Page 14

H ellebore’s vision cleared. The elf carrying her had caught himself on the window frame, not dropping her; his other hand remained curled around her legs.

Taiyo stood down the hall, the fading smoke curling around his legs as he held his arm out, more sunlight starting to gather at his fingertips.

“You won't live to see your next moonrise, but unhand her now and I will consider making it a quick death.” Taiyo continued approaching, and the elf carrying her launched into action.

He pulled something out of a belt and threw it at Taiyo with an enraged yell.

It barely flashed in the sunlight and smoke, but Hellebore thought it looked like her knife. When had he picked it up? Unfortunately, Taiyo was too focused on the sunlight and fire to see it until it was too late. He tried to twist at the last second, and it cut through his shoulder. It didn't embed in his heart at least.

Hellebore could do nothing but watch.

Actually, she could do nothing but fall out of the window as she was thrown out it by the elf carrying her. She couldn’t even scream.

Taiyo, however, could.

He screamed her name as the wind rushed around her and her death fast approached, except, she couldn’t even see the ground.

She shut her eyes and cursed herself for every single failure and foolish, overconfident thought that had led her to plummeting to her death. But instead of slamming into the ground, arms wrapped around her, catching her for a brief second before they both hit the ground. She blinked to see it was the first elf, groaning at how her weight had just slammed him into the ground as well.

“Hellebore, shut your eyes!”

She immediately obeyed Taiyo’s command and the Moon Elves were not so quick, given their screams and the thud she heard. She could see the bright flash from the inside of her eyelids and then she smelled something burning. The screaming increased, and she blinked her eyes open to see Taiyo had followed them down into the courtyard and had the closest one by the arm, one hand in his back. The Sun Elves didn’t just command sunlight—with their light came heat and fire.

Taiyo had been serious. He was going to kill them.

The elf who had caught her realized it at the same moment as he shot to his feet and pulled out something from a pocket. Glass broke and all the light vanished again, leaving them engulfed in shadows.

Moon Elves were known for seeing much better at night than other elves and especially humans. Although what the goggles’ purpose had been, Hellebore wasn’t sure.

She heard Taiyo’s voice again, a pained scream, and then there was nothing but the sound of labored breathing through masks and darkness.

Then a hand grabbed her ankle and they started to pick her up. She couldn’t get her mouth to fully open, but she managed an absolutely pathetic whine.

“Hellebore—” Taiyo’s voice was strained, like he was talking through gritted teeth.

But then the elf trying to drag her hissed in pain and one of them said something. They had some kind of quick argument.

Then a hand grabbed hers and she was pulled away from the Moon Elves, and someone was crouching over her, one hand braced on the ground. Taiyo. It could only be him. His breathing was so much louder, but then he spoke.

“I’ll give you five seconds before I blind you and burn your hearts out of your chests. Five.”

The sound of footsteps filled the darkness as Taiyo counted down. As the Moon Elves got farther away, the darkness receded. Not by much, but the moonlight came back and the Moon Elves were gone as Taiyo breathed out, “One.”

Now that she could see, she saw he was on his knees, one hand braced on the ground. His chest was above her head as he was using his whole body to shield her from being taken again. His other arm was wrapped around his stomach.

His hand was covered in black blood.

He was bleeding from the shoulder as well, but that was a shallow cut compared to the wound he was clutching. A little bit of the same black blood was coming up to the corner of his mouth.

He stared at the empty courtyard for a moment. Then down at her.

She was still paralyzed. She couldn’t make any noise other than a humiliating whimper in the back of her throat.

Then he dropped to the ground beside her, rolling over and throwing up on the stone away from her. Black blood.

Was it even blood?

He curled in on himself and his eyes started rolling into the back of his head all while she was screaming in hers.

He wouldn’t dare. He wouldn’t dare die and leave her like this.

She couldn’t help him. All she could do was lie there, useless while he bled out beside her.

Then he was getting his arms underneath him, painfully slow, sweating as his hair stuck to his skin. He looked down at the stone before he got back to his knees, the moonlight framing him as his head tilted back to the sky. He grunted, grabbing his shirt and tearing it the rest of the way, fully exposing his wound. Then, to her shock, he took his hand, lighting it with a mix of sunlight and fire.

