Azalea stopped walking a moment, blinking up at him. They’d reached a long stretch of river. Alex had no idea where they were in relation to anything else.
“Then you should leave,” she said quietly, walking forward now until they made it to a little cast iron bridge made only for walking across. It was deserted, and Azalea led him to the top, stopping and turning so they were facing out towards the water. “You should leave whatever is trapping you. Whatever is making you feel like a shell. Because, if you’re just staying to please your father, or whoever, then it’s just not worth it. Someday they will be gone, and you’ll still be here…trying to make someone else happy for the rest of your life. You don’t want to live with that kind of regret. If leaving is what you want more than anything in the world, then you should do it.”
“Well,” he began, looking down at Azalea’s profile. The lights of the city lit her eyes like electric blue fairies. “It was what I wanted more than anything… Now, recently, I think that’s changed to something else.”
She turned her big blue eyes up to him. They were filled with questions at first, and then at some point, she must have realized what he meant because they grew ever wider. Her red-tinged mouth fell open as she sucked in a slow breath.
“You don’t even know me, Alex,” she said.
“I know I want to,” he murmured. “I know I need to. More than I’ve ever needed anything before. I know, if I do escape from the cage of my life… I want to escape to you.”
The cup of hot chocolate fell from her hand as she reached up and pulled his face down to hers. The second cup crashed to the ground, spilling melted chocolate over the edge of the bridge as Alex wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer, breathing her in, feeling like he could finally get enough air for the first time in his life.
If Azalea had thought holding hands with Alex was a sensory experience, she could hardly comprehend the sensation of kissing Alex. His lips were like water, quenching a thirst she’d never realized she had. He kissed her like he was an adventurer exploring an unknown realm. Like he was a starving, and she was his sustenance.
He’d said he needed to know her. Not wanted. He hadn’t said, “I’d like to get to know you,” or, “It would be cool to see you again.” He’d said he needed to know her. Like it was no longer a want, but a necessity. She wasn’t sure how to handle that.
Because she felt the same way.
But she also lived in Texas. And he lived here. In Ireland. But he’d also said he wanted to get out. Surely his idea of “getting out” wasn’t leaving the lush beauty of this country in exchange for brown grass, tumbleweeds, and sand-filled wind.
What was she doing? They’d only known each other two days, and here she was picturing what it would be like for him to come home with her. She wasn’t normally so stupid when it came to boys. Sure, they’d chased her back at home. They’d made promises and begged for her to stay with them and cried about how much they loved her and needed her. But, somehow, when Alex said he needed her, it felt different. Like he really meant it.
* * *
Alex meant what he'd said. He needed to know Azalea. Like he needed to breathe air. It sounded dramatic, he knew. But he didn’t care. It felt more real than anything else had up to this point in his life. Ballrooms and royal meetings and ruffled collars and killing elves that probably didn’t deserve to be killed. All of that felt like the fantasy.
Alex didn’t know why people, Outsiders especially, were so wrapped up in magic and fantasies. As if it somehow made everything better. It didn’t. In his experience, it just complicated things more.
He didn’t need Underground magic.
Azalea was magic.
15
Bearer of Bad News
Vyra ripped the head off another one of her dolls and placed it next to a row of five others. Cocking her head to the side, she smiled widely. Six. Six kids. Six dead elf kids.
That’s what they deserved. Their parents. That’s what they got. For being murderers and not believing they were murderers. Just because they thought Atrums were ugly and evil. Killing their kids who hadn’t had a chance to screw up yet was not a noble thing. Not like they thought it was.
That’s what they got.
“Vyra?” Her mother peeked inside.
Vyra rolled her eyes and leaned back on her heels. “What.”
“I have some news for you. Do you have a minute?”
Her mother spoke to her like she was the child and Vyra was the adult. She hated how weak her mother was. It was pathetic. She didn’t even like killing Warriors. She’d seen her cry about it one time when she thought no one was looking.
Pathetic.
“What news?” Vyra asked, standing. “Did the Atrum army change their minds? Are they going to open attack on the Warriors? Or will they just continue to pointlessly attack the warlocks of Onyx Forest to make it look like they’re doing something?”
“No, sweetheart. It’s not that kind of news,” her mother said in that annoyingly sweet voice she wore like another skin. “It’s family news.”
“Whose family.”
“Our family.”
“What is it. Did Vex die?”
“No, honey, Daddy didn’t die.” Her mother didn’t comment on her daughter’s use of his name. She’d grown out of using terms of endearments long ago.
“Well?” Vyra said impatiently. “Go on.”
Her mother sat in the rocking chair she used to rock Vyra in before she grew old enough to know she didn’t like being held by her mother. Folding shaking hands into her lap, her mother cleared her throat. “I’m pregnant,” she stated. “You’re going to be a big sister.”
Vyra looked at her mother’s stomach, covered by a thick layer of black fabric. She didn’t look pregnant.
Vyra’s eyes narrowed up to her mother. “You know they’re going to kill it.”
Her mother’s face turned white. “What?” she breathed.
