21. Kit Forgiveness Forged in Flame
Kit: Forgiveness Forged in Flame
“Are you sure you’re alright?” This was the third time Kit had asked, but her answers still hadn’t satisfied him.
He’d applied salve to Nelle’s burns and bound them up.
Nelle had found the salve in one of the workrooms deep in the heart of the castle, and, according to her, they were supposed to heal wounds of all kinds almost immediately.
Despite her claims, Kit couldn’t get the memory of her cries of pain out of his head.
And the words he’d said when under the spell’s control…
his stomach flipped at the thought and, for a second, he feared he’d vomit all over the library carpet.
Those words had been despicable, words he would never normally have even thought, much less said aloud.
“I’m fine, Kit. I promise. As a matter of fact, I should ask the same thing about you,” Nelle murmured, running a gentle hand over the burned area on his side.
Kit covered her hand with his own. “It doesn’t hurt. I don’t think it even requires the salve; the scales took the brunt of the damage.”
Nelle stared at him. “Are you sure? You sounded like you were in agony.”
Kit shook his head. “I was, but not because of the pain. The heat was unbearable until it wasn’t. I’m not sure that makes sense.”
“It doesn’t,” Nelle agreed. “What do you mean?”
Kit frowned, trying to figure out how to explain it so she would understand. “When I was under the spell’s control, for the first time since you transformed me, I was…cold. It was comfortable, somehow.”
“Like it was your natural state,” Nelle suggested.
Kit nodded, relieved that she understood. “Exactly. And when you burned me, it brought me back to reality. Suddenly, I didn’t want to be cold. I wanted to be warm. And that was incredibly painful, for some reason.”
“It’s like that when my mother takes over my body,” Nelle whispered.
She shivered. “She brings the temperature down around me whenever she wants to take over. That’s why I had to leave the kitchen—suddenly, it became too cold, and I knew that if I didn’t leave, she’d be in control.
And then I would have no way to defend myself. ”
Kit’s heart sank at her words. “I’m so, so sorry, Nelle. I would never have?—”
She flashed him a watery smile. “It’s not your fault. You were under the spell’s control.”
“No.” Kit surprised himself with his vehemence.
“That’s no excuse.” His gaze lingered on her burned hands.
“What I said and did hurt you. It’s simply unacceptable.
If I’d succeeded in dragging you to that blasted cave or, Maker forbid, injured you permanently, I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.
As it is, I’m appalled by my actions. I am truly, deeply sorry, and I beg you to forgive me. ”
Nelle stared at him, her mouth open in a silent ‘O,’ until at last, she gave herself a little shake and said, “Of course I forgive you. As I said, you weren’t in control of yourself. If anyone understands that feeling of being out of control, it’s me. But, really, you don’t have to apologize.”
Kit studied her for a moment, then asked, “Has anyone ever actually apologized to you?”
Nelle’s cheeks went scarlet. “If they did, I don’t remember it. I’ve always thought I was the one who needed to apologize, especially since…” She cleared her throat. “Well, it doesn’t matter.”
Kit felt the sudden urge to put his arms around her, to hug her.
“It matters,” he said fiercely. “Everyone messes up from time to time. It’s part of being alive.
But apologizing for your actions shouldn’t be a one-sided experience.
I know that there were times I made a mistake and had to apologize to my father, but, by the same token, there were also times that he has apologized to me.
He asked my forgiveness after he realized that I truly didn’t want to marry your mother, for instance.
And I asked for his when I realized that I’d been too much of a coward to tell him how I really felt. ”
“That has not been my experience,” Nelle admitted, looking down at her hands. “But I accept your apology. And, as I said, I forgive you.”
“Thank you,” Kit said, resting his cheek on top of her head in a display of affection. For a moment, he basked in how the whole situation felt right. Like the two of them were supposed to be together at that moment.
“Well, this is quite the cozy scene,” Kemma said, padding into the room. “I can’t leave you two alone for one minute, can I?”
Nelle jerked away from Kit, her cheeks going a shade brighter, which he wouldn’t have thought possible. “We were just talking!” she protested.
“Well, that was the sweetest ‘talk’ I’ve ever seen. And the quietest. Honestly, were either of you actually speaking?” Kemma asked, her green eyes bright with mirth.
“Not at that particular moment, but we were just…patching things up,” Kit said, not sure what words to use in the situation. “Making sure that neither of us had any ill-feelings after…that unpleasantness.”
“Oh, is that what we’re calling it now?” Kemma asked. “That’s an interesting way of putting it.”
“Let it go, Kem,” Nelle begged. “Kit’s apologized, and I’ve forgiven him. It’s all forgotten now.”
“Well, you may have forgotten it, but I want to know more about this mysterious voice that put our favorite dragon man in that trance,” Kemma grumbled.
Nelle nodded thoughtfully. “It can’t be a coincidence that the weird glowing spell I found was the same shade of blue as the glint in Kit’s eyes when he was under the trance’s influence.”
Kit frowned. “What weird glowing spell?”
Quickly, Nelle filled him in on the circumstances of the discovery of the tracking spell. When she had finished the story, he nodded thoughtfully. “Well, that certainly triggers some questions. Do you remember which book you found it in?”
