“But—” Ivy tried.
“I am sorry,” Vale said over her, his gait increasing. “I must fix this void.”
“And making me leave will help how?”
“It may not. But I must try. If your very presence is the poison?—”
It’s not my presence, Ivy wanted to scream.It was that stupid little vial my uncle got me to empty into the silver pool! I feel worse about it every day!
“But the pollen sickness,” Ivy stammered.
“There will be mortals to help you,” Vale said. His tail swished so hard that it broke a nearby branch. “It is likely the void that is makingyousick,” Vale continued, sounding bitterly amused. “That seems like something it would do. Make the pollen stay in your blood, to keep bringing us together. To—to make usattachedto each other.”
Ivy shrank back at the venom in his voice. Then she spotted the silver pool through the trees and struggled up in his arms.
“Is that so bad?” Ivy demanded shakily. “I—I’ve been happy here. Happier than I thought I could ever be in a Skullstalker void! Let me stay, we can fix this together!”
Another ivy leaf fell around her face. A vine wrapped around Vale’s antler, pulling him back before he yanked himself free and came to the edge of the silver pool.
“See?” Ivy yelled. “The void doesn’t want me to go!”
Vale growled, gripping her arms and holding her up in front of his face. “You think you know my void better thanme? We are eternally entwined! You are a visitor! You are a mortal and will die before the century is out!”
Ivy’s eyes pricked with tears.
Vale growled louder, but his grip loosened. “If it worsens, there is no point in you being here. If it gets better once you are gone, then you shouldstaygone.”
Before Ivy could protest, he carried her into the silver pool.
Shiny water rushed around Ivy’s face. It was corroded with the smallest hint of sickly white, the scent so acrid it almost made Ivy gag.
Then they rose out of the water, into the mortal realm. They were standing in a dirt circle in front of the stone slab Ivy had been tied to when her uncle presented her as an offering. Her blood was still on the ground, tacky with age.
Ivy rubbed her arm where he had healed her cut. Then she yelped as Vale stomped over and set her down unceremoniously on the stone slab.
“What about our trade?” Ivy said. “You said you’d give us weapons!”
Vale snarled. “Our deal was forfeit when your peoplepoisonedmy void!”
“You don’t know if that’s what happened,” Ivy tried, choking up with the betrayal of it all. Not because of what Vale was doing, but because of whatshewas doing, still. Lying to him after weeks of plucking bones from trees. Watching him painstakingly untangle a corpsefrog from a vine and send it on its way. He was rough and strange and otherworldly, but he was not a beast. And Ivy had doomed his void to death and him to a life of pain and servitude.
Vale turned back toward the dirt circle. Then he growled, turning back.
“This could be temporary,” he said. “If my void continues to sicken?—”
“Which it will,” Ivy croaked, kneeling up on the stone slab. “Vale, I’mnotthe poison! The poison was?—”
She stuttered to a stop. But it was too late. Vale stopped, his tail stilling and his glowing eyes fixing on her.
“Ivy?”
It wasn’t a threat. Ivy might have preferred it if it were. But Vale’s gravelly voice was full of betrayal, so thick it choked her.
Ivy wiped at her wet cheeks. “Th-the poison was…”
Vale’s head snapped up.
Like a dog scenting a rabbit, Ivy thought, dazed.
