He tore himself free entirely and sprang forward, covering the distance to the tree in a single leap. Branches slammed into him from all sides, stiffened leaves with razor-sharp edges cut into him, but Torment ignored the buffeting and the blades. He turned his head sideways, opening his maw wider and wider, until he could fit the entire trunk of the tree between his teeth. Then, with unbelievable strength, he forced his jaws closed. Wood popped, groaned, and splintered, and the tree branches whipped desperately at the black wolf’s muzzle. He twisted his head, and the whole top of the tree came away, leaves rustling madly. With a contemptuous twist of his jaws, he hurled it aside.

Alice was shaken free, landing amid the carpet of roots. Torment padded to the edge of the planter, looking down at her with ice-blue eyes.

“Have you had enough?” he said wearily. “Ready to lay down and die?”

Alice thought of the others, back in the throne room. Hopefully they would have gotten out of there by now. Every minute she kept Torment’s attention here, with her, was a minute where he couldn’t set them to running in circles. It wasn’t much of a chance, but it was all she could do.

Never give up. Not ever.

The tree-sprite’s lips were not really designed for human speech, but Alice managed to make them form words.

“Not ever,” she said.

Torment growled, and leaped for her throat.

Chapter Twenty-five: End of the Line

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

END OF THE LINE

ALICE WORKED THE threads faster than she ever had before, letting the tree-sprite fall away and pulling on the Swarm. It was so quick, she passed from one creature’s form to the other without ever becoming human in between. Her bark armor bulged, then split like a kernel of popcorn, releasing a horde of tiny black swarmers. The little creatures scuttled madly through the fallen branches of the wrecked tree, hopping over twigs and ducking through small spaces. Torment landed on the remains of the tree-sprite, shattering it to fragments under his massive paws. His jaws snapped at a swarmer near the back of the pack, but not quickly enough to catch it.

It took Torment a moment to smash the branches out of the way, and in that moment the Swarm flowed back together near the doorway, recombining into Alice’s familiar body. This time she didn’t bother to taunt the labyrinthine, just turned and ran. Out the door and into the corridor, ready to lose herself in the maze of hallways—