The Deadly Curse

23.1 | A Moment Longer

TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDE IDEATION

...,.(@

//a moment longer, part 01// 

Gaia took advantage of air currents, shooting into them for added bursts of speed. Her ribbon wings beat hard, her muscles coiling. Her wings only stilled to angle us into air pockets to make us faster.

She had peered at me once, at the beginning of our flight. Our identical eyes had locked, and a silent conversation passed between us. I begged her to get us to Prince Rune first. She promised, a steely determination crossing her face. After I wordlessly thanked her, she focused on rocketing toward the fire.

My heart hurt from hammering so fast and so hard. It ached from my desperate need to be with Rune, to save him from the Sprite military that was gaining on us. I couldn't let them harm him. I couldn't let him harm himself.

Nissa provided unhelpful commentary. She informed me of how much more skilled at riding dizayen the Guarans were, compared to us. The dizayen were better at flying, too, though that had more to do with age than anything, Nissa insisted (Gaia was an adolescent, while the military rode adult dizayen). She rambled on out of nervousness, I gathered. But I had to tune her out. The constant reminders that we were clearly outmatched did nothing to untie the knots in my stomach.

The King's decision to allow the Sprite military to confront his son, without him there, rattled my bones with ire. How could a father do that to their own child? Their only child at that. He had claimed that they wouldn't kill Rune if he proved innocuous. But the fire did the exact opposite: Rune was a danger, a threat, to Eternity in the eyes of the Sprites. And apparently in the eyes of his own father, too. Why would he agree to let the Sprite military move against his own son?

We passed into a growing cloud of smoke. It was black and acrid, rousing harsh coughs from our throats. Below, the smoke was thick, almost too thick to see the fire eating the trees. But licks of flame shot out like cracks of a whip. The crackling became thunderous. It was hot and ashy, the taste of burning wood hitting my tongue. Tears welled in my eyes, fighting off the sting of the smoke. We had to get out of this—Gaia's flight slowed, and we couldn't afford to let the army arrive first.

Unlike the King, I was willing to sacrifice myself for Prince Rune. Because I loved him. And I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he hadn't destroyed the forest on purpose. He wasn't a threat. If anything, he was a danger to himself. The entire reason he had run and hid was to protect Eternity.

Whether or not he thought so, I believed Rune could control his magic. It wasn't his magic that controlled him now. It was fear. I refused to let anyone hurt Rune, simply because he was afraid.

I had no idea if I could get through to him. When I'd tried previously, his fear had deafened him. But I couldn't give up on Rune. I'd done it once before, and I hated myself for it.

I didn't know him as intimately as I wanted. But I knew his essence. Prince Rune was good. Selfless. The little boy who not only watched his mother destroy his home and go to jail for it, but also blamed himself for all of it, had grown into a broken and hurt man. And it was because of what he had gone through, that he became his present self—and I fell in love with that person.

Love wasn't designed to discriminate. I loved both his good and bad parts. And he deserved to love both those parts of himself, too.

"Belline," called Nissa, tapping my shoulder. "Look." She pointed below us.