He knows what she asks of him, and he refuses to answer.
“Let me make up for what I’ve done,” he pleads. “Let me learn from my mistakes.”
Let him change who he is.
But Ren moves closer in his refusal to do so. “You promised we would always be together,” she says, voice tight. “So we’re going together.” Then, with the heel of her palm gentle against him, she wipes his tears from his cheeks.
Off in the distance, weaving through the trees, Bass can see it—the bruise-purple trail of magic leading them toward the Winter River. The same color tied around their hands, a shade made from both their colors.
Ren starts to move, but Basuin doesn’t let go of his grip on her. He doesn’t want her to go. Doesn’t want to risk her life. But how can he deny her?
Basuin can’t break another promise. Not to Ren. And even if he could, Ren won’t let him leave without her. She’s too stubborn, too spiteful. She’d follow after him just to prove her point. And gods damn him, it would make him laugh.
So Basuin steels himself. Swallows back all that fear and anger.
“I will protect you,” he swears. He has to. “No matter what.”
This won’t be a failure. This won’t result in death and decay, not again. This is his last chance to get it right, before he loses everything.
“I’ve never protected anything,” Ren says. “I don’t know how to.”
It forces a smile from him, a warmth in his chest that feels like he’s held his hands too close to the fire and he’s singed the top layers of his skin. Something inside him feels broken, pieces rattling like glass shards in his chest.
“We’ll be okay,” he tells her. “Together.” But Basuin isn’t sure that’s true at all. Because he’s said it before, and the last time he said it, he was a liar.
We’ll be okay, he told Isaniel that last night, whose breath stunk of ale and venomous words. Together.
They never should’ve called you a hero, Isaniel said. Killing people just because you can doesn’t make you a hero. It makes you selfish. Makes you a monster.
And he laughed, because it was honest, and because it was true. Because it didn’t hurt him.
I would burn the world to save you, he said. To save anyone I love.
Well don’t save me, Isaniel said. I don’t want to be saved by you.
They race through the forest together. It’s dense and dark until they exit to the river’s bank and the moon above illuminates them. The water, slow laps of it against one another, sparkles like a collection of heavy gems.
Ren stares up at the sky, lips parted, her thin slant of eyes open wide, all silver and worshipping. She’s beautiful, pale in the light that shows all the small sun-made moles and freckles dotting her skin like stars. All goddess. And not as the Forest God—not like that. Not the god he’s meant to protect. She’s something to worship. Something so bewitching you want to capture it, but she can’t be possessed. Deadly and illusive. An enchantress, a witch.
Ren’s cursed him. Of that, he’s sure.
She takes the few steps to the river’s bank, crouching on one knee to place her hand in the water. “Hou-tou,” she calls, and her voice carries over the river.
A rush of water and a burst of bubbles finds them, swifter than the current. Dripping in silk and webbed in moonlight, Hou-tou rises from her domain with half a body. Her legs are still part of the stream.
“Am-sa,” Hou-tou sings like a siren would. “You’ve called on me?” She smiles, and Bass knows of the teeth that hide behind those deceptive lips. “Even after all that happened to Gyeosi, you would ask something of me?”
It’s subtle, but there’s a jump in Ren’s cheek that mimics something dark. Her fingers curl, scooping silt from the river’s bank to crumble away.
“I would,” Ren says coolly. “A favor.”
Hou-tou tilts her head with a toothless grin. “Oh?”
Standing, Ren rises to her full height, shoulders rolled back and chin held high. Every move she makes is so dedicated. Purposeful. Each flick of her hand and toss of her hair is decided and full of a grace and balance Bass has never seen.
“Take us northward,” Ren says, no waver in her voice.
“And why should I?” Hou-tou asks, words all melodic, a hum in her throat.
