Chapter 31
TRUE LOVE
My eyes burned, tears welling. I attempted to blink back the emotion, but it was there all the same.
Elden nodded a little too formally. “As you wish.”
Following behind the king’s long strides, I felt the connection between us pulling tight.
The invisible string under great distress.
I didn’t realize our new love would be so fragile. One word from him and our connection would be severed forever. But I still had hope. Somehow, the hope made this all seem so much worse.
I followed the king and his guard down several curving flights of stairs, the gem lights growing dimmer the farther down we reached. A dark foreboding crept over me. I was heading towards the dungeon, toward where they kept Sam. What would I find once I reached his prison cell?
We arrived at a room carved out of stone, each cell a cave dug into the bedrock the castle sat upon, like an anthill full of chambers.
A fitful cough sounded from a cell on the right.
I hurried over to find a long bed carved out of stone protruding from the wall, Sam laying atop it.
And Lila, the maiden, with her hand in his.
“Sam!” I cried as I hurried to the cell.
The cell doors had been left open, the guards standing on either side. Both guards bowed to the king in reverent sweeps. I ran through the doors and knelt by Sam’s shoulders. He coughed again. Red rimmed his eyes, and though he was covered in a pile of blankets, he shivered with cold.
“‘Elle? Is that you, ‘Elle?” Sam coughed again, blood spraying on the cloth Lila held to his mouth.
“I’m here, Sam. I’m right here.” I brushed a hand through his red hair. “What were you thinking, crossing the border?”
“I had to see you,” Sam said through a ragged throat. His eyes somehow found Elden and narrowed. “Had to save you from that brute.”
A flush of shock shot through Elden’s features at the venom in Sam’s words.
The king and his guard advanced no further than the open bars of the prison cell.
I couldn’t mistake the shift in his eyes.
Of the inevitability of the situation. The inevitability of a human’s death.
But unlike the elves who watched my father fall to the ground, there was true sorrow written on his features.
“What is happening to him?” I asked Elden.
“He is sick.” Lila knelt across from me. Her face was a bit worn, dark circles bruised beneath her eyes, but she held Sam’s hand firmly. “He needs medicine or magic.”
Elden lowered his head. “He crossed the border between our lands without a blessing. It is an old magic, one that will spread throughout his body until it—”
“Until what?” Lila and I asked in unison.
“Until it consumes him.” Elden’s words were final.
“No.” I stood and made my way to the king. “You can save him. You can give him permission to cross, to be here, can’t you?”
Elden’s eyes were pleading. “It is too late for me to save him. The magic working here is not in my power to reverse. Nor is it in Jel’s power. King Theronvere told you the truth. Only the magic and strength of his true love can save him from the brink of death.”
“There must be something!” My entire world crashed around the impossibility of it all.
Lila held up a book as thin lines of tears streamed down her brown cheeks. “I’ve been writing a story for Sam all week to soothe his pains. He needs to know what happens at the end, before—”
I took in the true pain on Lila’s beautiful face. “You’ve been here all week?”
Lila’s slight smile looked more like a wince. “Serrina told me of the human in the cell.” Lila’s eyes shot to the grumbling bodyguard beside the king. “I think she actually felt bad for the pair of us humans in the castle all alone.”
Serrina rolled her eyes, but couldn’t quite hide the slight twinkle.
“And what of Jacob?” I asked, noting the human carpenter who’d worked so hard on my kitchen.
“Oh, Jacob’s been too occupied with his new project to give us much attention.
” Lila smiled sweetly, then seemed to remember the handwritten book in her hands.
“It started out as a bit of fun, me telling this outlandish story to distract Sam from the illness, but I need to finish the story. I feel that I must.”
“Of course.” My heart raced in my chest as I thought through what could be done to save my Sam. He’d been with me through so much. He’d come here to save me. He’d—
He smiled brightly through the pain when Lila scooted closer to a place on his bed that seemed custom made for her curves. His arm curled around her, a deep blush creeping into his cheeks now more obvious with his pale pallor. His eyes crinkled at the sides with a deep—affection.
I looked up in surprise at Elden as he blinked back at me, both of our jaws hanging open.
“Nani quickly dismissed the feeling the other fox brought out in her, ‘Jewels are the only things that last. They don’t change and they will never leave.’” Lila’s voice rose as clear as a silver bell through the cavernous prison cells.
Her voice stirred something deep in me. Forged a connection, a tether. I blinked in surprise. It couldn’t be.
