11. The Price of Petals – Rosemary #2
I placed my hands on the pixie child's chest and reached deep into my magic, deeper than I'd ever dared before. Instead of the careful, measured healing I usually practiced, I let my power flow freely, wildly, trusting in something greater than my own fear.
The curse in the child fought back, but I was stronger. I thought of Briar, of every patient I'd ever healed, of the cottage garden where I'd learned that even the smallest seed could grow into something beautiful given enough care.
"Bring me the moonbell," I said without looking up. I felt the wing shift around me as moonbell petals fluttered to the ground beside me. I opened my pack and got to work.
"This curse is different. I can feel it—it’s not tied to anything else. That means it’ll be easier to break and won’t require what we’re seeking on our journey."
I kept one hand hovering over the tiny form as I began to mash and mix the moonbell petals into a poultice, placing a small amount on the pixie’s chest. Then, I used my magic to coax the curse out, slowly unraveling it from the pixie child.
Light poured from my hands, not the gentle glow of ordinary healing, but something fierce and bright as the sun itself. The child's eyes fluttered open, and the dark veins faded until her skin was clear as crystal once more.
"Rosemary," Elias breathed, his voice full of wonder and something deeper. "How did you—"
"I don't know," I admitted, staring at my hands as they still hummed with residual power. "I just knew I couldn't choose. A healer's duty is to all who suffer, not just those we love."
Queen Mab studied me with new respect. "You have passed the trial, young healer, but not for the reasons you think.
Many could have saved the child with enough power, but you didn't just heal her.
You transformed the curse itself, turned its destructive magic into pure healing energy.
That's not ordinary seelie magic, child. "
Queen Mab's expression grew thoughtful. "Your mother didn't just hide your memories to protect you from the queen. She hid them because your power is the key to something crucial. You’re not meant to rule, dear one. You're meant to heal what ruling has broken."
"What are you saying?" I whispered. I wondered how she knew my mother, how she knew me, but I bit my lip and waited.
"The prophecies speak of two sisters, one born to unite the courts through wisdom and strength, the other born to heal the wounds that centuries of war have carved into the very fabric of magic itself.
Your sister will be the bridge between peoples.
You will be the bridge between what was broken and what can be made whole again.
"Without your power to cleanse the curse’s poison from the land, even the best ruler cannot heal what the queen has damaged. You're not her successor, you’re her antithesis. She destroys with curses; you transform them into blessings. That is the mark of a true guardian of life."
The pixie queen gestured to the moonbell grove, where the flowers now bloomed in full splendor, their petals gleaming like captured starlight.
"Take what you need. But know this, the magic you used tonight, that wild power that answered your call, it comes with a price.
Each time you reach that deep, you risk losing yourself to it. "
I gathered the moonbell petals with careful reverence, but the queen's warning echoed in my mind. I had felt something dangerous in that moment, something hungry and vast that had wanted to keep flowing, to reshape the world according to my will.
"What kind of price?" I asked.
"The same price the queen paid, long ago," Mab replied sadly. "Power without restraint becomes corruption. Love without limits becomes obsession. Be careful, child, that in saving others, you do not lose your own soul."
As the pixies began to disperse, preparing for their evening revelries, Elias turned to me. "What you did back there," he said softly. "The choice you made. I've never seen anything like it."
"It didn't feel like a choice," I admitted. "It felt like the only thing I could do."
"That's what makes you extraordinary," he said, his voice carrying a reverence that made my cheeks warm. "You don't even realize your own strength."
I looked down at the moonbell petals in my hands, their silver light pulsing gently. "Queen Mab's warning though. About the power having a price. What if she's right? What if trying to save everyone ends up corrupting me?"
"Then I'll be there to pull you back," Elias said without hesitation.
"What about you?" I asked softly. "What's your greatest fear?"
He was quiet for a moment, his silver-gray eyes reflecting the last light of the setting sun. "That I'll become the monster my mother always said I was. That one day you'll look at me and see only the darkness, only the things I've done wrong."
"Never," I said firmly, reaching for his hand. "I see you, Elias. All of you. And what I see is someone worth believing in.”
The words hung between us, heavier than any formal declaration. In the growing twilight, surrounded by the magic of the pixie glade, we had found something neither of us had been looking for but both desperately needed.
Trust. Understanding. The beginning of something that could last forever, if we were brave enough to let it.