Page 30 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

The doors banged open and Pen strutted like she owned the place. “It’s the air, I could swear it on Hodr,” she said, outraged almost. “The nuts are laying on the ground now.”

Nia snorted, but I gave the big mouthed red head a glare. “One day, carrot, I will feed you to a nice little, white rabbit.”

Pen stopped all of a sudden and turned to me, tears pooling on her lashes and her adorable freckled face twisted in a cry.

I cringed at the sight. There was something about people and their crying faces. “Calm, Pen. I was just fooling around.”

Her lip wobbled and she sniffled between sobs. “It’s the first time you’ve spoken to me since that morning in Adriata.” Tears chased a stream down her face. “You sleep down in the dungeons, eat alone, bathe alone, dress alone, don’t even speak to me when I pass you through the corridors at all. You don’t even let me brush your hair!”

All expression fell from my face. What?

Knowingly, Nia stood and wrapped a hand over her neck. “Alright, let’s go get her something to wear.”

After a long cold bath washing the stench and black blood of the Foglings, I was already regretting accepting the bargain. At least this one term.

Pen had twisted her head to the side, raking her widened stare all over my body. “But…but…that is so…tiny.” She’d not taken well to the Olympian wardrobe, but the slinky ivory satin nightgown that barely brushed past my cheeks and hung up by the sheer will of two hair thin strings on my shoulders was a different story altogether.

“Quick,” Nia said, ushering me toward the balcony. “Leave before Cai comes back to see you off. He will not let you leave if he sees you in that.”

One the way, I grabbed my trusty pillow and warned, “If I don’t return by dawn, presume I’ve killed the bastard and am raging disaster on Adriata.”

“Funny,” she mocked. But I was completely serious.

Bolting took me less than a moment, but it was a good means to release some pent-up magic. Usually, I lit the sky in thunder and struck land once or twice to cover flakes of my magic shedding out of me. My seal gathered the ever-flowing magic in my body like a pot tipping with water, and if I didn't tip the water, I'd drown and overflow my surroundings too. I’d lose control and the seal would slip free.

The earth beneath my feet had charred from the hit of lightning, soon all of this land would be littered in soot and bones. Soon. It bothered me how that ‘soon’ had been postponed—like an itch I couldn’t relieve.

His gardens were magical at night. The sweet breeze was infused with the scent of flowers, the soft lulling night sparkled with fireflies and restless flower folk jumping around, and for the first time, the sound of cicadas seemed to form a cohesive melody. What took my breath away, however, was neither the blooming night flower nor the round rosy moon, it was the infinite blanket of night twinkling with the most stars I’d ever seen. The more beauty I found the more I wanted to ruin it. Make it all dirty and paint it red.

A gasp pulled my attention to my surroundings. A young guard had frozen before me, eyes aghast and locked in shock.

“Point me to you king, I am already late.”

A scream tore from his throat, and I put a hand over my chest. “Sacred balls of Nubil, that startled me. Your king, you daft thing.”

Then he surprised me a third time tonight when he took off in a sprint toward the opposite direction from me. And I was left blinking to myself a couple of times.

“We thought Nia would accompany you,” Mal’s voice came from the top of the stairs leading to the castle. The prince’s dishevelled form was perhaps the handsomest sight of tonight. His brown locks were loose from the usual band and blew in the breeze as did his unbuttoned white shirt. “Should have made our guards aware you might be coming by…other means of transport.”

None of us spoke. Just stared at one another for a moment. It was beginning to annoy me. I loved words yet I’d swallowed everything I had to say.

“Hello, Snow.”

“Hello, Princeling. I am late.”

“So, they are alive,” he said, taking a jagged deep breath. “Your brother and sister.”

Cai’s words flooded my mind and for a moment made me regret having asked for their help. “Not until I find them.”

He nodded. “Third floor, left corridor, first room to your right.”

I stopped a few steps above him. Something was bothering me. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He shook his head lightly and barked a short laugh. “Thought I saw something. Had a drink with my brother earlier, but shouldn’t have, really.”

Just like that he was gone.

The lilac-coloured corridors were void of life yet full of it. Lush candlelight and moonlight pouring from the massive arched windows blurred together, creating a dream haze along my path. The gentle sway of gossamer ivory curtains along the summer breeze almost lulled me to sleep right there.