x
They stopped at midday for a few minutes’ rest and a bite to eat. The fairy provided them with entertainment, moving in a light, carefree way that reminded Iris of the dances performed for her in the tower. She smiled. When she had been Micah’s captive, the fairies had always found a way to cheer her up, at least a little.
Her smile faded at the thought of Micah.
She pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. The fairy flitted toward her, and she held her hand out for it, palm up. It landed over the center of what had been a bloody gash only three days ago. There was no scabbing, no scar to blemish her skin; nothing remained to remind her of that night other than her all too vivid memories.
She could almost feel the bite of the broken glass shard slashing her open.
“Hey, Iris.”
She turned her head to look at Char as he scooted closer to her. He draped an arm around her shoulders, and she rested her cheek on her knees. His green eyes searched her face.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Just thinking.”
He frowned. “About Micah?”
She faced forward again and spread her fingers wide, prompting the fairy to fly away. “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”
Char hesitated for a moment, and then he said, “He showed us, Iris. What he did to you before I got there.”
Her entire body tensed. She had been afraid of that. But did they only see, or did they hear, too?
“Well, I only got the tail end of it,” Rath said. “Just watching that was torture, but Char said what I missed was worse. I don’t know how it could have been, and I don’t want to know, either.”
Char tucked a loose strand of Iris’ hair behind her ear. “It wasn’t like that every time, was it? You said he tricked you into going willingly the first time, and even though you knew the second time, you went willingly then, too.”
A thick layer of shame coated her in grime. She focused on a small patch of dried grass in front of her, knowing Char hadn’t meant to make her feel guilty, but feeling it all the same. Even though she’d never really had a choice with Micah.
“No, it wasn’t that bad the first two times. I hadn’t believed him before when he'd told me permission and trust make it easier, but they do.”
She paused. A meadowlark wheeled above them, trilling its sweet song, and an answering song arose in the distance. Happy. Free.
Would she ever feel like that again?
Her eyes had wandered up to the sky as she searched for the bird, but now she dropped her gaze to the earth and scowled. “I should have just looked for the crystal like normal. I shouldn’t have interfered in that battle. Then he wouldn’t have been angry when he came back, and I could have kept practicing, and he wouldn’t have known what I was doing until I was more sure of myself. Now, I just have to hope we don’t run into him, because I can’t even defend myself against him, let alone you two and the fairy. And I know he’ll kill all of you just to spite me.”
Char gave her shoulders a squeeze. “You did nothing wrong, and who says we’ll run into him, anyway? We just need to get into the castle and return the amulet to the crystal. Easy. Then, after we get you somewhere safe, I'll go back and tear him limb from limb. He’s never touching you again, Iris. I promise..”
She shook her head and turned to look at him, firm conviction hardening her dark brown eyes. “You know you can’t promise that. But you can promise me this: if something happens, you and Rath need to run.”
Rath snorted. “Yeah, no. Not happening.”
“He won’t kill me, but he will kill you,” she insisted. “It would be better for you to escape and try again later rather than end up as two more deaths on my conscience.”
Char pressed his lips together. Her reasoning made sense, but everything within him recoiled at the thought of abandoning her to Micah.
Rath stood, stretching his arms over his head. “That sounds good, but you don’t seem to understand something, so let me spell it out for you. This idiot will do anything for you. Yeah, you chased him away that one time, and you really made him believe you didn’t like him—for a moment. But that wouldn’t have lasted long. As soon as he got over himself, he would have gone back for you, fairies or no fairies. And if by some slim chance he had been too boneheaded to do it, I would’ve gotten your location out of him and gone after you myself, because you wouldn’t believe what a pain he is to deal with when he’s moping around about you. No matter what, you weren’t staying in that tower for another twenty-four hours.”
“But—”
“And on top of that, you keep doing this thing where you heal or protect somebody I kinda like, and you keep being nice to people who are being rotten to you, and it’s kinda hard to ignore all that. So no, we won’t leave you with that creep and run away to save our own skins. We’ll come up with some insane plan that has no right to work, and we’ll pull it off, just like we always do. Speaking of which, we need to get moving.”
“You go on ahead for a bit,” Char told his brother. “We’ll catch up.”
Rath smirked. “Ah, yes, time for another kiss to keep you in a good mood. Don’t take too long.”
He strode away, shouldering his pack and stuffing his hands in his pockets. His casual air gave him the appearance of a man out for a midday stroll. Nobody would ever suspect he was an undercover soldier plotting to smuggle a valuable magical artifact into an enemy castle. Especially with a fairy flitting around him.
Iris’ line of sight fell to the ground again. “I know what you’ll say, Char, but I can’t stop worrying about it, and I can’t let you and Rath put yourselves at risk for me. I don’t care about myself. Micah can do whatever he wants to me. But he knows what hurts me the most is when he hurts others, and as long as he has somebody he can hold over my head, I can’t fight him.” She gave a harsh, bitter laugh. “He told me compassion is my weakness, and he’s right. I'm stuck because of it.”
Char shook his head. “No.” He caught her chin with his fingers and coaxed her to look up at him. “No. He’s wrong.”
