by Lucy Tempest
Leander stood up slowly, dawning hope erasing the grimness from his expression. “He said all that?”
I bit my lower lip hard. “Uh—not in so many words.” When disappointment doused Leander’s eyes, I stumbled on, “We were both pretending to not be ourselves, speaking in half-truths, but he said he was here for the girl he’s been searching for—which has to be me—I just know this has to be what he meant and I…” Breathlessness forced me to stop. I gulped air before I burst out, “Tell me you can find him!”
“You said he indicated me as the one who invited him. But I only invited the candidates, and he is certainly not one of them.” Tears of frustration bloomed in my eyes, and a frantic expression filled Leander’s. “Just tell me the facts that he said, not what you assumed he meant, and maybe I’ll be able to place him.”
I wracked my mind trying to remember what I’d left out. “He said he sang, and he did a lot of hunting and climbing. He gave me the name Reynard, but I didn’t think it was relevant, as I’m sure he made it up. But maybe it is one of his middle names, or his mother’s maiden name or something?”
Leander had gone stiff as I talked, now he blanched, like all blood had fled his face. “I know who you’re talking about.”
My heart stopped the moment his words sank in.
Then I flung myself at him, squealing in excitement. “Oh, Leander—that’s fantastic!”
He put me away with spastic hands, his face shuttered. “No—no, it’s not.”
“Why not?” I grabbed him back, seeking his averted eyes. “Leo, please, I’m certain he’s the one. I never felt this way about anyone. Talking to him came as easily as breathing, and the connection I felt—”
Leander cut me off. “Whatever it was, it can’t be the one you need. He isn’t.”
“Why not?” I cried out. “Why do you find it so hard to trust my instincts? I know what I felt! I’ve been in this curse’s chokehold for months, and the one time I felt it loosen its grip was around him.”
“He’s not a prince, Fay!” he suddenly shouted.
My heart kicked so hard, I felt it bruise.
I stared up at Leander helplessly as it thudded painfully, my mind scrambling for a way out.
“Maybe there can be some loophole! That once he marries me, he can become a prince!”
“If you were the crown princess, that would be the case. But the highest rank your morganatic husband can achieve is duke. He’d never be in line. He’d never be noble enough.”
“Then maybe Father can put a claim on Bonnie’s island of Ericura as a lost Arborean colony, and make us the king and queen of that land?”
“The curse says your savior has to be already the noblest of men.” I opened my mouth to protest, and he raised a hand. “And it’s not just that.”
“What else is there?”
“He’s unavailable.”
“Unavailable how?” I cried as I dug my fingers rabidly into his fisted hands, desperation blooming at the finality of his statement. “What’s more important than my situation right now? Anything else can wait.”
“Except the girl he’s been promised to since childhood.”
I dropped his hands, an ice-cold rush flushing through my veins. “No. No, he said he came here for…for…”
“For the girl he’s been searching for. The one he lost track of during the war.” Leander set a trembling hand on my cheek. “I’m so sorry, Fay, but you can’t have him.”
I tore his hand off my burning flesh with a shriek. “I can! I’m a princess! If I can’t have my pick of men, then who can?”
Leander’s face spasmed with a terrible twist of regret.
I grabbed his hands again, my tremors becoming wracking shudders, like I was out in the dead of winter in a soaking-wet gown. “He would do it. He would break off whatever arrangement he had with that girl, if he knew about my curse. We never told any other candidates, but we have to tell him. Just get him for me, have him propose and declare his love, and we can deal with anything else afterwards—please.”
And I broke down, blubbering like a helpless child.
But that’s what I was, and what I would remain until I was no more. In two weeks’ time, I was supposed to ascend into womanhood. But without him, I would only descend into oblivion, having never truly lived.
In the midst of the storm of misery, I was crushed against a heaving chest, then Leander’s deep voice singed my temple with its ragged promise. “I’ll do everything I can, Fay.”
I raised drenched eyes to him. “Promise me you’ll find him!”
He dropped a kiss on my forehead, then strode out of the room.
It was much later as I lay curled in my bed, tears long dried, that I realized something that made them flow freely again.
Leander hadn’t promised he’d find Reynard.
Chapter Six
I guessed it took impending death to change one’s perspective.
Who would have believed that my mother would bless my marriage to a magical being?
She’d come to join everyone in insisting I give Leander’s candidates a chance to break the curse. She’d even finally told Esmeralda and Florian about it, trying to use the former’s fury and the latter’s tears to pressure me. With every minute counting down to my demise, even she had overcome her prejudice for a chance to save me. She could clearly cling to it in Leander’s case because he’d already been saved.
But I’d refused, and my suitors had left.
I’d been so certain Reynard was the one, which meant Leander would find him, or he must come back.
But Leander hadn’t returned.
Neither had Reynard.
Now one hour remained to the sunset of my eighteenth year.
I’d sent everyone away an hour ago, now sat at my window, as I had for the past two weeks, day and night. Waiting, praying, pleading to catch sight of galloping horses approaching the castle, bringing the one who would save me.
But there had been nothing. And now, it was too late.
It was over.
