19. Chapter 19
Augustine takes my hand and I swear I feel palpable sparks fly between us.
“Where am I? And where have you been?” I ask as the bridge dissolves beneath my feet.
Suddenly, I’m standing on a moss-coated pathway tucked beneath a thick canopy of foliage, feeling like I’ve just stepped foot into another universe entirely, with no memory of how I got here. Goddamnit, is this another dream?
“Around,” Augustine replies.
“Around?” I say, wrinkling my nose. “You trapped me in your castle with your psychotic sister—who is determined to kill me, by the way—and that’s the only explanation you have? That you’ve been AROUND?”
He seems to contemplate this in silence, and then he nods.
“Wait, come back here! Just where do you think you’re going?” I storm after him as he wades into the ankle-high creek, having every intention of pummeling him to the bottom of the creek bed and throttling an explanation out of him.
Why did he pick me to fulfill the Curse of Love?
Why not someone else?
More importantly… why does he keep igniting a fire in my heart and then leaving?
He must sense me coming, because he turns around in the nick of time and holds out a hand to stop me. Ha! As if I could ever be stopped by something as ridiculous as an outstretched hand.
I shove him right into the water. Or at least, I try to shove him into the water.
But he’s too sturdy and he doesn’t budge.
Frustrated, I dig my boots deeper into the soggy soil and spear him with a hostile glare.
“Tell me what happened to the bridge and my friends, or I swear, I’ll gouge your eyes out. ”
“Torture me all you want, Princess,” he coughs with enthusiasm. “It’s not like I need my eyes to marvel at your beauty, given how your face has been permanently seared into my mind for an eternity.”
Our eyes collide, and my heart rate skyrockets.
“Then perhaps a lobotomy—HEY, PUT ME DOWN!” I scream.
To my utter horror, he grabs me by the waist and proceeds to lift me over the stream, as if I’m utterly incapable of walking for myself.
Then he sets me down on a patch of moss beside a boulder as big as a monolith, where the sound of rushing water nearly drowns out all of my garbled emotions.
“What are you doing?” I hiss.
“Fish,” he says, jerking his head toward the current.
A few glittering fish dart past, flapping their tails at lightning speed.
“I didn’t want you to inadvertently step on one, given how delighted you were the last time you were in their company.
As you can see, I’m trying to avoid drawing untoward attention, and your blood-piercing screams seem to be having the exact opposite effect.
” A few birds fly out of the tree behind him.
My next breath wobbles between my lips, but no sound escapes.
Ugh. Why do I want to pummel him to the ground and simultaneously rip off all of this clothing at once?
This can’t be healthy, can it? I groan and press my face into my hands.
He is my captor. I am his captive. I should not feel anything for him. And yet…
He is so damn handsome when he smirks like that.
He takes a daunting step backward, his smirk continuing to grow. “If you must know,” he says with candor, “I brought you here to keep you safe from my sister.” His bright eyes sparkle with flecks of gold, and my breath catches in my throat.
“What do you mean?” I rasp, my anger dissipating.
He merges onto the forest trail and motions for me to follow.
I hurry along after him, arming myself with a plethora of animated hand gestures and a flurry of curse words in the event that my anger returns.
“Need I remind you that the last time you claimed to be doing me a favor,” I say, racing to catch up with his extra-long strides, “you dragged me into your goddamned castle and made me your prisoner, effectively putting me in the direct vicinity of your sister. So you’ll have to excuse me, but I’m not exactly feeling trusting of you right now. ”
He leads us deeper into a blanket of white, foggy mist, where spirals of smog curl skyward. Even the trees seem to stir around us, as if the act of watching two lovers quarrel is rousing them from their deep slumber.
“I'm sorry,” he says quietly as a twig snaps underfoot.
“Sorry?” I choke out, only to be thwarted by the taste of sweet rain, daisies, and fresh soil.
