chapter twenty-seven
LUNA
Bathing was easy now. I could fill the copper tubs with my water magic and run a scorching finger around the sides until the water steamed. I sank into its warmth, washing the mud, sweat, blood, and tears from my skin, skin that didn’t even feel like mine. My scars had already healed. It was unbroken and flawless, and the sensations were too much. The pads of my fingertips were sensitive, tasting everything they touched.
My hearing was even more acute. I could hear Phillip’s blood whooshing through his veins from two rooms away, even as he washed his body and the water sloshed in its tub. I heard goosebumps forming on his skin. It was too much.
And I wasn’t tired. Not at all.
Pieces was perched on the branch of a small tree potted in the corner. She danced up and down the piece of wood, still distraught. I wondered if I could make her forget it all, forget my sister and their relationship, and send her out into the woods to live as she had before Aura took her.
Maybe I would try, but not yet. Not today.
Phillip slept in my old bedroom. We still hadn’t talked about what would come next. He was exhausted. Even though the sun had set hours ago I wasn’t sleepy, and wasn’t sure if I would be when it rose. So many things would change now. I wanted this, I reminded myself.
I called to Ember through our connection. Scampering through the destroyed garden of torn petals and sharp thorns, my familiar came to me. She put her soft paws on my leg and I picked her up, stroking her fur. I knew I had let her down. Because I trusted someone more than I trusted her instincts, she was hurt. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you,” I whispered. “You knew all along that Malex was a beast, didn’t you?” I whispered.
She rubbed her head against my palm, instantly forgiving me. I just wondered if it would be possible to one day forgive myself for all the damage that had been done. Ember left me and curled up against Phillip. That night, I watched them sleep from a chair in the corner, where I could keep an eye out. Just in case I hadn’t really ended Malex.
I saw him burn and then scattered the ashes of his form across the land, but fae were supposed to be immortal. What if we hadn’t really taken all of his powers, and he still had that gift? I cringed to think that I’d be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life—which, now that I thought about it, wouldn’t end. Would it?
Glancing at Phillip, my heart broke again as the realization set in. He was mortal. I would have to watch him age and eventually, I would have to watch him die. I knew I would outlive him, but by how long? Eternity didn’t have an ending. If I was immortal, the time that parted us would stretch into infinity.
Would that be worse than watching him give his heart to another woman? I wasn’t sure yet, but one day I would find out.
The morning sun shone on my face as I sat in a chair by the window. “You’re still awake,” Phillip mumbled. Even his voice was tired. He hadn’t been part of the battle, but the adrenaline alone had taken its toll.
“Your ribs are hurting,” I said. “I’ll go to the cottage. None of my ingredients are here.”
“I’m fine.”
“I’ll try to make sure it works faster. I’m sure you’ll want to get home,” I said quietly.
He swallowed, sheepish. “I need to let my family know I’m alive, and that William is dead.”
He didn’t say he would come back to me, and I knew he wouldn’t want to. I had nothing to offer him. He didn’t need my protection now. He was free, and I was nothing more than a cage; a witch that everyone feared, a monster—especially now that I had so much power thrumming beneath my skin and pounding through my veins.
“There should be more clothes for you somewhere in this place. They won’t be as fine as yours, but they’ll be clean,” I offered.
He nodded and sat up. “I’ll find them.”
“Sit still before you puncture a lung. I’ll find something for you and then we’ll go.”
I eased the broom down in front of my cottage and Ember leapt down from Phillip’s arms. Pieces, who’d flown with us, landed on one of my window sills.
“Are you going to stay here or go back to the palace?” he asked, clutching his side.
“I’m not sure yet.”
“Take your time. You don’t have to decide today, this week, or this year if you don’t want to.”
I tried to smile. “I have all the time in the world now.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know this would happen to you when she died.” His words tore into me.
“I didn’t either.” And now I was bound to a fate I didn’t know was possible, and didn’t want. Living alone forever would be an even worse fate than being tethered to my twin and suffering from the intolerable seasonal slumbers.
“You’re strong, you know. It’ll be okay in time.”
I nodded, even though I didn’t share his assessment. “I know. Let’s go inside. I need my spell book.”
