“Here.” Florence takes another blanket from her basket and wraps it around both of us. She keeps her hand on my shoulder as we watch Arien and Clover work their magic on the shore.
Arien bends to the ground. Shadows unfurl from his hands, careful, controlled. They weave a delicate latticework across the mud as Clover presses her fingers to the earth. The web of shadows begins to glow as light streams from her palms.
The ground is still. No creatures rise. It won’t fight them.
I think of that night, long ago, when Clover put her hands over my hurt knees. She and Arien touch the ground in the same way. Gentle, gentle. A press. A whisper. And it is mended.
Once again, the shore turns to smooth earth. In the pale forest, more new leaves unfurl from branches.
The blackness, the Corruption—it’s all gone.
A thread of light glimmers over the horizon as the moon dips low in the sky. The clouds thicken, and raindrops start to settle on my skin and hair like a veil. A scatter of sparks drifts from my hands as the power granted to me by the Lord Under gives a final, bright shimmer. Then it goes dim. It’s just my magic again now. Small and soft, the barest traces.
“It’s done.” My throat and chest and mouth feel scorched. “We’ve mended it.”
Rowan takes my hand. “Yes, my love, it’s done. We can go home.”
Home.All I want is to go back to the house, scour myself clean, and sleep for a dozen nights while a fire burns in the hearth. Rowan helps me up. He puts his arm around my waist, holding me as we make our way back through the garden. The others follow; I hear their footsteps and the relieved murmur of their voices.
I wish I could share their relief. It’s over, I’m safe, we’re all safe. But a heaviness weights my chest, and I can’t shake it off, no matter how hard I try.
The rain turns heavier, falling steadily through the leaves and over the lawn. I tilt my face to the sky, and the rain looks dark. Like shadows, like poisoned blood. My vision starts to blur. We reach the house, step into the kitchen. I take a single breath and let the scent of smoke, of spiced tea, of warmth ghost through my lungs.
Then the cold spreads over me.
I look down at my hands and touch the blackened crescent that scars my palm. It splits. Ink-dark water spills from the wound. There are cuts and cuts and cuts all over my arms and wrists and fingers. And my skin, beneath the wounds and the blood, is lined with darkness. Rowan gasps. “You’re—you’re—”
Poisoned.
“It can’t be.” I’m shivering so hard I can barely speak. “I mended it. It was gone.”
But I can feel the Corruption uncurling beneath my skin. It has teeth and claws. It hungers.
Arien and Clover crowd through the doorway. Florence comes in behind them, the blankets still draped, forgotten, over her arm. Horror and despair fill their eyes.
“This was how I stopped the Corruption,” I whisper. “I let it inside me. It’s still there. It’spartof me now. And I think it’s going to destroy me.”
Arien runs to me. I cling to him as he starts to cry. “You promised. You promised you’d be safe.”
Clover throws her arms around me and presses her tear-streaked face against my shoulder. Florence touches my cheek with shaking fingers, her other hand pressed over her mouth. They encircle me, and for one single, perfect moment I am safe and I am home.
Then the darkness closes in. I take a struggling breath past the poison snared like thorns through my chest. My mouth is full of blood. My vision is blotched black.
Rowan pulls me close. His hand grips tightly at my waist, his shaking fingers knotted into my skirts. “Leta,please.”
I wrap my arms around him and bury my face against his chest. His heartbeat is frantic beneath my ear. I know there’s only one way this can end.
I look up at him, blurred by tears. “Take me to the altar.”
“No.” His voice turns fierce.“No.”
I try to move forward on my own, but my legs give way. He catches me before I fall, and I sink against him.
Rowan looks at me with despair. “I can’t do this, Leta. I can’t give you to him.”
“He’s the only one who can help me.”
His expression shutters. His arms tighten around me and he hesitates a moment. I think he’ll refuse, that I’ll be here in his arms until I’m lost to the shadows. But then he carries me into the parlor, with Arien, Florence, and Clover close behind us.
