Page 44 of Fae Queen Rising (The Crown of Everguard #1)

H is blood. Everywhere.

All over my hands.

Heaving, gulping, deep breaths of air, trying to make sense of what just happened.

Avicii lays prone on the ground before me, flattening the heads of lettuce and spinach with a thunk where he fell.

But around us, the birds keep chirping. The breeze caresses the loose strands of hair that have fallen out of my bun in the struggle. The cloudless sky above is the same bright blue of Avicii’s unseeing eyes at my feet.

The vines slowly retreat. The thick, leafy trunks wind their way around Avicii’s ankles, tugging his dead body along with them. Away from me. As he’s pulled across the field and toward the edge of the forest, the rays of sunlight glint against the gold of his hair for the last time and he’s already forgotten by the setting sun.

A sob escapes me, and I crumple to my knees in the dirt now mixed with Avicii’s blood.