.
Luka
Kol was seated at the dining room table, nervously fidgeting as he chewed on the skin surrounding his already carelessly bitten off nails. I hesitantly took a seat across from him, my gaze fixed on the bloodstained map in front of us. It was a disturbing sight; the thick red pool of blood had completely saturated the parchment, leaving only blurry shapes and colors where my friends’ location should have been. There was no way to tell if they were safe or not without looking closer, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know what might be under that mess of crimson liquid. Taking a deep breath, I looked up at Kol. His face was expressionless, and his eyes were fixed on the map, but it was clear that something was troubling him.
Ayesha had been toiling away steadily on her latest locator spell, using a pot over her stove to concoct it. She’d returned from home with all kinds of herbs and ingredients and had poured them into small jars, which she corked shut.
“It’s only been a couple of hours,” I said, trying to console him. “I’m sure they’re fine.”
I wasn’t. Something felt amiss, though I couldn’t place exactly what it was.
Ayesha nodded her agreement, bringing a small pipette over to the large map laid on the desk. She carefully hovered it over the paper before allowing several droplets of the dark green liquid to slowly plop onto the map. Where they landed, tiny ripples spread outward in all directions, slowly forming lines and patterns that seemed to spell out a hidden message.
Kol and I tensed as we watched it turn into a bright light, as brilliant as the feylights. It moved toward the bloodstain where it pooled.
“There,” she murmured. “They’re there. Still on the island, it seems.”
“Whoa, what’s happening?” I felt my chest constrict as the light disappeared from the map entirely.
Ayesha gasped. “Oh, gods.”
Kol didn’t hesitate as he stood. “Elm’s in trouble. I have to go.”
But a tiny spark of hope pierced the darkness. It was faint, like a small glimmer, but it was unmistakable. “Wait! Look!”
He paused, studying the scene in front of him. The light grew slowly and steadily until something dark and menacing swallowed it up in one fierce swoop. Kol turned to me, his silver eyes filled with a deep sense of dread.
“Be careful.”
Wordlessly, Kol strutted out of the kitchen. I listened for the sound of his wings flapping against the wind, hoping they were strong enough to carry him the entire way.
With him gone, the witch and I were the only two left in the fortress. She sang a loud tune to herself as she meandered back towards the stove top with its many mysterious elixirs. She seemed content with her work as she shifted and stirred about, adding various ingredients to each concoction with deliberation. Her voice echoed in the eerie silence of the otherwise empty kitchen, bouncing off of walls.
I opened my mouth, decided better of it, then clamped it shut.
She ceased her song but continued stirring the bubbling brew. “You have something you wish to ask me.”
“I was just thinking—” The words came out without my permission, as if she were drawing them from my lips with persuasion magick. “—was it wrong of me to send him that message? Am I stupid for seeing something good in him when he’s this far gone?”
The witch let out a heavy sigh and then fixed her white eyes on me. I couldn’t tell if she was truly seeing me, or if she was staring right through me to something beyond.
“Once a soul has been corrupted, it almost always remains an evil one.”
I felt my face crumple.
“The beast that resides in the King’s heart is a cursed entity, one full of anger, resentment, and greed. I’m unsure if you were aware, but the prince and I worked for many years together researching a way to free him of the beast. And it was Elm who found a medication to subdue it.”
I hadn’t known. Baz has said Mags was the one that had developed the medication for him. And of course, Elm never said anything.
She continued. “Bastian has fought the thing inside of him his entire life, and now that it has surfaced and taken breath itself, it may never again release him. But that doesn’t mean you should give up on him. If there is even a sliver of him left inside, it’s worth fighting for. So no, you are not stupid for wanting to see the good in him.”
She’d meant to comfort me, but all it had done was make me feel worse. I’d never realized the extent of Elm’s dedication to his brother. Only thought of him as a selfish jerk that cared for no one but himself, but he’d proven time and time again that it wasn’t exactly true.
“Baz tried to tell me where the cauldron is,” I admitted.
Ayesha didn’t seem phased by my confession. Just kept stirring and pouring. Pouring and stirring.
So, I pressed her. “Are you working on finding it?”
She paused, placing the spoon down on the counter beside the stove. “There is a very good chance that it was in Windlar. But as you know, daemons are protecting it. But it matters not if Rhen and Elm do not return.”
I started to ask, but knew she’d been in cahoots with the seers. If she was anything like them, she was playing the long game. Though I’d thought her more moral than them. She’d been so kind and helpful before. It almost seemed like she was distancing her heart from this war.
Not that I could blame her. If I’d been able to just say fuck it, I would too. But I cared too much for my friends to consider leaving them behind. No matter how it ended, I wanted to be with them.
Hold their hand until the world collapsed around us, if that’s what it took.