She had come to realize that the only thing that mattered—the only true magic—was to love and be loved. And she was not willing to live in a world where something was controlling that magic. The original Endlans might have foregone their freedom for safety, but they hadn’t given their descendants a choice. No one should have to say goodbye to a beloved child. No one should have to choose between their freedom and their life.

“I love you, and I don’t want to lose you. But you don’t belong here, Jaren. You belong with your father and your sisters.”

He stared at her, bewildered. “And what about you?”

“I belong with Mama,” she whispered. “I belong with Tate. And with you.”

Before he could ask what she meant, she took his hand, leading him to where the rest of the gathered Endlans were still bickering among themselves about what to do with Ketty and what to make of the knowledge that an Endlan had not only managed to escape the Forest but later returned.

Leelo climbed onto a fallen log, using Jaren’s hand for balance. Finally, someone noticed her presence, and then a hush fell over the crowd as everyone turned toward her. She saw familiar, friendly faces, but also angry ones. She cleared her throat.

“I know some of you may think of me as a traitor, but we all, every one of us, share something in common—Endla has taken too much from us.” She pointed to Isola’s parents, who stood near the front of the crowd. “Isola lost the boy she loved. Rosalie and Gant, you lost your community.” She turned to Pieter’s parents. “You lost your son, first to the outsiders, and then to the lake. And you lost your eldest daughter,” she added, looking at Vance’s parents.

“I lost my brother. My mother lost her only son. And we’ve borne it because we never felt like we had a choice. But now we’ve seen living proof that an Endlan can safely reside among outsiders without coming to harm or harming others. We continue to feed this Forest with our own blood, and for what? We know how to hunt, how to build shelter, how to care for each other. We can survive without the Forest.”

Even though there hadn’t been a sacrifice in weeks, Leelo could still smell the blood, the greedy closeness of the pines. They would never be sated, no matter how much the Endlans sacrificed. “The truth is, the Forest can’t survive without us.”

A rustling started in the branches above them, like children whispering to one another. She could have sworn the gaps between the trees’ crowns had grown smaller, that the space between them was shrinking. The wind picked up, howling, surrounding them with the sound of creaking limbs.

“What are you saying?” someone shouted from the crowd.