“Char—”
“Yeah, you struggle to use your magic for yourself, but you use it instinctively for others. That’s why you feel nothing when you use magic. You aren’t thinking about it or trying to do it. It just comes naturally to you, because that’s who you are. That’s why you had to interfere in that battle, and that's why you could shield me and that fairy when you weren’t even conscious. You can’t help yourself.”
Her dark brown eyes wavered. She pressed her lips together. Char kept a hold of her chin with one hand and brushed her hair back with the other, cradling her head as he brought his face closer to hers.
“Compassion is not your weakness. It’s your source of strength. And since he can’t understand that, he’ll never truly be able to control you.”
Char wouldn’t let her turn away, but he couldn’t force her to maintain eye contact. She averted her eyes, not looking toward something else as much as looking away from him. But she felt his breath on her lips, and she knew he was about to kiss her—even though she didn’t deserve it. Even though she’d lied to him. Even though she’d let Micah touch and kiss her.
Even though she knew she’d let Micah do more than that if he captured her again.
It didn’t matter that she’d never had a choice. She felt dirty.
And Char’s sweet, soft kiss felt painful.
“Char, don’t—”
He kissed her again. His fingers slid through her hair and down her back, curving around to settle on her waist, and he pulled her closer still.
Another kiss, and her eyelids fluttered closed.
He tested her limits with the next kiss, pressing in harder, teasing her with a light tug of her bottom lip, and the ache felt good. The hurt inside her felt good. Micah could never do a perfect imitation of Char because he didn’t care—couldn’t care. But Char cared, and every kiss communicated that to her.
He didn’t lie. He didn’t coerce. He didn’t shame.
He just loved her.
“Hey, time’s up! We’ve got to get moving!”
Char and Iris sighed in unison. When Iris opened her eyes, Char's green eyes remained focused on her, and he still held her chin with his fingers. “No matter what happens, you can trust me. Okay?” He didn’t give her time to respond, instead placing one last peck on her lips before he stood and held his hand out for her. “I mean it.”
She gave him a small nod and took his hand.
“I was halfway to the castle when I realized you two were still back here making out,” Rath teased when they caught up to him.
Char groaned and rolled his eyes. Iris’ already pink cheeks burst into flames.
“Look, I get it, and normally, I’m all for prioritizing a hot girl over anything else, but try to save it for when we set up camp. The quicker we get this done, the quicker you two can—”
“Do not finish that sentence," Char warned his brother. Then, under his breath, he muttered, "I need to figure out living arrangements when we get back.”
“Um, well, I’ll just live with your mother,” Iris said, unable to look at either dragon.
“Long term living arrangements.”
“Ooh, this is getting serious,” Rath teased. “I thought you’d just start with being a regular item at parties, but if you want to go there—”
“Just stop.”
Char shot his brother a glare, but Rath threw his arm around Char's shoulders, unaffected.
“Char, we’re talking about the rest of your life here. You don’t want to end up in some dingy, rundown place next to a sewer, do you?”
Char opened his mouth to retort, but Iris spoke up first.
“I’d be interested to hear what's available.”
“See?” Rath released Char and patted his shoulder. “So, Iris, there's your city life, which you’ve kind of seen; then there are smaller towns in smaller mountains; the farms in the foothills; or you could go the route of the hermits living in random caves in the middle of nowhere—”
“‘Farms in the foothills’?”
Rath shrugged. “Yeah, not my thing. You can’t even take off and land within a certain radius of those farms. Apparently, chickens don’t lay well when dragons are around.”
“So that’s where all your food comes from.”
“That, and hunting,” Char interjected. “Which is what the army does most of the time when there isn’t a war going on.”
“Well, and patrolling to make sure the elves aren’t acting up,” Rath added.
Iris’ brown eyes widened. “Elves?”
Rath laughed. “You humans are so sheltered. Yeah, elves. They live west of the mountains. Most of the time, they stick to themselves, but occasionally they get it in their heads to bother us, and then we need to remind them to stay in their own territory.”
“Elves,” Iris repeated. “What about other enchanted creatures? I only saw fairies while I was in the tower, but that forest was supposed to be full of other enchanted creatures, wasn’t it?”
“You didn’t see any from the windows?” Rath asked.
“Window,” Iris corrected. “And I didn’t spend much time looking.”
Because she was too weak to sit upright for long, or she was too depressed to look upon the world outside her prison cell. But they didn’t need to know that.
“Well, you said Father took you and Jonah camping,” Rath prompted Char. "Was that in the enchanted forest? Or was that before Jonah settled down there?"
"Both. The forest was a lot more lively back then, but maybe that freak blizzard sent some animals into hibernation out of season. Although you wouldn’t have seen the gnomes, anyway, Iris. They live in tunnel networks underground, and they don’t come out very often.”
“Like magical moles,” Rath volunteered.
“There used to be a handful of unicorns. They're pretty secretive. Only one phoenix, and it definitely wouldn’t care much for the cool weather we’ve been having lately. Let’s see… Will-o’-the-wisps. They’re similar to fairies, except they're not helpful.”
“On top of being kleptomaniacs.”
Iris listened with rapt attention as Char and Rath told her about the creatures she’d only heard of in bedtime stories, if at all. She wondered sometimes if the brothers were making things up, especially Rath, but she didn’t question them. It felt good to smile and laugh.
At least for that afternoon, she received a much needed distraction from the heaviness of the amulet.8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4JznmD0Zrj
