“We have to leave,” I tell Arien.
“We can’t.”
“What do you mean?”
He looks at me sadly, then rolls back his sleeve. On his wrist is a fresh, raised mark, made of delicate lines, just like the sigils I saw on Clover’s arms. He closes his fingers around it. “We can’t. I can’t. There’s nowhere else for me to go.”
“Arien.” My voice wavers. “Arien, no.”
“You saw it, Leta. You saw me.” He gives me a desperate look. The black in his eyes has faded to silver, but his fingers are still dark. “All those nights, all those times that Mother said she needed to fix me. She hurt me. She hurt you. And I couldn’t stop her. I couldn’t do anything. But now I can. I want to stay. I want to learn how to use my magic. Clover’s going to teach me.”
“So this is the help Rowan promised.” Anger laces my mouth with a taste more bitter than the virulent tea. “Clover will teach you alchemy, and in return all you have to do is risk your life. You saw what the Corruption did to Rowan.” A fresh horror fills me when I picture his bloodied eyes, the way he sat so still and unresisting as the earth crept over him. “What if that had been you?”
“I don’t care if it’s dangerous. At least here no one is afraid of me.” Arien looks away quickly, his cheeks flushed. It hangs between us, unspoken. No one is afraid of me here—except for you.
I didn’t want him to know how I truly felt, but he did. Of course he did. And now he’s come to a monster who will give him what I couldn’t. Who looked on his shadows—his magic—and was never afraid.
The tears I held back before spill loose. “All I wanted was to keep you safe.”
Arien puts his hand on my arm. He’s about to speak when a sound cuts through the dark from behind the house. I tiptoe closer, staying near the wall, and watch Rowan make his way back inside. Florence is helping him, her arm around his waist. His head is down, his face hidden by his hair.
After they pass, there’s a dark trail of blood left behind, dripped across the stones.
Clover follows them wearily, carrying the lantern. She’s covered with mud. It’s in the end of her braid, on her glasses, on her face. She looks up and notices me; I hear her murmur to the others, urging them ahead.
She skirts around the side of the house and comes toward us. She touches Arien’s cheek, giving him a worried look. “Please, don’t run away.”
He smiles at her weakly. “We’re not running.”
I step between them. “Ash damn it, Arien. How can you act like Rowan gave you a choice in this, when he hunted you down—when he threatened you?”
“Violeta, it’s not how it looks.” Clover tugs at her braid, tangling it around her muddy fingers. “The ritual wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
“Which part, exactly, wasn’t supposed to happen? When the ground tore open, or when the Monster of Lakesedge cut himself to feed that thing?” I hiss out a sigh between my teeth. “I want to know what’s going on. I want to know the truth.”
“It’s not so easy to explain.”
“You’re complicit in helping someone who murdered his family. You forced my brother to work dark magic. Is that a good start?”
Arien glares at me. “Leta. It’s not her fault.”
I kick at the ground, annoyed, knowing I should apologize. But even though Arien is right, and what just happened wasn’t truly Clover’s fault, I’m still angry. With her, with everyone. “Can you at least try to tell me what you’re doing here?”
“You’re right, Violeta. You deserve to know. You’ve seen a blighted tree, haven’t you?” Clover asks. “Rowan told me about what happened in the woods on your way here.”
“Yes. And the almond grove near our village was blighted one Harvestfall. But the Corruption—you can’t tell me that’s the same as a poisoned tree.”
“It is, and it isn’t.” She holds out both her hands and motions like she’s weighing something in her cupped palms. “There’s light, there’s dark, and usually they balance. And when they fall out of balance, it’s like a wound. The magic in this part of the world—in the ground near the lake—is poisoned. Rowan told me he sent Florence to burn the trees at the wayside. What did they do with the orchard near your village? The same?”
“Yes. The keeper ordered it burned.”
“The Corruption isn’t like that. There’s no one piece to cut or raze. But in the Maylands, I studied blight and I made a spell that can mend it, so it doesn’t need to be burned.”