Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Mal, listen to me. Killing Aurora won’t solve this.”
“Won’t solve it?”
Aurora’s machines lay strewn like broken toys along the path.
Their metal gleamed in the dappled light.
Even now, even with Phillip at her side trying to plead reason, Mal couldn’t shake the urge to tear through every last piece of machinery that dared to invade her land.
The only solution to this was keeping that pritch far, far away from her forests.
And if she wouldn't leave them in peace, she was dead.
Mal so hope Aurora resisted.
Phillip stepped around a twisted heap of gears and grabbed her hand, forcing her to stop. “Mal, not everyone in the realm wants this. Not every human would stand by while the forest burns.”
“What about her soldiers? Were they just following orders?”
As if on cue, a blur of movement caught Mal’s attention.
The young sprite she’d saved only days before raced toward an injured human.
There was a makeshift blade in her hand.
The sprite’s face twisted with a dangerous resolve that no child’s face should carry.
She landed on the soldier's chest, blade glinting in the moonlight.
“Stop!”
Mal's voice cut through the air, and the sprite froze. A cherubic face looked up with wide, fierce eyes. Mal closed the distance between them, heart pounding as she knelt before the girl.
“Put it down.”
“He hurt the forest.” The sprite's was voice laced with a bitterness that twisted Mal’s heart. “He hurt our kind.”
Mal saw her own younger self mirrored in the child’s fierce, wild eyes.
Her anger was unchecked and untempered. If the sprite wasn't careful, that fire would twist and scar. It had gnawed at Mal for so long, warping her, hardening her heart. Phillip had been the one to soften it, to show her that strength didn’t have to come from fury.
But Phillip was a rare light in this world.
This child—she didn’t have a Phillip to save her from the darkness gnawing at her heart.
“Yes, he did.” Mal placed her hand over the sprite's, gently pressing until her grip slackened, guiding her to let the blade drop. It fell with a hollow clink against the mossy ground, a fragile thing, so brittle compared to the enormity of the forest around them.
Mal looked to Phillip, hoping he’d offer some of his boundless, infuriating optimism. He only nodded, his gaze soft, but he left her to find the words herself. Mal took a breath, feeling the weight of the sprite’s anger settle in her chest.
“I know what it’s like to carry anger so big it feels like it could tear the world apart.
I know what it’s like to see hurt and think that the only answer is more hurt.
If we let that anger grow, it will twist us.
It doesn’t matter if we think we’re in the right.
We don’t fight to destroy, do we? We fight to protect.
The forest needs us whole. Strong, but not consumed. ”
The sprite looked down at the human. The man had long since slipped into unconsciousness. He was no threat. “What if they come back?"
Mal didn't have an answer to that. Luckily, Phillip did.
"We will welcome them back."
Both Mal and the sprite looked at him with disbelieving eyes.
"But we won't let them pass if they have hatred in their hearts. The forest and the castle will no longer be open to hateful hearts." Phillip got down to the sprite's level. "Do you have hatred in your heart?"
The sprite twisted her lips. The answer wasn't yet no, but the child did open her hand and accepted Phillip's offer of help to her feet.
"These soldiers were fighting for a crown, for a single person," Phillip continued, his voice carrying to the Forest Folk who'd gathered, to the tree limbs that bowed to listen. “We fight for each other. For every tree, every stream, every creature that needs us. For those we love. It’s harder, yes, but strength tempered by love is the only thing that keeps the forest truly alive.”
Phillip kept the sprite's hand in his. He reached out with his other to Mal. She inhaled deeply. As she let the breath out, she twined her fingers with his.
By the roots, the love of her life was such a sap.
“Life is precious, every life. Your people, mine. We fight to protect, not to destroy.”
The sprite’s fierce expression crumpled. She nodded slowly, eyes wet as she glanced at the human lying helpless on the ground. When she turned and disappeared into the trees, Mal looked at Phillip, a quiet resignation replacing the earlier anger in her gaze.
“You win,” she huffed. “I’ll talk to Aurora. But don’t ask me to compromise more than that. I won’t give up my land, and I certainly won’t give you up. If she makes a play for you, I will chop off her hair.”
Phillip grinned down at her with a smile, like a cat who found the cream. "I can accept those terms."