The Keeper's blindfolded face remained fixed on me, waiting.
"Choose which of you dies so the other may live."
The trees' song swelled around us, anticipatory. Hungry. The tethered wolves' voices joined in harmonies that made my bones ache.
I stared at the two paths. Silver light leading to my heart-tree. Gold light leading to Astro's.
One had to burn.
Kael set me down carefully, and I swayed on my feet. The exhaustion from saving him still dragged at me, making everything feel distant and unreal.
But this was real. Too real.
"There has to be another way," I said, though I knew better. The Keeper had already said the orchard's laws were absolute.
"There is not." The Keeper plucked another invisible fruit from the air, examining it with her covered eyes. "One tree burns. One wolf dies. The other survives to leave the orchard. This is the price for breaking my trial."
