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Haven fell into Nara’s arms, his cheek pressed against hers, and she held him tight. Too quickly her hand was wet with the warm flow of blood from his side. Their swords lay to either side, and she allowed the stones to fall from her hold as she closed her arms around him.
The smell of the fire tree that had filled her senses was gone, as were the hounds. She waited for them to bound around her, but there was no sign of them, and she missed them. Like the manor and the people she had seen there, they had never truly existed. An illusion built on the memories of those that had come before.
Haven groaned as he tried to hold her closer. As much as she wanted to stay in his arms, she pushed him back. He wiped at his face and lay down beside her. Nara had no energy left at all, despite what she might have taken from Lord Orman. As she looked around for the stones, she thought it more likely that they had taken whatever magic he held.
She had sensed it before without fully understanding it. Whether he was responsible for the magic she had felt or the crackle of it through the sky like lightning, they might never learn now. Where his head had rolled against her mother’s headstone, there was nothing but a pile of dust. And as the idea of him being so close to her mother filled Nara with disgust, a breeze stirred the trees around them and then blew it away.
“He is gone, isn’t he?” she asked, fearing he would return at any point. It had been his curse. Cursed by her mother, and again she wondered at the promise made between him and her father. Had he understood what Orman had wanted with her?
She had never fully appreciated how much power the old man had, yet it was as though he was holding on to life by a thread. When Haven didn’t answer her, she looked down at him—his eyes closed, his face pale, and his chest barely moving.
His whole side was soaked through with blood. She leaned over him, pulling at his shirt and trying unsuccessfully to roll him to his side to find the wound. “Haven!” she growled when he wasn’t working with her. “Don’t you leave me now,” she added in a whisper, hoping the Fates wouldn’t take him when they had finally found an end to this. But then, maybe that was the reason. Now that they had found the answers, or some of them, this was their end.
She glanced at the marker for her own grave, the hint of words she couldn’t read, and she wondered who had taken the time to put it up. Likely not her father. She sighed as she pulled uselessly at Haven’s shirt and his blood dyed the grass around them crimson.
She heard the movement of someone approaching long before she saw them. It was as though every movement vibrated through her, and then a hound appeared, nudging at Haven. He rolled away from the wet nose, and she pulled his shirt up to expose the deep slice into his side. She pressed her hand over it, but something in her knew it was too late.
For a heartbeat, she hoped it was the stones. It was an idea that they would live again, despite her understanding that they wouldn’t. Nara wanted to know Haven had a chance to go to the fire tree and find her again beyond it. The flutter of a dress caught her eye, and she looked up at the woman standing over her.
Her hands still pressed to Haven’s wound, Nara wondered what had drawn Neroli to the old man in the first place. Had he been something else when he was younger? From the memories she had seen, it didn’t appear so.
As the woman knelt beside Nara, she realised it wasn’t Neroli and sucked in a sob. The young woman wrapped her arms around her, pressing her forehead to Nara’s, and the warm smile filled her with a hope she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
“Mother,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry I left you,” Mother replied, reaching for a stone in the grass by Haven. She held it tight in one hand as she pushed the other over Nara’s hands. She drew in a deep breath, but there seemed little difference. She shook her head, looking back at Nara, who climbed unsteadily to her feet, reaching for her sword.
She was relieved at how easily it lit up. The magic hummed through her, grounding her, and Mother moved back as she placed the sword against Haven’s skin. He cried out as the sword glowed brighter. A rumble of thunder in the distance gave the idea of lightning Nara didn’t see.
As she pulled it away from his skin, it left a burn searing the wound closed, red and raw. She stood over him, the sword in her hand, wondering if he would open his eyes this time or if it was too late.
“Boy,” he murmured, and Nara knelt over him.
“What boy?” she asked.
“What boy,” he repeated.
“Haven?” she asked, uncertainty growing in her chest. She leaned closer to him. “Do you smell the fire tree?”
He opened his eyes then, taking her in. The slightest glow behind his eyes gave her hope that he wasn’t going anywhere without her just yet. She gave him a smile, or at least tried to, but she wasn’t sure her lips were working with her.
