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Lily has fallen asleep on her velvet sofa, a delicate hand resting on her chest, a smile on her lips. I told her stories of places I have read about, fantastical tales by various foreign authors, and a few of my own imagination when I ran out. At least she looked pleased.
“Goodbye, Lily,” I whisper. “I hope you find happiness. Preferably with a better man than Prince Elyar who likes to strike down those who can’t resist to make himself look important.”
She sighs in her sleep, her smile fading.
Grabbing a warm cape draped over a chair and a pair of leather bottines, I creep out of her room. Closing the door behind me with a soft click, I quickly put on the bottines and cape, pulling the hood low over my face.
Then I head for the stables. I pass a few people in the corridors, but luckily nobody I know. Nevertheless, in the golden light from the sconces in the walls I turn my face away whenever I cross paths with anyone, stifling my coughing against my sleeve when I stop to catch my breath at the door leading outside.
The moon shines between the clouds. The evening air is perfumed with the scent of roses and roasting meat from the kitchens preparing the evening feast. I cross the yard, passing by servants and footboys.
The young stableboy I had met earlier doesn’t recognize me. “My lady?” He bows to me. “How may I help you?”
It’s absurd, how the clothes make a lady. “A horse brought here by one of my servants,” I say. “A bay horse.”
“I know the one,” he says quickly and rushes to get it for me. “But I can give my lady a better one, a royal mare—”
“No.” I turn away, a cough rattling my lungs. “The bay horse, please.”
“Of course, my lady.” He seems puzzled, and I realize a princess wouldn’t have used niceties with him. In fact, a year ago, I wouldn’t have said please or thank you to anyone below my rank. “Anything else you might need?”
“No, I’m fine.” Wind whinnies when he sees me and I pat him on the neck, smiling despite myself. Grabbing the reins, I pull him after me, leaving the puzzled stableboy behind.
How do you get a man out of an iron cage? Not something I’ve ever had to consider. Is there a lock? Is the door soldered shut? My cough is picking up again and I smother it against my forearm. Servants walking by give me strange looks. A lady in a cape skulking about alone in the falling dark, leading a horse, coughing. I can’t imagine what they think of me.
After a year locked up in my own filth and terror, I couldn’t care less. All I care about is finding the one person who comforted me and helped me.
I can see his grin, hear his teasing voice, feel his hand on my face.
I lead Wind around the palace. The tower rises on the east end of the castle, remnant of some older structure, constructed of white stone, unlike the sable stone the palace is built of. A chill grips me at the right of it, along with the urge to turn around and walk away, run away, ride Wind as far away as possible. I really don’t want to go anywhere near the place where I was kept prisoner for a year.
But I force my feet to keep going. If I managed not to lose my marbles in that tower, then I’m not going to lose my courage now. This is important.
It feels like the most important event in my life so far.
Wolf’s ring on my finger seems to glow as I approach the wall. A few people stand there, shouting insults, and I finally see the cage.
It’s not very high up. Its bottom is about the height of my shoulders. I see him standing inside. There is no space for him to sit. The townsfolk are lobbing stones and rotten vegetables at the cage, calling him a filthy animal.
“Hey!” I throw my hood back and lift my chin, square my shoulders and put on my haughtiest expression. “How dare you defile the king’s property?”
They turn around and gape at me. Someone whispers something about a princess, though I see that they are confused as to which princess I am.
“What did I say?” I snap. “Leave!”
They scatter, murmuring among themselves. I lead Wind closer and wait until they’ve all left. Oh, I bet they will hide in the shadows and watch to see what I will do but there is no avoiding that.
How can I help him escape?
“Wolf!” I call out.
His pale hair seems to glow just like the pale stone inset in his ring sitting now on my finger. “Princess? What are you doing here? I told you to cross through the gate.”
His rough voice is music to my ears. “I’ve come to get you out.”
He laughs, a short, interrupted sound. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“And you shouldn’t have climbed the tower,” I say, “but too late for that.”
