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“How did this happen?”
The sorcerer was dead, the cave was abandoned, but the lovely fae kept the friends moving at a steady pace away from that part of the forest. Ignoring the breathless questions of her older cousin, whom she was still towing firmly alongside.
“Wait,” he panted, struggling to keep up, “I don’t understand.”
The storm had died with the wizard. It was early in the evening, but remnants of the day’s sun were still lingering in the trees. Evie stopped a moment without thinking, struck by the simple beauty of such a sight. How long since she’d last seen it? How long since she’d felt its gentle warmth upon her face? Then Asher caught her by the sleeve and they kept moving forward.
It was a relentless pace, but it seemed to be working.
The longer the wizard had been dead, the more distance they put between themselves and the base of his enchantment, the faster the spell started to fade. That mindless fog, which seemed to have settled permanently at the base of the princess’ skull, had all but lifted. The deadening fatigue in her arms and legs was slowly beginning to vanish.
Of course, the more she reawakened to the world around her, the more she was terrified to have ever left. That fog had cleared away to reveal a thousand dizzying questions, though the fae kept them moving at such a speed there was hardly time to catch their breath.
But such a thing had never stopped Ellanden.
“Just wait a moment.”
By the simple nature of what he was, the sorcerer’s magic had struck him the hardest. And having earned the unfortunate title of ‘favorite’, he’d been taken from the cage more than the others combined. That disorientation gripped him, his bright eyes in constant danger of slipping shut.
And yet those questions kept coming.
“Cosette—”
She stopped suddenly in her tracks, whipping around to face the others. “Do you need to feed?”
Evie and Asher slid to a stop behind them, breathless and surprised. It took a moment to register the question. Another for the vampire to realize she was talking to him.
“...I’m sorry?”
Cosette took a step closer, examining his face with practiced eyes. “Are you thirsty? Tell me the truth.”
In the vampire’s defense, it looked like he legitimately didn’t know. Such basic senses had been stripped from them and, for whatever reason, he was strangely reluctant to bare his fangs.
The fae watched him for a moment, then whipped an arrow from her back and fired it into the sky, felling a passing heron. She scooped it from the grass, thrusting it into Asher’s hands.
“I’m not taking any risks with a hungry vampire. Drink it now.”
Evie and Asher were staring at the bird. Ellanden was staring at the arrow.
It was a perfect shot. A perfect shot. This from the little girl who liked to hide behind the target, just so she could play along. His gaze lifted slowly, resting upon her face.
“Cosette...”
She glanced up with some fleeting emotion then turned away quickly, avoiding his gaze. It was something she’d been doing the whole time, Evie realized. She’d never loosened her grip, but she’d never allowed herself to look either—as if she couldn’t bear the sight of him.
Even now, she turned her eyes to the trees.
“I should get some supplies to make camp,” she murmured, slipping the bow back between her shoulder blades. “It will be dark soon. The three of you need to rest.”
She started to walk away, but Ellanden went immediately after her.
“Please, could you just—”
He stumbled.
“—wait.”
It was the stumble that made the girl pause, that made her turn around. Quite possibly, she’d never seen him do that before. Their eyes met for a brief moment, then she came back.
“I don’t understand,” he murmured, wanting so desperately to pick her up the way he used to, then realizing suddenly that time had passed. “How did this happen?”
His fingers grazed the side of her face, as if he still couldn’t believe she was real.
“We’ve only been gone a few weeks...”
The moment shattered.
“A few weeks?” she echoed sharply, pulling away from his hand.
The others shared a look of bewilderment as he nodded slowly—watching with a trace of fear in his eyes. She looked from person to person, as if giving them a chance to deny it. When nothing happened she stepped back slowly, haloed by the darkening sky.
“No, Ellanden...it’s been ten years.”
* * *
A TENT WAS PITCHED. A fire was blazing. A rabbit was cooking in the center, but none of them had time for it. They were focused solely on the lovely fae sitting a bit away from the rest.
