Page 76 of May: Bloom & Bane

The imprint of Rasen’s knees is still pressed into the grass, dark smoke still curling where he knelt. Three drops of her blood catch the morning light.

I made her cry.

I reach out with every sense I have, trying to catch a trace of her scent. But I find nothing. The meadow has swallowed her whole. I can’t even feel her heartbeat where it usually thrums against my own.

Do not follow me, Sage. I want to be alone.

Her command weighs on me like a shackle wrapped round my throat, glowing brighter every time I try to take a step toward the treeline.

She is ours! Words are not chains, Ashán snarls.

I sink to my knees in the mud, my wings drooping until they sag in the dirt. “Eden,” I whisper, praying that somehow she can feel me. I rub the heel of my hand against my sternum where the bond sits.

Why can’t I feel you?

I dig my fingers into the mud, the cold earth wedging under my claws. Nook’s timbers groan behind me, every window flying open.

I send out my magic through the soil like Therael taught me, but still, I can’t sense her.

A shadow falls over me. It isn’t her, so I don’t bother lifting my head. I know by his worn leather and dark coffee scent exactly who it is.

“Come to finish what you started?”

“No—” The voice is stripped of everything beside the word itself.

I finally look up. War stands at the edge of the crater, his massive war hammer planted on top of the earth beside him. He’s staring at Eden’s blood, and I dare him to make a stupid statement.

“You let my brother go.”

“She asked me to.”

His bell helmet tilts to the side.

“I have waited,” he says finally, each word clipped. “A very long time, for something I thought impossible for my kind.” His gauntleted hand tightens on the hammer. “If someone had put their mouth on her—” his jaw clenches. “There would have been nothing left to let go.”

I know he’s not trying to comfort me; I don’t think he’s capable of sympathy. But it lands anyway.

“She will come back,” he says, already turning to leave.

“How do you know?” I ask.

He pauses with his back to me.

“She’s with your mentor.”

“You can feel her?”

Why can he sense my mate, and I cannot?

“Not anymore. He has a knack for hiding things.” He disappears into the mist like he was never here at all.

Therael.

Something cold moves through my chest.

She asked me not to follow her… but went to him?

My wings beat roughly against the ground, and I’m in the air before I realize it. I stop at the edge of the trees, and the meadow pushes back firmly. I press my hands against the invisible barrier.