Freya and Corin exchanged a look.
"This is connected to the well," Freya said. "It has to be.”
“How do you know about that?” Corin asked, causing Chloe to wince.
“I… I told her. I knew it couldn’t be Freya and I just needed other insight.”
Corin gave her a look, but it changed to soft once he seemed to realize the weight of it all.
Freya continued. “Whatever's leaking from that seal isn't just poisoning plants anymore. It's reaching for her."
"Because of my druid blood," Chloe finished. "Because I can sense it."
"Or because whoever did this wants to use you somehow." Freya's voice was grim. "Land magic is old magic. If someone broke that seal deliberately, they might need a conduit. Someone connected to the earth in ways most people aren't."
The words settled over Chloe like a shroud. A conduit. Someone was trying to use her as a conduit for whatever they'd released from that well.
"I need to stop touching the soil," she said.
"For now, yes." Freya stood, brushing dirt from her legs. "And we need to figure out who's doing this before they try again."
Corin hadn't spoken. Chloe looked up at him, and what she saw in his face made her skin prickle.
He was furious.
Not the loud, explosive kind of anger. This was something colder. Quieter. His hazelnut eyes had gone hard, his jaw set like stone. The hand that had been resting on her back was curled into a fist at his side.
"Corin?"
"I need to go." His voice was flat. Controlled in a way that suggested the control was costing him. "There's something I have to take care of."
"What kind of something?"
He didn't answer. Just looked at her for a long moment, something fierce burning behind his eyes, before turning and walking away.
Chloe watched him go, her heart pounding. "Freya. What is he going to do?"
Freya's expression was unreadable. "I don't know. But I don't think I'd want to be whoever did this when he finds them."
"He can't just... he'll get himself hurt. Or make things worse."
"Maybe." Freya helped her to her feet, keeping a steadying hand on her elbow. "But Corin Vane has been quiet and patient his whole life. When a bear like that finally loses his temper, there's not much anyone can do to stop him."
"He's not losing his temper. He's..."
"Protecting you." Freya's voice softened. "The way he looked at you just now, Chloe. That wasn't just concern. That was something else entirely."
Chloe didn't have a response. Her head was still swimming, her body weak from whatever the soil had tried to do to her. But beneath the exhaustion and the fear, something else was stirring.
Corin had stared at her like she was the only thing in the world that mattered. And then he'd walked away to do something about whoever had hurt her.
"Come inside," Freya said gently. "I'll make tea. You need to rest."
Chloe let herself be led into the apothecary, but her mind stayed outside with the dying plants and the poisoned soil and the man who'd left without explaining where he was going.
She thought about Paul Whitmore and his reasonable concerns. About the whispers that followed her everywhere. About the intent she'd felt in the earth, the deliberate malice woven into the ground like thread through fabric.
Someone had done this on purpose. Someone had broken the well seal and let old magic bleed into the land and now they were using her. Trying to drain her and make her into something she didn't want to be.
