Page 71 of Into the Heartless Wood
But I can’t do that. I can’t resign my own mother to whatever torment she suffers as the Gwydden’s slave.
So I don’t say anything. I wait until Seren grows calm again, until she pulls away from me and wipes the tears from her eyes.
“Come,” she says, rising to her feet. “My mother’s court is close.” She swallows, all at once tremulous. Uncertain. “You remember what I told you before.”
“That we can’t save her. I know.”
The ring of birches where she was born whispers and weaves around us, but there is no wind that I can feel. Her gaze knifes through me. “Do you believe that, Owen Merrick?”
I don’t believe it—how can I? But. “I believe you.” It will have to be enough.
Chapter Thirty
SEREN
HE DOES NOT BELIEVE ME.
I can see it
in the way he holds himself,
in the set of his shoulders,
in his unwavering stride.
He means to save his mother.
Even
if
it
kills
him.
Last night, I should have taken his memories.
Now I have not the courage.
I could lead him to stray forever in the wood.
I could tell him my mother has shut me out of her court.
In time, he would forget about his mother.
In a hundred years,
perhaps
he would grow
like me
and perhaps
I would grow