“Your bodies weren’t found, so it was assumed you’d been kidnapped,” she began quietly, keeping her eyes on the flames. “The people who attacked the caravan that day were Tikosi raiders, known in those parts for similar attacks. The second news got back to the castle, our parents rode out to find you. The dragons took to the sky, while the others led a battalion to the east.”
To the east. It’s a miracle they didn’t find us.
“And you,” Asher interjected softly, “the royal soldiers took you to Taviel?”
She nodded briskly, fixing her gaze on the smoldering rabbit. “They considered it the safest place, and as far as anyone knew the royal family was under attack. No one would have ever assumed you just ran away,” she added with a touch of bitterness.
For the briefest moment, she and Evie locked eyes. They were cousins, too, after all. The blame wasn’t limited to Ellanden alone. Though he clearly shouldered the bulk of it.
“And that was ten years ago...” he said softly, still trying to wrap his head around it.
Even though they’d only been gone a short while, the time in the cave already felt like a dream. A dark dream from which there was no waking, but a dream nonetheless. If they centered their every attention bits came back in little flashes, and there were moments they could almost recall.
But to discover it had been ten years? Ten years they’d been trapped in that cave?
Evie didn’t know which tragedy was greater—the torment they’d endured at the sorcerer’s hand, or the agony and uncertainty of everyone left behind. Remembering the feel of those wrinkled hands, draining the life right out of her, the princess would place her money on the cave.
But looking at Cosette’s face, she wasn’t so sure.
“Yes,” she said shortly. “Ten years.”
Ellanden’s eyes tightened as he stared at the fire. He’d tried to make peace with her, tried to steer the conversation close enough to venture an apology. But the woman sitting beside him wasn’t the same girl he’d left behind. The one who’d thrown her arms around him and begged him not to leave. The one he’d placed in the arms of another, racing off to see what destiny had in store.
His lips parted uncertainly before closing again. There was nothing more he could say. Some things were well beyond forgiveness. But he couldn’t hold back a quiet question.
“...are my parents alive?”
For the first time, Cosette softened. Her eyes flickered over the others, desperate to ask the question themselves. Then she nodded quickly, returning her gaze to the fire.
“Yes. All of our parents are alive.” She tilted her head suddenly, remembering things the others could not. “There were a couple of close calls, but...”
Asher looked up in alarm, while Evie leaned closer.
“What do you mean?” she asked anxiously. “What’s been happening?”
Cosette look at her for a long moment before lifting her shoulders in a shrug.
“The world has changed.”
Quite possibly the most loaded answer the princess could have possibly received, but it was clearly all she was going to get. The young fae had been almost as overwhelmed by the events of the day as they’d been themselves. She had just as many questions, though she was keeping them to herself. And each time they looked away she found herself watching them ravenously, soaking in every detail. As if at any moment they might suddenly disappear, leaving her alone again.
“And you...”
The others glanced over to see Ellanden watching her just as closely, just as he’d done since the moment they left the cave. At long last, it seemed a bit of the sorcerer’s influence was fading. A spark of light had returned to his eyes and his hands seemed steadier. His handsome face was made even lovelier still as he gazed at his cousin, softening with an almost wistful smile.
“...you’re all grown up.”
The smile was sad yet tender as he visibly restrained himself from embracing her, lowering his eyes instead with a quiet sigh.
“You’re beautiful, like your mother.” He added suddenly, “And that was a perfect shot.”
Cosette’s eyes sparked with a hint of pride, there for just a moment, gone before anyone could see. She shrugged instead, prodding one of the sticks beneath the fire.
“It was just a bird.”
A bird that had clearly come in the nick of time. No sooner had Asher lifted it to his mouth than he realized himself to be absolutely ravenous, draining it in the blink of an eye before vanishing into the forest to terrorize the rest of the woodland creatures. Evie and Ellanden were having a more difficult time. As delicious as the rabbit smelled, the princess couldn’t imagine herself taking a single bite of it. The fae had yet to give it a second glance. His thoughts were only for his cousin.
