Page 39 of Into the Heartless Wood
in his eyes.
“I am not going to kill you. I am not going to kill anyone. Not anymore.”
I am too aware of my heart
beating and beating inside my chest.
I wonder why
my mother gave me one at all.
What use is it?
His eyes meet mine.
I am a sapling again,
undone by sun and rain.
He says: “I believe you.”
In this moment,
it
is
enough.
Chapter Twenty-One
OWEN
SHE WALKS WITH ME TO THE WALL AT THE EDGE OF THE WOOD, silver and silent, the wind teasing through the flowers in her hair. Something is different now, something I don’t quite understand. My fear of her is still there, vibrant in the air between us, but it isn’t as strong as it was two hours ago. We stop at the wall, and she turns to look at me.
“Will you come again tomorrow?” she asks.
Her gold and silver hair whips about her face; her honey-colored eyes shine in the darkness.Even monsters can be beautiful.
“Is it safe?” I return.
“I will keep you safe.”
That isn’t quite the same thing. “Why do you want me to come?”
For a moment she watches me. Then she dips her head, her eyes flitting away. “Because I am lonely. And because you are … kind. I want to know more about your world. About you. I want to know why you make me desire to be more than the monster my mother created.”
I take a breath, trying to think past the intoxicating leaves-and-violet scent of her. “I’ll come,” I say.
I’m rewarded with the flicker of her eyes and a flash of a smile. Then she’s gone into the wood, and I’m scrambling over the wall, dizzy with trying to reconcile my lingering horror of the monster who slaughtered the train passengers with the silver-white creature I’ve just parted from. With … Seren.
I sneak back into the house and crawl into bed, and the dawning realization of what I’ve done makes me shake. I went willingly with a tree siren into the wood. I promised I’d go back. She says she hasn’t killed since the day of the train crash and she says she won’t kill me. Ibelieveher. How can I be such a fool?
Because she saved Awela,says my stubborn mind.Because she saved me, again and again.
My restless thoughts fade somehow into sleep. I dream of leaves and stars, tangled together in the tree siren’s hair. I dream the sea is made of violets.
“Owen.”
