Sage grabbed Leelo’s hands. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. I thought I was doing what was best for our family. I thought I was keeping you safe. I love you, Leelo.”

Leelo swallowed back tears. It was like her mother said: too much of anything could be a poison. Even love. “I know that’s what you believe, Sage. But I don’t know if I can forgive you for the way you treated Tate. You tried to kill Jaren. You only stopped when you learned he was Endlan. Out there, in the world, most people don’t have magic. At least not the kind you and I are used to. If you can’t accept that those people deserve to live and be happy just as much as any Endlan, then I don’t think you should leave here.”

Sage blinked back tears, her eyes darting between Leelo and Fiona. “But my mother is gone. I’d be all alone.”

Leelo didn’t answer.

“What would I do if I stayed?” she asked, her voice high and thin.

A part of Leelo—the part of her that had spent hours exploring in the Forest with Sage, that had been spared from so much blood and death by her cousin, that had depended on Sage to be strong when she believed she was weak—wanted to embrace her. But that part of Leelo had grown farther away in the past year, a year that had been half Watching, half unlearning the lies she’d been fed all her life. Sage would have to unlearn those lies for herself. Leelo couldn’t do that for her; no one could.

“Are you leaving?” Sage asked finally, when she realized Leelo wasn’t going to ask her to come.

Leelo stepped over the threshold and into the clearing surrounding their cottage. She looked out over the few skeletal trees and snow-covered ground, thinking how strange it was to see this place that had once been as familiar as her own reflection without the presence of the Forest. Against the snow, a winter fox appeared, picking its way silently across the clearing.

A sad smile spread across Leelo’s face. Maybe Sage had been right when she’d compared herself to a fox. Foxes were, above all, survivors. She turned back to Sage, to ask if she had seen it, too.

But Sage was gone.

Many of the Endlans dispersed in the coming days and weeks, abandoning their homes to resettle out in the world. Some incantu children reunited with their families, like Bizhan and his two mothers. Other relationships were too damaged to repair. Violet remained with her adopted family, and the rest of the Hardings moved elsewhere. Isola and her family moved to Bricklebury, however, and Leelo saw them frequently. She even helped them build their new henhouse, which they took great pains to ensure was entirely fox-proof.