“I can’t imagine what your life must have been like,” he said softly, begging for absolution with nothing more than his eyes. “To have grown up all alone—”
“What do you mean?” she interrupted caustically, finally giving him the sustained eye-contact he’d been waiting for. “I had the broken courts to keep me company, the never-ending laments of our people. I even had our parents—on the rare occasions they weren’t out terrorizing the realm or locked away in their chambers, praying for the end.”
The fire crackled between them as she turned away once again.
“All because you three ran away...”
There it was again. Ran away.
“You know that isn’t true,” Evie said gently, trying to coax the girl’s eyes. “There was a reason we had to leave. Surely Michael must have told you as much—”
“Michael?” Cosette sounded surprised to hear his name. “Michael was banished from the kingdom years ago.”
The boys exchanged a look of alarm, while Evie’s mouth fell open in shock.
“Banished,” she repeated in astonishment. “Who in their right mind would have banished him from the kingdom?”
Cosette glanced between them, as if wondering how much to say, then her dark eyes came to rest upon the princess.
“...your father.”
* * *
THOSE WERE THE LAST words anyone said on the subject. Ten years of absence couldn’t be rectified in a single night, and the three friends needed time to recover from the wizard’s spell.
In the mother of all irony...this meant more sleep.
Ellanden had passed out almost immediately after his head hit the ground. He’d tried to fight it. When Cosette had announced she was going to keep watch his mind had flashed back to the six-year-old girl from before, and he’d automatically volunteered to go with her. He hadn’t made it three steps. She steered him back towards the tent and gave him an unceremonious shove inside. He was sleeping by the time Evie and Asher stumbled in to join him.
While their bodies were in desperate need of rest, their minds were having a harder time. As the moon crept across the sky, they leaned into one another. First tentatively, then with a lack of abandon they hadn’t known before their time in the cave. Evie removed her cloak and wadded it up as a pillow. Asher lifted his arm and she slipped inside, resting her head on his chest as the two of them stared blankly at the ceiling of the tent. Thinking of everything and nothing at all.
“I keep thinking this is a dream,” he admitted softly, afraid to close his eyes. “That I’ll wake up suddenly and find myself still back there...looking out through the bars.”
The princess shuddered, holding on to fistfuls of his shirt.
“Ten years,” she whispered. “How could it have been ten years?”
He shook his head silently, not knowing what to say.
They lay there for a while longer, glancing occasionally at Ellanden, wondering how many times they’d rested the same way before. Then the princess lifted her head.
“What do you think it means—the life he took from us?”
Such an obvious question, but it had been lost in a sea of so many others she’d all but forgotten to ask. The boys were both blessed with immortality and, while the princess was not, the bloodline of her parents had been granted the same gift. As long as her mother wore the enchanted crown the princess would never age, never die. She and her friends might have lived forever...
...but then came the sorcerer’s wicked spell.
“Do you think we could die?” she whispered, glancing up to see his face. “Whatever years he took to sustain himself, do you think they’re lost for good?”
The vampire frowned, gazing thoughtfully at the ceiling. It was something he’d considered many times. Although he’d never know it himself it was something he’d actually asked the sorcerer, only to have received a cryptic answer in response.
“I don’t think so,” he said finally, tightening his arm around her waist. “The further we get from him, the more his influence starts to fade. If the effects of his spell were permanent, I think that we’d still see them. That we’d still be stumbling around, unable to fully wake.”
The princess nodded silently, closing her eyes in a moment of silent relief. There had been moments, she remembered now, when she’d looked down at the men and believed they were dead already. She remembered lifting Asher’s arm at one point, watching it drop lifelessly to the ground.
But there were other memories, too, fighting their way to the surface.
“I think you tried to save me,” she whispered. The vampire glanced down and she lifted her eyes to his. “At one point...I think you tried to save me.”
Asher’s lips parted, but he didn’t know what to say. After a few seconds they turned back to the ceiling, gripping each other more tightly, not fully aware of the reason why.
“...I think he tried to pull my teeth out,” he finally replied.
Evie looked away with a shudder, vowing never to close her eyes.
“Yeah, I think so, too.”
