CHAPTER 190

He tried to withdraw the magic, but it burned deep inside him, like inhaling hot smoke. Time was going back to normal, and the next few moments of his life would change everything. He had come into this fight with the attitude that nothing else mattered, but he knew now that it wasn't true. No matter what was going on in his life, there were still plenty of people who mattered to him.

And right now, they needed him to come back alive.

"No," he muttered through gritted teeth, feeling his magic try to feed his rage back into him. It was trying to establish a feedback loop and he fought back. The anger needed to go somewhere else, but where?

The magic couldn't be stopped, the spell had already begun. He thought back to sitting at the table with Dana, wondering if magic was like energy. The sparks had sunk into the wood of the table and vanished. He couldn't let it back into his own body, nor could he use it to kill Leeds. It would have to go somewhere else, but where could he put it without causing destruction?

Be one with the woods. It wasn't Bigfoot's voice he heard, but the owl-woman. He could almost feel her gaze on him, see those intense eyes peering through his very soul.

Screaming in fury, he stopped fighting the magic and fought to adjust his aim. The blade twisted and missed Leeds' chest, piercing the demon's wing and sinking deep into the ground. Blue and red flames ate away at the membrane of the wing, searing the flesh as Leeds howled in agony.

Crimson bands of light swirled around the two of them as Mike forced his mind into the ground, seeking out every strand of life he could find. He could feel the land beneath him, his magic touching every tree, bush and animal. Their minds were briefly part of him, and he was them, and then he was everywhere. For a split second, he and the land were one, and it felt like his head would explode from the pressure.

He channeled his anger, grief, and rage into the spell, willing it to depart from him, to feed the land and make it grow. In that moment, he felt how everything was connected, saw how he could turn tragedy and death into beauty and life.

"Velvet." He whispered her name like a prayer, letting her go.

The swirling maelstrom of magic channeled itself through his elbow and down into the bowels of the Earth itself, spreading far and wide. His rage was sucked along with it as the magic spread out like a blanket and warmed the tired soil beneath. Stubborn foliage pushed its way through the snow, and the trees shook off their snow and held their branches high in pride.

There was a loud snap, and pain flared up Mike's arm as the last of the magic passed through it. Gasping in agony, he was unable to stop Leeds from kicking him hard in the chest, which sent him sprawling across the snow.

"Fool!" Leeds leapt to his feet and laughed. "You were so close, closer than anyone's ever gotten!" He flapped his wings and jumped into the air, only to tumble about before coming to rest in the low branches of a tree. Puzzled, the Jersey Devil extended the wing Mike had pierced to reveal a large hole.

"Looks like your flying days are over," Mike told him between gritted teeth.

"This? This will heal." Leeds summoned the shadows around him. "But your friends? They will be dead fore--"

The tree swung one of its upper branches into Leeds, cracking him in the back of the skull and knocking him down to the ground. He landed with a thud, then cried out in pain when flowers burst out of the snow and wrapped around his neck.

What few Nirumbi were left frozen as the trees around them came to life. Tree roots ripped free from beneath the snow and grabbed Leeds by the ankles to drag him away. He let out a cry of terror as the beasts of the woods descended on him, scratching and biting as he passed. The roots passed him from trunk to trunk as nearby bushes scoured his flesh with thorns and sharp branches.

Mike stood, wincing as he tucked his arm into his belly. Nearby trees smashed the altar as he followed after Leeds.

"What happened?" Dana sniffed the air, then looked at him. "It's your magic, I can smell it everywhere."

"I woke up the forest," he told them as he followed Leeds' cries. "It might not be alive in a way we can understand it, but it knows a shitstain when it sees one."

The trees were unable to move Leeds quickly, but between his damaged wing and the consecutive animal attacks, he was unable to escape. Occasionally a portal would open between the trees and the devil would be tossed through and carried away. Mike was surprised at first when the portals remained open for him and the others, but the trees that touched him conveyed feelings of mutual grief and respect. When he touched their branches, it felt like greeting an old friend.

A song played in his mind, one that only he could hear. The forest shared more memories with him, memories of Darren and his daughters as they played in the woods. There was an older Arachne who looked startlingly like Eulalie, and he caught brief glimpses of their lives in no particular order. The girls as children, chasing their mother through the trees. Darren trying to give Eulalie a piggy back ride. Velvet trying to sneak up on Bigfoot while he was reading a Harlequin romance novel with Fabio on the cover. They had been the keepers of this land for decades, and the forest had not forgotten.

The forest would never forget.

Leeds shouted in agony. Wolves had emerged from the woods to tear chunks out of him as he went past. Mike had worried that he might end up dying, but the animals seemed to know and understand the limit of what the demon could survive. The land was pissed, and it was letting him know.

"Mike, you're bleeding."