Page 42 of The Unseen Hour (The Unseen Hour Duology #1)

W e didn’t stop until the trees grew thick around us.

I fell on my back, winded.

“Are you all right?” we asked each other at the same time.

“I’ll live.” Orion laughed, then sucked in a sharp breath. “Although my ribs may be useless for a while. I appreciate Death’s help, but I landed all wrong. I do have one bit of good news, though.”

“And what is that?”

He reached into his pack and pulled out the glistening wooden baton. Its color matched the trees near Orion’s hut, and the handle was smooth but gleamed with the same color as the cave crystals.

“We did it!” I yelled, leaping to my feet and regretting it instantly as pain shot through my newly bruised legs. I sat down, staring at the baton in Orion’s hand. “ You did it,” I said again, softer.

He sighed.

“One step closer to defeating Charon, and his hour.”

We used a small trickle of water on Orion’s side but preserved the rest. After all, we still had Charon’s residence to get through.

Orion sighed as the water went to work.

The first full day of walking back was largely uneventful, aside from the scenery. At one point the familiar trees fell away, and we found ourselves surrounded by a growing number of large hedges. After a while, we couldn’t see anything over the plants.

“It’s like we’re in a maze,” Orion observed.

“We could try and circle back, find where it starts and go around the perimeter?”

Orion was frowning at the tall shrubbery around us. It was quiet within its bounds.

“I don’t love the idea of spending more time in an unfamiliar portion of the woods with potential predators and possibly Odos on our trail, but I think I like this place even less.”

We turned around but had barely begun to retrace our steps when it became evident that wouldn’t be an option.

“They’ve grown around us. There’s no way out. Bloody ghosts!” Orion cursed, staring at the solid wall of greenery where a path had one been.

We were quite literally hedged in.

Orion pulled the knife from his boot, slashing at the leaves and branches. Bits of hedge fell at our feet, but as quickly as it hit the ground, it grew again, thicker, giving us less space.

Orion stopped. He put the knife back and scowled at the hedges.

“Sometimes I forget just how much power gods have,” I whispered, watching to see if the hedges would continue to close in.

They didn’t.

Orion sighed.

“We’ve got a long journey ahead of us. The good thing is that it looks like if we don’t harm the plants, they won’t harm us.”

“And I’m guessing you’ve never seen anything like this before?”

“No. Even with all my time in the Ether, I haven’t seen everything.

I’ve focused on survival. Once I had an area that contained what I needed, I left it at that.

I marked boundaries based on where I encountered trouble, and stayed away.

All those years I wanted to be free to explore, and once I got down here I lost my desire.

Things are different now, of course. I should have looked at every square inch of the Ether several times over. ”

But he’d been alone, and he’d lost everyone and everything. It was no wonder he had wanted to protect what he had left. His life, his cottage, his safe area in the forest with the tree hoppers and squirrels. Even his trips to the less-than-responsive Shades.

“Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out together. Why don’t we keep moving forward?”

Orion held my hand as we turned back in the direction we’d been going before the hedges closed in.

We had no stars to navigate by, but we could watch the directions the lights ran in overhead. They’d gone back to deep purple and blue, but from what we could tell we’d continued in roughly the same direction walking overnight.

I yawned, putting the back of my hand over my face.

“They are pretty, although they’re a bit repetitive,” I observed as we continued down a long opening between the hedges. The leaves were large and had several points apiece. They were lush and green, held together by twisting limbs.

“Look!” Orion pointed, and I saw that ahead of us there was a break in the monotony. A tree.

We ran for it.

I was worried the hedges might block us off from our exit, but they never moved. We made it out of the plants, and just like that, we were back in a forest of familiar trees.

“I’ve never been so happy to see a tree in all my life.” I threw my arms around the nearest one, laughing when my embrace sent a gray squirrel skittering up the trunk.

“Sorry small friend! Just happy to be free of the maze.”

Once we were far enough that we could no longer see the hedges behind us, we felt safe to stop and rest.

“We can take it in shifts. I’ll watch first,” Orion said after I’d gotten settled on our one blanket.

I didn’t have the energy to argue with him, but I made him swear to wake me up when he needed rest as well.

I was exhausted enough that sleep came easily, and I was so deep into it that I wasn’t sure where I even was when I first felt something grabbing at my arm.

After a couple of confused moments I jerked upright, convinced Orion was hauling me up.

Were we being attacked? I felt something else on my leg.

“Ry? What is it? Is something wrong?”

He was walking a perimeter around where we’d stopped, looking out into the trees. He turned back to me.

“Everything’s fine. You can go back to sl?—”

His eyes went wide, and something snaked around my face, covering my mouth. I screamed, but my voice was muffled. Looking down, I saw vines trailing across the ground and twisting themselves around my legs and wrists .

“Starlight!” Orion charged over, pulling out his knife and hacking at the vines around my face.

As he did, I was slammed into the ground when the vines around my legs tightened and began to pull.

“Ry!”

Panicked, I twisted and flopped, trying to reach my own knife, but I couldn’t.

I gasped in pain as I was dragged over rocks and rough patches.

In the distance ahead, I saw the hedges again.

The area where we’d exited was no longer a welcome sign of freedom.

It looked like a yawning mouth, ready to swallow me up.

“I’m coming!” Orion yelled, running after me as the plants hauled me over the ground at surprising speed.

He threw the knife, and it wedged itself in a thick vine that was wrapped around one of my arms. That bit of vine went slack, and I was able to slide my left arm loose. Small thorns went flying from the vine in Orion’s direction.

I struggled more when I realized the plant was fighting back. It was alive enough not merely to grab me but also to respond to Orion’s attacks.

“Your knife!” Ry yelled, who now had several thorns stuck into his arms and pant leg. I was able to reach it with my left hand; I pulled it out and began hacking at the vines around my leg.

One released, and my left leg slid loose. Orion continued to chase me as I got to work freeing my other arm.

Just as I did so, I was slammed into the ground and felt my chin get knocked into the dirt. It was almost as if the plant knew what I’d done and was offended. I tried to twist around and reach the remaining vine on my leg, but it held firm and was now whipping me side to side.

Unable to focus on the vines themselves, I changed strategies and dug my knife into the dirt .

Orion ran past me. I twisted my neck in time to see him retrieve his own knife and begin hacking at the remaining vine holding me. More vines slid past him, twisting around both my legs. One snapped him in the face, and I saw a line of red appear on his cheek.

“Ry!” I yelled, then screamed as the knife holding me fast started to slip out of the dirt.

It wobbled, and my grip loosened. I tried to grasp it and slam it back in the ground, but the moment I adjusted my grip I was pulled backward, losing my hold entirely.

“Ry!” I screamed again as I flew past him, being dragged backward by the singular vine still intact.

I was pulled into the hedges, and the last thing I saw before they closed in was Orion’s wide eyes as he ran for me.