17. A Lush Green Moss – Rosemary
A Lush Green Moss
ROSEMARY
I stared at the plant in front of me, shaped like a star with pale pink petals and a long, green stem with feathery leaves. It wasn't a flower I currently needed, I grew my own stock back at our cottage. But it provided an excellent distraction from the emotions warring within me.
The Star Candidis Orpheus stood tall, its soft petals swaying in the gentle breeze. Here in the wild, they sang differently than in my carefully tended beds at home. This plant knew freedom I'd forgotten existed.
I peeked at Elias again, leaning impatiently against a tree.
This was a different species than the one in my gardens. The magic of the soil lent it stronger properties. I prodded at the dirt around its stem, the roots had the power to knock someone out for hours. A powerful sedative that might prove useful.
With careful deliberation, I plucked the star-shaped flower from the ground, roots and all. My heart fluttered nervously as I turned to face Elias.
"What is this one used for?" he questioned, arms resting across his chest.
"It has soothing properties," I answered, holding the flower out for him to see. "It can calm anxiety and ease tension." I hoped he couldn't detect the slight quiver in my words. I wouldn't tell him how this flower, in higher dosages, could send someone into a brief coma.
Why did I feel the need to keep things from him? The thought unsettled me. What am I preparing for?
"Here," he said, handing me a square of cloth. "I assume you'll want to wrap it before tucking it away."
My fingers brushed against his as I took the cloth, wrapping it carefully before placing it in my pack. He pushed himself from the trunk, and I hurried to match his pace.
How much time did we have left? The full moon was only days away now. Every moment traveling was another moment Briar remained trapped, growing paler and colder.
Elias pushed aside a thick branch, revealing the path ahead. I stepped forward and gasped. Cobbled stones led to a quaint cabin surrounded by a wildflower garden. Through the windows, a flickering warmth glowed invitingly. The front door was slightly ajar, beckoning us inside.
I stepped forward, grinning, but Elias's arm shot out, blocking my path. "Hush!" he warned, pulling me back into the thick bush. He crouched, guiding me down next to him with a fierce focus that sent a chill through me.
"What's wrong with you?" I hissed. "We could stay there tonight. We're losing too much time sleeping rough—"
"What do you see when you look at it?" he interrupted.
I faltered, my gaze swinging from the worry etched around his eyes to the cottage ahead. "I see a cozy cabin..." My words trailed off as something occurred to me. "Wait. I see my cabin. My home. But why would I see that?"
"We see what comforts us, what we yearn for, what calls to our soul."
I peered over the bushes again. My entire being froze as the front door swung open wider.
Briar walked out, bending to smell the wildflowers.
She straightened, searching for me in the brush as a smile stretched across her porcelain face.
Her hand waved for me to come to her, but every bone in my body went rigid.
I want to go to her, I thought desperately, nearly rising before Elias's grip on my arm held me in place.
"No," he said. "You must not give in to it."
The vision shifted. Briar wasn't just awake, she was radiant with health and power. Behind her, the cottage transformed into something grander, a healing sanctuary where dozens of people waited for my help. I could see myself there, curing every illness, breaking every curse.
"I could save everyone," I breathed, the pull growing stronger.
The echo's whisper drifted across the clearing, soft and seductive. "You could have the power to ensure no one ever suffers as Briar has suffered."
"Rosemary, don't listen to it," Elias warned, but his voice seemed distant compared to the echo's honeyed tones.
"Look what you could become," the echo continued. "No more failed attempts. No more watching loved ones die while you scramble for ingredients. You could be a true healer."
The vision was beautiful, tempting. I rose, drawn by promises of unlimited healing power. But something in Elias's desperate tone cut through the haze.
"Princess, look at me."
I turned and saw his face had gone pale, his eyes wide with hunger. While I'd been entranced by visions of healing power, he was staring at something else entirely.
"What do you see?" I asked, suddenly afraid.
"Freedom," he whispered, voice thick with longing. "I see my brother freed from his curse. I see him as he was meant to be, unmarked, unbound. A life where he doesn't have to suffer for what our mother made him."
In the clearing, I could see his vision overlapping with mine. A perfect version of Elias stood there, beautiful and unmarked, but there was something cold in this version's eyes, something empty.
"All you have to do is embrace your true nature," the echo whispered to him. "Stop fighting what you are. Accept the power that is your birthright."
Elias took a step toward the clearing, and panic shot through me. The echo was using our deepest desires against us, luring us in to feast on our life force.
