The moment Keave's words reached Mave's ears, her eyes softened. She moved aside with Liam. Liam began whispering something into her ear. Adrien, watching them, started trying to unravel the knot with Keave.
...............
"Do you remember how the flower bloomed?"
"I said, no, I don't know," Adrien said, slightly irritated.
"We should make a mark on someone else then..." Thursday muttered. "Time is running out; we have to find them before nightfall."
Mave, Rudra, and Liam nodded in agreement. Drace, Keave, and Adrien were still trapped in the tangled worries of the problem.
Mave was about to speak when her gaze fell on Adrien, standing right in front of her. The platinum bracelet on his wrist had turned completely black in one spot. Strange dark patches had appeared on it, as if it had burned.
"Platinum is an incredibly durable and corrosion-resistant metal. True platinum cannot just turn black. How could its color suddenly have changed?"
Lost in thought, Thursday's eyes narrowed with curiosity and unease. "Adrien… your bracelet—how did it suddenly turn black?" she asked, her voice tinged with disbelief.
Adrien's gaze shifted to the bracelet wrapped around his smooth wrist. Everyone's eyes followed. Half of the bracelet gleamed like freshly polished metal, reflecting light like new platinum, while the other half was marred by deep, dark blotches, as if shadows themselves had crept into the metal. The contrast was startling—too deliberate to be natural.
Drace asked, "How did this happen?"
All eyes were on Adrien, whose gaze was lost in thought.
"I… I don't know," he murmured, something struck him as he changed his wording , "or… maybe I do."
When my fingers were about to touch the spider-like thorns of the plant, the dangling part of my bracelet brushed against a sharp edge first, and I felt a jolt.
Everyone's faces froze in shock. Adrien's words—like tangled calculus problems—finally seemed to reach their minds , but only faintly, as if delivered from some physics teacher.
"So you're saying that just by the bracelet brushing against it, the surface of the plant turned into a strange-looking flower?" Rudra asked, a mixture of astonishment and disbelief in his voice.
"I didn't say that. I just described what happened to me," Adrien replied.
"So… a metal bracelet can turn a plant into a flower in this strange jungle?" Mave said, laughing—but the laugh was wreathing with bitterness, carrying clear traces of fear and despair.
Ignoring the Mave , Keeve said thoughtfully, "We should see for ourselves how a flower can be created from platinum."
Everyone nodded reluctantly. Fear had crept into every corner of their minds, spreading through them like a cold shadow. Deep down, they all understood clearly that the place they were in was far from ordinary.
There were countless questions, but no one could answer them. If someone tried to ask, the silence would turn into fire, and if they didn't, the unease within would slowly consume them. Yet, they could neither voice their questions nor demand answers.
( the next chapter have a fight)