21. Hard to Grasp – Elias
Hard to Grasp
ELIAS
The binds around my wrists dug painfully into my skin, my weakened arms twisted behind me. The injuries from my crow form transferred to my fae body in relentless aches and pains. I watched Rosemary work, my mind numbed by the agony in my back.
She was a natural healer, and I had no doubt she could cure the shifter boy.
Yet, I noticed the flicker of worry in her wide brown eyes whenever she glanced at my prone form against the wall.
She longed to come to me, to heal my battered body, but her duty kept her focused on the poisoned son of the pack's alpha.
She moved with quiet determination, her hands trembling slightly as she opened the small, wax-cloth pouch.
Even from across the chamber, I recognized the pale shimmer of the petals she cradled like spun glass in her palm.
Moonbell. The… What had she called it? Catalyst. The catalyst for her sister’s cure.
And now, without ceremony, she crushed them between her fingers and let the silver powder fall into the boy’s open mouth.
The magic was instant, gentle but sure. It threaded itself through the boy’s limbs like dandelion fluff caught on wind, chasing the curse away with a kind of sweetness only nature could offer.
Rosemary dipped a cloth into a basin of warmed river water and wiped his brow with such care.
The glow of the petals faded slowly from his skin, leaving behind a pink flush of life…
and a hollow look in Rosemary’s eyes. She had given something precious, something meant for her own blood.
For a child she did not know. My chest twisted with guilt I had no right to claim.
She knelt there for a long time after, her hands in her lap, the powder from the petals still clinging to her fingertips like frost. She had made her choice.
Not because it was easy, but because it was right.
And though I was bound, bruised, and broken against the stone, I had never felt smaller than I did in that moment, watching her give everything, even the last fragile pieces of her hope, to save someone else.
Freya sank into the mattress beside her son the moment his fingers twitched.
“Luca,” she whispered, brushing a strand of damp hair from his forehead with a trembling hand.
His eyelids fluttered, heavy and slow, and for a breathless second, the chamber held nothing but the sound of his ragged inhale.
“Mama,” he murmured, the word soft and slurred like the edge of a lullaby, before his lashes closed again and sleep reclaimed him.
Freya pressed her lips to his temple, her shoulders shaking as she gathered him into her arms, rocking slightly as if to convince herself he was real, that he was still hers.
Her tears dripped onto his cheeks, his pillows, silent and unbothered by pride, while the scent of crushed moonbell lingered in the air like old promises and selfless love.
Freya drew in a slow, steadying breath, then smoothed the patch-work quilt over Luca’s chest. Only when the boy’s breathing settled into a quiet rhythm did she rise, shoulders squared and eyes rimmed red but clear with purpose.
Turning toward Rosemary, she folded her hands in front of her and bowed her head in gratitude so deep it seemed to settle like dew on every stone in the chamber.
"We cannot thank you enough," Freya said, embracing Rosemary tightly, her tear-stained face buried in Rosemary's hair.
"You don't need to thank me, but if you could untie my companion, point us in the right direction as promised, and let us go, that will be thanks enough," Rosemary answered, guiding Freya to the edge of the large bed.
When no one moved to do as she'd asked, she paused, facing them all again with determination tugging at her brow.
Malcolm cleared his throat, his hand on his wife's shoulder. "We will take you back to the forest, but this one will remain tied while we do so. He injured one of my wolves."
Rosemary tilted her head, then she gave a firm nod. "I suppose that's fair, as long as you intend to allow him to come with me."
"He will be free to leave with you. He should know, though, that if he ever finds himself in our territory again, he will not be leaving it."
The man who had dumped me earlier knelt before me, grinning with malice.
His eyes locked on mine as his sun-kissed skin morphed into stormy gray fur.
I watched, uneasy, as his fingers transformed into sharp claws.
He sliced through the leather cord binding my ankles, his wolf paw lingering as a silent warning before he gruffly pulled me to my feet.
My wrists still screamed within their ties, but Rosemary gave me the faintest head shake when my shoulders shifted against their hold. Her eyes begged me not to make this worse. Fine.
