Page 45 of Healing Elixirs & Wicked Crows

"Bring me some fresh supplies," I said, my voice steady despite the fear in my heart."And bring the unseelie.If I'm going to save your son and find another way to help my sister, I'll need all the help I can get."

As Freya rushed to gather what I needed, I placed my hands on the boy's chest again, feeling the dark curse fighting against my magic.Whatever choice I made here would change everything.I could only pray it would be enough to save them all.

The door opened, and I heard the shuffle of feet.When I looked up, my heart clenched at the sight of Elias being led in, his hands bound, a dried wound on his head.Darkness spidering through the veins of his hands, his arms, and up the curve of his neck.His fierce gaze immediately locked onto mine.

"Princess," he said softly, and in that one word I heard relief, concern, and something deeper that made my chest tight.

"Are you hurt?"I asked, wanting to go to him but needing to focus on the patient before me.

"I'll live," he said, then looked at the boy on the bed."The curse?"

"The same one affecting Briar, but stronger.Evolved."I met his gaze."Elias, I need to ask you something, and I need you to be completely honest with me."

He nodded, though I saw wariness in his expression.

"Do you know anything about this curse?About how it works, how it spreads?Because if we can't stop it here, it's going to keep growing until it affects every magical child in the realm."

Something flickered in his eyes, knowledge he wasn't sure he should share."What do you need to know?"

"Everything," I said firmly."Because I'm about to risk everything I have to save this boy, and if there's any chance it won't work, I need to know now."

The weight of the moment settled around us.Hours until the full moon.A dying child before us.A curse that grew stronger with each victim.And choices that would determine my sister’s fate.

I just hoped I was strong enough to make the right ones.

Hard to Grasp

ELIAS

The binds around my wrists dug painfully into my skin, my weakened arms twisted behind me.The injuries from my crow form transferred to my fae body in relentless aches and pains.I watched Rosemary work, my mind numbed by the agony in my back.

She was a natural healer, and I had no doubt she could cure the shifter boy.Yet, I noticed the flicker of worry in her wide brown eyes whenever she glanced at my prone form against the wall.She longed to come to me, to heal my battered body, but her duty kept her focused on the poisoned son of the pack's alpha.

She moved with quiet determination, her hands trembling slightly as she opened the small, wax-cloth pouch.Even from across the chamber, I recognized the pale shimmer of the petals she cradled like spun glass in her palm.Moonbell.The… What had she called it?Catalyst.The catalyst for her sister’s cure.And now, without ceremony, she crushed them between her fingers and let the silver powder fall into the boy’s open mouth.

The magic was instant, gentle but sure.It threaded itself through the boy’s limbs like dandelion fluff caught on wind, chasing the curse away with a kind of sweetness only nature could offer.Rosemary dipped a cloth into a basin of warmed river water and wiped his brow with such care.The glow of the petals faded slowly from his skin, leaving behind a pink flush of life… and a hollow look in Rosemary’s eyes.She had given something precious, something meant for her own blood.For a child she did not know.My chest twisted with guilt I had no right to claim.

She knelt there for a long time after, her hands in her lap, the powder from the petals still clinging to her fingertips like frost.She had made her choice.Not because it was easy, but because it was right.And though I was bound, bruised, and broken against the stone, I had never felt smaller than I did in that moment, watching her give everything, even the last fragile pieces of her hope, to save someone else.

Freya sank into the mattress beside her son the moment his fingers twitched.“Luca,” she whispered, brushing a strand of damp hair from his forehead with a trembling hand.His eyelids fluttered, heavy and slow, and for a breathless second, the chamber held nothing but the sound of his ragged inhale.“Mama,” he murmured, the word soft and slurred like the edge of a lullaby, before his lashes closed again and sleep reclaimed him.Freya pressed her lips to his temple, her shoulders shaking as she gathered him into her arms, rocking slightly as if to convince herself he was real, that he was still hers.Her tears dripped onto his cheeks, his pillows, silent and unbothered by pride, while the scent of crushed moonbell lingered in the air like old promises and selfless love.

Freya drew in a slow, steadying breath, then smoothed the patch-work quilt over Luca’s chest.Only when the boy’s breathing settled into a quiet rhythm did she rise, shoulders squared and eyes rimmed red but clear with purpose.Turning toward Rosemary, she folded her hands in front of her and bowed her head in gratitude so deep it seemed to settle like dew on every stone in the chamber.

"We cannot thank you enough," Freya said, embracing Rosemary tightly, her tear-stained face buried in Rosemary's hair.

"You don't need to thank me, but if you could untie my companion, point us in the right direction as promised, and let us go, that will be thanks enough," Rosemary answered, guiding Freya to the edge of the large bed.When no one moved to do as she'd asked, she paused, facing them all again with determination tugging at her brow.

Malcolm cleared his throat, his hand on his wife's shoulder."We will take you back to the forest, but this one will remain tied while we do so.He injured one of my wolves."

Rosemary tilted her head, then she gave a firm nod."I suppose that's fair, as long as you intend to allow him to come with me."

"He will be free to leave with you.He should know, though, that if he ever finds himself in our territory again, he will not be leaving it."

The man who had dumped me earlier knelt before me, grinning with malice.His eyes locked on mine as his sun-kissed skin morphed into stormy gray fur.I watched, uneasy, as his fingers transformed into sharp claws.He sliced through the leather cord binding my ankles, his wolf paw lingering as a silent warning before he gruffly pulled me to my feet.

My wrists still screamed within their ties, but Rosemary gave me the faintest head shake when my shoulders shifted against their hold.Her eyes begged me not to make this worse.Fine.

I winced as the man's grip tightened along my upper arm, dragging me through the doorway ahead of Rosemary.The paths of these tunnels lay like an earthen maze, and I couldn't wait to break back into the fresh air above.