Page 84 of The Poison Season

Chapter Fifty-Three

“Mama, wait!” Leelo screamed as she ran after her mother through the Forest. She’d never known Fiona could move so quickly, especially given how ill she’d seemed just moments earlier, but she was driven now, not trying to save her strength for later.

“We have to tell Ketty,” Fiona rasped. “She can’t kill him if she knows he’s an Endlan.”

“Are you sure?” Leelo wanted so desperately to believe her mother was right. And her theory made sense. Jaren had never reacted to Endlan singing the way an outsider should. And his voice, though untrained and unpracticed, was as sweet as any Endlan’s.Saints, let Mama be right.

“I’m sure,” Fiona said, pausing just long enough to take Leelo’s hand and pull her along down the trail.

The singing was everywhere, and Leelo wished she could block it out somehow. She’d always hated this song, punctuated by shrill shrieks and guttural cries, but she loathed it now. A family of raccoons hurried across the trail; she wasn’t sure if they were running toward the singers or fleeing. The Endlans wouldn’t kill any animals tonight. That wasn’t the goal of their Hunt.

Finally, they reached the pine grove, but only a few elderly Endlans were there, sitting on log benches, waiting for the main event to start. Leelo glared at them.

“What are you doing out?” an old man asked. “You’re supposed to be under guard at your house.”

“Our guard left,” Leelo spat. “Where is Ketty?”

“Hunting, of course,” the old man said. “And based on the way things are quieting down, I’d say he’s been caught. It won’t be long now.”

He was right. Only a few minutes later, which Leelo spent pacing, her hands pressed against her ears, the Endlans began returning to the pine grove. “Who caught him?” someone asked. A few people shook their heads.

And then Sage entered the clearing, and they had their answer.

Leelo gasped at the sight of blood running from a wound in Jaren’s neck onto his tunic. Sage had her knife to his back, her intent clear. Leelo pushed her way through the crowd until she reached him.

“Leelo?” he breathed.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, a moment before she was ripped away by several Endlans.

Ketty materialized out of the crowd with her burning gaze fixed on her daughter. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at the house.”

“I was the one who discovered him,” Sage said. Her knife was still inches from Jaren’s spine, but he didn’t appear to be in any shape to try to escape. “I deserve this kill.”

“She’s right,” a few people said. “She caught him. She deserves the kill.”

Leelo thought she might be sick. “She wasn’t even a part of the Hunt!”

Some of the Endlans seemed to side with Leelo, but there was so much commotion it was impossible to know which side was winning.

Fiona had found her way to Leelo, and they stood clutching each other. “Mama, say something,” Leelo urged.

“Ketty,” Fiona said, but her voice was too weak to be heard above the excited chatter of the crowd, which was growing more animated by the second.

“Ketty!” Leelo screamed. “You can’t kill him!”

“Why not?” Sage asked. “Because you think you love him?” Anyone else might only have seen the sheer loathing Sage felt for Jaren, but Leelo could tell that beneath her sneer of derision was a hint of sorrow and regret.Choose me, her eyes said. But it was a choice Jaren would never have forced her to make.

Leelo turned to the crowd. “Because he’s an Endlan,” she said, her voice ringing out over the clearing. “And he has as much of a right to be here as the rest of us.”

Sage lowered the knife a fraction of an inch. “What are you talking about?”

Ketty was gripping Jaren’s arm now, and it was clear that their battle lines had been drawn. “Lies,” Ketty said. “We know all Endlans. This boy is a clear outsider.”

Fiona shook her head. “Look again, sister.”

A flicker of doubt crossed Ketty’s face.

“That’s Nadia Gregorson’s child. The child she died trying to save.”

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