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Right then, I see a sword hitting my husband’s shoulder. He’s still defending himself, but he won’t last. My breath stops.
I stop wiggling and trying to free myself, as if I had given up. Nelsin still holds me firmly, his two arms circling me. I lift my hands, then put one leg behind one of his, and throw myself back toward the ground. As we fall back, I pull the sword from his belt and knee his groin.
“Don’t stop me,” I say as I get up.
There’s no time to think. I throw the sword down the cliff, then jump, aiming for an area with soft grass. I’ve never jumped from such a height, but I have to trust the Almighty Mother. It’s that trust that guides me to a soft, undisturbed patch of grass, that guides me into a perfect roll, absorbing my fall.
Nelsin’s sword glints on the ground, near a rock, and I run to grab it, but then I glance beside me—and stop. There is nobody attacking Marlak anymore.
And no Marlak. I stop breathing.
No sounds of any conflict or assailants. I rush towards the place where he was, while Nelsin’s voice mixes with the wind.
There’s nothing. Nothing. Just grass and rocks and emptiness. Infinite emptiness.
“Astra!” Nelsin shouts from behind me.
And then it hits me. Why he didn’t help. Perhaps even why he brought me here. I feel anger stinging my eyes and turn to him.“Traitor!”
He has his hands raised, top ears flopping down. “It was an illusion.”
What? The words don’t make sense, but they’re enough to stop me. Only then I realize I was rushing in his direction, sword in hand. I don’t even recall picking up the weapon. I don’t even know what I planned to do with it.
“An illusion, Astra,” he repeats, then the four hooded figures appear behind him, except that they have their hands up and move their hips as if following the rhythm of a happy song. “Are you hurt?”
My pride is, and it gets even more wounded as I watch the figures disappear behind the conniving fae.
I’m such an idiot. The realization of my foolishness hurts the most. From the moment I saw Marlak, I knew he wasn’t himself. Well, of course. It wasn’t him. And Nelsin thinks this is funny?
I throw his sword on the ground, hoping it gets badly damaged in the fall, then approach him and push him. “You’re an asshole!”
He falls back, way back, and hits the ground hard. I can’t have pushed him that hard, can I? I almost feel sorry for that. Almost.
Sitting up slowly, he stares at me. “Astra, did you get hurt in the fall?”
“I jumped. Didn’t fall. And your joke is atrocious.” Then I add, “Are you hurt?”
He rubs his hands over his face. “Listen, I’m sorry. I never thought you’d jump.”
“What did you expect? What was the point of this?” My voice is high, my eyes are blurry, and I’m pointing a finger at him with trembling arms.
“First, I wanted proof that you can be trusted. That you care.”
That’s ridiculous. “I do not care!”
He blinks slowly. His top ears are folded down. “If you were to see Marlak getting hurt, it would bother you.”
“Anyone getting hurt would bother me.”
Nelsin rubs his face some more. “Yes. Including Marlak. But… the thing is, what I did today, staying there with you, that’s exactly what I would have to do in case something like this happened. My order is to protect you, not him. And I wanted your help. To convince him to change his orders.”
This cat fae is definitely crazy. “Right. Let’s trick and humiliate her, that will definitely get her to collaborate with me.”
“No, no. Nobody was humiliated. I just wanted you to see. I’d never guess you’d free yourself from my grip, or that you have some magical jumping abilities. I’m glad you do, and that you’re not hurt. But if this had been real, would you really try to take on four enemies on your own?”
In truth, I wasn’t thinking at all. Had I been thinking, I would have realized that it wasn’t Marlak in less than a second, but I have a good explanation as to why I jumped. “If your oath is to protect me, and if I got myself in the heat of the action, you’d have to intervene, right?”
There’s something new in the way he looks at me, like a spark of admiration. “Yes. But it’s not a good solution. It would be dangerous.”
