"None of your business." She huffs, glaring at them both. "I'll be back in just a minute, so you two can stop acting like I'm about to die."

" Why is your hand bleeding? " she grabs her hand again.

Puck is silent.

"Just leave me alone! I just need a minute!" The anger in her voice is quickly rising. Her hands are starting to bleed more, and so is her wounded eye.

She lets go of her. " Fine. Be alone. "

"Lise and I are going to see what happened to her tree."

She rolls her eyes and walks away, leaving a trail of tiny red droplets behind her.

she wipes the blood off on her pants. " lets go. "

He nods. They didn't have to search far. Only a few minutes into the wyldwood, the trees curled away, and they stumbled onto a familiar patch of dead ground in the middle of the forest. An entire swath of forest was sickened and dying, trees twisted into strange metal parodies. Metal lampposts grew out of the ground, bent over and flickering erratically. Wires crawled over roots and trunks, choking trees and vegetation like red and black creeper vines. The air smelled of copper and decay.

"It's spreading," Puck muttered, holding his sleeve to his face as the metallic breeze ruffled their hair and clothes. "This wasn't here a few months ago." He turned to Lise. "I thought you said you killed the Iron King."

" I did. But I guess killing him wasn't enough to stop...this. "