"Elias, no!" I grabbed his arm. It was my turn to pull him back from the brink. "It's lying to you. That's not freedom, that's just another kind of prison."
But he was partially under the spell, eyes fixed on the perfect version of himself. "You don't understand. You don't know what it's like to be trapped in your own body."
"You're right," I said, desperation making my voice stronger. "But I know you. And the man I know wouldn't trade his soul for a perfect body."
The echo's laughter drifted across the clearing, cold and hungry. "How touching. But what can she offer compared to what I can give? She's just a failed healer who can't even save her own sister."
The words hit like physical blows, but I pushed past the pain. "You want to know what I can offer you?" I called out. "I can offer you the truth. That perfect version of you? Look closer. Really look."
Elias paused, and I pressed my advantage. "Do you see love in his eyes? Do you see the capacity for joy, for wonder, for connection? Or do you just see emptiness?"
The echo hissed, its form becoming more visible, a writhing mass of shadow and starlight. "Silence, little healer. You know nothing of power."
"You're right," I said, standing to face the creature directly. "I know nothing of the kind of power you're offering. Because real power doesn't come from embracing darkness or accepting perfection. It comes from choosing to love someone exactly as they are, flaws and curses and all."
I looked at Elias, who had stopped at the clearing's edge.
"I love your scars because they show your strength. I love your tattoos because they’re part of who you are.
I love your darkness because you choose to fight it every day.
That perfect version? He's never had to make those choices. He's never had to be brave."
"She's lying," the echo snarled. "Love is weakness."
"Then why are you so afraid of it?" I challenged. "If love is so weak, why do you need to separate us to feed?"
The echo recoiled, and I reached out my hand toward Elias. "Come back to me. Choose the real over the perfect. Choose us over everything else."
For a moment, I thought I'd lost him. But then Elias looked at me, really looked, I saw the moment he remembered who he was.
"You're right," he said, stepping back. "That's not me. That's not who I want to be."
He took my outstretched hand, and the moment our fingers touched, the echo shrieked in fury. The visions shattered like broken glass, revealing the creature's true form.
"You could have had everything!" it snarled, lunging toward us. "But you're too late anyway. Look what your delay has cost!"
The echo's form shifted, and suddenly I was seeing through its eyes, visions of other places, other victims. A seelie child in the Eastern provinces, falling into cursed sleep just days ago.
A family of earth fae, three generations struck down simultaneously.
Village after village, the curse spreading faster than wildfire.
"It’s not just Briar," I realized with growing horror. "She's been using Briar's curse as a template, spreading it everywhere while I've been focused on one flower."
"The Daemonacus isn't just meant to save your sister," Elias said, understanding dawning in his eyes. "It's meant to create an antidote that can reverse all of them. That's why the queen is so determined to stop us, we’re not just saving one person, we're threatening to undo decades of her work."
"We already have everything," I said firmly to the echo, its shadowed silhouette forever flickering in our peripheral but now I understood the true stakes. "And we're going to use it to save everyone."
The echo's form began to waver, its power broken by our refusal to be divided. As it dissolved back into shadow, its final words drifted like a curse. "You will regret this choice.”
But as Elias pulled me close, his arms strong and real around me, I knew the echo was wrong.
We backtracked, putting distance between us and that clearing. When we found shelter in a small cave, something fundamental had shifted between us.
"Thank you," he said softly. "For pulling me back."
"Thank you for being worth pulling back," I replied.
We stood there for a moment, just breathing, just being alive together.
I reached up without thinking and traced the line of his jaw where a cut was already healing.
"I thought I'd lost you," I whispered. “I thought—" My voice broke, and he caught my hand, pressing it flat against his cheek.
"I'm here," he said simply. "I'm not going anywhere."
He stopped, turning to face me fully. "Rosemary, I need you to know something."
The intensity in his voice made my heart skip. "What?"
"When I saw that vision, when I almost walked toward it..." He ran a hand through his hair. "It wasn't the freedom from the curse that tempted me most."
"What was it then?"
"It was the thought of being someone you could love without reservation. Someone who didn't come with secrets and darkness." His gray eyes met mine. "I almost gave up my soul for the chance to be worthy of you."
My chest tightened at the pain in his voice. "Elias, you don't understand.”
"I know I have no right to feel this way about you. I know there are things you don't know about me that would change everything." He stepped closer. "I realized I'd rather be cursed and flawed and completely wrong for you than perfect and empty without you."
The honesty in his confession left me breathless. This was more than gratitude, this was growing feelings, messy and complicated and terrifying.
I drifted off to sleep, the darkness shrouding me like a blanket.