He sighed and rolled forward, then flinched when he saw her mother kneeling nearby. But as he took her in, he sat up slowly, gingerly putting his fingers to his side. He looked back at Nara and raised his eyebrows.
“It worked before,” she said. “And I thought this was the end.”
He nodded slowly, then groaned as she threw her arms around him. She wanted to pull back, but she couldn’t. She wanted to hold on to him forever.
“You are the boy,” Mother said. Nara lifted her head to look at her as Haven twisted and then groaned.
“What boy?” Nara asked again.
“When he knew he would not reach me, Lord Orman asked what could be done. He gathered many with different skills to reach what he had lost. Your father was one of those.”
Haven shook his head as though he didn’t believe her. “He was a soldier,” he murmured.
Mother smiled, and Nara wondered how long it had been since she had seen that smile. “He was, but he also had an understanding of what was to come. He knew you would be well placed to help Lord Orman retrieve what was his.”
“But I didn’t,” Haven said.
“Your father may not have foreseen what would change when you two met each other.”
Haven looked at Nara then, reaching for her face, and she leaned against him.
“No one could guess what you would become together,” Mother said. “The Sunshine and her Haven.” She climbed slowly to her feet, brushing away the grass that had clung to her skirt, and then she ran her fingers through Nara’s hair. She looked over the stone in her hand, and it disappeared. Nara knew that if she looked for the others, they too would be gone. “You don’t need these anymore,” she said, looking over her grave and then turning back towards the house.
“Is it there?” Nara asked.
Mother shook her head again. “You don’t need that either.”
“What is next?” Nara asked, although she didn’t want to know.
Her mother smiled and walked away, disappearing beneath the willow leaves. Nara knew that she wouldn’t see her again, although she might not have seen her at all.
As Nara looked back at Haven, still holding on to her, the colour had come back to his cheeks, but then he appeared to be burning. And before she could say her last goodbye, he was embers blowing on the breeze.
She cried out in frustration as the silence closed around her, and she realised the hound that had come with her mother had gone as well. Nara reached for her sword, finding that she too was disappearing as she had so many times before. Despite not smelling the fire tree, she focused on the headstone she couldn’t read as she disappeared from a world that had no use for her.
The fire tree was bright when she reached it. She felt the same calm she did each time, and yet it gave no comfort. The green grass stretched well beyond the tree, much further than she had seen before. As she walked slowly towards it, wondering if she was to be here alone forever, a hound raced past her, followed by another. Their grey fur appeared almost golden in the light of the tree. Nara stopped as all six raced around the tree.
She smiled and raised her gaze to find Haven at the edge of the firelight.
Nara thought it an illusion, a final trick of the Fates. He smiled, relief evident as his shoulders relaxed. His shirt bore no marks of the death they had witnessed or the injuries that had taken him from her so many times.
She ran into his arms, secure in the solidness of him and the scent of his skin. He cupped her face and pressed his lips to hers. She wrapped her arms around him, holding him as tightly as she could in case he was gone when she opened her eyes.
When she did open them and he pulled back, he grinned at her, and she clutched at his shirt in case he disappeared. He turned then, looking over his shoulder to where a field stretched out beyond the fire tree.
The hounds raced back and forth through the brilliant green grass dotted with vibrant flowers. Nara was reminded of the field they had met in and the flowers that dotted the side of his cottage in the Mer village. If she took the time to think back over all their lives, would there be hints of flowers throughout?
It all linked back to the fire tree. Haven took her hand in his and raised it, lifting her shirt sleeve enough to expose the rough red thread. The same as in their last life, the same as in their first. And then he dragged her back towards the tree, the flickering flaming leaves familiar, and Nara wondered if this was her tree or his, or whether there was only one fire tree. But then, it didn’t matter. They were finally here together.
Haven pulled her down beneath it into the soft green grass. She nestled in beside him, her head on his shoulder, looking up into the flickering leaves. He gently kissed her forehead.
It no longer mattered if they were to live again or remain here forever. Because Nara understood that they would be together, whichever way the Fates decided it should be.