This section of the forest is covered in emerald jade foliage, dappled in a faint lucid light.
To our right, the forest glistens like pixie dust in shades of pale greens, soft pinks, and ultraviolet whites.
Wild climbing roses and lovely briars entangle around the tree trunks in a curtain of thorny vines, only to be muted by the honeysuckles and bluebells that bloom around them in defiance.
Cicadas drone, crickets hum, and birds tweet around listlessly, creating a steady rhythm that makes my heart thump against my ribcage.
Or perhaps that’s just the beating heart of the forest. The animals are singing.
Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz.
Augustine slows to a stop near a garden bed, where he proceeds to pluck a marigold from its root and inspect it. “Matches your eyes,” he says, reaching out and tucking the flower behind my ear.
“My eyes are gray, not gold,” I correct him.
“They burn gold whenever you’re angry with me.”
“You really should be crucified, you know,” I retort, even though admittedly, my mood is far less disparaging than before.
"Why don't you tell me how you really feel?" he chuckles.
Focus, Shadow. He’s only trying to earn your love in order to break that damned curse.
“How about drawn and quartered? Hung in a town square?” I offer.
“At the very least, I’d like to sling a tomato or two at your face.
Maybe bop you upside the head with a cabbage.
You wouldn’t happen to have a spare trebuchet laying around?
I’d like to sling an entire army of cabbages at your stupid castle. ”
He looks up at the trees and says, “A downpour of cabbages would certainly upset my sister. She’d never see it coming.”
I follow his gaze skyward, only to find a row of fire-filled lanterns flickering along a group of branches overhead, all of them lighting the way to a door that’s carved into the side of a tree, which looks like it’s waiting idly for us near the end of the trail.
“You said you were bringing me here to keep me safe from her?” I ask, but Augustine doesn’t respond. Instead, he takes my hand and tugs me forward, only for our footsteps to be cut off by the sound of someone emerging from the thicket.
At first, I assume that it’s a shadow, or a haunting specter of darkness who’s come to chase us out of the woods.
But it’s a woman. Her features are difficult to discern beneath her midnight robes and black cowl.
But her eyes are certainly visible, burning a brighter shade of amber than all the resin coating the forest.
“Dier heist yakki sar as,” she says as she removes her hood, revealing a crown woven from glitter-dipped pinecones and prehistoric primrose petals, which is seated on a mountain of thick auburn hair.
She must be a deity of some kind, perhaps a lesser demon, based on her silky-smooth voice and those intense eyes that she’s using to scrutinize me with.
At the very least, she’s certainly not human. And yet, her voice feels so familiar.
Augustine doesn’t flinch. At least, not in the way that I do.
He appears accustomed to strange women materializing out of nowhere.
Meanwhile, I nearly stumble over a wayward root in fear, or I would have, had he not grabbed me by the waist and anchored me to reality with a squeeze of my hips. Heat flushes into my cheeks.
Another unexpected visitor joins the first as I swat him away.
This one is just as mysterious as her accomplice, a beautiful phantom garbed in dark billowing robes with eyes as cold as snow.
Seated on her head is a crown of frozen fractals, which is fastened with swirling silver flower petals entrapped by the ice, their edges sharp enough to slice someone’s throat wide open.
“Sji uhn, eskuti ascari mar tasunni,” she says to us softly, letting the breeze carry her words.
“Heiya sar nak selee,” Augustine responds with a regal nod.
My heart nearly stops beating at the sound of his baritone voice and the way those words flow so effortlessly off his tongue.
I should be impressed that he knows another language, but the truth is, I’m busier wondering what else his tongue can do.
Stop it, Shadow. He’s a monster, remember?
The women take off into the trees, only to reemerge moments later with a third woman in tow, her crown woven straight from sky.
Its band is layered in tufted clouds and dappled in frozen raindrops that glisten with aurora-tinted light.
There’s also the matter of her hair, which reminds me of a field of sunny flowers in the springtime.