I wondered how it would happen. Would the Horned God come for me himself? Would he lead me away to the Underworld, or would he just touch me, and I’d be instantly transported there? Would it hurt? Would I be judged, and my eternal fate decided? Had I done enough in my life to deserve paradise or damnation? Or had I done nothing to merit either, and would just cease to be? If I had a choice, that would be my preference.
Finally leaving my window seat, I headed towards my bed. I’d lie there and wait. When it was time, I’d just…
Suddenly, all my hairs stood on end.
That sound. The galloping I’d been praying for.
My numbness evaporating in a blast of hope, I tore to the window. But the riders had already dismounted and were crossing through the front doors. I saw only the flapping edge of a green coat. Reynard…?
I started running towards my door, but halfway, I stopped, stood rooted. The hope was so brutal, it paralyzed me.
Minutes passed as I stared at the door, breathing shallow and heartbeats like an out-of-control train. The stomping footsteps grew closer, closer…
The door burst open and there he was.
Leander.
He froze the moment he saw me, and we stared at each other for three heart-bursting seconds, before the realization hit. He was wearing a green coat. And he was alone.
Tears of agonized frustration welled in Leander’s eyes, matching my own. “I couldn’t find him. When he disappears no one can find him. I’m so sorry, Fay. I wish—I wish…”
His panting choked into silence. And my own chokehold was back, an invisible pressure around my throat, strangling any words I could have mustered, letting nothing but horrified wheezing escape my trembling lips.
I was going to die. I was going to die and there was nothing that could be done about it.
Reynard hadn’t been the one.
Reeling with the terrible letdown, my urge to flee from this cruel, pointless fate propelle
d me to tear out of my brother’s shaking hands as he reached for me, out of the room I’d spent my life in.
I no longer wanted to end it there.
Leander yelled my name as he pursued me, but the sound of my thundering heart overtook all other senses as I ran, and ran.
I spiraled down every flight, the castle blurring by, until I flew past alarmed guards, through the gardens, and towards the stables.
Hot tears almost froze as they streamed off my aching face. My feet screamed in their flimsy slippers, a stitch tore through my left side, and my throat burned with the snatched gasps of frosty air in between lung-tearing sobs.
Hearing the exclamations of the stablehands as if coming from another world, I burst into my steed’s stall. Next thing I knew I was sitting on Amabel’s back while she kneeled, grabbing handfuls of her silvery mane, urging her up.
With a whinny and shake of her horned head, Amabel rose, my desperate kicks to her sides launching her into a thundering gallop.
Tearing through the gates, the wind slapping in my unbound hair, and freezing my face, the stomps of Amabel’s hooves kept furious tempo with the bruising beat of my heart as we rode right towards the setting sun.
The invisible noose of the curse tightened, making drawing breath a struggle. I screamed with all that was left in me, of futility, of fury, railing against its unfair cruelty. I had to escape it, outrun Death. It couldn’t end like this. I hadn’t started living yet!
But no matter how fast we galloped, there was no stopping the sky staining with an ominous gradient of bloody oranges and angry purples, ushering in the end of my last day.
Then the sun started dipping fast behind Sherwood Forest as it sprouted from the horizon, and with it seeped my last wisps of strength.
Breathing became impossible and numbness settled into my bones, loosening my grip on my unicorn, melting me off her back.
Indigo twilight started to fall, and so did I, into the arms of darkness.
I never felt the ground.
Through dark mist, clusters of images formed.
I floated from one instance to the next, twirling through nebulous backgrounds as haziness gave way to clarity.
Below me, a castle made of ice cracked open to display dozens of broken mirrors, with two figures dancing in the midst of the shards—a crystalline man and a wooden girl with fiery hair. As I passed them, they dissolved into a silver liquid that rose, crested, corroding all it touched, melting the walls and collapsing the ceiling, revealing what lay beyond.
Under a blazing summer sun, an emerald-green sea sparkled, and burning ships sank under a wave that soared high enough to brush the sky. In its retreat, it bared the sand beneath, where a girl with a fish’s tail screamed voicelessly at someone aiming to stab a bull-horned man with a golden trident. When the wave crashed upon the golden shore, they were gone and the waters turned the red of wine—or blood.
The landscape morphed, the gold of the sand becoming that of wheat fields, the green of the sea turning to that of grassy hills. The land streaked past me as I followed a blonde girl rushing by houses with red-tile roofs, fields full of wild horses, grazing livestock, and barns with multi-colored cats. Her speed caused the smaller details to blur as the sun moved across the sky, giving way to a full moon that grew impossibly larger.
As the moon descended upon the earth, the land shattered under the brunt of massive antlers surfacing from beneath. Billowing purple smoke masked the entity’s massive form as it rose to grab the girl by the ankle and drag her below. The moon screamed.
As the land withered and the fields turned grey, the scene streaked to a still, eerie forest.
Brittle morning rays seeped through the mist, sparkling off dewdrops that hung like crystal beads on silvery cobwebs spread across twisting black trees. Birds sang along with the calm tune of the whistling wind, and the sounds of a rushing river and rustling leaves joined the melody.
