Rhen
Glimmering to a place that we’d never seen before proved more difficult than either of us anticipated. It took us no less than six attempts before we actually managed to reach the island. During four of those attempts, we emerged from shadows only to find an ocean completely encased in a sheet of ice. Even though I could feel the biting cold around me, I still couldn’t help but think that it was oddly captivating. Every time, the sun would peek out from between the clouds and glint off the ice, creating a stunning effect that was both ethereal and surreal. Elm, on the other hand, grew increasingly frustrated.
I didn’t even want to talk about the second to last glimmer. Thank the gods Elm had the sense to glimmer us back out before we burned alive, but not before I lost the sole of my left shoe. It melted at the mere touch of the bright orange magma.
Finally, our feet were on solid ground, and I sighed, relieved that I hadn’t turned into a molten corpse. But when we took in our surroundings of the island, both Elm and I inhaled sharply.
Standing before us was an immense tree, and the closer we got, the more uneasy I became. My heart began to thump anxiously in my chest, and I found myself unable to take my eyes off it. Its towering branches spread out like a canopy above us, casting a deep, cool shadow on the patchy grass beneath our feet. An acrid scent of pine needles hung thickly in the air, and I felt my skin prickle.
Elm and I exchanged an apprehensive look, neither of us wanting to make the first move. Then, something peculiar began to happen. The leaves of the tree began to shift and shimmer in a way that I had never seen before. With each passing moment, its branches seemed to be danced around us with an almost calming energy.
We stepped closer, and that’s when I noticed it. The old tree was decaying, gnarled and knotted. Its once sturdy branches now sagged to the ground, like an arm reaching out for help. Its trunk was stained with age and its bark had grown soft over time, flaking off in sheets that danced in the wind like ghosts of a forgotten past.
My heart sank.
We were too late.
All that remained of the once mighty tree was a tangled mess of broken limbs and dead brush. The Driech had been relentless in her pursuit, leaving nothing in its wake as she had coaxed whatever it was she sought from it. In its place lay desolation and ruin, a hollow shell that was now bereft of life and left to rot in this cold, forgotten corner of the island.
Elm and I cautiously stepped closer to the crumbling tree. My heart sank as my gaze fell upon a nymph’s face that was carved into the trunk like a precious memory that was embedded in the wood forever. She seemed to be shedding tears, filling me with an intense sense of grief and sorrow at the sight of it.
Heavy pain rocketed through my chest like someone pressing the entire weight of their body on it. I sympathized with her. As if she were speaking to me directly, and her sobs told me everything I needed to know. A strange magickal aura wrapped around my body, enveloping me with the warmth and understanding of a thousand lifetimes. Daphne’s essence—her soul, or whatever it was that was left of the nymph buried within the tree—poured into me, filling me with her memories.
For as long as she’d been alive, she’d had to endure it alone. Daphne had watched from the sidelines as her loved ones aged, loved, and died. She’d seen the war between the humans and Fey, had watched helplessly as they killed each other. And she’d fallen in love more times than she could count. Some were other Fey. Some were human. All of them died.
Her soul reached out to me, telling me her entire story. From running from the god and turning into the sacred tree to having her roots severed by the evil goddess. And I saw from her point of view, the bitch walk away and leave her to rot alone.
Alone.
She’d lived centuries alone.
She’d spent her entire life in this place without so much as a bird to keep her company. She’d been so scared to let someone love her, of how fleeting a god’s love could be, that she’d run from the chance to find out. And she’d paid for it by never getting to know what it felt like to be in love. And have that person love her back.
And now she would die the same way.
Tears spilled down my cheeks. I understood her. I was her. Though I’d lived barely a fraction of her lifespan, I’d also shoved away every person in my life. I’d run from love the same way she had because the fear of getting hurt trumped the fear of being alone.
Do not fret over me, sweet one.
Her honey smooth voice tickled my eardrums. I wiped my face with my arm and reached out for her.
No!
I froze in space, her warning clanging through my head.
Once, my body could give life. I healed the wounded, revived the dead, made them immortal. I was the tree of life. Now that the darkness stole my root, I have become the opposite. I am death. If you touch me, I might steal your breath for eternity.
The vibrant ground beneath my feet slowly disappeared, replaced with a dull gray. As it spread away from its source, the surrounding flowers wilted and lost their radiant hues. Elm took a step back in shock, taken aback by what was happening before his eyes.
“What the hell is going on?”
