4. Rose of Your Heart – Elias
Rose of Your Heart
ELIAS
She laughed, and it was like a sharpened knife straight to my rapidly beating heart. I tugged gently at her braid as she picked up her cart's handles, our old signal from when we were children. Nothing. Not even a flicker of recognition passed through her warm brown eyes.
Someone had stolen her memories of me. Stolen us.
With a derisive snort, she simply replied, "Yeah, I know where it is too. It's deep within the Everland Forest."
The words fell from her like she couldn't care less that the woods were vast and dangerous.
But I caught the faint flicker of apprehension behind those eyes that should have remembered mine.
I crossed my arms and leaned back, settling into the cockiest stance I could manage even as my heart pounded at her nearness.
"Yes, but I know exactly where the Daemonacus flower blooms, and I can take you to it."
Her entire body froze as the world seemed to hush for us.
Her dark brows furrowed, creating that little dimple between her eyes, just like when we were young and she was trying to solve a puzzle.
"Why would you do that?" she asked, her unease clear in her voice.
She didn't trust me, but I needed her to, even if she shouldn't.
I shrugged. "I have my reasons.”
"Reasons?" she parroted.
"How about we make a deal?" I softened my jaw, giving her what I hoped was a disarming smile.
"I will tell you my reasons as we travel together to retrieve the flower you seek.
" She took a step backward, tugging the cart with her, and I felt the familiar sting of her retreat.
"Listen," I said, my voice rushed, "you can't go alone.
It's too dangerous for anyone to travel alone, and I could use a companion. What do you say?”
For a moment, she seemed to contemplate my offer, and my breath stilled as that moment stretched between us. Then she replied, "No deal," before whipping around and hurrying away. Her cart bounced across the uneven stones, the sounds of jars tinkling making her escape noisy.
I stood on that dusty road, my heart still racing as I watched her retreat.
Her hair swayed with her quickened steps as she raced away from me.
All my charm hadn't reached her. I couldn't remember a time my charm hadn't worked in my favor.
And yet, as my heartbeat returned to normal, it felt a little hollower.
She clearly hadn't remembered me. But this wasn't mere forgetfulness or the passage of time.
I'd searched for any hint of recognition within her mind as we’d spoken, pressing against the edges of her consciousness.
Only shimmering fog remained where I should have been.
Magic. Someone had woven powerful magic around her memories, thick as morning mist and just as impenetrable.
But who? And why would anyone want to erase what we'd shared?
Watching her with the mortals, I saw the way she handled each one with quiet care.
Genuine. Patient. They accepted her, if uneasily.
They needed her healing, but I knew the truth.
If another healer appeared in their cozy village tomorrow, they'd toss her to the pyre without blinking.
Her safety was conditional. This war between fae and mortal had dragged on so long no one remembered how it had started.
All they knew was fear and wild stories.
These mortals would turn on her eventually.
I could feel it in the air of every village I traveled through.
The animosity grew as the lines between the lands blurred.
It was only a matter of time before Rosemary would feel their teeth.
So, in essence, what I was doing would save her life. She'd have to thank me for it one day.
Oh, she'd hate me for it at first. Especially since someone had been thorough enough to steal even our sweetest memories. What kind of person would do such a thing? And…why?
Rosemary disappeared into the forest, and I waited several long minutes, testing the barriers around my own memories.
They remained intact, every stolen moment with her sharp as glass.
She'd been torn out of my life, leaving a void that nothing had been able to fill.
Not alcohol. Not danger or risk. Not another's touch.
Nothing.
As I trailed behind her, I was torn between wanting to turn back and leave her to the quaint life she had built here, or following her. But I knew I had no choice. Not with what I needed from her. Not with the curse eating away at me with each passing day.
I paused out of sight as she reached her cottage. It didn't take me long to realize what I'd found, where she had unknowingly led me. I'd found them both. The gears of destiny clicked into place. There was no going back now.
As I stood hidden within the woods surrounding her home, the words of an old seer echoed in my mind, spoken to me just a decade ago on a frigid night deep within unseelie territory.
"The rose with no thorns cannot bloom without her true heart.
The crow cannot find salvation without the taste of her nectar.
You have walked the wrong path all these years, and yesterday still, the prophecy has begun. "
I'd gripped her shoulders, desperate for answers. "What do you mean? Why a rose?"
"The rose of your heart," she had murmured, trapped within a trance before her eyes had snapped open. "Let go of me, boy. I only share what is shown to me and nothing more."
