Branch Books 2 Novels & Stories

He became fully aware of my presence now so that he started to tremble and crawl backward… while I paced forward. “No.. no. Stay back!” He voiced but I kept creeping forward. “Stop coming close!” He bawled in his fright and then I stopped walking. And then I bent down to pick up a fairly thick branch from the tree that had fallen. I broke the branch into two and then I swiftly spun and threw both of them simultaneously away into a distance at an angle to my right. Both pieces of wood went streaking furiously through the air… and then slammed into the bodies of the two warriors who had been getting away.

I paced quietly, running a frustrated hand through my hair. “THE WHAT IS BACK?!” Poppy walked in through the door, more than horrified. Anyone would be, a severed mate bond never comes back, or gets reassigned the second time, or whatever the fuck is happening here. “Can that even happen?” Elodie asked. “You told them?!” Mike turned to Trevor. “You are looking for Bran, aren’t you? Well, she found him, you’re welcome,” Trevor said. “Come on,” Poppy led us out of the music room, upstairs to a mostly unused class where Bran was.

We made it maybe a quarter mile from the cabin before I heard footsteps in the trees ahead of us. I stopped. Mordor stopped. The footsteps stopped. Then: "Thought you'd be in the cabin." Bram stepped out of the tree line. He had something bundled under his arm and he was looking at the two of us standing in the dark like he'd expected to find us eventually just maybe not quite here. "What are you doing out here," I said. He held up the bundle. Silverwood. A full handful. Tied together with cord. I stared at it.

Bran murmured as though the tree could hear him. Maria, herself, wasn't exactly sure what was happening either. Did she just watch a tree branch extend and carress her hair? As though comforting her, assuring her that she would be okay? As though praising her for all that she had gone through? "I dont—" The branch might actually be able to hear them after all, because it flew from her face and seemed to smack Bran in his before retreating back to the tree and to it's normal size. Bran's eyes narrowed as he glared at the branch. "And why the hell did it just hit me in the fucking face?"

"CRASH...!!!" A loud sound was heard and I ran to my window facing my balcony. I saw a hanging broken branch from my old tree, the same branch I perched on earlier to jump over and leaves scattered around on the ground but I don't seem to see anyone at all. With a crying face, I thought sadly if I needed to cut on carbs. "Am I that heavy now?" --End of Chapter Two---

“When the first seal failed and the Heart was bound, old blood began waking. Marks can appear where they slept before.” I rubbed my bandaged palm. The scar burned under the cloth. “What can the second branch do?” Althea hesitated. Bad sign. Cassian noticed too. His expression went still. “The truth,” he said. Althea’s eyes moved to him. Something old passed between them. Respect maybe. Or grief. “The second branch cannot open the Crown alone,” she said. “But blood does not need to open a door to weaken its hinges.” My stomach sank.

His father had stayed quiet for a while and then asked if she really believed in them and his mother had finally said she’d seen them too. Brian’s mind drifted just a little, but he spotted the hedge just before his brothers did. He watched the two chat as he drew closer. The brothers looked at Brian, they were clearly disagreeing about the next course of action. Brian switched the mower off and looked up at the trees. The branches had started to grow in all directions and were so intertwined that it would be hard to trim them with a hedge cutter. “What are you thinking Brian?” James asked carefully. Brian got off the machine and stepped closer to the tree line before examining the trees clo

I lifted my head and strained my eyes to catch a glimpse of where the noise was coming from, but I got nothing. After a minute, the sounds of snapping twigs and rustling through the brush, along with the stomping of feet on the ground got louder. There are others out here in the forest. I listened closely and tried to count the footsteps. There’s a few of them, ten or so, maybe more. But I can’t pinpoint if they are the heavy strides of wolf's feet, or the smaller thumps of human feet. Perhaps a mixture of both, maybe that’s why it sounds different. My eyes trailed across the earth, looking out into the darkness for any kind of movement. But I still couldn’t see them. I pushed myself up and

I turned back to the bed, but then, I heard the tree branch snapping behind me. I looked back and saw the tree branch outside with our almost dead tree blooming with large white flowers. Oh-oh!

I felt the branch creak slightly beneath me and the leaves rustled. It’s over. He paused. Sniffed. Snarled and then cocked his head, slowly moving upwards. The branch creaked again. It wasn’t going to hold me for long enough. Ruby, what do we do? I was already panicking and that was the sign of everything coming to an end. Before my brain could register Ruby’s reply, the branch cracked and gave in, crashing down to the surface of the hard earth against the wolf below. The wolf growled angrily in shock and slid his way out. I could hear the others from the distance, howling and giving signals as to the sound of the branch fall, they had all heard. Everything suddenly became fast.