Kaelen pressed his palm against the arrow wound below his left collarbone. It was bleeding again despite the stitches he’d used to close it. Warmth seeped between his fingers. He had tried to remove the bolt days ago, but only managed to break the shaft, leaving the barbed tip lodged deep inside.

The moonstone pool rippled before him, its surface catching starlight like scattered diamonds. Beautiful, he thought. Too beautiful.

“Drink,” the voice had whispered three days ago, just before the ambush. “When you are broken, drink from the pool beneath the silverleaf tree.”

He should have known when he’d found the tree. The maiden who’d emerged from these same waters had walked without sound, no crunch of leaves, no flapping of robes. When he’d called out his greeting, she’d passed him like a mist, moving through the forest as if the trees themselves welcomed her home.

Now, crumpled against that very tree, Kaelen studied the water. It glowed with the soft blue of healing magic, exactly as the songs described. But songs lied. The elders had taught him that much before they’d burned.

His vision blurred. The poison was spreading faster now, threading through his veins like molten copper. He could feel it reaching for his heart.

The pool’s glow pulsed, synchronized with his failing heartbeat.

Drink.

Kaelen’s hand trembled as he reached toward the water. The surface tension broke under his fingertip, and for a moment, the blue light glimmered, revealing something else beneath. Something that writhed and whispered in a language that made his bones ache.

He jerked his hand back. The pure blue light returned. Even more innocent. And somehow, more inviting.

“Clever,” he whispered to the darkness. “Almost perfect.”

The arrow wound throbbed, matching his pulse. Two heartbeats. Three. The poison crept higher, numbing his shoulder, his neck. Soon it would reach his brain, and then—

Drink, and live forever.

Forever. The word lingered like a curse disguised as a blessing.

“Forever? Or forever like a wraith? I now know which.” Kaelen closed his eyes and let his hand fall to his side. The pool continued its patient glow, waiting for the next desperate soul who would mistake damnation for salvation.

When his kin found him at dawn, his lips were still curved in the faintest smile.