Page 27 of Healing Elixirs & Wicked Crows

The pixies hung in the air around their queen as she backed away from us both.She faced Rosemary, turning her back to me as if to dismiss me.

"I bid you farewell, young seelie.You may slumber here this evening, and you will remain safe.Come first light, you may begin your travels anew.May the ancient magic guide your path and lead you to the answers you seek.Should you ever need aid, call upon the pixies of the glade.We will come."

Sparkling pixie dust clouded around them, and then they vanished from the meadow.I knew they still occupied the area, though they had removed themselves from our view.The warmth from the fire would be a pleasant change from where we had slumbered the previous night, but the eyes of the pixies, even unseen, would feel like thorns upon my skin all night long.

As the pixies began to disperse, something fundamentally shifted between Rosemary and me.We'd both revealed our deepest fears tonight; hers of losing herself while saving others, mine of being the monster everyone expected.But more than that, I'd seen her true power unleashed, and it both thrilled and terrified me.

The way she'd looked at me when I’d finished the story, the gentle certainty in her voice, it gave me hope I didn't deserve.But it also made what I'd eventually have to do that much harder.

They'd watch us through this journey now.They'd see everything I did, every choice I made.Including the choice I'd have to make at the end of this quest.

But what troubled me more was what we'd discovered tonight.The pixie child's curse had been so similar to Briar’s.Yet, it didn’t need a flower to break it.It had been weaker. My mother had been experimenting, perfecting her magic on innocent victims before targeting the seelie royal family.If she'd been testing curses for decades before, what other horrors awaited us as we drew closer to her domain?

And what would happen when Rosemary's growing power, that wild, uncontrolled magic that had blazed like a star tonight, met my mother's ancient malice?I'd felt the hunger in Rosemary's magic, the way it had wanted to keep flowing, to reshape the world according to her will.Queen Mab was right about power's price.

I had no choice.I would do what was necessary, just like the knight in my story.Even if it meant becoming the villain in hers.

But now I wondered… would protecting her from the truth be enough?Or would I be forced to protect her from herself?

Like an Addiction

ELIAS

Rosemary wandered through the woods, her leather-bound journal always in hand.Her tongue peeked from the corner of her mouth as her brow furrowed in concentration.Each image she captured was a near-perfect likeness, capturing the essence of every plant she studied.I often had to shout warnings as she attempted to jot notes while walking.She dismissed my complaints about her frequent stops to study the forest fauna, finding my objections to her drawing while moving equally unwelcome.

"You know," she said suddenly, stopping mid-step and turning to face me with an expression I hadn't seen before, "I'm tired of you treating me like I don't know what I'm doing."

I paused, caught off guard by the firmness in her voice."What do you mean?"

"Every time I stop to gather something, you act like I'm wasting precious time.But I've been a healer for over a century, Elias.I know which plants we'll need."She secured something carefully in her pack, her movements deliberate and confident."Those pixies we encountered?If they had enchanted you instead of just trying to lure you into their dance, some of these plants could have saved your life.The sedatives I've collected could help us escape if we're cornered by something we can't fight.”

"I never said you didn't know what you were doing," I replied, but something in her stance made me reconsider my usual dismissive tone.

"You didn't have to say it.It's in every sigh, every impatient gesture."She shouldered her pack and met my gaze directly, unflinching."I may need your help to reach the daemonacus flower, but don't mistake that for incompetence.I've kept my sister alive for a century when everyone else said it was hopeless.And I’ve survived living alone in the woods for all that time.I am capable of more than you know."

I found myself studying her with new eyes, seeing something I'd somehow missed."You're right," I said, the admission surprising me."I apologize.I'm not used to..."I trailed off.

"Used to what?"

"Used to traveling with someone whose judgment I trust as much as my own."The words came out before I could stop them, and they were truer than I'd expected.

Something shifted in her expression, a confidence settling into her features that made my chest tight."Then trust me now.The next time I stop to gather something, it's because we need it.Not because I'm being careless with time."

For the first time since we'd started this journey, she felt like my equal rather than someone I was protecting.And that realization was both thrilling and terrifying.I loved this side of her.

We walked for hours this morning in a deafening silence.

The quiet didn't seem to bother Rosemary as much as it did me.I couldn't figure her out.How had she forgotten me so easily?I'd given hints to our past that should have gone off like fireflies within her mind, but still, our history seemed lost to her.

Getting her to love me again would be difficult if I wasn't within her memory, especially with her newfound biases against the unseelie.How was I supposed to do it?How could I bypass those prejudices and get her to fall for me again before time ran out?

She shut her journal with a loud snap, her fingers gripping the weathered leather cover firmly.With narrowed eyes, she glanced back over her shoulder, clearly annoyed.Her brown eyes sparkled with irritation as she pursed her lips at my deliberate dawdling behind her.

Her ankle was no longer swollen, but she still walked cautiously as if the pain lingered.She tucked the journal into her pack.The plant she'd been documenting lay at least thirty minutes behind us now.When her gaze met mine, I smiled.

One day… The full moon was in three days and we still had a long journey ahead.Each second we hesitated was another second taken from us and our chance to break the curse.I hated that our time was limited, that this deadline loomed over us both in more ways than one.

A stream of sunlight caught her golden hair, highlighting the brassy red beneath the glow.She'd twisted it into two braids, though many loose strands had fallen free during the hike.Waves framed her soft, delicate face and drew attention to the smooth lines of her jaw.It was mesmerizing.Honestly, her hair had always been my undoing.Even now, my fingers itched to undo those ties at the ends of her braids.