The Emperor was no longer controlled by the beetle and he would recover to lead the kingdom to greatness. I’d saved him. The crazy girl who’d lived too long in a lamp had finally done something right.
For a long moment, everything hung in the balance then suddenly my own magic awoke within me again.
It writhed like a living thing beneath my flesh, carving a path through me more powerfully than I’d ever felt before.
I gasped, the laughter torn from my throat as claws of ice came for it.
My back arched as the magic rocked the foundations of my soul and I found myself trapped within a prison of my own power. I was screaming, my throat ripping raw with the desperate desire to release this writhing storm within me.
I couldn’t hold it. I couldn’t contain it. My magic had always bordered on being too much for me and now I found that that was true. I was a vessel overflowing, bursting at the seams and any moment now something was going to give.
Pain echoed through every inch of my skin before finally crashing out of me and slamming into the lamp. A chain appeared around my neck, coiling from me to the bronze lamp which rattled on the floor as the full weight of my magic grew inside it. It was choking me, drowning me, leashing me to something beyond my control
I could feel the pressure building in the air, my ears aching with the need to pop, my hair rising in a static cloud around me.
I was trembling, shaking from head to toe as I sensed the weight of every spell I’d ever been forced to perform drawing back towards the lamp.
The ground shook as the tower withdrew from the sky. Mounds of treasure flew towards me, mixing with the raging sandstorm before winking out of existence, the magic which had created it moving into the lamp again.
My flesh burned with the power coursing through me and every injury I’d sustained from Gothel was wiped from my skin.
On and on it went, the foundations of my soul trembling as every spell I’d ever cast was undone, every wish I’d ever granted taken back, every moment of my curse cast aside.
I was pinned in place by the weight of the magic which traveled through me on its way back to the lamp until finally, every last scrap of it made it back into the confines of the bronze artefact that had been my prison.
As the final drop of magic fell from my body, the chain around my neck exploded and I gasped as freedom poured down on me like the sweetest of kisses.
The lamp rose up before me, swelling with power as I lay on the ground, gasping for breath.
With a boom loud enough to rock the entire palace, it exploded and magic washed out of it in a wave so intense I was pinned to the ground by it. It burned through the sandstorm, forcing it to dissipate until a bright blue sky hung overhead once more.
The magic flooded me, searing through my soul and taking every piece of me into its grasp. It was my magic and it couldn’t leave without me. We were one and the same. Where it went, I went. And it couldn’t be contained any longer.
My flesh began to burn and sizzle, though it wasn’t painful; my magic was free and it was taking me with it wherever it was going. My body was fading away as if it had never existed at all. My curse was over and my time was up.
A final, shuddering breath passed through my lungs. The last, solid thump of my heart sounded beneath my ribs.
We never got to say goodbye.
A single tear slid down my cheek. My life had been so short of love. But in the end I’d found a man who had wanted every piece of me, no matter how broken I was. He’d shown me life and love and even though it had been all too fleeting, it had been mine.
And wherever I went now, I’d keep it with me.
A huge explosion of light tore through the sky and I stared up at the shifting storm clouds above as they ignited like a bonfire. My heart stammered with anxiety as the storm swirled like a raging python, coiling through the air as it gathered into a single golden line.
A vortex of swirling purple light built in the sky and the storm was dragged into it a mile at a time. My eyes watered as a bright blue sky appeared beyond it and the scorching sun fell down on us.
I rose to my feet, helping Cassian up beside me as I gazed across my city. A swarm of the undead were battling with a tide of men and women, but as I watched they fell away into grains of black sand, twirling through the air and disappearing as if they’d never been. A cry of victory carried up from the streets and hope bloomed in my chest.
“What's happening?” Cassian growled, his shoulders stiff as he clutched onto my hand. I squeezed his fingers in reassurance.
“The sky is clear and the undead monsters are gone. I think-.”
A sound like a thunder crack tore through the air and the balcony jolted violently. My gut lurched as I stumbled back from the edge.
“Shit what was that?!” Cassian demanded, pulling me tight to his side.
“I don’t know,” I whispered, an ominous feeling cradling my heart as the balcony shuddered beneath my feet.
The building swayed suddenly and a gasp escaped me as I held onto Cassian for dear life. Another violent tremor made my heart lurch and I pulled Cassian inside, away from the deadly drop beyond the balcony.
My heart stumbled as a deep vibration hummed within the tower, creating a groaning noise that could only mean one terrible thing: it was going to fall.
“Get under the bed!” I commanded and Cassian dropped to the floor, letting me lead him beneath it.
I crawled in after him and he wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace. The kind of embrace which would remain beyond death. If we were to die here our bones would be found tangled with each other's and the thought alone was enough to make me ill.
“Cassian,” I breathed, fear tearing at my heart as I pulled him to me. “The tower's going to fall down.”
His hand slid up my arm and clasped my cheek, an urgency to his movements. “You should go, make a run for it down those stairs. I'd slow you down too much but maybe you-” I silenced him with a kiss, a tear sliding down my face and dripping to the floor.
