10 Rapunzel
Admitting that Zarev is right doesn’t hurt as much as I expect. He’s bleeding heavily from wounds in his chest, and my arms burn from the spots Modred hurt before the chaos broke out.
Part of me wants to go back and find Cheshie, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll be waiting in my room. There’s nothing else of value up there, so I can’t say I’ll be missing much if I don’t go back up there.
My eyes linger on Zarev as we fly through the halls. We’re moving swiftly through the castle, even if I believe he could move faster without injury. The front of his clothing is damp and the pain in my arms radiates up and down, but if I stop moving right now I’ll have too much time to consider what’s happening.
I betrayed my father by running off with the enemy.
I killed a man who should be an ally.
And when I thought I understood all my powers, I took life as much as I saved it. Zarev’s unnatural weapon wields power I don’t understand, but I could feel the handle pulsing when I held on, like the weapon didn’t know if it should aid me or fight me for daring to touch it.
All my muddled thoughts help to drown out the pain, but it’s causing distractions too. I’m not sharp footed, I’m a little dizzy and my mind is scattered. At this rate I could be a liability to him. If I knew the castle better we could be out by now.
Unfortunately, Zarev only knows the castle a bit better than I do. We make poor company, rushing down the halls looking for an exit. More than once I stare to see if his powers have returned, but he makes no move to use his gift of shadows and zip us out of here. He seems to be adamantly avoiding it.
Soon, the halls will swarm with guards. It’ll be almost impossible to get out when news gets around about what happened in the dining room. Even worse to try and get out of Tressa.
That’s what Zarev hinted at. Modred is dead, Midas is enraged, and we both took a stance against the Golden King. We’re enemies of the crown.
A lump forms in my throat. I’m now my father’s enemy.
“Here,” Zarev gasps, grabbing my arm to lead me down another turn. We’ve continued to climb down, away from the main halls, and behind the sleek hallways in the servants' wings the castle isn’t so grand. No one stops us when we do pass by, and I imagine seeing the crown princess and a shadow man running together is a bit peculiar.
The rumors will be abundant after tonight.
Zarev turns us down a narrow hall, and I feel the air change. There’s a draft, and halfway down a short hall we find a door with a french window to look out.
There’s the gardens outside it, and I vaguely recognize a path I used to run through when I was young. It’s largely overgrown now as we push open the door, Zarev gasping as we stumble into the night.
My dress makes it hard to breathe, and I tug at the bodice again. I don’t know what the purpose of wearing this was, but it makes running away that much harder.
Zarev doesn’t stop, dragging me down the path. I see some guards in the distance but they don’t see us in the shadows. Their forms suddenly turn and rush at the sound of cries, and news about the failed dinner has to be getting out. Why else would guards leave their posts?
“Will this take us close to the wall?” Zarev gasps, his orange-red eyes practically glowing in the night. He’s held onto my arm most of the way, but if it’s for my benefit or his I’m not sure. I’ve noticed his nails seem quite sharp for a man of shadows, and he’s definitely struggling the longer we run.
I know Midas struck him with gold. Anyone else would be dead already. The fact that he’s still standing with the gold embedded in his chest is amazing. I’ve never once seen my father’s magic fail to take down an enemy.
But Zarev claims to be Death, so maybe the Golden Touch isn’t powerful enough to end him.
“Close enough. Through here.” I duck down, nearly smacking my head into a branch that’s grown in the years since I was a kid, dragging him behind me. His scythe catches before it cuts through the thinner parts of the branch and we trudge on. “I don’t know how we’re going to get over the wall. Or under. It’s impossible to breach.”
I’m rambling, and my hands shake as we walk. This is the closest I’ve ever come to freedom, and it feels just as much like destruction.
“I made it through once, Princess,” he gasps, his voice hard and stubborn as we move. “I have just enough magic to do it again.”
I’m not so sure. Zarev is doing that creepy black-blood bleeding, and he’s taking labored breaths and getting slower as we run. I might be afraid of the unknown, but right now I’m more afraid of Midas catching us.
And he will if Zarev gets any slower. I reach out to hold his hand, forcing him to keep going. I’m beginning to feel winded too, ready to use his blade to tear open the corset and let my ribs be free, but there isn’t time. He’s too hurt and if there’s any chance we don’t get thrown in the dungeons, we have to escape from Tressa.
My heart aches at the thought. This is the only place I’ve ever known.
“Come on,” I grunt, “it’s not much farther.”
Not much farther is at least another ten minutes of trudging through the thick of the underbrush, the wall barely glowing golden in the night. My hands aren’t shimmering anymore, but they are still warm to the touch and I’ve had a headache since before the fight started. Now I’m gasping along with Zarev, trying to keep from sitting down to catch my breath. My feet are bleeding inside my shoes, and if I had any sense about me, I’d kick them off.
