The Poison Season(85)

“What did you say?” Fiona asked.

Leelo glanced at her mother over her shoulder. “I said maybe the magic won’t work on him.”

Fiona took a step forward and stumbled, clutching her head in her hands. “Saints,” she breathed as Leelo rushed to her side.

“Mama? Are you all right?”

Fiona shook her head, trying to clear it. “I don’t know how I didn’t see it before.”

“See what? What’s wrong?”

“I knew he looked familiar, but I couldn’t believe... I should have known.”

Leelo gripped her mother’s shoulders, forcing her to look up. “What are you talking about?”

“Nadia. She was a Watcher the same year I was. We weren’t close, but she didn’t make it a secret how she felt about Endla’s rules. She scowled through the entire ceremony and came to none of the festivals after. None of us were truly surprised the winter she tried to escape across the lake with her newborn son.”

“What?”

Fiona’s eyes had glazed over. “A little sooner, and she might have made it. But the ice gave way beneath her, drowning both of them. Unless...”

Leelo had stopped breathing. “What are you saying, Mama?”

Finally, Fiona stopped rambling, her hazel eyes focusing on Leelo’s. “I’m saying, what if the baby survived?”



Chapter Fifty-Two


Jaren and Sage stared at each other for a long while, trying to gauge who would be the first to move. Unsurprisingly, it was Sage. She ran toward him with her knife outstretched and missed him by mere inches when he dodged at the last second, sprinting for the lake.

But Sage, with her righteous fury and full belly, was faster than Jaren. She leaped onto him from behind, tackling him to the ground. He barely managed to get a hold of her knife-wielding hand, pinning it by her side. But whereas Jaren had spent most of his days daydreaming, Sage had clearly been preparing for a moment like this. She kneed him in the crotch, waiting until he curled up in pain before rolling on top of him and pressing the knife to his throat.

“You had to know it would end this way,” she said, her eyes glinting in the darkness.

“It doesn’t,” he choked out.

“I don’t know why you came here, and I don’t particularly care. You should have died in the crossing, but you didn’t. And my cousin wouldn’t let a fly suffer, let alone a human. But she was never yours to have, and I was never going to let you take her from me.”

For the first time, Jaren realized how much Leelo meant to Sage, and he couldn’t blame her for that. “I know she isn’t mine,” he said. “But she isn’t yours, either. She should be free to make her own decisions.”

“And you’re so sure she would have chosen you over me? She may have fallen prey to your outsider tricks, but Leelo loves this island and her family. She would never have abandoned us.”

He could understand how much it must hurt to feel cast aside for a near stranger, though of course, it hadn’t been that way at all. “I know. Not unless she felt like she had to,” he said.

Her eyes narrowed. “Is this what you do? Agree with everything Leelo says? No wonder she liked having you around.” She ground her knee farther into his stomach. The singing, which had been a distant hum up until now, seemed to be growing closer. “You’re my kill,” she said, and with that, she slowly drew the knife across his throat. Just deep enough to draw blood. Just deep enough to let him know that next time, she would cut to kill.



Chapter Fifty-Three


“Mama, wait!” Leelo screamed as she ran after her mother through the Forest. She’d never known Fiona could move so quickly, especially given how ill she’d seemed just moments earlier, but she was driven now, not trying to save her strength for later.

“We have to tell Ketty,” Fiona rasped. “She can’t kill him if she knows he’s an Endlan.”

“Are you sure?” Leelo wanted so desperately to believe her mother was right. And her theory made sense. Jaren had never reacted to Endlan singing the way an outsider should. And his voice, though untrained and unpracticed, was as sweet as any Endlan’s. Saints, let Mama be right.

“I’m sure,” Fiona said, pausing just long enough to take Leelo’s hand and pull her along down the trail.

The singing was everywhere, and Leelo wished she could block it out somehow. She’d always hated this song, punctuated by shrill shrieks and guttural cries, but she loathed it now. A family of raccoons hurried across the trail; she wasn’t sure if they were running toward the singers or fleeing. The Endlans wouldn’t kill any animals tonight. That wasn’t the goal of their Hunt.

Finally, they reached the pine grove, but only a few elderly Endlans were there, sitting on log benches, waiting for the main event to start. Leelo glared at them.

“What are you doing out?” an old man asked. “You’re supposed to be under guard at your house.”

“Our guard left,” Leelo spat. “Where is Ketty?”

“Hunting, of course,” the old man said. “And based on the way things are quieting down, I’d say he’s been caught. It won’t be long now.”

He was right. Only a few minutes later, which Leelo spent pacing, her hands pressed against her ears, the Endlans began returning to the pine grove. “Who caught him?” someone asked. A few people shook their heads.