.

It only takes seconds for the trunk of the tree to fully wrap around the fairy and then another several seconds for it to reseal, starting at the soldier’s feet and working its way up, leaving a thin line of blood in its wake.

And then it’s over.

A tree just swallowed a soldier before my eyes.

I did this. I led these guards into this sinister-ass forest, and now two men are gone.

I spend several seconds glaring at the treetops and berating myself as they lead me away before I remember.

I am the Night King’s mate. I’m no victim, I’m a survivor, a fighter.