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Rhianelle waves right back. “I can’t. Send my best wishes to the bride and groom.”
This girl is supposed to be fighting the fae, dwarves, and orcs. Instead, here she is, waving and wishing them a safe journey. Most of them return her cheer and wave back. Even the fae sentinels on duty can’t help but smile at Rhianelle, unaware that their demise is imminent should they linger their eyes on her for too long.
I look at the Elven Queen beside me, and something twinges in my chest.
My sweet Nel is not made for war…
Life has not been kind to her. I’ve seen the cruelty she had to endure, the pain and sorrow from her past. And yet here she is, smiling happily as if the horrors never touched her.
Why aren’t you angry at the world?I almost ask her.
Fate is a cruel bastard. She fought so hard to survive that forest only to die three years from now because of me. I’ve never despised my existence more than I do right now.
“I heard that the forest lights up with faerie lights at night,” she muses.
I allow myself another smile at that.
“Yes, it will. We should at least stay until twilight,” I suggest.
“Aelfric will get mad—“
Thankfully she doesn’t finish talking about Eyepatch when the forest lights up like a sky full of stars.
“They’re fireflies…” she whispers, her silken silver hair catching the soft glow. After everything I saw in her childhood, that sweet innocence of hers remains intact instead of turning bitter.
I marvel at her silently in the dark. She’s so full of life compared to the cold, twisted being that I am.
I move closer to her without really noticing it. “Do you regret saving me?”
The question came out of nowhere.
“No,” she answers without a pause or hesitation.
That has to be a lie.
“Even knowing you will die in three years?” I ask her again.
“Even if I had to do it all over again, I would still free you from those chains,” she says easily.
A foreign, warm feeling stirs in my chest. I didn’t have to drink her blood to know that she meant every word.
I don’t deserve this kindness. I don’t deserve her.
“Besides, I won’t die in three years…” she drawls. Her head tips to the side and I see the steely determination on her face. “I would destroy the Rhunhraefn by then.”
A chill treads at the back of my neck. The fierce conviction in her voice never fails to surprise me. It makes me want to believe the impossible too.
Maybe I already do.
I believe in her,Coinneach interrupts in my mind. The other beasts join him, murmuring their trust.
I inhale the fresh scent of the forest deep into my lungs. It feels like the first real breath I have taken in a long time.
“Is everything all right?” she asks, her lilac eyes bright with concern.
“Yes.”
Everything is all right as long as you’re with me.
