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I had felt their breaths and their bones. I had been a part of them.

Could I do it again? Would I do it again?

When I open my eyes, tears make my vision shimmer, and the willow tree wavers before me. “I don’t know what the right decision is,” I say. “But I know I need to take a step. I’m not the same person I was yesterday. I’ll never be the same person I was when Papa loved me. But maybe whoever this person I’m growing into can see something new. A way to help our home. Our friends. Our people.”

Mom takes my hands and clasps them tightly. “Your father had a relentless determination. Made him a stubborn ass.” A grin crooks up the side of her face. “I’m so grateful you take after him.”

“I don’t know if there’s anything I can do,” I whisper.

“Hope isn’t built on certainty,” she says.

A pressure builds in my chest, like the crackle of the sky before a lightning strike. I grab my mother and pull her against me, hugging her tight.

Then I run. Up the streets that raised me, feet pounding on the cement, hat flying off as I skid to a stop in my yard.

My garden flourishes. Vegetables of all kinds gleam like a rainbow. Great bushels of lettuce, stalks of green beans, strawberries creeping over vines.

I’ve found my way out of the darkness before.

And I don’t need the certainty of victory to do it again.

Because as long as things grow, there is hope. And there is one thing I know above all else.

Castletree’s roots run deep.

They run inside me.

7

Rosalina

“Ineed to call a meeting!” I yell, throwing open the door to our cottage.

Breath comes ragged in my throat, my hair is wild, and my face is streaked with sweat.

Dayton pops his head out of the kitchen. He’s wearing a pink apron over his bare chest and has a mixing bowl in his hands. He narrows his gaze at me before he beams. “Perfect, Blossom. I’ll have these muffins done by the time you gather everyone.”

We wait until dusk when Kel returns. This meeting location is quite different from our usual spot at the grand dining hall in Castletree. It’s so cramped around the cherrywood table in my small kitchen, we have to sit shoulder to shoulder. Wrenley and Mom stand, hovering close to the door.

I lace my fingers together, looking at the familiar pattern of wood. It’s so strange to be here with these five men. All of us, sitting at the same table I ate cereal at as a kid with a spoon that changed color when it hit the cold milk. Where Papa and I stayed up late creating science projects. Where I microwaved meals alone when he searched for his wife.

“Rosalina,” Farron says gently, “what did you want to talk to us about?”

I take a deep breath. “I need to return to the Enchanted Vale.”

There’s a long silence. I search their faces, looking for excitement, for fear. But they all stay perfectly still, as if frozen. In shock? Or do they think I’ve finally lost my mind for good?

Finally, Wrenley speaks. “Sira will kill you the moment you set foot there. Perhaps not right away, but she always gets what she wants. She will find you.”

“Or I live my whole life here, then fall through the ice and drown. There are no certainties.” I take another deep breath. “I think we’ve all felt a glimmer of it these last few weeks. The thought that maybe we could be happy here.”

“You’re my family,” Dayton says. “I’ll be happy wherever we are.”

“But we’re not all here,” I say. “Delphia, Nori, Padraig, and Dom. Astrid, Marigold, and the staff of Castletree. We’ve left so many of those we love behind.”

Tears flicker in Farron’s eyes. I know he’s thinking of his family. He’s endured so much loss already. “We left to help them. Sira will be hunting us. If they were found harboring us, then⁠—”

Dayton wraps an arm around him.