The Twin Who Got The Ring And The One Who Got The Altar Chapter 05
“Move.”
“No.” His jaw was tight. “I came here and screwed everything up, but you can’t throw away your future because of this
“You came here today.” I looked at him calmly.
“You didn’t come for me. You came because my parents told you Sera was helpless.”
He opened his mouth.
“You came because my parents told you Sera was helpless. That she was weak. That she had no way out.”
“You felt sorry for her.” I said. “That’s not love.”
“I-”
“Tate.” I said. “Pity and love are not the same thing. You know that.”
He went silent.
I walked past him.
Elder Granger watched me without speaking for a long moment. The candles in the hall flickered.
People around us started murmuring, rustling like wind in dry grass.
Elder Granger turned his pipe in his hand. “Willa, what are you asking?”
“Just the rules.” I said. “You taught me–figure out the rules first, then decide.”
He held my gaze.
Then he spoke, “You take the Keeper out of this hollow, you’re banished for life. Never allowed back.
Your family gets the same treatment–three years. No one in town deals with you. No outside business.
Nothing.”
The room went dead quiet.
I nodded. “Understood.”
Then I turned and walked back the way I came.
Elder Granger called after me, “Willa, what are you doing?”
“Going to see someone off,” I said.
On the main road, Tate was still standing there.
He hadn’t left. When he saw me coming back, his eyes went wide. “You-
“Tate.” I stopped in front of him. “Did you drive here?”
“Yes.” He looked confused. “Why?”
“Then get in your car and leave. Now.”
His forehead creased. “Willa.”
“Listen.” I said. “You’re leaving now. Alone. Sera stays.”
His eyes bulged. “What?”
“If you take Sera,” I said, my voice flat as a rulebook, “by our hollow’s rules, you’re banished for
life. Your family gets blacklisted for three years. No contact with outsiders.”
The color drained from his face.
“You know my parents reached out to you,” I said.
“But do you know Sera’s mother–her whole family still lives in this hollow? Three–year blacklist.”
“Her brothers run a local produce business–they
buy from everyone around here. Three years with no outside buyers, and they’re done.”
Tate’s mouth hung open.
“You’re a good person, Tate.” I said. “I know you
didn’t mean any harm. You just felt bad. But good intentions can still wreck people.‘
“You taking Sera today doesn’t just end what we had. It ruins families.”
He was quiet a long time. His voice came out rough. “Then… what about Sera?”
“Sera’s not your problem.”
“I promised her I’d help-
“Tate.” I cut him off. “You don’t get to help her.
You’re not the one.”
He froze.
“Because you don’t know this place,” I said. “You just listened to my parents and felt sorry for someone you barely know.”
“You think you’re saving her,“
I said, holding his eyes. “But you don’t even know what she actually wants.”
Wind swept through the gap, catching my white ribbon.
Tate stared at me. His lips moved. “Willa, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize to me,” I said. “It doesn’t matter
to me anymore.”
He fell silent again.
Then he dropped his head. “You’re really decided?
To be Keeper? Stay here?”
“Not yet,” I said. “But you still need to go.”
He held my gaze a long time.
Then he stepped back. And back again.
Turned and walked toward his car.
I stood there, watching him go.
Five years. Just like that.
There was something in my chest–sharp, bitter, but a little lighter too. Like I’d put down something I’d been carrying forever. Except putting it down took a piece of me with it.
The engine started in the distance, then faded,
swallowed by the curve of the mountain road.
I stood a minute more. Then I turned and walked back.