Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
FYN
The bed was empty beside me.
Her sword, her flask, her bag were all here with me still, but she wasn’t.
I threw on my boots and grabbed my sword before I ran out the door and down the stairs.
This was bad. Very bad.
How was I going to tell Lioran and Aelira that I lost her?
I had lost her.
She doesn’t know where she’s going.
When I pulled back the inn’s door, Kylana was sitting on the bench with a mug. She looked up at me. “I always wondered who it was until I saw you look at her. Maybe I even understand it.”
I closed my eyes, exhaling slowly. “I told you my heart wasn’t free.”
Her voice grew softer. “You’re looking for her?”
“Where is she?”
“She went for a walk towards the woods,” she said.
“The woods?” It only took a moment to remember how close we were to the starlight pool. “Please tell me she didn’t go that way.” I pointed.
“She seemed upset.”
“And you didn’t stop her?” It was a dumb question. Of course she didn’t stop her.
“Why would I stop her?” Her nose crinkled. “Fyn, is everything okay?”
“Hopefully,” I said as I started in the direction that Kylana pointed.
No fae would venture too close to the starlight, but Ashlyn didn’t know what it was.
I ran down the path, my sword jolting against my hip with each stride I took. The village was too quiet still. I should have been able to spot her easily, but she was nowhere to be found.
Leaves scattered where someone had stepped into the woods. Small boot prints lay beside it.
“Ashlyn!” I yelled, hoping she’d tell me to stop talking so loudly.
Starlight had carved out a silver path. It was running through the woods. Just as it had at every Verdant Alignment ceremony I bore witness to.
I followed it desperately, hoping I wouldn’t find her.
But each footprint she had stamped in the dirt only led me closer to where the starlight pooled.
Her hair spilled over the moss-covered ground.
“Ashlyn!” I ran to her, scooping her into my arms.
Her eyelids were softly closed. It looked like she was sleeping, but the shimmering light painted her lips.
I reached for her hand. It was covered in it too.
My knees sank into the soil as I cradled her. Her breath caressed my cheek as I lowered my face near hers. “Ashlyn. Please.”
I lifted her carefully. Her hand ran over my arm, leaving a glittering trail of liquid that clung to me.
“I need a healer,” I cried as I came back into the village.
The blacksmith peered out of his forge. “What happened, my lord?”
“I don’t know. She needs help. Please, if you know where the healer is,” I begged.
A girl peered out after the blacksmith. “The healer lives further down the road. I can fetch her for you.”
“You can bring her in here.” He ran his hands through his ashen hair, staring at Ashlyn nearly lifeless in my arms.
I couldn’t risk them seeing what she was covered in—who she was. “Send them to the inn. Tell her to ask for Lord Fyn when she arrives.”
“Yes, my lord.” The girl went running down the hill toward the huts that lined the village edge.
I pulled Ashlyn closer to my chest as I ran back to the inn.
“Fyn? What happened?” Kylana cried as she saw me running to the door.
I darted past her and ran up the stairs.
“Lord Fyn. What’s wrong?” The innkeeper slid out of my way.
“I’ve sent for the healer. When she gets here, please send her to my room.”
She was so pale, but her skin glittered with traces of starlight as I laid her on the bed.
“Ashlyn, please wake up.” I needed her to look at me again, even if it was with annoyance.
I just needed her—however I could have her.
“Fyn?” Her eyes cracked open until I saw a hint of gold.
“Ashlyn.” I choked on her name as I brushed her hair away from her face. Her eyes shone as brightly as the starlight until they slipped closed again.
“She didn’t know,” I whispered to the stars. They needed to take pity on her. “She couldn’t have.”
When the door creaked, a slender fae lady peeked at me from around the door. “Lord Fyn, I’m Wren, the healer here.”
“Is it just you?” I asked.
“Yes, my lord. They said a lady had fallen ill.” Her voice was meek as she walked slowly toward us.
She reached for Ashlyn’s hand.
I put mine in the way. “She touched the starlight.” I didn’t know of anyone who had just touched it before without a crystal conduit.
Wren’s eyes widened as she walked around the bed to get a better look at Ashlyn.
“You must keep this to yourself,” I said.
“Why would she?” Wren asked.
“She didn’t know. She’s human.”
“Human?” The healer pulled her back straight.
“She’s the queen’s sister. Which is why I need your discretion,” I warned.