The music of nature compelled me to dance through the forest, singing along as I twirled into a crossroads surrounded by glowing, blue mushrooms.
A deep voice joined mine, and hands grasped my own from behind. Our duet filled the air, making pink flowers bloom on the black trees.
Joy filled my heart as my partner swayed me down a path that seemed to have no end, but I was content to let him lead me onward. Looking up, I sought out his eyes—and found none.
He had no face.
“Who are you?” I asked breathlessly.
I could feel the vibration in his chest against mine, an answer making its way to his lips. Then he spoke, and it wasn’t in words, but hard knocks.
The knocking grew louder, and the dream disappeared in a glittering burst.
I came to with a flutter of eyelashes.
What had happened? Where was I?
I gazed out into a long, stone-walled room with stained-glass windows and a pitched ceiling. In my line of sight, I only saw one oaken table spread with a dozen cylindrical candles in various stages of melting, and a silver incense bowl. I could scent the burning myrrh and wax, but my sense of smell felt off. Like I had a cold.
Whispers carried from the open door at the end of the room. I headed towards them, barely feeling my body or feet, like they’d fallen asleep. Nebulous memories of falling off Amabel made me wonder if I’d hit my head hard, or been given a powerful pain-killing potion.
As I slowly neared the door, I could see two men standing outside with their backs to me—Leander and his friend Clancy.
“You’re sure this place is safe?” Leander sounded hoarse, like he had yelled until he’d lost his voice.
“No one but those we direct here will find it,” Clancy assured him.
“But—”
Clancy spoke over Leander’s objection. “I myself forgot this place existed until I returned from Rosemead and reviewed my assets.”
“Yes, but what if—”
Clancy still wouldn’t let him voice his worries. “You yourself saw how, even with maps, it was still hard to find. No wonder, since it was built in the time of King Herla, when Arbore was several kingdoms, and the Bryar King made it his stronghold.”
“It does look like a throwback to the Middle Ages,” Leander conceded reluctantly. “And I suppose there’s nothing here to steal but old weapons and rusted silverware anyway. But if word gets out that—”
Clancy drowned his words again. “I’ll have my most trusted people checking in regularly, and have escorts to those you send. Word won’t get back to Eglantine, I assure you.”
I came up behind them. “Word about what? Where are we?”
They ignored me. I’d barely heard my own voice. It was a weak rasp as if I hadn’t spoken in days. How long had it been since I fell off Amabel?
Leander let out a despondent sigh. “I’m not sure if I have anyone left to send, but I have to keep searching.”
“I know you will.” Clancy ran a hand through his curly auburn hair, sounding as dejected. “Any idea where else you can find more eligible royal heirs?”
Leander slumped against the wall. “There are nations across the Silent Ocean we’ve only heard of. And there’s a whole empire south of Cahraman. They must have a few imperial descendants to spare. Also, my great-uncle, the King of Orestia, has an heir who’s been wandering the Folkshore. He was last seen in Zargoun, and there’s news that he might be returning home soon.”
“That’s another lunatic who claims to be the son of a god, right?”
Leander nodded. “But beggars can’t be choosers, and at this point, I will beg like the dog I nearly became.”
“So you’re still looking for candidates for me?” I interrupted, a little stronger this time.
Once again, they made no response as Clancy only exhaled. “But how can he be the king’s heir if he’s a demigod?”
“Eleutherius had no sons, so Theoneus is his eldest daughter’s son, allegedly by Eurycrius.”
Clancy whistled softly. “Not just any god, but the king of the gods.”<
br />
Leander shrugged. “Like that’s a rare occurrence. We’ve all heard the stories of Eurycrius’s fondness for mortal women.” After a beat, he added, “Bonnie is also still trying to find Keenan.”
“No one has seen him since he went after Ella in the Winter Court?” At Leander’s head shake, Clancy hummed, “He would be perfect—if he wasn’t crazy.”
“Everyone in the Autumn Court is crazy by our standards.”
“I guess. But until you get a hold of this wandering demigod relative of yours, or Bonnie’s crazy fairy cousin, we should look into alternative solutions.”
“Because these worked so well for us before?” Leander said bitterly. “The Spring Queen practically slammed the door in our faces.”
Clancy set a hand on Leander’s arm with a brittle smile. “We’ll find something.”
“I just pray whatever it is isn’t too late.” Leander pushed off the wall with a heavy exhalation, and started to move down the hallway.
Irritation sparked through the fog filling my head. “Leo, what is the matter with you? Why are you ignoring me?”
Paying me no mind, the two men continued walking away.
Head swimming, I went after them. “If you’re angry I ran, I’m sorry. I was distraught and couldn’t bear the news, but this is getting ridiculous! Talk to me—” I reached out to grab Leander…
…and my hand went right through his arm.
Staggering to a stunned stop, I stared after them as they disappeared down spiraling stairs, leaving me behind with their echoes.
Was I still dreaming?
But this didn’t feel like that dream. This felt real. Even if I couldn’t touch Leander, he’d looked and sounded real…
A whimper from behind me made me spin around. There was something in this room with me. Someone.
