“I got all those people killed,” Ivy whispered.
Vale growled. “Yourunclegot them killed. He almost killedyou. You should have let me snap his neck.”
“He’s myuncle,” said Ivy, appalled.
“He clearly does not value family as much as you,” Vale replied. “Since he gave you to a Skullstalker, who he thought would eat you or ravish you against your will. And again, heshotyou.”
Ivy’s chest throbbed. She looked down and saw a ragged hole in her dress. She had a small scar underneath it, pink and pitted. She touched it, thinking back to the blood that had stained her dress so badly. There was no blood now, although there was still the faint scent of it in the air. She wondered if Vale had washed her dress while she recovered, or if the void had magicked it away, like it had fixed her dress after Vale tore it in two.
“He didn’t shoot me on purpose,” Ivy muttered.
Vale huffed resentfully. Ivy almost wanted to join in. Her uncle might not have meant to shoot her, but he had thrown her away so easily! After all her work, all those years of trailing after him, talking people into their cause, washing pots and mending clothes and foraging for food… How could he give up on her like that? She never wanted to leave him. She just wanted him to not hurt Vale.
Cold dread washed over her as she remembered Vale’s betrayed expression. He knew she had poisoned his void. That even if she was no longer helping her people to bind him, she was still the reason his void was dying.
But if he knew…
Ivy looked around the nest, all the plants watching her expectantly. Vale watched along with them, his gaze intense and, for some reason, caring.
“Why am I here?” Ivy asked.
Vale cocked his head. “You were injured.”
“But…” Ivy’s eyes itched. She forced the tears back, refusing to cry in front of him when she had ruined his life. “I poisoned your void. I was going to let him bind you to fight for us!”
“But you didn’t,” Vale said. “You tried to protect me. To talk your uncle out of his foolish plan. It was useless; he could not overpower me then, even with his malblossom. And you could not make him change his mind. He is blinded by his desires. I knewthatwhen he gave you to me.”
Ivy stared at him, stricken. Surely this couldn’t be so easy. Whenever she ruined something in the Circle—burning a meal or botching a recruitment—she would, at the very least, get glared at.
But Vale wasn’t glaring. He looked uncomfortable, those beautiful green eyes trained on his own claws, but there was no malice in his gaze.
Ivy watched the leaves twine around her shaking fingers. “How long will you let me stay here?”
Vale answered instantly. “You poisoned the pool.”
Ivy winced. “Yes. I’m?—”
“So, it is not your presence making it sick,” Vale said, cutting her off.
Ivy waited. He couldn’t be saying what she thought he was saying. Nobody had ever gotten pardoned from a crime so easily.
“So?” she said, finally.
“So, you do not need to leave,” Vale said stiffly. “I told you. If it is not you, you can come back.”
Ivy laughed wetly. He had said that when he was carrying her to the pool. It felt like a million years ago, though it had probably only been… hours? Days? Ivy had no idea how long she had been healing in this nest.
“You’d keep me here,” Ivy said, stubborn tears spilling down her cheeks no matter how hard she tried to keep them back. “After what I did to you?”
“You are trying to fix it,” Vale said, and paused. “If they came into my void right now?—”
“I would die before letting them take you,” Ivy said, shocking herself at the fierceness in her tone. She wiped her face, twisting in his arms to face him properly. “I will help you cure your void. Iwillfix my mistake. Iswear.”
Vale made a rumbling noise deep in his throat and leaned down to kiss her.
Ivy gasped into his mouth. His lips were cool, but his mouth was blazing hot. He licked into her mouth, and Ivy groaned as her own tongue brushed against his razor-sharp fangs.
Vale grasped her face, tilting it sideways to kiss her deeper. His skull mask dug into her skin, his claws pressing hard against her soft cheeks. Ivy wondered if she would be covered in marks after. The idea filled her with a strange, fluttery zeal, much like when she touched the dents in her skin that he left behind from gripping her thighs while he sated her pollen-lust.