He laughs again, more subdued this time. “Maybe so. You can still turn around and go. You have a horse. You have a choice.”
“But then I won’t have you,” I whisper to myself, which is silly and not true, because I can’t have Wolf anyway, and yet...
Yet that’s what my heart believes and when the heart decides, rational thought goes out the window.
“Is there a lock?” I ask. “A door?”
“There is a lock,” he says, “but do you have the key?”
Said heart sinks a little. “Let me see.”
“Let you see? How...?”
I’m already climbing on Wind. “Stay,” I tell him and the horse snorts softly. Then I climb up to stand on the saddle.
“You’re crazy,” Wolf breathes. “Where did you learn to do that?”
“Young royals can get very bored,” I inform him. “My cousins taught me. We wanted to run away with a circus.”
This time he starts laughing and doesn’t seem to be able to stop. He’s still chuckling when I grab the bars of the cage and carefully stand straight, my feet on the saddle.
He’s gazing down at me, face and neck streaked with brown, hair matted with what looks like dried blood, the stench of rotten fruit about him, covering his scent, but he’s still the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.
My heart still pounds madly as I gaze at him.
Oh no, what have I done? I’ve gone and fallen for him like a naïve village girl who doesn’t know any better.
“You can’t get me out of here, Princess,” he says, and I hang onto his voice like a thread, like the only thing keeping me sane.
“I will,” I tell him, because I have to. I can’t leave him here, can’t imagine not seeing him again. Besides, who will take me back to the gate if not?
He shakes his head, an affectionate smile on his lips. “Look, the lock—”
I reach up to close my hand around said lock just as he reaches for it, too, our hands touching, fingers twining over the metal. Heat seeps from his skin into mine, or maybe it’s mine that feels so hot, but I think I see a spark jump. He hisses something, but all I can see is flames.
Flames, jumping flames, a roaring fire.
“Mina, look out!” He snatches his hand back and I lift mine.
The lock clicks open.
“Firebird,” he whispers, and I don’t know what he means. He did this with his Fae magic, with this ring that seems to contain flames.
But all that matters is that the door now swings open and his hand clasps mine. “You’re free,” I tell him.
“From you,” he whispers, “never.”
***
Wind must have been a circus horse, too, because he stands still as a statue while I precariously crouch back down and then slide down his flank to drop to the ground—and Wolf, too, apparently because then he climbs out of the cage and jumps unerringly onto the saddle. He somehow manages to sit astride and reaches down to help me up.
And just like that, I’m sitting in front of Wolf on the saddle once more, his arms around me, as Wind carries us away. I don’t care for the stench, for the danger, for the weight on my chest that tells me my time is running out. I cough as we ride, bright blood spattering my hand.
But I’ve never felt happier than I have now. If now is my time, what a way to go.
“All right, Princess?” Wolf asks in my ear and I say nothing.
What can I say? Why should I lie?
With a louder curse, he jams his heels into Wind’s flanks and we gallop fast like a storm moving over the plains, so fast I can barely see where we’re passing through. It’s as if Wind is magicked to go faster, never to tire—and maybe he is. Only I can’t get enough air. I let my head fall back against Wolf’s chest.
He swears again and I don’t know why.
“Hold on, Mina,” he says, and I want to reply but I don’t have any breath left. Wind seems to become one with the air, a cloud rolling down the road, sparks flying around us, his mane a shower of mist. Everything blurs. I blur. I’m not real, I have no weight. I don’t need air. Everything is too fast and yet too slow.
Wolf is talking to me but his voice is distant, flowing over meadows and lakes and towns and rivers. I think he’s calling my name.
It makes me smile.
Then Wind’s hooves splash in water. The shock of cold against my feet and legs rouses me a little.
“What is it?” I gasp.
“Hold on,” Wolf says again. “We’re going through.”
The cold closes around us and I’m falling, tumbling, not sure where is up or down. All I know is that Wolf’s arms are still around me, and yes, this is the way to go.