The flames surprise Tom, and the strange eyes of his doppelganger are burned out right there. There's a cry that seems to come from the very forest itself, as if from a hundred voices, but the roots and vines tighten and another body seems to appear, massive and muddy and arboreal and with the same awful teeth and mossy hair and claws like rakes. Tom throws that body upon Dorian, scoring at Dorian's chest with those claws while the vines and ivy try to bind Maxwell tighter and choke him.

Dorian's fire isn't the only conflagration here, as lightning strikes in the field not far from there, setting the grass ablaze. That awful many-voiced shriek sounds again, and Tom pauses as if in pain before driving his stakelike fingers back at Dorian.