Ajo: Chapter Twenty-Four

The world crashed around them.

All bliss died in her heart.

When Credence pulled away, Ajo's face was haunted with mortification.

"No," he said quickly. "I didn't mean—"

"I am not Galeia," Credence hissed.

All too easily tears found a perch in her eyes, and each breath felt like a sharp edge against her heart.

"I know," he said. "You are not her."

"And you hate that, don't you?"

"No! Never!"

"I am only a piece of the one you really want."

Her breath was ragged, her words choked out. All the moments between them, all his promises and beautiful words—they were never for her.

Galeia was the only woman he could ever love. The wild thing that lived in his heart.

Credence was just Galeia's daughter.

"Please," Ajo begged, "I didn't mean—"

He tried to pull her into his arms but Credence jerked away and stumbled back, staring at him with repulsed outrage.

"You killed Galeia. You killed your true love with your monstrous hate. She never wanted you, but even now, when there was someone who did...you couldn't find a space in your heart for me." She wiped away angry tears. "You cannot love all of me, so you will love none."

Credence loathed the way her voice cracked as she spoke. It showed weakness, she believed. It proved how deeply he hurt her, and she had no desire to give him an inch of power. She didn't want him to know that for one brief moment he had been the most important thing in the world to her. Her joy, her future, her heart.

Others had tried to warn her, and she argued against their wisdom.

She felt like an utter fool. Like a child.

"Credence—"

"Don't you dare use my name!"

"I beg you, please, how can I make this right?"

Her heart was stone, and the last trace of emotion she had departed in the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Never come in my sight again."

"No, I will not leave you. My beloved—"

"Beloved?" Her voice caught in her throat and she had to swallow its sharpness to continue.

Her mind raced with a horrid thought. I will carry the pain you've caused. Forever.

"You're vile. And you will live just as you deserve—in the lonely misery you built for yourself."

When she turned away he grabbed her arm. "It's too late, you spoke the words."

Without knowing how, she sent a jolt of anger towards him. He withdrew his hand as if her skin  burned him, and when his eyes grew wide Credence knew he was afraid.

Despicable beast, she thought. Pathetic.

"I've done all you asked," he said. "I freed the Queen. I let you into the vault. I took my memories back—"

"You were supposed to love me, more than any of those things."

She looked at the great tree. No matter how many flowers tried to hide the foulness beneath, it would always be a wretched thing. It would be best, she decided, if someone put the tree, and all the memories it contained, out of their misery.

That would be a true kindness.

The word tugged at her heart.

Kindness was for those who could be pushed and pulled by someone else's will.

Kindness was weakness.

I will destroy Ajo's prison, she thought. I will destroy everything.

In an instant, the tree was ablaze.

The sudden roar of flames forced Ajo back, and he held an arm in front of his face to shield himself from the light. The tree groaned, straining to remain standing as it burned. Credence wondered how great the noise would be if there were still captives hanging from its branches.

What tortured music they would have made in their agony.

They would have shared her pain.

Choose kindness, her mind urged.

No.

She concentrated on the roots of the tree, and they began to lift from the ground, creating long arms that shook under her power. She forced them to twist and attack their own trunk, entwining and squeezing the weakened bark. The ground below split into shallow chasms, running away from the tree and into Ajo's purple world.

She didn't hear Ajo shouting for her to stop.

Consume everything, she commanded. All the lies Ajo told.

A flash of white caught her eye.

Something had been unearthed in her destruction. She turned her focus to it, and a powerful sensation tickled her mind. Without thinking, she leapt into a shallow fissure in the earth, ignoring Ajo's pleas behind her.

Pieces of white, half-buried, met her below. She tore at the dirt to unearth it and stopped when something pricked her fingers.

Before her lay the bones of a deer, far too big to be a common animal. Its antlers reached into the earth like roots, stretching farther than her hands could dig. Credence traced a finger over the curve of its ribs.

As she touched it, power pulsed through her. She knew these bones.

Isolam.

Long after death, his remains were still warm. She closed her eyes and focused on the magic that called to her. Isolam's bones did not move, but his voice carried into her mind.

'Why did you wake me, Credence?'

"I didn't mean to," she thought to him.

'Why do you cry?'

"Because I was a pawn. Ma gave me to someone she knew would never love me."

'Did she not give her life proving the opposite? She wanted you to be free.'

"What use was her life then? She could not stop him."

'But you can.'

"Why should it be on my shoulders to do anything at all?"

'Because greatness comes at the cost of duty. And you are destined for greatness, Credence.'

"You don't understand—no one will ever understand—that I never asked for it. I don't want to be great. I'd rather give all of you up."

'Your indifference will doom the woods.'

"Let the woods fend for itself. I am not its protector, no more than I am its queen. My freedom is enough for me."

The air thinned and Credence sensed Isolam's presence fading, leaving behind a note of disappointment.

She did not care.

She climbed from the grave, and when she pulled herself to her feet Ajo was waiting. There was a distant roar from miles away, as Credence's fury crumbled the last of Ajo's mock wonders.

"Where are you going?" Ajo asked when she began to walk away.

"You failed to leave the woods once. I will succeed."

"You mean to betray me like everyone else?"

"You do not love me."

"We spoke vows and exchanged a kiss."

"That means nothing."

He laughed grimly. "You are my wife, Credence. You are my queen."

"We did not bind our souls."

"All the same, we are joined. If you cannot accept that, I must keep you safe until you come to your senses."

Sharp points sprouted from the ground and surrounded Credence, creating a wall to keep her contained.

"The Soul Bind was created once," he said ominously. "It can be created again."

"My life will wither before you see that possibility made real."

