Poison Forest by Lauri Starling

Author:Lauri Starling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sapphic fantasy, lgbt+ fantasy, lgbt fantasy, young adult fantasy, ya fantasy
Publisher: Sword and Silk Books
Published: 2022-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

My arm is worse when I wake up. It feels like the scratches have festered under the stitches, and it hurts so much I can barely stand up straight. I can’t stop thinking about the sylph girl. I hate myself for letting her die. It was weak to let her take my vial just because she attacked me. She clearly wasn’t in her right mind.

Nor will you be, by the end, says the nagging voice in my head. You will never leave Thornewood, just like her. Like your mother.

Disjointed thoughts flit through my mind. Fuck, what did he do to her? How long did she suffer? Why did he admit to killing her? He must pay for what he’s done.

When we stop to rest and drink water, I peel back the bandage on my arm. Green pus oozes from the slashes, which are crusted with black scabs.

“How’s it feel?” asks Gate.

I tuck the bandage back in place before he can see it. “Fine, I guess,” I say shakily. “Sore.”

“We should go. If you’re too tired to walk, we can carry you.”

I give him a disgusted look. “I can walk.”

I trudge after him and Neev. When I drink from my water skin my tongue tastes of copper, and my ears ring until my skull is buzzing like a hive of angry bees.

After Neev and Agate have left me behind half a dozen times, they take turns letting me lean on them to walk. “Make them stop,” I say to Neev at some point.

“Make who stop?”

“The voices. They won’t stop jabbering in my ears.”

Neev looks frightened. “Thedra...the only one speaking is you. You’ve been whispering about—

“Don’t,” Gate cuts her off. “Telling her won’t make any difference.”

“Telling me what? What are you hiding from me?”

“Nothing.”

I pull my arm from the warm crook of Neev’s elbow. “I don’t want to walk anymore. Let me lie down. I wish we were back in that sunny hollow.”

“Thedra, we have to get you to the sylphs,” pleads Neev. “You’re not well.”

When I look at her and Gate now, I hardly recognize them. Their faces are the same, but my mind won’t confirm who they are. They look hazy, like the face of a dead loved one in a dream. Like the sylph girl, and the way I thought she was Dette at first. Was she even real? Or just another one of my nightmares taking form? I’m realizing nothing in this forest is what it seems.

My arm throbs beneath the bandages, and I stop in the middle of the path and sink to my knees, my fingers grasping at the dirt. My skull throbs like it’s going to burst into a thousand pieces. I’ve never wanted anything more than I want to lay my head on the mossy ground and never pick it up again.

The next time I’m aware of my surroundings, Gate is carrying me, grunting and panting from my weight. I’m not petite like Neev—I have a good appetite and muscles from riding and wielding. He’ll lord this over me later.

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