Rowan lowers me down beneath the icon. I clutch a handful of his shirt, drag him toward me. I start to kiss him, kisses that taste of bitter herbs, blood, and ash. “I love you.”
He sighs a helpless, furious breath across my mouth, then he kisses me back. And in spite of all his fear and anger—he’s gentle, so gentle, like I’m a fragile thing, made of glass.
I put my hand on the altar, smearing blood across the wooden frame. I find the dwindling thread of my magic and draw out just enough power to light a single candle. In the icon, the Lord Under is sharp-edged and dark, his fingers laced with shadows.
“What have you done?” I whisper, desperate. “What have you done to me?”
The world shifts and fractures. I see Rowan, with his dark cloak and long hair, haloed by the pale light from the window. I see the Lord Under, with the heartwood forest at his back, his hand outstretched, a sharp smile carved across his face.
Both come toward me. Both take my hand. Both whisper against my ear.
“Leta.” Rowan sounds so far off, so far away. Like I am back in the lake, beneath the endless water. “Don’t let it claim you.”
“Violeta.” The Lord Under runs his claws across the scar on my palm. “You did this to yourself, my Violet. You let it in. Our worlds are mended, but the Corruption isn’t finished, not yet. It needs to devour you. Only then will it be completely gone.”
I bite down hard into my lip until I taste blood and see stars. The pain steadies me, bringing the world back into focus. I reach for Rowan and cup my hands around his cheeks. I kisshim as the poison spreads through me, so strong and hungry and ruthless that I can barely fight it.
He strokes my face, his fingers trembling. “Stay with me, Leta. Please.”
I think of an orchard beneath the moonlight, the whole world gone still. The two of us, alone among the trees. I rest my forehead against his and close my eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Then I turn to Arien. He looks so hurt and wretched and angry that it almost breaks me. I put my arms around him as a sob catches in my throat. “I’m so proud of you, Arien. You were so brave at the ritual.”
He presses his face into my neck and starts to cry. I hold him tightly and wish there was another choice, that I didn’t need to leave him behind.
“You can’t do this,” he says.“You can’t.”
“Listen, my love.” I put my hands on his shoulders and hold him still. “I need you to take care of everyone here. Take care of them for me.”
He nods, his face streaked with tears. “I will.”
I turn back toward the altar. Darkness gathers, and the air fills with mist. Waves of black water rush over the floor. Everything blurs and softens, until I’m shrouded in shadows. My heart starts to slow. I feel the Corruption in my blood, around my bones. I don’t have long until I’m lost.
I see the Lord Under and the heartwood trees.
I get to my feet. It’s almost impossible, the effort, but I don’t falter. I stand before the Lord Under, meet the cold frost of hisgaze as I turn to shadows and poison. “Take me back with you. Take me, alive, to the world Below.”
He opens his arms to me. I step toward him. He enfolds me, as if with wings.
Then everything turns quiet, and I am gone.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I’m curled on my side, in the center of the stones. Deep in my chest, the Corruption churns—it slithers and tangles, as though in response to my anger and despair. Threads of darkness vein my arms, my chest, and tighten against my throat.
Rowan lived for so long with this poison inside him. It hurt him and hurt him, before it almost claimed him entirely. And that was only apartof the Corruption. I have all of it within me now. All the darkness that poisoned the shore and the lake and the world Above. All the darkness that devoured the souls and the heartwoods and the world Below.
The Lord Under kneels down beside me. “Don’t fight it.” The same words he said after I’d walked into the lake. He leans over me, until all I can see is his beautiful, cruel face, and takes my hand.
My mouth fills with more of the ink-dark water. I shakemyself free of his touch, then gasp and choke and spit until I can finally take another labored breath. I put my hands against my face as I start to cry. I catch a muffled sob inside my palms, then swallow down my tears.
“Youknew.” I hate how betrayed I sound, that I can’t hide how much he’s upset me. “You knew all along that I’d end up this way.”
His eyes narrow coldly. “Yes, I knew. I knew when you came to me that you would be able to do this. I needed your magic, but the spell wasn’t all of it. More than anything, I needed your willingness to invite in the darkness, to offer yourself up, to let it in.”
“You lied to me. You tricked me.”
“Have you forgotten what you asked?” His words change until they match the cadence of my own voice. “I just want to keep everyone safe. I have to make it stop. I need your help.This—your sacrifice—was the only way.”
