Chapter 23 #3
Across the road, another star appeared in Asterra, and another tree straightened beneath it.
I looked at Xandros.
He saw the same thing I did.
His people were getting their world back while mine weakened beneath us.
“Close it.” His eyes stayed on me.
I stared at him.
He had spent his entire life watching that sky disappear.
“Xandros.”
“Close it, Wildflower.”
I turned my Wild toward the failing road, desperate for one more chance to correct the imbalance.
Fire ripped through my vines, and my arm locked.
I pressed again, but each tendril and leaf felt like a living flame pressed against my skin. Like a brand to remind me… to remind me of my vows.
I reached for him with a shaking hand. His body trembled beneath my palm for reasons that had nothing to do with my touch.
Xandros caught me around the waist.
Bramble stumbled from my shoulders and scrambled against my leg, his claws digging through the hem of my shirt.
The bond between us had gone silent.
Panic tore through me.
“Bramble.”
He pressed against my jaw, warm and alive, but nothing moved between us.
I reached for the Wild again, and pain burned through both arms.
The power was still inside me. I could feel it gathered beneath my skin, but it refused to move toward the road.
Xandros crouched beside me, his constellations still blazing while the open weave pulled at his Everlight.
“What’s happening?”
“I can’t reach it.”
I tried again, and the vines darkened around my wrists.
I pressed again. Heat seared through every tendril and leaf, branding the oath back into my memory.
Purpose: Protect the forest. Duty: Protect the Circle. Above all, protect the Veil.
My gaze dropped to my arms.
The Mother Tree’s essence lived in the ink.
Another surge pulled through the weave, and the Mother Tree faltered beneath me.
I knew what the road was doing now.
The moment that understanding settled, the Wild drew farther away.
Something inside my vows was refusing to let me feed the Wild into harm I now knew was killing the forest.
I pressed my palm against the wet earth.
“Let me close it.” My voice broke on the plea. “Please.”
Wild rushed into my hand, and I gasped.
Bramble slammed back into my awareness at the same moment, his terror flooding our bond hard enough to make my vision blur.
I curled one arm around him, a tear slipping down my cheek.
The Wild hadn’t left me.
It had just stopped answering when I tried to continue the exchange.
Xandros looked at my face. “You have it?”
“Yes.”
The answer frightened me more than losing it had.
I understood enough to know the vows had done more than give my life direction.
They had placed a boundary inside me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. I could think about and hate that later.
For now, the road was still open.
Xandros braced himself against the stone and began drawing back his Everlight.
The first Asterran star dimmed.
His hand faltered, and I closed my eyes.
He could have asked for another minute and watched my forest weaken because Asterra had suffered long enough. His brother would have.
Instead, Xandros tightened his jaw and pulled harder.
Gold returned through the weave.
The nearest roads released first, their pressure fading from the Mother Tree’s roots. One by one, the stars above Asterra dimmed with them.
The southern path resisted until my arm shook from the effort.
Xandros trembled beside me.
No thoughts passed through the tether, only grief heavy enough to tighten my chest as every light disappeared, and he kept closing the roads anyway.
The silver tree began to sag.
I swallowed against the ache in my throat and pulled the final distant pathway shut until only the road before us remained.
The seam narrowed over the stream.
Asterra disappeared slowly behind it until one returned star remained visible through a strip of dark sky.
Xandros watched it.
I tightened my hand over his.
Together, we closed the road.
The star vanished.
Water rushed through the hollow again.
My hand slipped from the stone, and I pressed my palm into the earth.
Bramble climbed down my arm and wedged himself between Xandros and me. His fear still trembled through our bond as I gathered him close.
Xandros' hand rested against my back. “Is he all right?”
I looked at him.
His world had just gone dark again, and he was asking about mine.
I pressed deeper into the Wild until another steady pulse moved beneath my palm.
“Yes.”
His eyes closed, relief softening his expression before exhaustion replaced it. When he looked back toward the stream, nothing remained of Asterra.
He had seen proof that his world was not beyond saving, that his people could live.
For the briefest moment, I had felt the Deepwood strengthen too. Our answer had worked, but too much of the old weave had been lost for the surviving roads to carry it.
Xandros sat beside me and found my hand in the wet grass.
His thumb brushed over my knuckles.
I closed my hand around his while the Mother Tree settled into a tired rhythm beneath us.
The future I had carried into the hollow was still there somewhere, but I could no longer see how to reach it.