Before I could stop him, he reached out and touched the tree’s trunk, caressing the flaking silver bark. I screamed his name, and he cried in agony as he tumbled to the ground in a broken heap. I threw myself over him, pulling his head into my lap. Placing my hand in front of his nose, I felt the brush of air.
Relief washed over my body.
He was alive.
Get him out of here. Daphne said to me. I did not kill him. I only stole the magick running through his veins. It will return in time. But you must leave this place. My body is sucking life from everything on the island. If you are still here by the time I’ve drained the earth, I might kill you both.
With a trembling hand, I reached out to brush my fingertips over Elm’s pale white hair. Tears had already brimmed in my eyes, threatening to spill over and tear down my face. It was all I could do to keep them at bay. “I can’t leave you. You’ve been alone for so long.”
Yes, I have been. But I do not mind. I have found peace. Now you must find yours. Take this and use it when the time is right.
A single, rotten piece of fruit plummeted to the ground with a thud, yet not a single bit of it scattered. The sour smell of its rotting flesh began to fill the air as it started rolling toward me. I hesitantly reached out for it before quickly withdrawing my hand.
“If I touch it —”
It will only harm you if you consume it. Now, go. Take your prince and live for me. Learn from my mistakes, Rhen. Let love consume you. You are the key. Love is the key.
Elm groaned as I extended my arm and grabbed the fruit off the ground, slipping it into a deep pocket of my Hunt gear.
Slowly, he raised himself up from my lap, exhaling heavily as he brought a hand to his aching head. His movements were laborious and sluggish, the pain in his head still overwhelming. “What happened?”
I pushed myself off the ground, extending my hand out to him. He looked at me with surprise, but eventually took my hand and allowed me to help him up to his feet. “We have to go.”
“What, why?”
I took him by the hand as we moved forward through the meadow, which was slowly wilting away. The once lush grass had been replaced by dead patches of dirt and weeds, with an ominous silence lingering in the air. “She’s buying us time, but we have to go. Now.”
“I can’t glimmer.” He let out a deep, heavy sigh, the fear evident in his every breath. His body was shaking, and encased by an invisible dread that itched at my nostrils like a pungent odor. I could feel the tremor of worry coming from his skin with every passing moment. “Why can’t I glimmer”?
“Daphne.” I said, as if that was enough of an answer. Had he not heard anything she’d said? Judging from the blank expression on his face, he hadn’t.
“When you touched her, she drained you of your magick to keep from killing you. She said it would come back, but she didn’t say when.”
“There’s no other way off the island,” he said in my ear. “We’re surrounded by an ocean on all fronts.”
Shit. He was right. We were stranded. It would likely be hours before Kol came to the rescue, and by then it would be far too late. And without Elm’s glimmering magick, we had no escape.
I peered at the ground beneath me. The island was so big that the slow creep of gray earth would take a while to cover it completely, meaning we had time. Eight, maybe ten, hours at most. If Kol followed protocol like he promised, we would be dead before he could fly here. Of course, I knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t wait the full twelve hours before he came looking for us. He respected Elm, but they were both the same rank. Kol would do whatever he thought was best, regardless of what he was told.
“Then we wait it out. Spend what little time we have working on building a raft as a backup plan.”
His eyebrows furrowed together, and I could see the worry in his eyes. He didn’t know the repercussions of lingering for too long.
“She’s draining life from the island to sustain herself. If we are still here when she’s sucked it dry, it will kill us.”
“She as in—?”
“Daphne!”
“Uh, huh? And did the tree say anything else? Like ‘Oh, such a handsome Feyrie Prince. I wish I wasn’t a plant so I could kiss him.’ Anything like that?”
His amusement grated on me. I didn’t understand how he could be so unperturbed by everything I’d said. The situation was anything but humorous, and yet, here he was, acting like it wasn’t a big deal. It made my blood boil.
I groaned. “It’s not a joke.”
His eyes grew distant, and the light of his smile dimmed. He tugged against my hand, spinning me backwards against him until we were standing chest to chest. The air between us was thick with tension, with neither of us daring to break it. Our eyes locked as he tightened his grip around my waist, gently leading us in a dizzying dance. I felt the warmth of his breath against my skin as he pulled me closer, every step perfectly in sync, like we had been dancing together.
A fluttery feeling tingled up my spine as I peered into his eyes; two slits of blue glaciers. Darkness clouded them like a brewing storm, and I peeled my eyes away before the avalanche could pull me down. If I looked at them too long, I’d drown in them.
