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They broke apart and circled, panting.

“You always were a coward,” Garrick spat, shifting back to half-form, blood dripping from his chest. “Always hiding behind rules. Behind women.”

“You left us,” Rollo growled, voice rough, chest heaving. “You chose exile.”

“I chosefreedom!” Garrick barked. “And Iofferedit to you! But you were too scared. You let that pathetic council leash you—and now you’re their lapdog.”

Rollo lunged again, slamming Garrick against the stones of the old fire pit.

“You corrupted the woods,” he snarled. “You’re killing the land. You’re killingWren.”

For a moment—just a flicker—Garrick faltered.

Then he laughed, wheezing. “And you still don’t get it.”

He surged forward, using the last of his strength to sink claws deep into Rollo’s side. Rollo roared, collapsing to one knee as blood soaked his ribs.

Garrick leaned in close, breath rancid.

“She’ll never be yours,” he hissed.

Rollo’s vision blurred. But his voice was iron. “She was neveryoursto name.”

With the last of his strength, he slammed a fist into Garrick’s jaw. Bone crunched. Garrick fell back with a snarl.

When Rollo looked up again, the clearing was empty.

Garrick had vanished—dragged himself into the woods with a trail of blood and something darker behind him.

Rollo slumped back, gasping, pain singing through every nerve.

The last thing he saw before the darkness took him was the old totem stone—split down the center, like a warning carved into fate.

25

DELILAH

The forest was quieter than usual.

Not peaceful—just still. Like it was watching.

Delilah knelt beside a patch of starbloom near the roots of a crooked ash tree, her fingers moving carefully over each blossom. These hadn’t been touched by Garrick’s corruption yet—thank the stars—and she needed every clean petal she could find. Wren’s fever had returned in the night, and the moonroot poultices weren’t holding like they used to.

She brushed dirt off her hands and tied the small bundle into linen, pressing it to her chest. The air smelled like pine and damp moss—but there was something else beneath it. Metallic. Tense.

Her mind wandered, as it always did lately.

To him.

ToRollo.

And the mess they'd left in the clearing after she turned her back on him.

She’d told herself he deserved it. That he’d lied. That he’d put Wren at risk. That he saw her as something delicate, breakable, in need of protection instead of partnership.

But the longer the silence stretched between them, the more the edge of that fury dulled—and gave way to something far more complicated.

Maybe he was just scared,she thought.