Chapter Fifteen #3
Young-Will lashes out. He has somewhere more important to be. He has to get these to his dad now, before it’s too late.
“Get out of my way, idiot!” he shouts.
“You can’t talk to me like that,” Young-Bash replies.
“Oh, sorry, am I supposed to be keeping my mouth shut? We wouldn’t want anyone finding out about how you destroyed—”
The prince shoves him.
I gasp.
Young-Will hits the floor and the backpack catches his fall.
Glass splinters. A pool of liquid drips from the corner of the bag.
I hold my breath. Young-Will freezes. His hands curl into fists.
A torrent of wind blasts outward as he jumps to his feet.
Young-Bastion pulls out his sword. It ends with the guards pulling them apart and Godfrey ushering Young-Will out of the citadel, advising him it’s best to stay away for a while.
Back in the cottage, Young-Will weeps in Ruth’s arms.
“You didn’t need to,” she says.
“I had to try.”
She hugs him tight.
The memories fade to gray.
“After that, all the arguments went down a similar path,” Will says. “You probably caught a few of them. Sometimes I’d go on purpose to rile him up, if I was bored or wanting to lash out. Sometimes I just wanted to be left alone. But that’s about it…”
The green glow of the grove blooms so suddenly that I lose my footing. Will steadies me.
“Careful, it can be disorienting.”
“Will…I’m so sorry about your dad.”
He lets out a long breath.
“I wonder if it really was the dark magic that made him sick. And if I hadn’t smashed the tonics…would he have lived longer? Or was it just random happenstance? Did I doom him myself by performing that spell with Bash?”
“Oh no, Will, no.” I take his collar. “It’s not your fault. He loved you so much.”
Will smiles at the glowing grass.
“That’s true,” he says. Exhaustion overcomes him.
“Bash has everything. He’s always had everything—wealth, protection, status.
Education, opportunity, his fairy-tale prince, his happily ever after…
The reason he gets so angry when he sees me is because he knows he’s at fault.
He’s guilty. He knows that if I really wanted to, I could take all of it away.
He can do whatever he wants with no consequences, and I have to spend every day living with his choices.
He gets to go home to his fiancé and his castle and put his feet up and I—”
His expression buckles. He’s unfocused and sweltering, breathing unsteadily, overwhelmed by the memories we witnessed. He’s been fighting a losing battle for so long that he doesn’t know how to win. My gut had been right. I’d known Bash was hiding something. So much for peace.
I stand on my tiptoes, yanking on Will’s jacket.
“Well, I’m not letting you go easily,” I say.
“Oh, they’ll find a way.” He laughs sourly. “I’d be surprised if the queen doesn’t already know we’ve been meeting. She’s been keeping tabs on me for years.”
The night catches up with me and weariness seeps in. We’ve been out for so long, I don’t even know what time it is. Will notices my stifled yawn and smiles.
“Come on, Farrow, let’s get you home safely.”
The trowel I’d been using to dig up the Lunarie is still shoved in the dirt nearby, my task unfinished like the score between the two boys. In tired silence, I scoop the flower out, give it the usual brush of enchantments, and place it carefully in my basket.
We choose the quick way back to the citadel, which once more involves Will carrying me and the wind as our guide. He leaps us up, over the citadel walls, and I force myself to leave his arms. In no time at all, we arrive outside my shop.
“ ‘Farrow’s Flowers,’ ” he reads from the sign.
“Now you know where to find me,” I say, and stand on the front step so we’re almost at eye level.
Will pauses.
“Fliss…” he says, his eyes flicking up to the castle. It’s hard to read him in the dim light, but there’s a heaviness in his shoulders. “You know it’s only a matter of time before I get you in trouble. Bash won’t be happy about this.”
My chest ignites. “Since when do you care what he thinks?”
He’d better not be giving me up and letting Bash have his way again.
I’d better not be another thing he loses because of Bastion’s guilt.
But he’s saying this like there’s something here, like he’s been feeling the same as I have, and he’s looking at me like no one ever has—like the sun could rise at any moment and it wouldn’t be as captivating as me on my doorstep.
The castle watches over us. A reminder of who wins, of who rules.
Willoh Vane takes a step back.
“Good night, Felicity.”
No. No. Don’t go. I don’t want us to leave it like this, suspended in a potential, a could-have, the kindling of our flame left forgotten.
“Will, wait—”
I stand on my tiptoes and at the last second shy away, dodging his mouth and kissing him lightly on the cheek.
“Thank you for helping me find the Lunarie,” I say.
He blinks, then regains his smirk.
“Go on, Farrow,” he says. “You’ve got a flower to take care of.”
Regretfully, I turn my key in the lock and stand in the open doorway.
“Good night, Will,” I whisper and shut the door slowly, keeping my eyes on him until there’s no sliver of space left.
My head rests against the wood. There isn’t an inch of me that isn’t screaming to throw open the door, to tell him not to go, to continue the magic of this evening into the sunrise and forevermore, but I need to get the Lunarie prepared and into the collection box before Mum wakes up.
I don’t know what to do. Everything stems from Bash’s mistake.
Ego and desperation, that’s what Will had said on our way to Mithian.
Not his, but the prince’s. Bash had wanted magic so badly that the entire north got destroyed in the process.
These days, he does everything he can to avoid relying on magic.
Maybe Card’s indifference to it rubbed off on him.
Or maybe magic and guilt have become so intertwined, Bash can no longer differentiate between the two.
But would they even listen if I explained Will’s side of things?
If I have the ability to use the truth as a way to clear the air and smooth things over, shouldn’t I try?
Bash needs to know how his actions affected Pigeon and her fellow villagers.
As of now his sympathies have yet to turn into action.
He needs a brutal dose of honesty or nothing will change.
Then, after it’s all worked out, Will and I…We wouldn’t have to— We could—
Well, I never want Willoh Vane to sacrifice anything ever again.