My heart seemed to fall apart and scatter through my body, my pulse alive in every inch of my flesh. Despite the terrifying situation, for that single moment I was lost to his touch and claimed by the powerful desire of his soul.
“Is that answer enough?” I whispered as I rested my forehead to his, my eyes clamped shut as another fierce quake made the room shudder.
I’d hidden under this bed as a child, played hide and seek with my mother. It had always been a haven of safety, a place of imagination and dreams. A pirate’s cave filled with treasure, a cabin in a boat swaying in a sea storm. But now those adventures had come to life and they were more frightening than I’d ever envisioned. But more wonderful too. And the only thing I would have changed was discovering who my heart truly beat for sooner.
“Osaria needs you,” Cassian begged. “And to come this far only to die here with me-”
“Enough,” I demanded, burying my face in the crook of his neck. “I'd rather die here than abandon you and live, Cassian Lazar.”
He fell quiet and his arms tightened around me until I was flush against his chest, encaged within his huge body. I knew what he was doing, hoping he might protect me from death but the idea of losing him and living on by myself was unthinkable.
An ear-splitting boom sounded and the tower hurtled down at terrifying speed. A scream escaped me as we clutched onto each other with everything we had.
We had to live. There was so much to live for. We hadn’t had nearly long enough to experience it.
I thought of my father, of the kingdom, of the world falling to ruin under Gothel's rule. If she’d won, killed Aladdin, destroyed any chance of us defeating her, then I would never know. I'd pass out of this life with a thousand dreams of what the world could have been. Of how my beautiful Osaria should have looked. No more children going hungry in the streets, or women being bought and paid for by men. There was so many wrongs to right. And I'd never get the chance to bring those
dreams to fruition.
Then there were my own dreams. The desperate yearnings I'd had my entire life to claim my own throne, to find true love and friends who saw me as more than a precious jewel to be protected. I'd only just started to experience those painfully-wonderful things. Now they'd be ripped from my grasp and I'd be tossed into an eternal ocean of nothingness.
Stone and mortar tumbled from the ceiling, crashing down on the bed and slamming into the floor around us. My heart was somewhere in my throat and I was so frightened I couldn't draw breath.
“I love you,” Cassian said against my ear and I said it back, but my voice was lost to the tumult of destruction around us.
With a tremendous crash, the world slowed to a halt. The falling sensation disappeared just as fast, but I couldn't unlock my arms from Cassian. It was too impossible to believe this was over, that we'd somehow survived.
Cassian released a heavy sigh against my cheek and the loud drumming of his heartbeat softened a fraction. “For a moment there, I thought I'd never see you again.” He released a noise of amusement and a choked laugh escaped me.
“This is so not the time to make jokes,” I teased, finally releasing him and rolling out from under the bed.
“The fact that we're alive means it definitely is,” he countered with a broad smile.
I couldn't believe how strong he was. He'd lost his eyesight, nearly died and he still met the world with an infallible confidence. It leaked into me and made me feel invincible.
As I helped Cassian follow me out from under the bed, I stared around at my shattered room. Huge, spider-web cracks were spread across the pale walls and half of the ceiling had caved in on one side of the room.
“Just a second,” I told Cassian as he rose to his feet.
I hurried out to the balcony, carefully stepping over the broken remnants of my furniture as I went. My mouth parted as I walked outside, finding one side of the balcony now broken away and the rest tilting sharply forward. Apart from that, my room had returned to its usual place in the palace so I looked upon the gardens below
Movement caught my eye and I spotted Aladdin running into the courtyard below. A twisting purple ball of light spiralled up toward the sky and I barely understood what I was seeing as it dissolved into nothing.
“Wait!” Aladdin roared.
“What’s happening?” Casisan begged of me.
“Aladdin's outside,” I said, trying not to panic. But Kyra...where had she gone?
“Thank Osaria he's alive,” Cassian breathed. “Let's hope that means he finished off Gothel.”
I didn't answer as I led him out of the room at a fierce pace, my heart pounding with worry for Kyra. My door led out into the familiar corridor beyond it instead of a maze of stairs and the palace was eerily quiet as we hurried along. Cassian never slowed, though he stumbled a few times on the steps as we descended a servant's stairway. We sped outside and circled around to where I'd seen Aladdin, my pulse thumping a warning tune in my ears.
“Aladdin!” I called as he came into sight, kneeling on the ground.
He tilted his chin up just enough to look at us. His gaze clawed over me and onto Cassian's bandaged eyes. He said nothing and the anguished expression on his face made me ache.
“Is he alright?” Cassian asked me anxiously.
“I don't know,” I whispered, drawing closer to Aladdin with fear raking through my body. “What happened? Where's Kyra?”
Aladdin took a shuddering breath and I noticed he held Kyra’s blade in his hand. “She killed the Queen. But now she...she's gone.”
“What do you mean gone?” Cassian demanded, stepping out of my hold as he searched blindly for his friend.
I rested a hand on his arm as grief threatened to swallow me up. “But she can't die,” I breathed and Aladdin looked to me with such a hollowness in his eyes that it broke me to even witness it. Let alone what it was doing to him.
