“We could just stay,” I whispered, quiet enough that only he could hear. “We could be safe here.”
“Safe…” he repeated. But then he gave his head a hard shake. “Is that what you call this? Nova, look around. This isn’t safe.”
But Iwaslooking around. I was watching as the nearest vines and roots began moving again, inching closer and trying to overtake us. To embrace us. My companions hacked relentlessly at them, but I kept still.
I’d spent seven years running while carrying the weight of my failure—the curse I couldn’t break, the family I couldn’t save, the world I couldn’t seem to find my place in. That weight had twisted itself into my spine, wrapped around my ribs, squeezed until I couldn’t remember what it felt like to breathe without it.
What if I just...set it down?
What if I let the magic of this grove take me in and hold up that weight for a while?
Vines were encircling my wrists, lifting me onto my toes. Already, I felt lighter. I started to tuck my head toward my chest, exhaling slowly. But before I could drift entirely away, Aleks shouted my name. He spun toward me, sword flashing, cutting through the vines and catching me as I stumbled forward.
“I’m so tired, Aleks.” My voice broke as I pressed my forehead to his chest. “I’m so tired of moving forward.”
His hand found mine. His skin was fever-hot, magic burning just beneath the surface. “I know, Nova. Gods, Iknow.” He squeezed my fingers, and I felt the tremor in his grip. “But you can’t stay here. You know that. Too many people are counting on you.”
“What if I can’t save any of them?”
I took a step back. A root snaked around my ankles and tightened, pulling me down to my knees. More vines snagged my wrists. These were covered in thorns and delicate white flowers—jasmine, my mother’s favorite. I stared at them as I whispered, “What if I’m not strong enough? What if it’s not just Rose Point I can’t save, buteverything? What if I fail? What if…”
“Then you fail.” His answer was immediate, unflinching, as he dropped to his knees before me and again started to cut me free. “You try, and you fail, and you get back up and you try again. Together, we can?—”
His words choked off. The vines were claiming him too, now, one of them taking his throat in a violent, silencing grip.
Something shifted inside me of me at the sight, as I realized: the grove wasn’t giving us a choice anymore.
It was going to keep us whether we chose to stay or not.
Zayn and Thalia were still fighting desperately against the encroaching forest. Their shouting, and the clash of steel against wood, seemed distant, muffled. The tempting memories returned with an intensity that seemed to be trying to drown them out—the music swelled. My mother’s perfume grew stronger. I blinked and I would have sworn I saw her smiling face watching me from deeper in the woods. And my father was there, too, laughing and holding his arms out to me like he had when I was still small and the world made sense.
Just let go,the grove whispered.Let go and rest here with them.
For one desperate heartbeat, I considered it.
Let go.
I want to let go.
Then, Aleksander’s magic surged—wild and blazing—burning away the vines that held him. His eyes locked on mine. “Don’t you dare, Chaos.”
The memory of my mother’s smile flickered.
I’m sorry,I thought.I’m sorry I can’t stay.
I reached for Grimnor.
The sword resisted at first; it was caught just as I had been, vines wrapped around the hilt, flowers blooming from the guard. But when I closed my hand around it, Shadows surged through my veins, cold as ice.
Death, not stasis.
I was Death, and it was time to embrace my power.
Because sometimes it was the only path forward.
I raced for the center tree.
Limbs shot toward me from every direction. I knocked aside two only to spin around and find three more stabbing toward my chest. Zayn caught one with his blade. Aleks knocked the second one aside while Thalia swept around me, beating back the third, along with the grasping branches, and clearing a path.