This time, he came into the spell room with me and watched as I made the concoction that would heal him. When I finished, he drank the liquid down without questioning me or thinking twice about it. He knew I would never hurt him. As he drank, his eyes begged me for something. Understanding, maybe?
I understood why he had to leave, but it didn’t mean I had to like it, or that it wasn’t crushing me. I felt like parts of me were breaking apart and falling away, scattering to the wind like the ashes of my father did. Not for the first time, I wished it had been me that Malex killed first.
“Let’s get you home,” I said finally.
He pursed his lips and nodded. “Will you drop me in the forest?”
I blew out a breath. “I’d like to fly you all the way to your palace. I want them to know they don’t have to fear me.”
“They will anyway.”
“Maybe, but they’ll also know that I protected you. It’ll earn their respect, if not their fear.”
Phillip sat the small glass on my counter. “You’re right.”
PHILLIP
My home, the palace of Grithim, glittered in the afternoon sun. I couldn’t help but feel happy to see it, and wanted to see the look on my mother’s and father’s faces when I returned unscathed, but I knew Luna was taking a risk in coming here. Once she stepped foot on Grithim soil, she would be surrounded. We both would.
And that was exactly what happened. As soon as she set us down on the palace yard, the guards descended with their weapons drawn and bristling.
She just smiled at them and said in a booming voice, “I return your Prince to you and this is the treatment I receive?”
A few moments later, my parents ran through the front door, pushing through the sea of soldiers. I jumped from the broom and went to them. Mother cried while Father clapped me on the shoulder, asking thirty questions in the span of a minute.
“What’s this?” My father stilled, finally looking at Luna. His eyes flicked to me, and red-hot rage burned a path across his face. “You brought one of the fae into our kingdom?” he snarled.
“No, your Majesty,” Luna answered calmly. “A fae returned your son to you, and since you’ve not yet said thank you, and I’m sure that you’re so overwhelmed by emotion that you’ve simply forgotten your manners, you’re welcome.”
Father’s face turned from scarlet to purple and he started toward her, his hand on the hilt of his sword. I stepped between them, holding my hands out to halt his advance.
“It’s true!” I boomed. “She saved me, Father. I wouldn’t be standing here if it weren’t for her.”
Father’s eyes narrowed, and then flicked between me and Luna. “I wasn’t harmed, Father. I had an accident in the woods. Blackheart ran over a cliff and we fell. I was lucky to survive. Luna healed me, and then she brought me back home.”
Father relaxed, the tension melting from his body as he pulled me away from Luna and into an embrace. He spoke to her over my shoulder, his voice wavering with every word. “Thank you for returning him to us, whole and unscathed.”
I never imagined he’d care if I came back or not. My chest tightened as I finally stepped away from him to calm my sobbing mother.
Word quickly spread about my return. Soon, people spilled out of the castle, surrounding me and my parents, cheering and celebrating. The din of the chatter was deafening. I searched for Luna through the sea of faces, through the hands that clapped or waved handkerchiefs, but didn’t find her among the people of Grithim. They had slowly pushed her away, and in response, she took to the sky and left me behind.
“Luna!” I called out.
She heard me. I knew she did. But Luna never looked back.
LUNA
“Ankou….” I cooed.
The shape-shifting devil appeared before me at the bottom of a cliff. “What do you want, witch?”
I smiled. “I’m so glad you asked.”
With my wind, I pinned him against the rock wall. And then I took my time driving long spikes into his limbs to hold him there. “Now, you know where you belong. It is not anywhere near my cottage, my palace, Virosa land, or the dark forest. If I catch you there again, or sniffing anywhere near Phillip, I will end you. Consider this a warning and a testament to the fact that I can show mercy.”
He howled in agony as I nailed his neck to the rock.
When I let him go, he began muttering and thrashing to get free. The iron was burning his rotten flesh. He’d eventually free himself, but not without learning exactly where he was and wasn’t welcome.
And I hope he told the entire forest what would happen to anyone who so much as glanced the wrong way at the Prince of Grithim, or who stepped foot onto my land regardless of what enticed them there.
If I couldn’t be with Phillip, I would make sure he was safe from my kind.
And I hadn’t gotten a reputation for being a dark witch by being nice.