Nelle nodded and motioned to her worktable, where a stack of spell books rested. “It was in that book on the top of the pile. I’d grab it myself, but I want to give the salve time to work.”
“Not to worry. I can get it,” Kit assured her before reaching for the book.
When he opened it, he muttered a curse; it had the same rotten smell as the ice magic.
If there was any doubt in his mind that the spell had been a trap, that smell erased it.
He flipped through the pages, and, true to Nelle’s story, he could find no sign of the strange glowing spell.
“This puzzle has more twists and turns than the maps of the paths over the Ivory Mountains,” Kemma said. “Why would someone take the time to craft a spell to lure Kit in, only for that spell to disappear after turning the page?”
“And who was that voice in the cave?” Nelle wondered. “It couldn’t have been my mother. From your description, the voice was too deep.”
“It certainly wasn’t Queen Snow White,” Kit agreed. “Though the ice magic smelled the same as her magic does. The entire cave reeked of it.”
Nelle nodded thoughtfully. “Did you ever see her perform magic?”
Kit thought for a moment. “No. But we didn’t exactly spend every hour together.
You know how royal romances are.” Kemma and Nelle stared at him with matching blank stares, and he couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Apparently you don’t. They’re more about convenience than romance.
I can count the number of noble families I know who have married for love on one hand and still have fingers left over. ”
“That’s really rather sad, don’t you think?” Nelle murmured. “But I think we’ve lost the plot a bit. I asked whether you’ve seen her perform magic because I wonder whether the ice magic is coming from her or from another source entirely.”
“Wouldn’t it get rather complicated to channel ice magic through the queen, who then channels it into you?” Kemma asked.
“Perhaps. I’d have to do more research about it,” Nelle admitted, sending a pained look at the stack of books on the table.
She rubbed her head with her palm. “But regardless of whether it’s her magic that she’s wielding or someone else’s, we need to figure out why the voice from the cave wanted you to bring me to it. ”
“Do you have any suggestions?” Kemma asked, looking back and forth between Kit and Nelle.
She twisted a strand of hair around her fingers. “I do have an idea, but I don’t think either of you is going to like it.”
Kit’s guard went up instantly. “What are you thinking, snowdrop?”
Nelle bit her lip. “What if you brought me to the cave?”
Kit shook his head vehemently. “Absolutely not.”
“It’s a good plan!” Nelle protested. “You’re not under the spell’s control anymore, so you’ll be there to protect me the whole time, as will Ember and Kemma, if she agrees to come. And I’ll have my magic to defend myself. I’ve gotten quite good at defensive spells.”
“Except the voice in the cave was clearly intent on trapping me and possibly you as well,” Kit said. “And we don’t know why he wanted me to bring you to him in the first place. There are too many unknowns, which makes the whole thing entirely too dangerous.”
“Plus, do you really think that it’s a good idea to go someplace where we know for a fact that there is ice magic when you’ve said yourself that when the temperature drops, your mother has an easier time seizing control?” Kemma pointed out.
Nelle sighed. “I can see there’s no way to talk you into this, is there?”
“Not until we get more answers or we find a way to mitigate the danger,” Kit said, his eyes lingering on her bandages. He wasn’t about to put her in danger again. Not if he could help it.
“So, what do we do instead?” Nelle asked, getting up to pace the room. “We can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
“We’re not doing nothing,” Kit soothed. “We’re going to keep investigating. But we also need to be safe. Going into that cave unprepared isn’t being safe.”
Nelle sighed. “You’re right. Of course, you’re right. It’s just…” She groaned. “We have so many questions and not enough answers. And the only way to get more answers is to do something dangerous. Whether that’s sending one of us back to that cave or entering the room with the Cracked Mirror.”
Kit’s scowl deepened. “Who said anything about entering that cursed place?”
Nelle’s eyes dropped to the wooden floors. “Oops.”
Kit arched his eyebrow. “‘Oops?’ What’s ‘oops?’”
Nelle chewed on her lower lip. “I would not do it without discussing it with you first. But I thought, since we have so many questions that we can’t resolve, we might ask the Cracked Mirror for some of the more pressing answers. Like where your brother is and how to break your spell.”
“And, as I’ve told you before, it’s not worth the risk,” Kemma reminded her. “If you don’t want to end up in the dragon’s mouth, it doesn’t do to poke that dragon with a stick. There’s a cost every time you interact with the mirror.”
“So we just do it once,” Nelle said, glancing at Kit pleadingly. “We narrow down our questions to one and find the right wording, so there’s now way to get confused. Then, we go in together, with a united front. That way, the Cracked Mirror can’t take advantage of any of us.”
Kemma scowled. “It’s a terrible idea.”
“But Nelle’s right. We’re running out of options,” Kit sighed. He fixed his eyes on Nelle’s. “Do you really think this will work?”
Worry played across Nelle’s face. “I don’t know. But really, do we have any other choice?”
Kit grimaced. “It seems not. It looks like we’re going to ask for an audience with the Cracked Mirror.”