Page 68 of Spirit Trials

“There’s one thing I haven’t quite figured out yet,” Kinsley says.

“What’s that?” I ask, shifting to get more comfortable.

“How are we supposed to relieve ourselves if our feet can’t touch the ground?” I grin and let Harper take this one. A minute later, I hear an, “Eww. Gross. I’m not doing that.”

It gets quiet after that, and I settle myself against the tree trunk. We found more than enough of the huge leaves that we were able to put them behind our backs, so we don’t have to lean up against sharp, scratchy bark. I stare out into the quiet, feeling grateful. This was a pretty easy first day, nothing like day one of the last trial. I’m hoping that the rest of the days will be the same and all we’ll have to do is just wait it out. I should have known it wouldn’t be as easy as that.

My eyes shoot open.I can’t breathe!I push at the hands around my throat as my brain tries to catch up. Panic courses through me, and I thrash at the big body in front of me. I try to thrust my hips up, but I’m still tied to the tree. I throw my head forward, catching my attacker in the nose. There’s a muffled curse. “Why can’t you just die already!” He goes for my throat, but I’m ready this time. I grab a knife from my side and slice his arm, not enough to severely injure him, more to just slow him down.

“You stupid—”

“Farrah!”

“What’s going on?”

I hear Harper and Kinsley, but I’m still fighting the guy trying to kill me. “Get away from her!”

“Don’t come over here,” I shout to Harper, even as I push the guy’s hands away from me.

“Why not!” Harper yells back.

“Because I don’t think this branch can hold any more weight, and I’m not going down because of this idiot.” I heave and push him away. I take my knife and use the handle and bring it down hard on the side of his head. He slumps forward, and suddenly I’m met with a whole new problem.

“Ugh,” I grunt as his weight falls on me.

“Still don’t want help?” Harper asks dryly.

“Okay, yeah,” I grunt out. I can’t move with his weight on me. “Just be careful,” I call out breathlessly.

“I know.” I hear movement.

“Are you okay, Farrah?” Kinsley calls out.

“Peachy,” I grunt out.

“Okay. I'm here,” Harper says from my right. “Let’s just push him off you.”

“No.”

“No?” she repeats.

“No, if we push him off, first of all, he’ll probably break something. Second, he’ll be out if he hits the ground.”

“And the problem with that is...” Harper asks.

“I’m not going to do that to him,” I argue, still trying to wrestle the big body off me.

“Farrah, he tried to kill you.”

“I know. I was there.”

“Farrah, he deserves to be out,” Kinsley calls out from her tree.

“He probably does, but I'm not going to be the one to do it to him.”

Harper sighs loudly. “What’s the plan then?”

“We need to get him off me and... tie him to the tree.”