“But the young fox, Aman, smiled. ‘Maybe you just need to see the world in a different way.’ Nani was loath to leave her treasure unguarded in the hollowed oak by the creek, but she trusted something in Aman. They wandered beneath towering trees, listened to the whispering winds, and watched the sunset paint the sky in fuchsias and purples. As the days passed, Nani found herself laughing at Aman’s jokes, singing along with the wind, and feeling the joy of the sun on her fur. ”
As Lila spoke, something changed within Sam. His cheeks grew pinker, his chest rose and fell with more strength, his arm pulled Lila all the tighter.
The air charged, and I felt it—that warmth in my heart.
That connection to Lila, that magic. Lila’s story had magic.
Elden must have felt it then, for his own arm reached around and tugged me close to him.
I pulled him back to me as we stared on, my wonder increasing just as the warmth radiating from my heart.
Sam continued to glow, to heal, as Lila read from her story.
“The jewels slowly gathered dust as they lay forgotten in the hollow oak by the creek. Nani’s true treasure was the love of Aman as they made their way through their own magical forest. Jewels may lose their shine, but love is the brightest treasure of all. ”
And with that, a great heat burned in my heart and filled my nostrils with a strange tang.
Sam blinked in surprise, then sat up fully, a smile stretching across his handsome face.
He beamed with strength and health. Sam looked around the prison cell, at Elden and me standing with arms around each other, and at the bodyguard Serrina with a scowl on her face (a smile teasing her lips), but when his eyes landed on Lila, his smile faltered.
“Little Baker,” Elden curled me into him and whispered into my ear. “It seems you have restored magic to humans once more.”
I squirmed at the chills that spiraled down my side. “So it would seem.”
“The magic in your words. They healed me,” Sam said to Lila. His cheeks were flush, full of life as he stared in awe at Lila with his face handsome and whole. His body seemed to quake with a nervous energy. He ran a hand through his auburn hair and stood, pulling Lila up with him.
Lila’s eyes flew wide, as wide as the smile on her lovely face. “I didn’t know I could—I have magic?”
“Only the magic of true love can heal.” I offered as they stared into the eyes of one another wonderingly.
“You, you love me?” Sam asked Lila, with eyes only for her.
“I do.” Lila raised her chin, her smile effervescent.
“I feel as if my heart is going to burst, Lila.” Sam spoke quickly, boyishly, as if he just now held the greatest of gems. “I came here to save Noelle, but it was you who called upon me. Your voice rang out to me from darkness where the magic had seized me, and I knew that if I held on to that, somehow I would find my way home.”
They shared a kiss then. Sweet, slow and tentative. I could only look on for so long before I couldn’t take the excitement any longer. I ran and flung myself at my two friends, enveloping them both in a strong embrace. Hot tears streamed from my eyes.
“You’re alright!” I cried.
“‘Elle!” Sam pulled me to him and spun me around. “You are safe! You are—” Sam set me down and stared at the wide smile on my face, his auburn eyebrows knitting together— “You’re happy?”
Sam’s eyes went from me to the king, then back again. “What did I miss?”
Lila raised an eyebrow. “Yeh, Noelle, what’s going on between you two?”
I blushed uneasily. “Well, heh.” How to explain everything that had happened over the past fortnight. The slow unspooling of my anger, the embracing of the elves, of Elden.
But it was Serrina who rushed to my aid, drolling in her alto voice. “Little Noelle and the king have been on a journey to save the world. Looks like they saved each other in the process.”
That was as good an explanation as any! I giggled and walked toward Elden, though my steps were unsure, my thoughts scattered.
He wrapped his large arm about my waist. He and I had saved the continent.
Our love had saved the world. And if Lila was any indication, we had restored magic back to humans.
We were meant to bring our two peoples together in peace and harmony, and I knew just how to make that happen.
Christmas.
I smiled up at Elden, but watched in confusion as his eyebrows turned down, his expression deadly serious.
“Noelle, before another word is spoken, I cannot go any farther without telling you of a plot between Serrina and I,” Elden said curtly.
“A plot?” I stopped dead in my tracks, all thought of my own plans flying out of my mind faster than hot oil from a pan. My heart hammered in my throat as I glanced from Serrina, who only looked on as if bored, to Elden, then back again.
“Yes. I must endeavor to keep your heart,” Elden said solemnly. “And I mean to do all that I can to keep you, Noelle, for you are my life. I wish for there never to be another secret between us again.”
“What are you talking about?” Apprehension filled me.
“I sent a letter this morning when I was testing the portals between our realms,” Elden confessed. “I made a promise to you at the beginning of our journey, and I mean to keep it. I would love nothing more than to welcome your family into my home…for Christmas, for always if you wish it.”