The Poison Season(88)

She turned to Jaren. “You have to go. This may be your only chance.”

“I’m not leaving without you. Besides, if what your mother says is true, I won’t be allowed to leave, either.” He squeezed her hands in his, wincing when her skin brushed his raw wrists. “Maybe that’s why the wolf brought me to Endla. Because it somehow knew I belonged here.”

Their eyes met, and for a moment the world faded away around them. She’d come so close to losing him it was almost impossible to believe he was still here with her. She rose on her tiptoes, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips, just to make sure he was real.

When she lowered herself back down, she let her eyes travel to the Forest. Once, she had believed that nothing mattered more than this place. She had allowed her brother to be sent away for it; she had nearly lost Jaren to it, too. But the power those lies had held over her for seventeen years was gone, replaced by a new understanding.

She had come to realize that the only thing that mattered—the only true magic—was to love and be loved. And she was not willing to live in a world where something was controlling that magic. The original Endlans might have foregone their freedom for safety, but they hadn’t given their descendants a choice. No one should have to say goodbye to a beloved child. No one should have to choose between their freedom and their life.

“I love you, and I don’t want to lose you. But you don’t belong here, Jaren. You belong with your father and your sisters.”

He stared at her, bewildered. “And what about you?”

“I belong with Mama,” she whispered. “I belong with Tate. And with you.”

Before he could ask what she meant, she took his hand, leading him to where the rest of the gathered Endlans were still bickering among themselves about what to do with Ketty and what to make of the knowledge that an Endlan had not only managed to escape the Forest but later returned.

Leelo climbed onto a fallen log, using Jaren’s hand for balance. Finally, someone noticed her presence, and then a hush fell over the crowd as everyone turned toward her. She saw familiar, friendly faces, but also angry ones. She cleared her throat.

“I know some of you may think of me as a traitor, but we all, every one of us, share something in common—Endla has taken too much from us.” She pointed to Isola’s parents, who stood near the front of the crowd. “Isola lost the boy she loved. Rosalie and Gant, you lost your community.” She turned to Pieter’s parents. “You lost your son, first to the outsiders, and then to the lake. And you lost your eldest daughter,” she added, looking at Vance’s parents.

“I lost my brother. My mother lost her only son. And we’ve borne it because we never felt like we had a choice. But now we’ve seen living proof that an Endlan can safely reside among outsiders without coming to harm or harming others. We continue to feed this Forest with our own blood, and for what? We know how to hunt, how to build shelter, how to care for each other. We can survive without the Forest.”

Even though there hadn’t been a sacrifice in weeks, Leelo could still smell the blood, the greedy closeness of the pines. They would never be sated, no matter how much the Endlans sacrificed. “The truth is, the Forest can’t survive without us.”

A rustling started in the branches above them, like children whispering to one another. She could have sworn the gaps between the trees’ crowns had grown smaller, that the space between them was shrinking. The wind picked up, howling, surrounding them with the sound of creaking limbs.

“What are you saying?” someone shouted from the crowd.

“I’m saying it’s time to take care of ourselves, for a change. To allow people who want to leave—or even people who want to return—to make that choice.”

“The Forest won’t allow it,” a woman called.

Murmurs of agreement rose up, but to Leelo’s surprise, Rosalie held her knife aloft. “I will help you, Leelo.” Her husband stepped up next to her, hefting his axe. “We both will.”

Vance’s parents exchanged a glance, and then they, too, stepped forward.

Leelo looked to Pieter’s parents. “Will you help us?”

For a long moment, she was sure they would say no. And then they nodded as well. “We will help.”

A few other Endlans who had been listening nearby joined them. But as Leelo’s plan began to disseminate among the islanders, shouts of anger went up as well.

“You can’t do this!”

“The Forest will kill us all!”

“Endla is our home!”

She waited for the adults on her side to do something, but they stood watching her, frozen with indecision, and she knew she would have to strike the first blow.

She took the axe from Gant, who released it willingly, and turned to her family’s pine.

She’d never liked the grove, or this tree. A patron saint was supposed to bring blessings and good fortune, but all it had ever brought her was suffering. Still, when she raised the axe over her head and swung it at the trunk, it felt like she was striking down an old acquaintance.

The blade struck the bark so hard that it buried itself, and Leelo remembered the stories Ketty had told, of the bloodred sap and the screaming trees. But all she could hear was the sound of her own breathing. Even those who opposed her had fallen silent, as if waiting to see how the Forest would retaliate.