“What you had to do,” Leelo said. “Come on, let’s get you home.”

“No. We need to get Jaren out of here before it’s too late.”

A sudden wind had picked up, Leelo realized. Another storm was brewing, and Jaren would be caught in it if they didn’t move.

“Hurry,” Fiona said, urging them toward the boat. Above the canopy, the tips of the tall pines were swaying back and forth in the wind. Sharp raindrops began to pelt Leelo’s face.

“What’s happening?”

“It’s the Forest,” Fiona whispered. “I had hoped that it wouldn’t notice...”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just get in the boat. Quickly, before it’s too late.”

Realization washed over Leelo, as cold and unwelcome as the rain. “You’re not talking about the storm, are you?”

Fiona’s face was streaked with rain or tears or both. “It isn’t just the lake that keeps us here, Leelo. We can’t leave Endla. The Forest won’t let us. This may have been an ordinary Wandering Forest at some point, but it’s far stronger than the others now, grown fat and monstrous on Endlan blood. That’s why I couldn’t leave to be with Nigel, even if I took you with me. Especially if I took you with me. We raise you to believe that we need this Forest to protect us, but it’s the other way around.”

They say Endla grows roots around your feet so you can’t leave, even if you want to. How many times had Leelo heard that phrase, smiling at the nonsense of it because of course no one would want to leave? Now her stomach churned with growing horror. If they left, would the Forest retaliate and harm the other islanders? She couldn’t do that to them.

She turned to Jaren. “You have to go. This may be your only chance.”

“I’m not leaving without you. Besides, if what your mother says is true, I won’t be allowed to leave, either.” He squeezed her hands in his, wincing when her skin brushed his raw wrists. “Maybe that’s why the wolf brought me to Endla. Because it somehow knew I belonged here.”

Their eyes met, and for a moment the world faded away around them. She’d come so close to losing him it was almost impossible to believe he was still here with her. She rose on her tiptoes, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips, just to make sure he was real.

When she lowered herself back down, she let her eyes travel to the Forest. Once, she had believed that nothing mattered more than this place. She had allowed her brother to be sent away for it; she had nearly lost Jaren to it, too. But the power those lies had held over her for seventeen years was gone, replaced by a new understanding.