Witch Born(10)

They arrived at the tree house Reden had used during his last stay on the island. He unlocked the door and pushed on it, but it stuck fast. He dropped his shoulder and rammed the door. It flew open and banged into the opposite wall, making Senna jump.

Reden’s desk was just to the left of the entrance. He brushed the dust from his chair before collapsing onto it. “You need to tell me the truth about what you were really doing in the uninhabited part of the island in the middle of the night. None of this, ‘I couldn’t sleep’ business you gave the Heads.”

How had he known? She closed her eyes.

“Senna?” Joshen prodded.

Despite how many times she had told her story, she’d always left this part out. “I’ve begged the Heads to release the curse on Tarten. They’ve refused me time and again. I would lift it myself, but it takes an entire choir…so I do what I can.”

Joshen brushed her hair over her shoulder. “Oh, Senna.”

She met his gaze. “They saved our lives, Joshen, at risk to their own. How can we just forget that?”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Reden said, his voice thick.

Her face burning with shame, Senna stared at the perfectly smooth floor. Of course Reden hadn’t forgotten. He was Tarten. And he’d sacrificed his country for the world. Senna wondered if she had that kind of strength. She measured herself and came up dreadfully short. “I’m sorry.”

Somehow, this was her fault. After all, she had agreed to curse Tarten. Had asked Reden to betray his people. Had helped sing that curse into being.

“I’m where I should be.” Reden’s voice had softened.

Senna nodded.

The Leader started searching his desk. “How did you know to hide from your attacker in the first place?”

Her breath caught in her throat. Haltingly, she told him she’d heard music nearly every night—the song of the Four Sisters. And that the night she was attacked she’d heard music all around her, warning her.

“Has it happened since?” Reden asked.

“Not like that.”

He opened his mouth to say something but hesitated, as if measuring his words carefully. “Senna, sometimes a lie is better than the truth—if that truth does more harm than good. I think it best that your singing for Tarten stay among us. Do you understand?”

Senna stared at him in disbelief. She thought she knew Reden, just like she knew Joshen. Reden was a career soldier, a man of honor, a man who saw the world in terms of defensibility and tactics. She’d never expected him to encourage her to lie. Especially not to the Heads. But then, he’d betrayed his country and his men to save the world. Some might not call him honorable at all.

As if uncomfortable under her scrutiny, Reden waved them toward the door. “Joshen, see that she gets to her next class.”

His hand on the small of her back, Joshen held open the door. They stepped out of the tree and moved down the steps made of the tree’s roots. Senna eyed the horizon expectantly. She sensed a storm would be rolling over the cliffs soon—after all, she had helped sing it into being this morning.

As she listened, it seemed the wind’s fingers strummed branches like strings; the sound resonated in hollows and crevices. She could almost taste the mineral rain, see the color melt away into shades of gray, and feel the cool damp.

“Senna?”

She realized Joshen had been speaking to her for a while and she hadn’t heard any of it.

She forced a bright smile. “How are you?”

He shrugged. “I missed you. And I’m starving! Are you sure you can’t sing a steer to swim to the island? I could use a steak.”

She laughed for real this time. “You know Witch song doesn’t work on animals. If it did, I’d have sung you here weeks ago.”

Grinning, he glanced up and down the trail as if making sure no one was watching before pulling her off the path. They ended up hidden by the plants, cradled in the buttressed roots of an enormous tree.

Turning suddenly serious, Joshen studied her, his gaze seeming to unearth everything she wanted so desperately to keep hidden. “Now, tell me why you’re so sad.”

She let out a bitter laugh. How could he so easily see the darkness she was desperately trying to hide? “I thought being with all the other Witches would mean I’d finally find a place I belonged, but I’m more alone here than anywhere I’ve ever been.” It was true. Even when her mother had left her, she’d had her dog Bruke, and later Joshen. Now Bruke was dead, and they’d taken Joshen away.

But he was back now. It would get better.

“What about your mother?”

Senna fought to keep her emotions from overwhelming her. “The only words that ever pass between us are angry. So we keep silent.” She didn’t say her mother wanted them to leave Haven forever. Nothing good could come of his knowing that. She gripped his shirt and buried her face in his chest. “And there’s the nightmares. Nearly every night.”