“They’re going to kill your baby,” she said. “Eventually.”
“Wh-who will?”
Her mother looked petrified.
“The Warriors,” Vyra stated. “They’re going to kill it.”
Pathetic, weak tears built clear walls in her mother’s eyes. “Why would you say that?”
“Why are you so stupid? You’re all so stupid,” Vyra said calmly, shaking her head. “Don’t you see? The Warriors hate us. We can leave their land and live on this stupid island and try to stay out of their way, killing their other enemies. But it won’t ever matter. Because they hate us. And they’ll find a way to kill us. All of us. Even your precious new baby.”
Vyra’s mother looked at her daughter for a long while, letting the wall of tears crumble and fall down her cheeks. Then she stood and walked out of the room. She didn’t look back. She didn’t see her daughter’s mouth curl up into a satisfied smile.
16
Wake Up
Two weeks.
In the future, Alex would say that was the amount of time it took to know he was completely, madly, insanely, hopelessly in love with Azalea Carrol, the beautiful Outsider from Texas. Two weeks.
But, in reality, he’d already started to fall the night he met her. Since that night, they’d seen each other every day, sometimes for hours, sometimes for only minutes at a time. But Alex made a point to leave the Underground in search of her every single night. He missed a few important meetings at the castle—okay a lot of important meetings—but he didn’t care.
On the fourteenth day of knowing her, he realized he would always choose her. No matter what the alternative.
“What are we doing?” Azalea asked him that night. They lay on the grass together in Stephen’s Green near Trinity College, staring up at the stars…when they weren’t staring into each other’s eyes. Alex preferred the latter.
“We’re falling. We’re breathing.”
Azalea smiled at the sky, not looking at him. Their fingertips met, forming a small pyramid between them
.
“Falling?” she whispered. “Already?”
“I am,” he murmured, his gaze moving from her mouth to their hands. “Aren’t you?”
Her expression changed, her smile fading slightly as her eyebrows turned upwards in the center. She looked frightened. “I am.”
Alex moved his hand from hers and placed it against her cheek. “What’s wrong?”
“Isn’t this crazy?” she whispered. “I mean, we’ve only known each other for two weeks. You can’t fall in love in two weeks.”
“Apparently, you can. Because I have.”
Her eyes unlocked from the sky, their electric blue sizzling into his. “You have?”
Rolling onto his side, propping his head up, he looked down at her. “You didn’t really give me a choice, you know.”
“There’s always a choice, Alex,” she said in a small voice, but the shadows of dimples in her cheeks told him she was smiling again.
“Guess I’ve made my choice then. I’ve fallen, deeper and harder and faster than I ever expected I could.”
She smiled again and he couldn’t stop himself. He had to kiss her. If was difficult not to kiss her in any situation, but the way she looked now with the light of the moon falling over her face and the stars in her eyes made it impossible. Every time their lips met, he felt a sigh of relief in his core, like he was an unfilled lock and she was the key. She was the only thing that could open him up.
* * *
Kissing Alex was like getting drunk, slowly at first, and then she stood up, and it hit her all at once. He made her unsteady and kept her anchored to the ground all at the same time. How was it possible this boy she’d met only two weeks ago could make her feel so much?
And then, the dark thoughts tried to battle to the front of her mind. You’re leaving in two more weeks. You’re leaving, and he’s not going to follow you. You’re just asking to have your heart broken. You’re asking to lose everything. Because that’s what he is now. He’s everything.
* * *
Alex hated having to leave her at the end of the night. He loved kissing her but hated kissing her goodbye.
“See you tomorrow,” he promised.
She used to tell him he didn’t have to come visit her, that she was sure it cost him a lot to get a cab back and forth from Blarney to Dublin. But now, she didn’t. She just smiled and nodded.
“See you.”
The journey back to Blarney was always the longest. Because he was going in the wrong direction. He was the wrong end of the magnet, being continually repelled by the Underground. That didn’t bode well for the prince of the elves.
But make it back he did, crossing the waterfall boundary and longing for the moment he could leave again. But first…sleep. His back hunched over from exhaustion as he stepped off the moss and onto the path towards town.
“Welcome back to the Underground, Prince Alexander,” a voice said from the shadows of the trees.
Alex straightened, turning around to see John stepping out of the foliage.
* * *
John surveyed his best friend that he now felt he no longer knew. He’d first noticed something strange about him a few weeks ago, and the strangeness steadily grew until John was full-blown suspicious. At first, he thought he was up to something dangerous like he used to be when they were younger. Alex had always been a curious kid. Then John followed him one night until he reached the waterfall boundary and went through it.
That was about a week ago. Alex returned to the boundary every night and was gone for hours at a time. John knew Alex had a strange fascination with the Outside—he read nothing but Outsider literature—but he didn’t know it captivated him enough to visit so frequently. Elves weren’t meant to travel into the Outside for more than a few days a year. And that was for the strict purpose of scientific observation or research. It was important they kept up with the state of the Outside world. But that was the extent of it.