She expected disappointment, but he sneered. The walls curved above her head to form a roof, and vines, thorned and dangerous, entwined the sticks to limit her movement.

Ajo flicked his wrist and between his fingers rested a seed. Credence knew at once what it meant.

"There are other ways to ensure your eternity belongs to me," he said. "Even if I have to force it down your throat."

His demeanor was manic, neither in control nor willing to relinquish the chaos in his mind. With all that consumed him—his need for revenge, his confusing obsession for the daughter of the love he had murdered, and the guilt that ate his conscious—he had no room left for reason.

Ajo.

The Collector.

The being in between whom Credence had loved.

He was all and none of them. A creature unlike anything before.

A mad and dangerous king.

But Credence was different, too. She was not a frightened, confused child, and she was not unaware of the strength within herself. She would not wait to be saved by someone else—and this cage would never contain what she had become.

She raised her hands towards the barrier around her. It creaked and twisted under her influence, as vines shriveled and wood splintered.

As quickly as it had formed, the cage shattered.

Ajo was ready with a whip of ivy. He flicked it and caught Credence's wrist. A bolt of pain shot through her arm and Ajo pulled to bring her to the ground, but Credence caught herself from falling and grabbed the ivy. At her touch it burst into ash, and before Ajo could strike again Credence turned and ran from him, back towards the toppled tree.

She disappeared into the hole with Isolam's bones.

She had enough time to push against a rib, breaking away a long, sharp piece to wield as a weapon, but when she turned to leave the grave, Ajo landed atop her.

Eyes, dark and dangerous, were inches away. Credence did not recognize them, for she did not know their owner.

These were the eyes of a new enemy.

But Ajo had not looked before his jump.

It took them a moment to realize what had happened, and Credence followed Ajo's gaze as it lowered to the place where they were joined. Credence's hand tightly gripped the end of a length of bone, and the other end had disappeared into Ajo's stomach. Credence pushed the bone deeper, pressing as far as she could into his body while twisting her wrist. She sent a jolt of power through the bone, amplifying the severity of his wound with a kiss of fire.

Ajo opened his mouth to say something, but only managed to release a grunt of pain. A stream of black fell from his mouth and down his chin. Each sputter of breath brought him further onto the spear of white, impaling him deeper, until Credence pushed his body and sent Ajo onto his back.

He clutched at the bone protruding from his stomach, but could not lift it.

Credence stood over him and his eyes rolled up to meet her stare as his body released an involuntary shiver. The purple light around them was beginning to change, a subtle shift that signaled his control was waning. Credence knew he would not die here. She would be a fool to believe such a wound could topple the King of the Wood. She did not know what power, if any existed, could.

But he was incapacitated, and with his world ending she hoped it would be enough for her to escape.

Ajo tried to say something but his voice was held back by pain.

"Do not speak, but listen," Credence said. "This will be our final meeting. I'm leaving your woods."

He pushed his strength into one last motion and lifted his hand to touch her ankle. His fingers brushed against the golden chain there, and Credence understood the message he meant to convey:

You are still mine.

She shook her head.

"I will find a place where you cannot follow. You will never haunt me again."

***

Credence climbed from the earth, rising like a thing reborn from the dead, far past the point of ever returning to herself again.

It was a hollow victory, but a victory nonetheless. She would not bury her regrets like Ajo, but live on as the new woman she was.

Woe to any who tried to stop her.

Yet she could not shake the pain of what had happened.

She had spoken vows and exchanged a kiss.

She was a wife.

But what did that mean, when in the same breath her heart had been torn in half?

She left Ajo quivering in the dirt, content to never see him again. She turned back once, to ensure he had not stood to follow her, and saw the place where he had been writhing was empty.

He'll lick his wounds, she thought, but I'll be gone before he's strong enough to chase me.

She hoped that was true.

The purple light and nighttime sky faded away and was replaced with the vivid colors of reality. It was daytime, and the sun reigned in the sky. Its brightness hurt her eyes but she was grateful to see it, having been kept from its warmth for what felt like an eternity.

There were no familiar landmarks or wonders—gone was the castle and moat, the towns, and all the other replicas Ajo had fabricated. Gone was the tree and Isolam's bones, along with the destruction she had caused.

As if nothing happened, and Ajo's purple world had never existed.

Perhaps it didn't, she thought. Perhaps everything that happened there was only a dream.

When the sound of life returned, it broke through the forest with a thunderous boom.

The change was disorienting, so much that Credence had to lean against a tree to steady herself. It was like waking from a long slumber, and for several moments the world did not feel real.

The comforts of Sally's tavern and the beautiful lake were gone—as was the promise of a lavish dinner to be served. Credence would have to find her meals and shelter now. She would have to remember how to survive.

The gown she had worn to please Ajo was ruined, torn and stained with mud, little more than rags clinging to her body. The perfect symbol, she believed, of what had become of all her hopes and dreams.

"All right," she said to herself. "Now to find my way out."

Miles of trees lay ahead, and Credence drifted through them, a wandering spirit in search of escape. The woods were no longer her home, and Credence had no intention of calling them such ever again.

She didn't want to help or bother with anyone or anything.

She would have no friends or family, but desired solitude above anything else.

There would be no glorious destiny or battles, and no more hiding or running.

She had earned a life alone, and it was the life she wanted now, without expectations or promises.

A grim realization stopped her.

Ma's book was in Ajo's world. Had it disappeared with the rest of it?

It doesn't matter, she thought.

Let it remain lost. Let it fade with the rest of her dismal past.

Right next to Ajo's poetry, and the lies that made Credence believe she was loved.

With each step forward her spirit grew lighter. The woods had an end, and she was certain she would find it as long as she traveled in the same direction.

And if she never found her way out, she was content to keep walking forever.