He was going to—

As soon as he pressed his palm to the wound, the burning smell returned and the noise he made was going to haunt Hellebore’s nightmares. His face screwed up in agony would accompany it.

What was worse was when it was over, and his hand fell and he slumped slightly back down. Then he took his hand again and it lit with his magic, and he reached over, scorching the ground where his blood was so no one would ever see anything but the burn. He took several deep breaths, wiping his filthy blood-stained hands on his clothes before he came crawling back over to Hellebore, and his face filled her vision as he took her face in his hands.

“Hellebore, it’s alright. You’re safe. I’ve got you. You’re going to be fine.”

She just swallowed.

But he wasn’t. Sun Elves bled red just like the rest of them.

“Did they give you a paralytic?”

She was able to give the tiniest of nods. Which meant it was starting to wear off, but it was doing so slowly.

“Alright, I’m going to get you back to your room and then I’ll call a healer.”

How was he—

Taiyo was scooping her up and into his arms, staggering slightly as he stood up, but quickly regaining his balance and securing her in his arms, one arm under her knees and the other around her back. He adjusted his hold until she was comfortably tucked into his chest, her head resting against his shoulder.

But with no voice, Hellebore couldn’t protest and insist he leave her on the ground to let it wear off or go find a healer for himself first. All she could do was let him slowly, carefully, like she was something precious to be handled delicately, carry her back inside the castle and through the hallways and to their rooms.

She hated it. She hated him.

As more feeling returned, her eyes welled up and she had no choice but to turn her head deeper into his shoulder to hide it.

“You’re safe, sunshine,” Taiyo murmured, somehow managing to shift her even closer. “I made a vow to protect you, and I have. I always will.”

If she had her voice, she would have come up with something between a laugh and a sob and told him that those vows didn’t mean anything.

Instead, feeling came back into her fingers, but not her arm. So she just curled her fingers into the tatters of his shirt.

She heard a door creak open, and she shifted her head just enough to see her room greeting them. Guilt turned her stomach at the sight of her crates of research that had contained the note for the trap she’d foolishly fallen for.

He quickly started toward her bed, but the last thing she wanted was to stare at the evidence of her duplicity. The word caught in her throat, not quite coming out as a word, but yet another displeased whine. Taiyo froze, glancing down at her.

“No?”

She nodded.

Taiyo just stared down at her with a dumbfounded expression, and she had no clue what was going through his head. But whatever it was, it worked in her favor since he headed for the door connecting their rooms. Once they were in his room, he quickly but gently set her down on his bed before moving back.

She couldn’t stop him from slipping out of her grip even as she’d tried to hold onto his shirt.

“I’ll—I’ll be—” Taiyo started as he began to move for his door but quickly had to catch himself on one of the posts to keep himself from hitting the floor. He closed his eyes. “I’m—I’m fine. Just dizzy.”

“H—He—Healer—” Hellebore managed to choke out. “Y—You.”

He shook his head. “No. It’s just for you. I’m going to be fine in a minute.”

“W—Wear o—off.”

He turned back and looked at her, something strange in his eyes.

She whispered, “Stay.”

“You…” Taiyo turned around fully, an intensity to his gaze that would have frightened her if she hadn’t just been nearly abducted. “You want me to stay?”

“Yes,” she breathed out.

The last thing she wanted was to be alone, completely helpless, even if the paralytic was wearing off.

Taiyo staggered back to the bed, climbing onto it in the space he’d left beside her. His bed was huge, so there was plenty of room for two people to lie side by side and not touch, as evidenced by them at that very moment.

They lay there exactly like that as the minutes stretched on. The only noise in the air was their breathing. Little by little, more feeling came back, but it was agonizingly slow and terrifying to be so vulnerable.

Hellebore didn’t really know what possessed her to make such a request, but she had. It wasn’t like she was much safer with him nearby when he looked two seconds away from death and was refusing to get a healer for himself.

It only meant one thing…

She turned her head, finally able to move her neck so that she faced him. He was lying on his side, facing her, eyes never having left her even when they were half lidded from exhaustion.

“You’re dying. Aren’t you?”

“Clever girl.” His eyes opened wider. “What gave me away?”

“Healthy elves don’t bleed black blood. But I should have put it together sooner.”

