This time, he came into the spell room with me and watched as I made the concoction that would heal him. When I finished, he drank the liquid down without questioning me or thinking twice about it. He knew I would never hurt him. As he drank, his eyes begged me for something. Understanding, maybe?
I understood why he had to leave, but it didn’t mean I had to like it, or that it wasn’t crushing me. I felt like parts of me were breaking apart and falling away, scattering to the wind like the ashes of my father did. Not for the first time, I wished it had been me that Malex killed first.
“Let’s get you home,” I said finally.
He pursed his lips and nodded. “Will you drop me in the forest?”
I blew out a breath. “I’d like to fly you all the way to your palace. I want them to know they don’t have to fear me.”
“They will anyway.”
“Maybe, but they’ll also know that I protected you. It’ll earn their respect, if not their fear.”
Phillip sat the small glass on my counter. “You’re right.”
PHILLIP
My home, the palace of Grithim, glittered in the afternoon sun. I couldn’t help but feel happy to see it, and wanted to see the look on my mother’s and father’s faces when I returned unscathed, but I knew Luna was taking a risk in coming here. Once she stepped foot on Grithim soil, she would be surrounded. We both would.
And that was exactly what happened. As soon as she set us down on the palace yard, the guards descended with their weapons drawn and bristling.
She just smiled at them and said in a booming voice, “I return your Prince to you and this is the treatment I receive?”
A few moments later, my parents ran through the front door, pushing through the sea of soldiers. I jumped from the broom and went to them. Mother cried while Father clapped me on the shoulder, asking thirty questions in the span of a minute.
“What’s this?” My father stilled, finally looking at Luna. His eyes flicked to me, and red-hot rage burned a path across his face. “You brought one of the fae into our kingdom?” he snarled.
“No, your Majesty,” Luna answered calmly. “A fae returned your son to you, and since you’ve not yet said thank you, and I’m sure that you’re so overwhelmed by emotion that you’ve simply forgotten your manners, you’re welcome.”
Father’s face turned from scarlet to purple and he started toward her, his hand on the hilt of his sword. I stepped between them, holding my hands out to halt his advance.
“It’s true!” I boomed. “She saved me, Father. I wouldn’t be standing here if it weren’t for her.”
Father’s eyes narrowed, and then flicked between me and Luna. “I wasn’t harmed, Father. I had an accident in the woods. Blackheart ran over a cliff and we fell. I was lucky to survive. Luna healed me, and then she brought me back home.”
Father relaxed, the tension melting from his body as he pulled me away from Luna and into an embrace. He spoke to her over my shoulder, his voice wavering with every word. “Thank you for returning him to us, whole and unscathed.”
I never imagined he’d care if I came back or not. My chest tightened as I finally stepped away from him to calm my sobbing mother.
Word quickly spread about my return. Soon, people spilled out of the castle, surrounding me and my parents, cheering and celebrating. The din of the chatter was deafening. I searched for Luna through the sea of faces, through the hands that clapped or waved handkerchiefs, but didn’t find her among the people of Grithim. They had slowly pushed her away, and in response, she took to the sky and left me behind.
“Luna!” I called out.
She heard me. I knew she did. But Luna never looked back.
LUNA
“Ankou….” I cooed.
The shape-shifting devil appeared before me at the bottom of a cliff. “What do you want, witch?”
I smiled. “I’m so glad you asked.”
With my wind, I pinned him against the rock wall. And then I took my time driving long spikes into his limbs to hold him there. “Now, you know where you belong. It is not anywhere near my cottage, my palace, Virosa land, or the dark forest. If I catch you there again, or sniffing anywhere near Phillip, I will end you. Consider this a warning and a testament to the fact that I can show mercy.”
He howled in agony as I nailed his neck to the rock.
When I let him go, he began muttering and thrashing to get free. The iron was burning his rotten flesh. He’d eventually free himself, but not without learning exactly where he was and wasn’t welcome.
And I hope he told the entire forest what would happen to anyone who so much as glanced the wrong way at the Prince of Grithim, or who stepped foot onto my land regardless of what enticed them there.
If I couldn’t be with Phillip, I would make sure he was safe from my kind.
And I hadn’t gotten a reputation for being a dark witch by being nice.
chapter twenty-eight
LUNA
Three weeks later…
I’d made several trips to Malex’s cave and back to the cottage over the past few weeks, deciding that Ember and I were more comfortable in the woods for now. The palace was enormous and empty, and though it was filled with fine things, they weren’t what I needed or wanted.
Instead, I plundered my father’s spell books and belongings. It was my inheritance, I reasoned. Lugging another heavy bag of books over my shoulder and into the cottage, I looked around for Ember and found her sitting in Phillip’s lap.
Phillip was in my chair—in his chair—by the hearth, petting my familiar.
“What are you doing here?” I asked breathlessly.
“Are you going to choke me this time?” he teased.
“Not this time,” I said, sitting the heavy bag on the floor.
He sat Ember on the floor and stood up, striding toward me.
“Why are you here?”
He smiled. “Because there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
Even while my heart leaped toward him, I knew I had to be cautious. “Phillip, do your parents know you left?”
“Of course.”
“They can’t be happy about that,” I said as he reached out and clasped my hands in his.
“They aren’t.”
“They won’t approve of you visiting me.”
“This isn’t a visit, Luna.” His dark eyes bore into mine.
“What is it, then?”
“I can’t stand being away from you.”
“Phillip,” I said, treading lightly. “Your feelings for me were clouded. Aura influenced them. She heightened your emotions, and what you felt might not have been real.”
“That’s why I’m here. I wanted to find out if any of it was. And do you know what I’ve learned, just by seeing you?”
“What’s that?” I asked, swallowing thickly.
“She didn’t influence very much at all. Seeing you walk through that door, I thought my heart would burst.”
“I’m immortal, Phillip, and you aren’t. How could this possibly work?” I choked, excitement and grief mingling as one.
“One day at a time, lovely Luna,” he answered simply. “Maybe Malex was right about fae blood. Maybe one day, if you decide you want me to stay with you forever, you’ll let me taste yours, but for now, why don’t we just—”
“Start over?” I offered.