“I don’t know how to help her.” She looked absolutely terrified.
“I need you to try. Please, just try whatever you would do for a fae.” I was desperate.
She leaned over Ashlyn. Slowly she ran her hands over her. “She…” Panic filled her gaze.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s on her lips. She drank it,” she said.
“Surely, you must know of another time when this has happened.” I didn’t.
“No fae would choose to take from the stars.” Her gaze hardened on Ashlyn as she pulled her hands back. “I don’t know how to help with this. I don’t know if I should.”
“She is under the king’s protection.” I rarely ever pulled Lioran’s name into conversation, but I was desperate. “If he finds out you refused her care, he will not take kindly to it.”
She watched me carefully, her eyes drifting from mine to Ashlyn. “I’ll stay. Not for you—or her, but only because my king requires it of me.”
“I need her to survive this,” I said. “She’s going to be terrified and I…” Didn’t know how to tell her. “Tell me you hate me, Ashlyn. Tell me anything.”
“Fyn.” When she wept, her tears glittered with the starlight. “I’m so thirsty.”
“Can you hear me?” Wren asked, pointing to the water glass that sat on the table still.
Her eyes opened and snapped focus on Wren. “Who are you?” She sat up. Her body swayed from the quick motion. “Where am I?”
I braced her back. “We’re back at the inn. You drank something you shouldn’t have,” I said handing her the cup. “This is Wren. She’s a healer.”
“What was it?” Glistening tears streaked her skin. “What did I drink?”
“Starlight,” Wren said.
“No. Stars are in the sky… that was water.” She looked at us as if we had lost our minds. “I drank water.”
Wren glared at me as she pulled the glass back from Ashlyn’s hands.
“It wasn’t water. You drank starlight.” I could barely exhale. “The verdant alignment happened last night. It runs off into that spring.”
“My eyes burn,” she said. “What’s going to happen to me?” Her breath pulled faster. “I need to check you.” Wren lifted her hands above Ashlyn.
“How did I get here?” Ashlyn asked.
“I carried you.” My gaze held hers. “I wouldn’t leave you.”
Wren pulled her hands back. “My lord, you said she’s human. You must be mistaken.”
Ashlyn tucked her hair behind her ears. “I can assure you that I am human.”
“I’ve treated humans on the trade route before. Their blood flow—their life energy is different than the fae, but yours isn’t.”
“What does that even mean?” Ashlyn wiped back the tears as soon as they fell.
“I don’t know. It could be the starlight. It could be something else,” Wren said.
“Something else? Like I’ve been altered?” Every bit of color washed from her skin. “Like my sister was altered by magic?”
If it had altered her, Estlen wouldn’t accept her. “We should delay the journey.”
Ashlyn slid her fingers over her perfectly rounded ears as if she was checking to see if they were still as they once were. “This can’t stop the plan. I need to go,” she pleaded.
“I’d like to send for another healer to come look at her.” Wren tilted her head. “She was tending to a birth just beyond the village. Her experience far surpasses mine, but I’m not sure if there is anything that can be done.”
“You must have knowledge of how to help with this.” We couldn’t just wait to see what happened to Ashlyn.
“I know how to heal, Lord Fyn. Her body is weak, but other than that there is nothing I can sense that can be healed.”
Ashlyn’s chest heaved. Her blank stare held me.
“Your Highness, I have no knowledge of this. I don’t know of anyone who has tampered with it.” She reached for Ashlyn’s hand, but pulled back.
“Send for her,” I said. “Thank you, Wren.”
Ashlyn waited until Wren left. “What’s going to happen to me? Why is she afraid to touch me?”
I swallowed hard. “You took the stars’ magic. It’s sacred to my people.”
“I didn’t mean to take it.” She looked down at her hands. “I’m sorry.”
The stars let her live and wake. I knew she couldn’t understand the way we looked to them. That it was too foreign to her.
“She has to be wrong… I will have a human life still.”
“We need to make sure you’re okay first.”
“I’m not okay, Fyn.” Ashlyn’s eyes widened as she stared at me. “I wasn’t before I drank the fae wine or the starlight. I’m not okay being around you—being here.”
“Anything else?” I pretended her words did nothing to me. “You don’t have to do this to prove you are okay. And if my presence is too much to bear, someone else can take my place.”
Her lips pressed shut as she shook her head.