“What’s going on?” I ask, folding my arms over my chest. Because somehow, even in this godsforsaken balmy forest, my bones still manage to shiver whenever I’m nervous.
“Shadow, meet the Harvest Queens,” Augustine says, motioning toward the strangers. The women nod. “They have sworn a blood pact to protect you, and in exchange, I have vowed to protect their forest and all things residing within.”
“Protect me from the queen?” I stare at them in rapt silence, every molecule in my body humming like I’m being fueled by fire and gasoline. If only I had an inkling regarding what the hell he was talking about, then perhaps I’d be able to stop shivering.
His eyes are soft like melting glaciers, silver-streaked with tears.
The sight of him is so heart-wrenchingly, painstakingly beautiful, and even a smidgen apologetic, that my fear disperses like the wind.
“I’m sorry for putting you in this position,” he says, dropping his head in shame.
“I should’ve kept my distance. I should’ve stayed away. ”
I resist the urge to melt into his arms, into his voice, into the heat radiating off his body. There’s something so familiar about this place, so timeless, so tempting, that I’m starting to feel dizzy with euphoria from it all.
“Well, at least you’re capable of guilt,” I whisper.
He reaches out and plucks the ruby ring off my ring finger and surveys it.
Wait, why was I wearing a ring?
I didn’t agree to marrying anyone.
“You must blend in if you’re going to remain here undetected,” he says.
“Remain here?” I ask, blinking at the glistening jewel in his grasp. “Remain here for how long? Wait, are you saying that you intend on leaving me here with… them?” I motion toward the three cloaked women still standing across the clearing, who watch us like silent statues.
“They’re not as sharp around the edges as they appear,” Augustine replies as he absentmindedly brushes his finger along the ring’s pointed prongs.
My mouth flies open in protest as he plops the ring back into my hand.
I stare at the little gemstones embedded into each ridge, noticing how each one is a deeper and more blood-soaked crimson than the next.
All of the gemstones come together to form the center stone, which radiates like it was stolen straight from the core of the universe.
“That was your mother’s ring,” he says.
“My mother?” I choke out.
He nods. “I fear my sister might be tracking that object. As an extra precaution, it’s better that you set it down.
The forest will keep it safe for now.” He sets his hands on my shoulders and adds, “I promise that I’ll retrieve it back for you once this is all said and done.
I swear it on my life.” His breath brushes against my lips.
My mother’s ring?
I set the ring on the ground, slowly, only because of the way he’s staring at me. Then I watch in silence as a nearby vine loosens from the soil and snakes its way around the ring, dragging it beneath the ground.
Augustine eyes me carefully, as though he’d been expecting for me to cry over the chunk of jewelry or something.
After I don’t, he sighs in relief. “I don’t want to part with you either, you know,” he whispers, trailing the pad of his thumb along my lower lip.
“But I’ve already gone through every possible scenario in my mind, and this is the only scenario where you don’t die. ”
“Die?” I croak out.
“Yiski tris yiree dea tu?” one of the Harvest Queens interjects.
“Tris blak terar,” Augustine responds, taking a step away from me.
I don’t bother to hide my groan of contempt. “What are you two talking about now?” I ask. “My impending doom, perhaps?”
“She says that you stink like a dragon, and she would like to know when it was that you last bathed,” Augustine informs me, somehow keeping a straight face.
“What?” I hiss. “What did you tell her?”
“Ten moons ago,” he says with a playful glint in his eye.
My mouth swings open. “That isn’t true! I bathe every—” The woman crinkles her nose, likely to display that she disapproves of my hygiene, or lack thereof. But before I can defend my honor any further, she grabs hold of my arm and whisks me toward the trees.
“Wait. Aren’t you coming with us?” I shout at Augustine over my shoulder.
His reply punches me straight in the heart. “The wards won’t work if I am near. Goodbye, Raven. We will meet again soon.”