But his fingertips grazed my jaw, and I couldn’t help but look again. And I was right. I was going to suffocate in them. His apology lay on the surface, and I cracked under his touch. I desperately dug for a way out of the snow but could not find an escape.
I inhaled sharply, clinging to the taste of cool, dry air in my mouth. Elm tilted his head, and I found myself staring at his lips. His face crinkled with shock as I threw my arms around his neck and yanked with all of my might.
And drew in one final breath before I allowed myself to suffocate on his.
Luka
I had thought I was nervous, but Kol was on another level entirely. He was beside himself. The second we were alone, he started pacing back and forth across the carpeted floor with both hands planted firmly on his hips. His stride picked up pace as he made loop after loop around the room, his footsteps growing louder and more insistent with each pass.
Fern came to collect us, but Kol was in a hostile mood and wouldn’t even deign to joke around with her. He simply gave her the middle finger, indicating that he didn’t need her assistance and that he was doing perfectly all right on his own. She held both hands up in a sign of surrender before beckoning me to follow her back to the infirmary.
I expected her to wave her finger angrily at me for leaving the white room again, but instead she became sullen and quiet. Almost sad as she had me lay down on the sad excuse for a bed and lift my shirt for her to check my stitches. She shook her head slowly, as if scolding herself rather than me.
She smiled sweetly as her cold fingers grazed over the itchy red line. I shivered under her touch. Muttering a soft sorry, she pulled my shirt down.
“They keep it freezing in here. Are you in any pain? I have some mild pain meds in the cupboard if you need them.”
I shook my head no. It only hurt if I stretched the stitches too far, but the majority of the pain had gone when I’d woken into the white room. The cold of her fingers on my skin was nothing compared to the icy feeling of near death. “I’m fine, thanks.”
“Okay,” she murmured sweetly. “Just let me know if you change your mind.”
“You aren’t going to yell at me for leaving the room again?” I asked, as she started walking away.
She made a face, then giggled, her breath coming in short bursts of laughter. “No. As long as you’re careful not to rip open those stitches, you are free to wander the fortress. There’s an extra room down the hallway that Prince Elm made up for you when you arrived. Kol can show you.”
Confused, I stuttered over my words. “But you—I mean, you were mad at him for walking around. I thought for sure you were gonna at least slap my wrists or something.”
Another tiny laugh breezed through her teeth, but there was no light in her eyes.
“Kol knows what buttons of mine he can push to irritate me, and I allow him to do it. Pretend I’m angry at him for minor things because I know that’s how he navigates the world. When life is shit, act like an asshole, so it doesn’t bother you or something like that.”
“Well, life is always shit,” I told her. Bad things happened to everyone, but it didn’t give anyone a right to act like a douche. “So, what then?”
She shrugged, pausing in the doorway. “Ask me again when I’ve lost the only person who I ever loved. Loss? It changes a person. Makes you close yourself off to raw emotion. So, if acting like a puffy chested asshole is what he needs, then I’ll play along.”
Fern started to walk away, but I stopped her again. “But what is it you need?”
She was unmistakably taken aback, her eyes twinkling as she tilted her head thoughtfully. “What we all need.”
My nose crinkled inquisitively, and she forced a smile.
“What do you need, Luka?” She departed, leaving me to ponder the question alone.
What did I need? My mind immediately went to my family. Glitter and her kids, Rhen, Baz. If I had it my way, we would all be chummed up in the palace next to the fireplace, passing out presents on Candleneigh and eating massive amounts of food that would make us all miserable for the next three days.
Then I thought of Elm, remembered being angry at him for missing all the other holidays. The days I’d spent cursing his name were countless.
And also pointless.
Because what I’d really wanted was for him to come home, join in on the festivities like old times. I’d wanted to shut off the romantic feelings I’d had for him, pretend they never existed just so I could have my friend back.
“Love,” I murmured to myself, “I need love.”
I’d given up on Elm long ago. Desired his return but believed it would never happen. That I wasn’t enough to bring him back because I wasn’t enough to make him stay. Hell, I’d thought I was the one that drove him away in the first place.
But I never fought for him. Never once made a trip to Edelweiss to check on him.
And I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. Baz needed me. Needed to know he wasn’t alone. That someone, somewhere, was out there fighting for him to come home.
I rose to my feet and sauntered past Kol, who was still pacing back and forth in the living area, to the kitchen where Ayesha had finally returned. She welcomed me with a gentle smile.
“Do you have it?” I asked.
The Solemn Witch took out a vial from her pocket and handed it to me without a word.