“Her magic's gone,” he said, his voice raspy. “Don't you feel it? How absent she is from the world?”
I nodded slowly as I realised he was right. The constant hum and flicker of Kyra's magic was completely missing. But maybe she was just far away.
“That's why the tower fell,” Cassian choked out and thorns seemed to wrap around my heart.
Aladdin nodded. “She saved us all. Your father is well again, Rapunzel. I saw him myself.”
I nodded, taking a shuddering breath as I let that sink in. Kyra had given her life for all of us. For me, for everyone I loved and I could never repay her. The last piece of my resolve crumbled to dust and I fell into Cassian's arms, tears flooding from my eyes, hot and thick.
The world seemed darker without her in it, the brightness of her smile and the playful innocence of her nature. Osaria was wounded without that girl. And it was the sort of injury that could never be healed.
I was floating, drifting, falling apart and then coming back together again.
It was peaceful.
I was the only one here. Even the other parts of me were gone. Or perhaps we had finally become whole again.
I drifted on a breeze above mountain tops, dancing with pink and yellow blossoms as they swarmed through the endless sky.
I sang with the howling wind in a chasm which carved a path right down to the burning centre of the earth.
I swam with glimmering fish of every size and colour as we chased the currents through the bottomless sea, searching for treasures hidden in its depths.
I grew through the dark, deep places of the earth, spreading roots to the foundation of the land and weaving branches which reached for the sky with leafy fingers.
I was the bear in the woods, the wolf on the hunt, the dolphin in the waves, the lion on the prowl, the mouse in the shadows and the eagle in the sky.
I was all of it and none of it. Alone and free and safe. And alone.
I had no eyes and yet I cried. I had no flesh and yet it yearned for the caress of another. I had no breath and yet I sighed. I had no heart and yet it ached.
I was alone.
And I was free.
But it wasn’t enough.
I had lived a thousand years and eternity awaited me still but I only wanted to occupy one place in time. I only wanted to live one life. And I didn’t want to live it alone.
All of the scattered pieces of me agreed on that much. I’d had enough of being alone.
I needed to be with him.
***
As I drew myself back to the place where my heart resided, a desperate beat drew all of my attention.
Bare feet touched down on flagstones which were cool, cold, hard and smooth. It was as if I’d never felt such a thing before.
This body was the same as it had been and yet it was different too. Each part of it was eternally mine. Every sensation, every thought, each feeling and touch and the endless well of magic which danced alongside my soul. It was mine. Every part of it. And I could use it however I wished.
Rapunzel was sobbing in Cassian’s arms, her face buried against his chest while his back was to me.
But my eyes didn’t fall on them for long.
Aladdin had his back to me too but he was crouched down, his knees on the hard ground and his face in his hands.
The beat I could hear came from him. His heart was pounding erratically beneath his flesh. The rhythm was all wrong, like it didn’t know what to do or how to go on.
I stepped closer to him. Then closer again.
If he was the earth then I was the moon. I’d been adrift without him and I never wanted to be away from him again.
“Aladdin?” I breathed.
He fell still. His heart leapt. But he didn’t turn to face me.
“Aladdin?”
He pushed himself to his feet and turned slowly, like he didn’t quite believe what he’d heard.
A warm breeze lifted my hair and blew it across my face, revealing purple stands mixed in with the black.
Aladdin caught them automatically, his lips p
arting like he was going to say something but for the first time that I could remember, he seemed lost for words.
He tucked the strand of hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering as he skimmed a line down my neck. His grip was steady but not tight enough to pull me closer. It was as though he wasn’t sure if I’d want him to do it or not.
“Where did you go?” he breathed. “I thought you were...”
I inched closer to him, reaching up to touch his chest above his pounding heart.
“Everywhere,” I replied. “I saw everything the world had to offer and spent an eternity sampling it all.”
“So why did you come back?”
“Because I don't want everything.”
Aladdin’s fingers slid around my neck, pushing into my hair and sending shivers racing down my spine.
“So what do you want?” he breathed.
I smiled at him, stepping close enough to close the distance between us so that my chest was pressed against his.
“Well, once upon a time, I met this ugly thief,” I teased. “And he took one look at this broken, twisted creature and decided to save her from her life of servitude.”
“I’m pretty sure you freed yourself, Kyra,” he breathed.
“I freed myself from the lamp,” I agreed. “But you freed me from my pain. You pulled me from the dark and helped me remember who I was and to learn who I am now.”
“That doesn’t sound like me,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m a selfish asshole, not really the kind of guy to do something like-”
I pushed up onto my tiptoes and kissed him to silence his nonsense.
Aladdin groaned as he dragged me closer, his lips demanding more of me as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
I could feel him smiling and then he was laughing and his strong arms wrenched me off of my feet. I wound myself around him with a laugh of my own and suddenly two more sets of arms were wrapped around us too.
“Oh, Kyra! I thought we’d lost you!” Rapunzel sobbed.
Cassian squeezed me so tightly that I couldn’t breathe.
“You guys are really killing my passionate reunion here,” Aladdin complained half-heartedly.
Forbidden Fairytales- The Complete Series Page 71
