Chapter 15: The Root That Eats

The Pale Mask moved like a line of ink drawn across wet paper—impossible to follow, yet somehow always there. One moment they were a dozen paces away, the next they were close enough to touch, their fingers reaching for Siu-Bak's throat with the casual grace of a tailor measuring a cuff. The leaf burned in Siu-Bak's fist, and the tree's heartbeat thundered in his chest, and he did the only thing h...