For a few seconds, I’m weightless.
Then the wind hits my stomach like a fist, like the commanders who pushed me to the floor and pounded me until I puked during training.
It feels like being punched.
I hear the rushing water behind me as my body spins. Then see the rocks, the clouds, the sky.
Selestra, with the wind blowing her hair wildly into her face.
And the ground.
The small lake we careen toward.
I kick my legs out, pushing my body into an arrow.
Then we stop.
About ten feet from the lake where the central waterfall ends, the wind stills. It’s sudden enough for my stomach to jolt up into my chest.
We’re floating, midair.
“Are we dead yet?” Selestra asks, her eyes squeezed closed like she can’t bear to look.
“I wish,” Micah says. “I think I’m going to puke.”
His dark cheeks look tinged gray and I’d bet anything I look the same. I swallow down the bile rising inside me.
I’m not sure how she’s doing it, but Selestra is keeping us in the air, using her magic to stop us from crashing into the water.
“Open your eyes,” I tell her. I’m surprised to find my voice isn’t hoarse with the wind. “Focus and let us down slowly.”
“Right,” Selestra says. “Slow.”
She opens one eye reluctantly, then the other, and squints in concentration—
Without any warning, we plummet into the lake below.
I hit the water hard and sink to the bottom like a star shooting for the ground. A thousand needles prick my skin as the cold takes over. The pricking turns to agony as my arm slices against my father’s sword.
I open my mouth to yell out, but swallow a mouthful of lake water instead. It tastes like mud and salt.
I give myself a second to feel the pain, letting my blood mix with the water. Then I kick off from the ground and propel myself up toward the surface.
I break through with a gasping breath and spit out a mouthful of lake water.
Micah, Selestra, and Irenya are treading water beside me, alive and unharmed. Though Micah still looks a little bit like he wants to be sick.
I cough to clear my throat of the lake.
“That was a stupid plan,” Selestra says.
“It worked, didn’t it? Luckily I’m a good swimmer.”
“Not from where I’m standing.”
A line of blood drips from her nose, but I can’t see how she would have injured herself.
Selestra wipes it away quickly and swims toward the muddy bank.
Micah grins over at me. “You’re really charming her, aren’t you?”
“Shut up,” I say, and swim for the edge.
My clothes feel endlessly heavy in the water. They slow me down, as does my father’s sword, wet with my blood.
There are only a handful of guards at the bottom and they don’t seem to know what to do as we emerge from the water. They gawk at the heir, Selestra’s damp green hair falling to her waist as she struggles to wring out her cloak.
Word of her escape—or kidnap—must not have reached them yet.
The king didn’t think we’d make it off the castle to need to warn them. So now they just look at her, wondering what to do and if they should get to their knees and bow, or run instead.
The crowd parts to let us through and I notice Selestra stiffen as they watch her with fear and surprise. Some of them have never seen a witch before and the others have definitely never seen one fall from the sky.
They’re terrified of her and she doesn’t seem to be enjoying it.
“Follow me,” I say. “We don’t have much time.”
I grab Selestra’s hand without thinking and we take off in a run, Micah and Irenya following behind.
The wind feels pleasant as it brushes against my damp skin, pulling the water from my clothes.
Selestra’s fingers tighten around mine, the warmth of her pressing through the gloves. She feels like fire in my hands.
“Slow down!” she yells as we wind through the alleys.
She’s panting, and when I look back, she almost winces as she runs.
She’s hurt somehow, somewhere.
I clutch her hand tighter, keeping the wet fabric of her gloves, the only barrier between us, from slipping away.
“Speed up!” I call back.
We don’t have time to stop and tend to any wounds.
I almost swear I hear her mutter a curse under her breath as we turn onto a new, narrow street.
I spot Leo’s door instantly, the orange wood like a beacon.
“Leo!” I yell, pounding my fist against it. “Open up!”
“You don’t have a key?” Selestra asks, gathering her breath.
“Welcome to the world of Nox and his foolproof plans,” Micah says.
I knock again, hard enough that it feels like the door might splinter.
“Who is this man?” Irenya asks.
She looks at Leo’s shop front like she doubts anything of any use could be hidden inside.
“Oh, just you wait,” Micah says. “You’re going to wish we’d stayed on the mountain when you see what Nox has planned.”
I ignore him and continue knocking on the door with enough force that my fists start to ache. I almost consider kicking it down, but once the thought crosses my mind, the door swings open.
