Chapter 162
Joe's POVThe forest air was thick, humid and cold at once. My breath fogged as I stepped into the heart of the evil woods, where the Blue Chromium plant shimmered faintly under a fractured moonbeam.
It was just as the book had described and the angry chief guard explained, it glowed in the night, its glowing blue veins running along its stem, pulsing like it was alive. It stood in the middle of a patch of black soil, as if the earth itself had been burned away to make room for it.
The plant was beautiful but deadly.
And tonight, it could save my life.
I crouched before it, my heart thundering in my chest. Every instinct screamed at me not to touch it. Every story I'd read warned that anyone unworthy would die the moment their skin met its leaves. And I had seen it happen with my two eyes.
But the totem's hum inside my satchel… it was pulsing in sync with the plant.
Like two old forces recognizing each other.
This was it. The final piece.