“Why don’t you come over to my place for a bit,” John said. “I think we need to talk.”
Alex looked longingly at the path towards the castle before nodding. “Fine.”
“I’ll have Penelope make you an awakening draught.”
Alex raised his eyebrows. “Penelope? Are you living together now?”
“There’s a lot you can miss in two weeks’ time, Al.”
The two of them traveled to the small tree home in the compact community designated for the Warriors no longer living with their parents. They were the closest to the training field. John’s ultimate goal was to become Head Warrior so he could live in Arbor Castle someday. But that was a long way away.
“You don’t have to wake Penelope,” Alex said. “I can stay up for another hour or so.”
“She’s already awake,” John said. “It’s nearly sunrise, you know.”
John’s home was quaint, but it was enough room for him and Penelope. Maybe even a child or two. Though, that would be rather cramped.
“Good morning, Alex,” Penelope said as they entered their small kitchen. “I’ve already whipped up an awakening draught if you want some.”
Awakening draughts were really just high-powered coffee, but the name sounded fancier. When she wasn’t creating elaborate glass sculptures or jewelry, Penelope liked to make draughts in the kitchen. Sometimes they worked out. Sometimes their home smelled like dragon manure for days.
“So?” John said after Alex had taken a few sips of his draught. His eyes already seemed more open.
“So what?”
“What have you been going to the Outside for?”
“Oh, you know,” Alex said into his glass mug. “Sightseeing and such.”
John fixed his friend with a deadpan look. Alex’s smile slowly faded into a resigned frown.
“Her name is Azalea,” he said. “And I think I’m in love with her.”
Penelope dropped her mug over the counter. It shattered, and she hurriedly used her Power to mold it back together, mopping up the spilled liquid with a thunderstruck expression. John tried to rearrange his features. His mouth was hanging open.
“You’re in love with…an Outsider?”
Alex sat up straighter, fixing him with a defensive look. “I am.”
John shook his head back and forth slowly. “Alex. You’re the prince. You’re going to be king.”
Alex made a face that indicated he didn’t want to agree with this statement.
“You are going to be king, aren’t you?” John asked, fearing the answer.
“I…” Alex looked from John to Penelope and then to his lap. “I don’t know.”
“You’re the only heir. If you don’t become king, someone else will have to take over.” John could feel his blood beginning to boil. “Do you really want to let some other elf family take over the crown? Who knows what they would be like. Who knows what they could do. How could you just give up your duty to the Underground for some girl? How could—”
“She’s not just some girl,” Alex shouted. “And I never asked to be king. I never asked for any of this.”
He stood then, slamming his half-empty mug on the table. “Thanks for the drink, Pen,” he muttered.
And then he stormed out. The former prince of the elves.
17
Teatime Revelations
“I can’t believe we’re only here for another week,” Zariah said glumly, plopping a glob of whipped cream in her mouth. Azalea had finally convinced her group to travel to Chocolate after class. It wasn’t as crowded during the early afternoon hours.
And she needed to keep herself distracted while she waited to see Alex again.
“I know,” Shayn whined. “It feels like we just got here.”
Azalea felt her stomach sinking like she’d swallowed stones instead of melted chocolate. As the days ticked by, she tried not to think about the inevitable. It physically hurt her to think about. So, she tried not to.
“What are you going to do about Alex?” Zariah asked, picking her thought
s straight from her brain. “You two are totally madly in love now, aren’t you?”
Azalea felt her cheeks warm as she shrugged and took a sip of hot chocolate. “I don’t know.”
“I understand how you feel. I’m going to miss Wesley too.” Zariah patted her on the back. “Oh, and he invited me to have dinner with him and his mom tonight. His sisters are going to be in town, and he said he wanted me to meet them. I think he probably just wants to take me to his room to have sex…which I’m okay with.”
Azalea’s brows rose in surprise, ignoring the sex remark. “Sisters?”
“Yeah. Twins. So weird.”
“Twins, you said?” Joe asked with an eager look on his face.
Zariah rolled her eyes. “Want me to ask if you guys can come too?”
Joe nodded in enthusiasm and Shayn shook his head. “Only if he also has a hot brother.”
“No brothers,” Zariah said with a sympathetic tilt of the head. “Only sisters.”
“Other than Alex,” Azalea inserted.
Zariah cocked a brow at her. “What?”
“Alex is his brother…”
Zariah laughed. “No, he’s not.”
Azalea felt a flush trickle down her neck. “But…”
“Is that was Alex told you?” Zariah asked. “Wesley got drunk and told me his entire life story the other night. But he never said anything about Alex or any brother for that matter. Are you sure he told you they were brothers?”
Yes. She was sure.
“Maybe I misheard him.”
She hadn’t.
“Well…do you want to come to dinner too? Maybe Alex will be there. I could offer to bring something since I’m practically inviting half our class. I wouldn’t, except Wesley told me his mom is obsessed with having people over for dinner. She loves to cook big meals.”
“Yeah.” Doubt shrouded Azalea like a blanket. What else had Alex lied about? “Sure. I’ll come.”
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