Looking back now, it felt painfully obvious.

“Well, I’m not breathing my last tonight. I will tell you everything tomorrow.”

“How did you find me?”

He sighed, burrowing his head into his pillow. “It was late. You hadn’t come back. I was worried. Turns out I had good reason to be.”

She could feel her calves. That was good. She shifted her feet.

His hand found hers, resting in the space between them. His fingers skimmed over her palm, and when she shifted them in response, he laced his fingers through hers. “What happened?”

She closed her eyes but she didn’t pull her hand away.

He’d accused her of being a stone wall incapable of cracking.

She wished he was right.

“I was foolish.” Her voice broke.

Taiyo pushed himself up slightly, shifting slightly closer but not fully closing the gap between. “Tell me.”

She closed her eyes. “You’ll be angry.”

“Not tonight. Tonight all I care about is the fact that you’re safe. Tomorrow? I will still be glad I got there in time, and maybe I will be frustrated, but that will be tomorrow’s problem.”

She cracked one eye open. “There was a note among my research telling me to go.”

She waited for his words to be false. She’d managed to find the end of his patience before, and if anything could provoke him to it again, it was this.

Instead…

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you go?”

If he was angry, he was doing a good job hiding it because all she heard was plain confusion.

“Because… part of me… In my letter to my aunt, I hid a secret message. I asked her to tell me what happened when the two of you first met. So… I hoped it would be her.”

She waited for the rage.

“I see.”

Where was it? Why now was he being so patient with her?

“I was fairly certain it wasn’t. I knew it could be a trap, and I thought I was clever enough to be able to get out of it anyway.”

“I see.”

Well, if he was angry, he was at least honorable enough to keep his word and save it all for the morning. Maybe she hadn’t been giving him enough credit this whole time.

“But even when I went early to try to trap them, they were already expecting me.”

“Why… Why didn’t you tell me? Do… Do you really think so little of me?”

She couldn’t stop the tears again. “And reveal to you how right you are to think as little of me as you already do? Show you that I’m not even the intelligent, capable alchemist you were after? Admit to you that I miss my aunt, that you despise, but she’s the closest thing I’ve had to a mother for most of my life? That I’m pathetic and homesick and that I was so desperate for there to be anyone left in the world who cares about me that I walked right into a trap?”

She was sobbing now, burying her head into the sheets until she was being pulled up into Taiyo’s arms as he leaned them against the headboard. He quickly undid her belt and tossed it to the side, then pulled her goggles and mask fully off her head and neck, throwing them to the side. Then he wrapped his arms around her, crushing her to himself, one hand curled around her waist and the other running up and down her back. Without her goggles and belt, she was able to sink into him, as much as she could as she was still fighting off some numbness but was mostly consumed with her sobs.

She curled her fingers into the back of his shirt when she managed to get her arms around him and buried her head against his chest. His heartbeat was almost sluggish in its loudness.

“I don’t think little of you. I never would have married you if I did.”

She hated how soft and warm she found his hands on her. She hated how much she wanted them to stay on her.

“And where would you ever get the idea one mistake makes you anything less than the most intelligent, capable, and dedicated alchemist? Do you think I would hold you in any less esteem because you miss having a mother? Do you truly believe there is no one who cares about you? Sunshine, look at me.”

His hand left her back to gently tilt her jaw up to look at him through her watery eyes.

“Let me make myself clear. I care about you.”

The word at the tip of her tongue was: why?

Why would he care about her? When he only knew her because he had been looking for a solution to his problem? Why care about anyone when he was dying?

But she said nothing in response.

His thumb brushed over her cheek. “And maybe one day you’ll believe me.”

She couldn’t bear to look at his expression, overflowing with emotions that fascinated her and horrified her all at the same time. So she just buried her head in his shoulder and hated herself for the pained, resigned sigh she got in response.

At some point she started dozing off and that was when Taiyo shifted her back to her original place, pulling back completely.

Hellebore finally had her full mobility back. She let out a disgruntled huff and quickly grabbed Taiyo, holding him in place so she could move back into his arms, resting her head on his chest. His arm looped around her waist again.

Hellebore didn’t want to examine why she would do such a thing.

Or why the strange, sluggish beat of his heart was a weight on her shoulders and a comfort all at the same time.