Ranth’s voice was like a brush of sage leaves. “You don’t, Sorrel. I need to send you home. I need you to be safe.”
I dropped to the ground in front of him. “Please? You shouldn’t have taken the curse from me without my permission. I want it back. If the Garden is about goodness and light, then it can’t decide for me. It would be wrong.”
Ranth knelt down, inches from me, his arms slipping around me. “Sorrel…”
“I know what I’m doing. I want this. Help me. You owe me your life. You owe me a favor. Remember?” I cupped his cheek and kissed him with salty tears.
He pulled back, wiping his lips. “All right, my heart, I will ask. But remember, you made me a promise too. Regardless of the answer, when I tell you it’s time to go, you must promise me that you will leave.”
My heart was in my throat, choking me as his eyes met mine. I nodded my agreement. Tears poured freely as he buried a hand in the ground. The roots grew again, but this time they grew higher and higher until they were at his shoulders and then wrapping around his neck.
The voice that wasn’t his boomed out. “I will not bring back your curse. You must return to your place, and you will forget this one.”
I fought against my fear and lifted my chin up. “No. You can’t deny me the curse if I want it back.”
“You want?” the voice boomed, and the air crackled with energy like after a storm. “As you wish.”
Ranth pulled out his hand and fell back on the grass. “Don’t do this, Sorrel. Tell them you’ve changed your mind. There’s no way of knowing what the curse will do untethered…” His eyes pleaded with the words he couldn’t say.
Whispers filled my head, and I sank back to my knees. I covered my ears, but the whispers didn’t go away. The ground rumbled, and they grew louder. Then I saw it.
A serpent, monstrous in size with the head of a cobra and a tongue that darted in and out, slithered toward us. The whispery sound was from its scales, slinking across the grass.
“Stop,” I screamed, terrified of the monster approaching but also by what I had asked for. I didn’t want to die, but I didn’t want to give up the chance to save my mother from the Sisters.If the curse allowed me to world walk, then I needed to have it back.
Ranth rested his head in his hands as if he had a terrible headache. “You asked for your curse. Only the Serpent can grant it—it is that which guards the gates and the Trees. Your curse was lifted from you to purify you for the ascent here. But now that you are leaving, he could return it. But Sorrel, why?”
“Because it will allow me to come back. To find you again.”
Ranth shook his head. “Mine is also gone. We aren’t linked anymore.”
“It can’t be gone because I feel you. Your voice is in my head.”
“That’s because we are together in the Garden.”
My heart shattered. “But you brought me here. The curse did. It pulled me through and allowed me to travel here.”
“It sucked you here because mine was being removed.”
The world began to lose color. “It can’t be that. It…” I gasped. If his curse was gone, and we weren’t linked, then I’d never see him again.
This was it—the last time. The thought strangled me.
“Sorrel, it doesn’t work that way. I’m sorry,” Ranth said, eyes glistening.
I threw myself at his chest. “Come back with me.”
His arms wrapped around me. “I can’t, and you know you don’t want that. I put you and all your friends at risk. The world at risk. My place is here, and I wished for this position. In another life, another time…”
I clung to him, sobbing. “But I need you. There are things you haven’t taught me yet.” My voice cracked.
Sandalwood and amber mingled with crushed leaves in spring rain. I sucked in breaths, willing it to memory.
He stepped back, grasping my shoulders so he could look into my eyes. My heart shattered. I snuffled and swiped at my nose.
He pressed his right hand over my heart. “You know your strength comes from here. That’s the place you always need to start.” I caught it and turned it over, kissing his palm and then bringing it to my cheek. Tendrils of golden light surged in my veins. He staggered forward, and our lips met. The taste of him was sweet and green, like fresh wheatgrass juiced with apples and cucumbers. My cells filled with it like a summer cactus getting the first winter rain. I drank him in.
“You are bonded?” A breeze whipped across the Garden, scattering leaves and petals. We broke apart, and I gasped at the chill that settled on me as Ranth stumbled away.
