Chapter 36
FELORé
Asilence had fallen over the room as Alek still lay on his side, drifting in and out of sleep. I’d gotten up to open the window and stack extra logs onto the fire, but I returned without fail each time he called my name. It was surprising how often he did it. Like he was saying it in his dreams.
“I’m here,” I’d say, slipping back inside the bed to palm his cheek. “I’m right here.”
He needed his rest if he was going to have the strength to get out of here, but it wasn’t lost on me how pale his lips had gotten—an ashen gray.
Or how his breathing was more labored with each passing hour.
As much as I wanted to let him sleep, I found myself too often pressing a hand against his chest to feel his heartbeat.
Like I was doing now.
“Talk to me, Snow Fox,” he said, and he sounded almost winded.
I let my gaze wander around his lovely face. The paler he got, the more his freckles stood out. “What would you like me to say?”
“Anything. I just want to hear your voice.”
I searched my mind for the just-right words. I didn’t want to speak of my fears. Or anything painful. “I got to see a little of the palace.”
He didn’t open his eyes as he asked, “What did you think?”
“It’s ridiculous.”
The tiniest smirk curled his mouth.
“Why is everything so glittery, Prince? Is there a reason why the big, scary vultae like sparkly walls?”
He snorted.
“And don’t even get me started on the artwork.”
He groaned, “Oh, gods.”
“So, you realize how absurd?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Can you imagine if humans did that? If we commissioned life-sized paintings of the first potpie we ever ate?”
His lips stretched into a smile. It was a dark subject to make light of, but at that moment, I did not care. I’d say anything to bring him some relief. To see his smile.
“I don’t imagine you posing with a potpie, Snow Fox,” he said, his voice so frail. “If anything, it’d be a cake.”
“Oh, yes. Can you picture it? Me, naked in a meadow, a fork in my hand, gazing tenderly at the first cake that ever floated my way.”
He chuckled, which ended in a faint cough. “I will have it commissioned immediately.”
“I can’t wait to elevate the décor.”
The smile on his lips gradually faded, like sleep was claiming him, but I did not want him to sleep. Time was not passing quickly enough, and yet it was slipping by. Letting him drift off into his dreams felt like something precious was being stolen from us both.
“Are you awake, Prince?”
His forehead crinkled. He nodded.
“Good,” I said, smoothing a thumb over his eyebrow. “Because I have a confession to make.”
At that, his eyes blinked open. Their color had dimmed to a pale, golden wheat.
“I lost that game of cards on purpose.”
His drowsy eyebrows raised at the same time a tiny smile returned to his face. “You let me win?”
“Yes,” I said, raking my fingers through his hair. “I let you win.”
“Snow Fox. Why?”
“Because as much as I wanted your special blade, I wanted to see you more.”
His smile slowly broadened. Even in his worst hour, it was moon-white and stunning.
“I wanted to go on the walk with you and go swimming,” I said. “I wanted to see the sunlight in your hair, too.”
“And wherever you go, I follow?” he asked. “Your demonic puppy.”
I huffed out a chuckle, pressing my forehead against his. “My demonic puppy.”
CLANK.
The sound was sharp, clattering from the open window.
I shot up in the bed. “Is that—?”
Another clank followed.
It was something hitting the side of the palace wall.
“Go see,” Alek said, still smiling.
I ripped the covers off and rushed to the window as the clanking continued, like metal striking stone.
I crawled into the nook and peered out. It was a female vultus. She was ferociously jamming something into the stone wall. Something that appeared to be a metal spike.
It sparked as she drove it in with incredible strength. Then she wedged her fingers between the stone to climb up onto it where she stood, testing it with her weight. She retrieved another spike from a satchel strapped to her back and drove that one into the stone.
This was her. Amara. And she was building a fucking ladder.
I squinted down at the figure on the ground holding a small torch, and a smile broke across my face. I could hardly believe my eyes, but it was him. It was Landry.
“Alek,” I said, stumbling from the nook on my dash back to the bed. “It’s her. Get up. It’s time to go.”
The look on his face was all wrong. He should’ve been matching my speed. He shouldn’t have been lying there so calm with his smile so fucking tender.
“Oh, my gods,” I said, my eyes widening. “Oh, my gods, you were never going to go.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Snow Fox.”
My heart was pounding in my ears. “No. No, get up.”
“I can’t, darling,” he whispered. “You and I both know I can’t. I won’t make it.”
Another metal spike struck the wall. And another.
I rushed to the bed and gripped his wrist in an attempt to haul him from the bed, but I hadn’t noticed how limp his body was. He was nearly dead weight. If I pulled him too hard, he’d crash straight to the floor.
So, I scrambled into the bed to cup his face in my palms. “Alek, listen to me. I know you’re tired, but you have to get up. It is your doctor we are going to see. If anyone can help—”
“You are going to see him,” he said, his breathing labored. “Learn everything you can from him. Whatever solution he might have, I trust you with it.”
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. A scratching came from the window, and then there was a figure crawling through—too huge and muscled to be moving that gracefully, like a jungle cat.
Amara’s tall frame filled the nook when she rose to her full height. She was a vision with her chest and arms bulging with strength and her sleek armor shining in the firelight. I flinched when she hopped onto the floor.
“Hello, Amara,” Alek said.
She stopped cold, the expression vanishing from her face.
“You don’t need to say it.” Alek smiled with lips cracked and dry. “I already know I look like shit.”
She didn’t say anything, but a slow inhale filled her broad chest as she gazed upon her prince.
