Page 32 of May: Bloom & Bane

“Not at all.”

She lets out a little chuckle. “Then why are your cheeks turning purple?”

“Allergies.”

“Mm.” She doesn’t believe me. I don’t believe me. Three sunflowers behind her have turned to watch.

Her fingers find the leaves on my forearm, tracing one seam with an innocence I don’t trust for a single heartbeat.

“You were saying…”

“It means mine,” I manage.

“Mine,” she repeats, testing it. Her thumb draws a slow, thoughtless circle on my arm. “As in… you’re mine. Or I’m yours?”

The frog in my throat has reproduced.

Both. It has always been both, the voice whispers into my mind.

“Yes,” I say.

“Hm.” Her hand travels to my chest, and my own heart betrays me against her palm. “The first day I heard your voice, you called me something… Sae… Saevú⁠—”

My hands move before my mind does.

I lift her.

Suddenly she’s at eye level. Her hands braced on my shoulders, her mouth close enough that I can feel her startled little laugh land on my lips.

“Oh,” she says softly. “Hello.”

“You were asking questions,” I rasp, “from very far away.”

“And now?”

“You’re asking them from somewhere much more dangerous.”

Her eyes drop to my mouth. The meadow has gone completely silent around us.

“Saevúra,” she finishes, barely a breath, “what does it mean?”

Don’t say it. Say anything else. Lie. Allergies. Say allergies⁠—

“Soulbond,” I whisper. “It means… the one my soul was made beside. The one it goes home to.”

Something warm moves across her face.

She leans in. Her nose brushes mine. Her lips stop a petal’s width from my own, close enough that when she speaks, I taste the words instead of hearing them.

“Thank you for teaching me, Saevúra,” she murmurs.

And then she climbs down.

I remain exactly where she left me, arms still half raised.

What just happened?

Morning glories begin to grow over my feet. Ahead of me, Eden glances over her shoulder, copper hair catching the last of the light. The smile she wears is sweet and utterly without mercy.