Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 18]

My head flopped back. Silver glinted above me. The tree I'd struck wasn't a tree at all. Or not a normal one. I slapped a hand on its trunk and Stoked the Forge.

"Is this fate?" Salem swept the Ironwood branches that reached out to entangle her aside. More sprung up from the ground, piercing through cobbled stone to grasp for her. Merlot, or maybe a Grimm based on him, was entangled and dragged down by it, not slain but locked in place. She drifted her hand above it, as though she were sprinkling some water on the plants. They shrivelled and died before her, curling and twitching like snakes dying from venom. "Is this providence? I refuse to believe it. No, I've lived so long that it must simply be chance."

I caused more rampant growth, both toward her and around me, trying to shield my body.

"Grant enough wishes and surely one must surprise me." Salem let the metal vines touch her wrist and then wrenched it to the side. The root snapped and was dragged up out the ground. Easily half a tonne of metal was thrown aside, and my connection with it was cut. "That's just probability. Chance. Flip a coin enough times and you'll eventually land a thousand heads in a row."

The vines grew under me, pushing me back onto my feet. I made them give me a little push, allowing me to less run away and half-stagger, half-fall, wheeling my legs to keep my upright. Her hand gripped my shoulder, crushing metal beneath her fingers and digging straight through into my skin. My bone cracked.

—Forged Destiny [Book 9: Ch. 18]