The Trellis And The Vine Novels & Stories

Places both palms on the ground. The gold vines explode. Not from the Tree. From us. From the five of us. They shoot straight up. Hundreds. Thousands. A net. A tree made of light and bone and blood. Pride coos. The vines braid. Tight. A dome. Over Duskbane. Over the keep. Over the pack. Over the Hollow. The missile hits it. No boom. No fire. It stops. Mid-air. Like it hit water. The vine dome holds. Flexes. Then swallows it.

There is a very faint pulse. He pulls her up and helps her out. With the help of his dad, he takes her to the car. Iris, who had no idea about what's going on around her, keeps listening to the songs playing on the radio. Adelaide, sweetheart and soulmate of Valentino pulls both her babies to her and hugs them tight. By now, Iris senses everything that has been happening around her. "Momma, momma please, momma please wake up." Rhe little girl begs her mother.

Let me find her. Wind stirs through the trees above, soft and cold. The light around us shifts—dusk bleeding across the sky in shades of violet and charcoal. The first star appears overhead and then another. Not all at once but in a ripple, like a curtain of water disturbed by a breeze, the vines begin to snake down from the stone—growing, threading together until the outline forms. A wall of ivy. Thick. Twisting. Alive. The veil. “Marek, I see it.”

A place most passed in quiet, eyes averted, breath held. Here, Elara had once stood beneath a blackened sky, her body bleeding, her hands wrapped around the fading warmth of her sister. Flames had licked her shoulders. Ash had choked the stars. And when the last cry of war echoed across the hollow—it had left a scar too deep to name. Nothing had grown there since. Until now. It began with a single vine. Soft. Silver-veined. Delicate and defiant. It curled out from a crack in the scorched stone like hope unburied.

He picked up at the second the ring. “Elle, where are you?” “I need you to answer me, just this question.” “Elle, we can talk this out.” “Is the pregnancy yours?” “You will understand everything more when we meet.” “Answer me.” “Everything is complicated right now, let's meet, I will be coming down to Virginia.” Brielle gazed into the space, lacking words to say. “I won't be meeting you, and I will be taking your reply as a yes.” She cut the call instantly, not giving him the opportunity to speak again.

Everything about her body is soft and fluffy like freshly baked bread. She wore only red lingerie, which revealed her cleavages and she had no lining beneath her waist. She posed like a pin fell from her and went low to pick it up. Ro'Sau grabbed her from behind and he spoke softly "let me help you." He gently kissed the side of her ears. Trisi turned, she whispered in his ears "tonight is all for you honey," and they both went down the hill after minutes of foreplay with soft music playing underground.

Inward, though. "That's alright. We can make up for it some other time right?" I suggested although I'd rather not have to see that man's face again. "Of course, yes." she said. "Please sit down. Linda, dear, will you get us some wine?" Once seated, I watched as the maid brought four wine glasses on a tray along with two bottles of wine. Once she'd reached me, she looked up at me with a kind smile and asked, "Red or wine, miss?"

I had checked with him whether he needed anything before I left the office earlier. “Actually, we’re here to see if you need us.” Tegan said. “We had a free hour before dinner and I thought it might be nice for, uh, us to get some fresh air.” I looked at Gideon curiously. Had he really come to help me? He gave me a curt nod. “Well…” I quickly showed Tegan how we were preparing the seedling flats. “Madelyn came up with a really great trellis system we’re going to use to create some arches across the garden.” I said brightly, “She’s been a great help.”

“Sure.” Back in the living room, the screen still glowed, frozen on the scene we had abandoned. I sank into the couch again, hugging the blanket closer to myself. Rowan poured the remaining wine into our glasses and handed me mine. His fingers brushed mine briefly as I took it, and the simple contact sent a ripple through me. We pressed play. The movie picked up right where it left off—two lovers kissing under the rain, their hands desperate, their hearts reckless. I swallowed hard, my pulse quickening.