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, hope had bloomed within my black heart. A brilliant light that felt warm and gave me purpose. It hadn't lasted long, for her next words shattered that feeling in an instant.
"Betrayal is what I see in your path, boy. Betrayal of the one you love most. Betrayal of the one that destiny has chosen for you."
I'd scoffed at that, all strength sapped from me. "Destiny took that person from me long ago. I've already betrayed her by not being there to protect her when I should have."
"One must but look to the clouds and see, boy." Then the old woman had spat at my feet, turned, and left. With her absence, my mind was locked into memories I'd long thought past.
The memory hit me like a physical blow, not the painful kind I usually suppressed, but the sweet ones someone had stolen from her.
"Elias!" the girl before me said with a wide smile. "I was hoping you'd be here. Come." She grabbed my hand, uncaring that it was an unseelie hand, uncaring that we were supposed to be enemies.
"Where are you taking me, princess? To my death?" I forced a groan, pretending to be annoyed even as my lips twitched.
"You'll see, silly," she called over her shoulder, tugging me up the low hill.
Lavender filled the air as we raced through a wild patch, the scent clinging to us like laughter.
She let go of my hand and fell backward into the blooms, giggling.
No hesitation. She trusted the land not to harm her.
It cradled her like something sacred. Even without her seelie magic, the world already seemed to answer her.
She reached her hand out toward me, motioning for me to join her. I couldn't say no to her, so I lay down beside her. Though she could trust the land to catch her, I knew it would not treat me with the same kindness.
"Do you see it?" She breathed, inhaling the essence of the flowers before letting the breath escape her in a content sigh. Her large brown eyes fixed on the sky as she watched the soft clouds above.
I followed her gaze. "See what?"
She nuzzled closer to me, her shoulder grazing mine in the barest of touches. "The beauty of it."
My attention shifted until all I could see was her face.
She stared up toward the clouds with a gentle grin upon her rosy lips, and the lavender lifted toward the same sky behind her, painting the serenest image I'd ever seen.
Her hair fell over her shoulders in waves of strawberry blond, so silky I fought the urge to run my fingers through the strands. "I do. I can see the beauty."
"I think that one looks like a crowned frog," she announced, pointing to a large cloud above us.
"Hmm," I said softly, "I don't see it. Looks more like a dungeon rat."
"What is that?"
"Nothing. Just a big rodent," I answered, hoping she never had to know more than that.
She sighed, then rolled onto her side to look at me. I did the same, lifting my head onto my folded elbow, my other hand lifting to tuck her hair behind her ear. It was silky smooth, just as I'd known it would be.
"I wish you could stay here. I heard what she...
they are making you do." Her eyes glistened with moisture, though I knew my strong and brave princess would never let them fall.
She breathed deeply, then blinked the wetness away before giving me a smile that neither one of us felt.
"You could stay anyway," she offered. "Just become one of us and live with me forever. "
I pressed my forehead to hers for half a moment before pulling away. "You know that I would spend forever with you in a heartbeat if I could. I have no choice in this matter."
I'd made the mistake of telling my mother what Rosemary was to me, what Rosemary was still too young to realize herself.
She'd discover it when she came of age. Until then, there was nothing I wouldn't do to keep her safe.
She was the one creature on this earth for whom I would soften.
My mother knew it, and she apparently did not consent to what fate had decided.
In the morning, I'd be sent to the northern front to fight along our borders.
Her fingers wrapped around my own. "I'll miss you terribly when you're gone, but while you're there, just look to the clouds when you miss me. You will find me there." Her head found my shoulder, soft and trusting, as we both stared up at the clouds, her clouds.
"I will look up at those clouds, at every cloud, because I will miss you fiercely.
I will watch the skies until one day we are reunited," I said, the words soft and full of what I already knew consumed my heart.
I did not confess my love or the pulsing thread that formed between us; it wasn't time for that yet.
"Oh, Elias. Not every moment," she replied, a quiet laugh vibrating through us both. "You have to live. Promise me you will live too."
"I promise to live for you." I twisted then, placing a gentle kiss on her cheek as she yawned. The scent of lavender hanging thick in the air around us tugged us both toward sleep.
I pulled myself from the memory, my chest tight with a loss I couldn't name. Someone had ripped these moments from her mind, left her defenseless and alone. Someone powerful enough to weave memory magic so thorough that even I couldn't break through it.
But who? And why?
As I watched her cottage windows glow with candlelight, one thing became crystal clear. I would get her memories back. I would have her love me again. And I would discover who had dared to steal us from each other.
Even if it meant betraying her all over again.