“No.”
“Do you have any powers?”
Ivy hesitated. Vale waited to see if she would tell him about the void and their impossible connection.
“No,” Ivy said again.
Christopher nodded. He sat back against the forest dirt and twirled the front half of his snapped staff. The vial tied to it spun with it, and Vale ground his fangs together at its annoying glinting.
“Well,” he said. “You’ve obviously chosen your side.”
“I haven’t,” Ivy protested. “I’m your family! I just know that this isn’t the way. Uncle, please listen.”
“He does not seem very weak,” Christopher said over her, raising his voice until it rang through the trees and using the front half of his broken staff to point at the corpses lying around their small battlefield.
“Did you even use all the poison?” Christopher continued.
Ivy wilted with shame. “I… did.”
She looked up at Vale, who stared back at her impassively. He should have known. The voiddidknow, but it did not tell him for some ridiculous reason. Though as soon as he thought of it, he knew the answer: It knew he would banish her, and it wanted her to stay.
Christopher hummed, drawing their attention back. “Can you tell us anything about it?”
Vale growled.
“No,” Ivy said over him. “I’m sorry, Uncle. I think you should leave it be.”
“Doyou now?” Christopher laughed, slapping his knee like she had said something humorous. “Those Skullstalker plants must be something truly spectacular. Unless it’s somethingelseabout the Skullstalker worth betraying your family for?”
“It’s not about the plants,” Ivy insisted. “The void is alive. It’s alive, and it feels things.Hefeels things! He’s not a beast. He’s… he’s good.”
Ivy looked up at him again. Her eyes were wet, and she stunk of pain so badly it made him ache. His anger at her deeds was already draining. She had done something terrible, but shewas trying to make up for it. She was even risking death for it. Nobody had done something like that for Vale in a long time.
“And for him, you’d give up your duty to the Circle of the Jeweled Fist?” Christopher demanded. “Your duty tome?”
“No,” Ivy whispered. “Of course not. I just won’t let you…”
Her eyes rolled up in her head. She fell limp in Vale’s grip, head lolling against his chest.
“Ivy?” Vale snapped.
“Shame she didn’t get to finish,” Christopher called, spinning the top half of his broken staff lazily. “But we can assume what she said, hmm? She won’t let me take you. Let me guess, you let her eat the scraps after you were finished with your dinner?”
Vale ignored him, pressing his ear to her chest and listening. Her heartbeat was weak.
“I’ll tell you,” Christopher continued. “One nice deed, and that girl would do anything. I mean,anything! It was a real problem when she got to talking to folk outside of the Circle. But I guess I’ll let you have her next. I’ll charm her back, of course. After this mess is done with, I’ll grovel and she’ll?—”
Vale roared so loudly that Christopher dropped his broken staff and clutched his ears. Vale took one hard step out of the circle, then stopped.
He had promised Ivy. Even if he had not, she was running out of time. He needed to stop the bleeding.
“If I ever see you again,” Vale growled. “Iwillsnap your neck. I do not care what she says.”
Christopher said nothing. He was still groaning on the ground, his hands over his ears.
Vale stepped back into the circle and closed his eyes, holding Ivy so tightly to his chest he feared he might crush her.
He appeared safely in the silver pool. Ivy was still slumped in his arms, her breathing dangerously shallow.
