When Stars Align || G. Lafayette

Chapter 16

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I didn't see Lafayette for several months after that.

He left a bit over a week later without saying goodbye, leaving me full of regret for everything that had happened, for not being able to face my feelings.

God, why did it always have to be like this?

Regardless, about two months later, snow began to fall, wrapping the world in a gorgeous coat of white. Though, for those of us stuck under our paper-thin blankets under canvas tents, the beauty didn't mean all that much.

My men were suffering; every day our numbers dropped either from death or mutiny, and I almost didn't know which was worse. On top of everything, we were starving, and while that wasn't exactly new, the winter months brought our lack of food on stronger as farmers stopped supplying it.

I found myself less able to face Nael with each passing day. It was my fault he was here with the army; he wouldn't have left home otherwise. I dragged him into the war, and now he was suffering because of it.

Hell, it was my fault everyone in my section of the army was suffering. I was failing them. And I couldn't stop it.

The colder, darker months didn't just leave us in hell on earth; with the snow came the nightmares. Night after night, I tossed and turned with thoughts of my loved ones dying, from Lafayette to Mémé. Despite the cold, I awoke during most nights in a pool of my own sweat, eyes wide and heart pounding.

So while all across the land, families were waking up in their warm houses to soft clouds of white settling into the earth, we were waking up to a world foaming at the mouth as it bared its white teeth at us in a wicked grin.

We couldn't help that it felt like the end.

Yet still, through all the pain and loss, those of us who stayed continued to push forward as much as we were able.

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December 17, 1779

General Washington,

Numbers are dropping. It feels like the end. I'm having trouble getting the troops to carry on.

Have as merry a Christmas as you're able. I travel to south camp sometime this week for a meeting, and leave AH in charge while I'm gone. I hope you'll put at least a bit of faith in his words, despite his recklessness.

We will carry on. Life isn't fair, but magic is strongest in the struggle. And we can use all the magic we can get.

Levi King

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Three days and three nights of riding non-stop, and both York and I were not only entirely exhausted but also frozen to the core.

The night was pitch dark, silent, and cloudless, the only thing to be heard was the soft clopping of hooves on hard packed dirt. Though I never pulled, my grip on York's reins only tightened with each passing minute I watched my hands turn a shade darker blue. I breathed shallowly, not trusting my lungs to the extent I should and only feeling scratching in my dry throat as I stifled a coughing fit.

I felt so defeated, so angry as I carried on through the farmlands that seemed to stretch on forever with but one house for many miles. Finally, just as I began to consider carrying on no further, letting the cold take both York and me for lack of other options, I reached it. Something akin to a mansion glowed in the distance, the warmth practically radiating off the candles lit in every window as I saw the house’s open shutters rattling in the winter storm.