“This is Feloré,” Alek said. “Please take him to the doctor. I want him safe no matter what. Those are my wishes. Understood?”
Her eyes slid to me, and whatever was written on my face was enough to make her jaw clench tight. Then she bowed her noble head, her voice deep and decisive as she said, “You have my word, Prince.”
“No,” I said, clenching my fists around the blankets when she started toward me. “No, look at him. We can’t just leave him. We can’t—”
She clutched my elbow and yanked me effortlessly from the bed.
“Let go of me,” I said, twisting against her grip, but she hauled me forward. “Fucking let go! Alek! Tell her to let go—”
“Wait,” Alek said.
Amara halted instantly, and I staggered behind.
“I have a confession, too, Snow Fox.”
I tried to rush back to him, but her grip tightened on my arm. So, there I stood, waiting helplessly as he caught his breath.
“I’m not sure I know what it is to love,” he whispered. “But I do know that if I could spend forever in your company, it would not be long enough.”
The air rushed from my lungs.
“And for no other reason, Feloré, than because you are who you are.”
Time. It wouldn’t just stop.
Alek smiled that smile of his. It was sweet and time was cruel and it was just so very him to say, “Since the moment you stabbed me, human. You captured my heart the moment you stabbed me.”
All I could do was whimper as I let the moment pass, let it slip through my fingers. Because then he was nodding at Amara, and I was feeling my body pulled toward the window when my heart was here. It wanted to be here.
No. NO!
I was screaming inside—begging, scraping at the walls of my mind.
“We have to go now,” Amara said, with the placid tone of a trained warrior. “It’s only a matter of time before they will be here on their search for your brother.”
“I’m not going anywhere without him,” I said, yanking my arm in tugs, prying my shaking fingers beneath hers. “Fucking let go of me. I said I’m not going—”
“You don’t have a choice, human.” She stepped into the nook, hoisting me up by my arm as my feet kicked and dangled, but she yanked, and I stumbled to her side. “You heard him. It is my prince’s dying wish that you are safe.”
“Look at me,” I said, gritting my teeth as I tried to tug free, but she kept me pinned to her side without effort. “Please just fucking look at me.”
She finally swiveled around, pinning me with a cold stare with her slate-colored eyes. “If you don’t come willingly, then I will force sleep upon you.”
My eyes rounded in a glare.
“Is that what you want, human?”
“Of course, not.”
“Then stop fucking fighting. There is not a scenario where I leave you behind—”
“I can save him.” I heard myself say it. What was absolutely remarkable was that I believed it as I followed up with, “He won’t hurt me.”
She grumbled in a low snarl as she unclipped the rope attached to her trousers and began yanking it in a skillful knot around the crank handle of the window.
“Did you hear me?” I asked. “I said I can save him—”
“He doesn’t want to be saved.” She bit the rope between her teeth and tugged on the knot. “He wants you safe.”
“I will be. Look, I know I sound mad,” I said, squatting beside her, fighting for her eye contact. “But last night, he was able to feed on me a little, and look. I’m still here. No harm came to me. Do you know why?”
She gave the rope one last tug.
“Because he forced himself to stop.”
I could almost swear that was hesitation.
“That’s right,” I said, my whisper frantic. “He’s a virgin, he’s starving to death, and he forced himself to stop feeding before he hurt me.”
Her gaze lifted.
“He won’t hurt me, Amara,” I said. “You will still fulfill his wishes by letting me stay. I will be safe here with him. I know I will.”
Her gaze flitted from me to Alek.
“I can do it. I can save him. This whole fucking kingdom needs him, and you know it.” I squeezed my hands into fists. “Please. Please, you have to let me try.”
A long moment passed as she blinked at the bed where Alek slept. So long that I wanted to scream at all the time we were wasting. She wasn’t going to let me go, was she? She was going to force sleep upon me, and force me to go with her, and Alek was going to—
“Do you swear it?” she asked, her stare cold on Alek.
My eyes shot open.
“Do you swear that what you said is true? That he was able to stop himself?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “I swear on my brother’s life.”
Relief was waiting to wash over me. Hope was waiting to grow.
Then she tipped her chin down to the ground and asked, “What do I tell him?”
But relief and hope both withered when I felt the weight of my decision. The other piece of my heart was down there now, and I was about to break his.
“Tell him he was right.” I nodded. “About everything, and that I was wrong. About everything.”
Her face remained a hard-edged mask. “Anything else?”
I didn’t have the right words. I was never good at them like he was. There was nothing I could say anyway that would make him understand, so I stole the words from him.
“Yes,” I said, wiping my face. “Please also tell him this. Tell him that until our paths cross again, may we both carry fondness in our hearts for when they were one and the same.”
She nodded, and for a moment, I could see a fracture in her sound exterior. “May luck and the gods be with you, human.”
With that, she was gone. Stepping through the window, climbing down the wall as her long braids whipped around her. I could barely hear Landry screaming my name. Screaming, Why isn’t he coming? No. No!
But his protests were swallowed by the wind, and he didn’t stand a chance against her as she slung him over her shoulder, fighting the whole time they vanished into the darkness.
I turned to my prince once more. He slept so soundly that he didn’t even wake when I rushed to the bed, hurrying onto it.
“Alek,” I said, rising to my knees, peeling my shirt overhead. “Wake up. I don’t fucking care what you have to say. I’m staying, and you cannot stop me.”
But he didn’t flinch.
“Prince,” I said, shaking him. “Wake up—”
That was when I saw it—it stole the words from my mouth.
It was the single trickle of blood spilling from his ear.