Page 73 of May: Bloom & Bane

Sage’s wings give a violent snap. The thick vines around Rasen constrict until I can hear his bones crack.

“Sage, stop!” I cry, reaching out to grab the edge of his wing. “They’re gone. It’s over.”

“It’s not over, Eden,” Sage rasps. He didn’t stand up for you. He stood up for the source. He’s just guarding his next meal.”

I flinch backward.

Rasen looks up, his pupils gradually merging back to normal. He makes no attempt to fight the vines or Sage.

“The source?” I repeat. “Is that all you think I am? A well you’re afraid someone else is going to drink from?”

Sage stiffens, the left side of his face flickering several times.

Rasen watches me with sympathetic eyes. “He didn’t mean it that way, Eden.” A thin trail of dark smoke escapes his lips. “He is just… territorial. I would be the same way if it were my mate. Any of us would.”

“But she’s not your mate,” Sage roars, his wings clamping tightly against his back. “And I would never be so disrespectful as to sink my fangs into your soulbond.”

Sage reaches for my wrist, his fingers hovering just inches from the bite mark.

“Don’t,” I whisper. “If you cannot understand why I did what I did, then you do not know me at all.”

The house lets out a low, mournful groan behind us.

“Eden, please, try to understand what this is like for me,” he rasps. “I can smell him all over and… Ashán will not let it go. I am trying… so hard.”

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

So many emotions are flooding through me at once. If it wasn’t for gravity pressing down on me, I think I’d float away.

The grass feels static beneath my feet. The closer I get to Nook, the more it leans toward me, its wooden eaves drooping like weeping branches. It wants to comfort me, to pull me into its warm, cozy-scented heart, but right now, it’s just an extension of him. I walk by, giving the wall a small pat as I continue.

“I’ll be back,” I whisper. “I just need to clear my head.”

Nook lets out a muffled, wood-creaking groan, dropping a soft shower of dried lavender blossoms from its eaves into my hair before letting me go.

The silence of the meadow is broken by a sound that twists my stomach: a low, guttural howl that shakes the ground.

Do not look back. If you see the look in Sage’s eyes, you will fold.

I reach the edge of the woods and lean against a large cedar tree, its bark rough but comforting against my back. I lift my wrist, studying the twin pinpricks.

“You should have stayed in the shower, Sage,” I whisper.

A twig snaps somewhere in the distance. Therael steps out from behind one of the large trunks.

“The house is crying, Eden.”

“I know. I told Nook I would be back before I left.”

“It has been a very loud morning for an old man who just wanted to teach some rooting lessons.”

“You don’t look any older than I am.”

“Ah,” he smiles wistfully. “The perk of being a god. All six of us stopped aging once we hit twenty-five. The same will happen to you once you seal your bond with Sage.”

“Did you see?” I ask hesitantly.

“I felt the surge of his power, but when I got here, you had already left.” His nostrils flare, and his eyes move over me before stopping at my wrist. “Mm. I think I understand, Little Empath.”