“You break my door, I break your nose,” Leo says, as if he knew just what I was thinking.
“Nice to see you too.” I brush past him. “Having a good day?”
We hurry inside before the guards catch up to us.
They don’t know about Leo, but if they trace us to this alley, it won’t be long before they find out.
“Yes, yes, welcome,” Leo says as Selestra, Micah, and Irenya follow me in. “Come right through, no invitation. Wait … is that a witch?”
I ignore him. “Is everything good to go?”
Leo struggles to tear his eyes away from Selestra. “I told you, she’s always ready,” he says. He pulls a set of keys from his pocket. “Fires are lit. Don’t look so serious.”
“What fires?” Selestra asks.
Leo opens the door to the back.
The room is already illuminated, our ride out of Vasiliádes in full view. Leo’s butterfly is more beautiful than the last time I saw her.
“Is that a balloon?” Selestra asks.
She looks a little too outraged for someone getting a free ride off this island.
“It is a butterfly,” Leo says.
I nod over to him. “A butterfly,” I repeat. “Not a balloon.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“You say that a lot. I might just start taking it as a compliment.”
I can sense her resolve only growing stronger.
“We’re going to die in that.”
“No dying in my Anna-Maria,” Leo scolds her. “You’ll get blood on her and she is freshly clean.”
He leans over to take hold of a nearby handle secured to the floor and starts to wind it slowly to the right. There’s a small click and then the sound of thunder follows as the roof above us begins to part.
I start throwing in the bags of supplies I brought to Leo’s earlier that day. Weapons, a few bags of clothes, and army rations as well as some fresh bread and fruit.
It’s enough to get us across the Endless Sea and to the island of Armonía, where we can restock and refuel.
I jump into the basket, and the flame beneath the balloon sizzles like an inferno, as if it senses my presence and the notion of its first real journey into the skies.
“Are you ready to fly?” Leo asks. “Ready to see stars up close?”
I hold out a hand for Selestra. “Get in,” I say. “It’s a long way to Armonía.”
She folds her arms across her chest, staring at my hand like it’s some kind of a weapon. “You mean this thing won’t take us all the way to your magic sword?”
“I doubt it’ll even take us across the street,” Micah says as I pass him a few blankets to load inside.
Selestra’s face falls.
Thanks, Micah.
He helps Irenya inside, ignoring my glare.
I hold out my hand to Selestra again.
“We need to stop at Armonía to refuel,” I tell her. “But you can always stay here. Go back to the castle and your tower, if you like.”
Selestra swallows and looks back to Leo.
He gives her an encouraging thumbs-up.
She lets out a sigh, turns back to me, and says, “We were safer jumping off the mountain.”
She brushes my hand out of the way and hoists herself up into the balloon, like she doesn’t want to owe me anything. Even something as simple as a helping hand.
“Hold on to something,” Leo calls up to us.
He reaches over for a large blade and begins to cut the rope that tethers us to the ground.
“I’m holding on to my common sense,” Selestra says to Irenya.
Her friend snorts a laugh.
“I tried that once,” Micah says. “Doesn’t really work when you spend time with Nox.”
I tune them out and watch as Leo cuts the last thread of string. The balloon jolts as it’s finally set free. I grab the edge of the basket for support as the balloon rises, but Selestra forgets to do the same.
She gasps a little as the balloon sweeps upward and then stumbles straight into me.
I clasp my hands around her arms to steady her, glad that she’s wearing long sleeves. The last thing I need tonight is another death prediction.
Selestra blinks up at me, her yellow eyes like their own sun in the night.
They’re strange, but I’ve always found strange things to be the most intriguing. And Selestra Somniatis is nothing if not that.
I hold on tightly to her, feeling her shiver. Her clothes are still damp with lake water.
“You know,” I say, clearing my throat. “When Leo told you to hold on to something, he didn’t mean me.”
Selestra’s eyes widen and she pushes me quickly away.
“Next time, let me fall,” she says, grabbing on to one of the dangling ropes that secure the basket to the balloon.
I laugh and look down to the ground as we float up higher, the balloon ascending like a real butterfly into the sky. The wind is strong and icy against the back of my neck.
“Fly safe!” Leo yells, his voice like a fading whisper in the wind. “No dying!”
I smirk and keep looking until Leo becomes a dot, then a smudge on the ground, and then until I can’t see him at all.
The clouds swallow him and the rest of the island whole as we float higher and higher. Me and my stolen princess, drifting away from Vasiliádes and into the night.