She takes a long breath, staring down at the dirt beneath their feet. A long moment stretches out between them and Bass can almost see the link of their magic. Blue is tangled around her hand, wrist twined by her magic. And from his fingers, twisted and biting into his skin, red magic drips from his arm.
They meet in the middle, running taut and purpling as they reach one another. The color of bruises, he first thinks. Then, the color just before dawn.
Finally, Ren sighs. “I’m not too proud to admit that I can’t do this alone. I may not like it, but you’re right. The forest needs you.”
Bass pretends not to hear her say the forest rather than herself.
“But,” she says, “I do not want war.”
He nearly bashes his head in. They had been making progress, finally, until that. They can’t win without war. He can’t protect the forest—the people he’s grown soft for—without war. Ren doesn’t understand that her pacifist tactics won’t work.
Instead, he says, “We’ll figure it out.” Bass was never good with strategy, but he’s always been good at killing. “I’ll help you. I’ll help protect the forest.”
Ren looks at him, eyes wary. But she does take a step toward him, and if he wasn’t so dutifully trained, his lips might’ve turned up into a smile. It’s as if he’s trying to befriend a skittish woodland animal. A doe. If he makes any sudden movements, she’ll retreat as quickly as she came.
“I promise,” he tells her, holding out his hand to her.
After a long pause, Ren reaches out and places her hand in his—not in a shake, but as a princess might give her hand to a knight. As if in a fairytale, he almost moves to kiss the smooth skin she’s bared to him.
She has such a small hand. And yet she commands this entire forest, him included.
The wolf-man whines, nudging Basuin with its nose as if to press him closer to Ren.
It makes Bass smile, and he bows his head slightly to Ren. This is new to him, but everything in his body is screaming at him that this is right. No longer is he a soldier following orders, taking commands. He’s a god, and so is Ren, and this is a partnership.
They’ll protect the forest—together.
As he looks up, his eyes fall on her lips. Ren opens her mouth to speak, and then her eyes go wide and she spits blood. It dribbles down her chin as she chokes.
“Ren,” he gasps.
Then, she collapses, and Bass goes down with her, cradling her body to his.
From the trees and in a flourish of green light, Qia bursts into the clearing. Tears are smeared across her cheeks, crystals in her eyes. She pants, her whole body shaking.
“Gyeosi is burning,” she says. Qia falls to her knees, looking at Basuin like he’s the last savior of the forest.
Chapter 19
Smoke and gunpowder and everything he hates—it’s choking him.
Gyeosi really is burning. Fire streams out of the hand cannons carried by legion soldiers, the same ones Kensy wielded. The pop-click-boom of rifles fills the air, screams and war cries the accompaniment. Orange and green should not mix. The flames swallow the forest until the canopy drips with hot black pitch.
Black Wolf, Black Wolf. He wants to vomit all his guts up and wash the floor with them.
Ren’s blood soaks his hands, illuminated brilliantly in the face of the fire. He doesn’t remember how he got here. An aching howl, a scream vibrating through his bones until his vision lost color and the forest became a blur. His joints breaking and reforming as he sprinted toward Gyeosi—riding on the winds of forest magic.
Beside him stands Yaelic, a steeled look on his face that speaks to the stubbornness of children. Bass kneels before him, hands swallowing Yaelic’s shoulders as he gives the boy a shake.
“Listen to me.” Bass holds Yaelic’s green-eyed gaze. “You stay away from the fighting. Grab anyone you can, get them out of here, but stay away from the soldiers. You hear me?”
Yaelic nods, and Bass gives him another hard shake.
“Don’t go near them. Grab who you can and go to the creek.” Yaelic nods again, but it’s not enough. “Do not go near those soldiers, Yaelic.”
“I won’t,” Yaelic promises, eyes big and wide and terrified. That stubbornness is gone. “I promise, Captain, I won’t. I’ll grab the spirits and I’ll go to the creek.”
Bass gives him a hard nod. “That’s right. Now go,” he says, and he releases Yaelic from his grasp to stand. Yaelic hesitates, staring up at Bass, but then he turns and he runs toward the north side of the village.