I winced as the man's grip tightened along my upper arm, dragging me through the doorway ahead of Rosemary. The paths of these tunnels lay like an earthen maze, and I couldn't wait to break back into the fresh air above.
When we broke through the cave's entrance, the man at my back sliced apart the bindings around my wrists before shoving me forward with such force that I fell into the dirt.
I coughed, pressing my weakened arms beneath me, trying to lift myself from the ground.
Standing, I rubbed at the deep lines of purple ringing my wrists as I turned to face him. "My sword."
He smirked at me as Rosemary and Malcolm stepped out of the cave behind him. He eyed me for a long moment before he replied, "I should keep it for all the trouble you caused us, but I know who you are—"
"—I am the one who would have ended your life," I interrupted him before he could give away any of my secrets. I would tell Rosemary every last one of them, but I would not let anyone else take that moment from us. "And I still can."
The man gave an amused shake of his head, reaching behind him to pull the blade free from the scabbard at his back.
He dragged his fingertips over the design etched into the hilt, over the large ruby pressed into the pommel, and down the metal crow wing pommel.
His fingers danced over the royal crest of the unseelie court—two crescent moons flanking a full moon—as he flicked a glance over his shoulder to where Rosemary stood in quiet conversation with his alpha.
Then a smile twisted his lips as he tossed it to my feet.
I dropped, yanking it into my hold before letting it disappear into a shimmering cloud of mist. I couldn't risk Rosemary seeing it. She didn't remember everything, but she would recognize the symbol. It was the same design etched along the pommel of her dagger. They were a matching set after all.
As I stood, a sharp pain pierced my right side.
My fingers traced the skin beneath the torn tunic given me by the wolves, and they came away bloodied.
I stifled a groan, masking the injury with magic.
It puzzled me why it hadn't healed yet. My fingertips brushed the raised scar on my neck, an injury that would have been fatal to a human, yet healed overnight for me. So, why hadn't the one along my ribs?
The wolves thanked Rosemary again, wishing her well on her journey.
We moved quietly through the thick woods, with only the crunch of leaves underfoot and rustling foliage in the gentle breeze.
The silence was comfortable ... until it shifted.
Tension emanated from Rosemary beside me as she worried her lower lip and twirled the ends of her long, wavy hair.
"Where were you?" she asked, the question not unexpected, but the hurt within her voice as she spoke quietly squeezed at my heart. She glanced down at my hands. “And what happened to you?”
"I am sorry I was absent, princess," I replied, avoiding her gaze as much as she turned from mine.
"I left to go check our perimeter. When I returned, the danger present was clear.
I tried to fight them off, tried to fight my way to you, but there were too many.
" I lifted my palms, staring down at the dark lines of my veins. Already, the darkness was receding. All visible signs of it would be clear within hours, though I would never be free of the darkness I’d accepted.
It would linger always within my heart and soul.
I held my arm up between us, my gaze trailing along the intricate, inky lines.
“As for what happened to me, I had a need for things from the earth that nature refused to give without payment.” I shrugged. “The cost has been paid, and this evidence of that transaction will diminish in time.”
Guilt and shame welled up within me. I had promised to see her through this journey, to keep her protected, and I had failed.
Not only had I failed, but even in my apology to her, I’d withheld pieces of the truth.
I had left her alone on purpose, knowing I wouldn't return until morning dawned.
I couldn't stay with her last night. Not with the curse stealing my form from me.
When I finally stole a look her way, tears glistened in her eyes as she glanced up at me. "I thought... I thought you had abandoned me, or that something had happened to you," she whispered. "And then they brought you in, tied up and so very obviously wounded."
"You were afraid for me?" I asked, finishing her thought for her.
The forest around us seemed to fall quiet as we moved through the reaching branches.
Rosemary nodded, her lip trapped between her teeth.
"Well," I said, half a grin stretching upon my lips, "at least now I know that you no longer want to stab me but rather worry about my life instead. "