But what will I do if I don’t have shoes? Keeping ones that don’t fit isn’t reasonable either, but I can’t will myself to part with them. I will stick out even more if I’m not wearing my shoes, or I cut my dress, or I don’t clean the blood from my sleeves.
I’ve done my best to blend in my whole life. Even when guests visit, I’m not looking for extra attention. The less curious I seem to outsiders, the less questions they will ask.
Behind us, screams erupt. People are either looking for us or learning about what happened in the hall. Maybe the dead are being assessed. Modred…
I force that thought away before I spiral. I don’t know what to think about what happened with Modred, but it wasn’t natural. It didn’t feel like me. I’m not a killer, even if my magic is.
“H-here,” I grunt, falling to my knees when we reach the wall. I don’t know what to do now that we’re here, but I do know I got us this far and if I run any more my lungs might burst inside this dress. I press my hands to the cool earth, trying to calm myself.
Zarev is nearby but I don’t hear him crashing to the ground. His breathing is labored too, and if I listen hard enough I can still hear the screams behind us.
“W-we can’t stay here long,” I gasp, glancing up. In the shimmer of the glowing wall I can barely make him out. “Which way?”
“What?”
“Which way!” I gasp, struggling back to my knees. I press my hands to my thighs and glare up at him, ignoring my dirty skirt. “To get out. Which way do we run?”
“No running, Princess,” he breathes, twisting the scythe. When he looks back at me I can’t imagine looking away from his fiery eyes. They are hypnotic, in an almost controlling sort of way. “You’re certain you want to come with me?”
“I can’t go back there,” I hiss, the reality settling over me like a veil. I think that might be true. They might be my parents, but Dorah and Midas are ruthless. I ran off with the shadow boy and killed an ally. If I go back, there will be consequences.
He nods. “Once you go over the wall, Princess, there’s no going back. You can’t unsee what you’re about to learn.”
My hands shake, reminding me of the damage I’ve done tonight. I can’t go back to the dining hall without seeing Modred’s melted face. “Just get me away from this place!”
Zarev holds out a hand, and after another moment I’ve caught my breath enough that I take it and stand. He isn’t as winded as I am. It’s frustrating, but I’m kind of proud with how far I’ve managed to run after getting such little exercise the last decade or two.
Grasping his hand, he pulls me hard against him. I gasp at the sticky feeling on his chest, and I remember it’s from Midas’ gold and his black blood. Swallowing, I press a hand to his arm and try to make myself feel less uncomfortable. “W-what are you doing?”
“Hold tighter, Princess,” he scolds, pulling me in tighter to him. His other arm throws the blade over his shoulder, and I watch as the shadows at his command twist and place the blade against his back. It’s almost too dark to see, but the small movements catch my eyes. Seeing them makes my mind wander, remembering all the places on me he’d like to explore with those shadows of his.
Zarev tugs me closer, and I can almost hear a touch of amusement in his voice. “You’ll want to have a good grip to go over the wall.”
“What-”
My voice cuts off as I scream, a weightless feeling settling over me as the shadows I’ve become familiar with encircle us. My feet leave the ground, the pressure beneath the soles of my feet disappearing as Zarev hugs me closer. When I realize we’re going up I cling to him with both arms, fear slamming into me.
We’re… lifting. Levitating. Flying.
Wide-eyed, I look in the opposite direction of the wall as we rise. There’s Tressa, the golden castle and the proud city I’ve known all my life. Except there’s chaos around the castle the higher we climb, and there are the silhouettes of frantic guards all over as I stare.
The dining hall where we just were looks to be on fire, but that can’t be right. There is a body, likely more than one now, and all of the food still in there.
Why is it burning?
Out at port, the ship Arthur sailed in on yesterday glows the same fiery red as the windows of the dining hall. His green flag catches fire as we go up, my mouth falling open as I take in the chaos of the city.
Things are burning, people are screaming. And I can’t see Midas or Dorah standing to address anyone about anything. They are just missing, and there’s madness taking over below.
Before I can ask Zarev anything, we crest the top of the wall. I know because we suddenly shift backward like we’re falling, and my head snaps around to peer at the dark woods beyond,
The ones that I didn’t even know about until days ago.
Traveling down the other side of the wall is completely different. I can’t see any flames on this side, and though I see one guard standing at the top of the wall I don’t think he can see me. The forest is dark on the other side, and the closer to the ground we get the darker things become.
When we touch down, it feels like the darkness completely swallows us up. Zarev sags, and I manage to keep him from completely falling down by breaking his fall. My knees slam into the dirt, and we sink together into the earth on the other side of Tressa.
“Welcome to the Sherwood Forest, Princess,” Zarev groans, his body slipping from mine to slam into the ground. “A special part of hell in Mystica.”