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Page 20 of Into the Heartless Wood

What would you call me?

Seren.

Star.

“Owen?”

I jump, knocking over my tea mug. Milky brown liquid seeps across the table. My father grabs a rag and mops it up.

“You can’t have met a tree siren.” His face is hard, his voice strange. “You must have dreamed it. What really happened?”

My fingers go to the bruises at my throat.

Silver hands, crushing the life out of me.

A voice like a gale of wind through dead trees.

You cannot give a soul for a soul.

“What happened?” my father asks again.

The scent of violets.

Fireflies in the dark.

Seren. Star.

Something inside of me is screaming, but that cool sensation drowns it out. I shake my head. My shoulders slump. I tell my father the truth. “I don’t remember.”

Chapter Fourteen

MONSTER

HE WILL FORGET ME.

I touched his mind.

I made sure.

I will be nothing more than a dream to him.

Dappled leaves,

silver bark.

This is how it must be.

But.

I

do

not

want

him