“I’m not dead yet, so don’t start crying.” Javi coughed and, rolling onto an arm, pushed himself off the floor. A whistle slipped through his gritted teeth as he reached for the back of his head. His fingers came away slick with red. “That’s gonna hurt.”
“Don’t move,” she commanded.
“I could not do so if I wished.” He blinked, amber eyes sharpening for a moment as they snagged on Risa’s throat. “You’re hurt.”
She shrugged his concern away. There were more pressing matters.
Like the fact that the airship was continuing to fall.
After helping him back down on the rug with a gentle hand, she left him there to moan in pain while she hurried to the cockpit and tried her best to figure out if she could fly the damn thing herself.
Buttons and knobs and levers greeted her from across a black console made of—surprise—metal. On the right was the jagged, broken end of a steering column. Beside it, a wheel wrapped in leather. Above the console, a large window looked out onto the world as it flew past in a blur.
She flipped all the switches, pressed all the buttons save for the large red one that hadSELF-DESTRUCTprinted beneath it. The airship slowed and righted itself for a moment, then simply continued its nosedive. A white stone fortress glimmered in the near distance, though the more urgent issue was the sea of sand they were plunging toward.
It would take more than button smashing to fix this. She needed a whole lot of magic to work a miracle.
The Regent’s words rang in her mind. How magic needed belief.
Well, it wasn’t like there was anything else she could do.
She struggled back into the main cabin, nearly colliding with a bench. Reaching Javi, she sank down and gathered Brunie in her lap before taking Javi’s hands in hers.
“I’m still quite upset with you, but considering we might die, I’ll put that aside for now,” she told him.
She closed her eyes and tried to conjure the feeling of Brunhilda’s magic as it raced across her skin like little sparks of fire. Thought of all the vines and weeds and threads that made up curses, how they wrapped around people. Imagined working her own kind of magic, a curse that worked forher, knots around the airship to keep it afloat, to keep it together. She didn’t understand the first thingabout magic, how it did or didn’t work, but she wasn’t going to let it get the best of her yet.
Upon opening her eyes, she expected to find that the airship had stopped its mad dash toward the earth, but instead she saw Javi sitting up, his face hovering close to hers. So close she could count the freckles spattered across his nose and the few lone ones that dared stray from the pack. One below his right eye. Another at the corner of his mouth. She discovered a scar on his chin that matched one she had earned when she ran into a wall at age seven. Risa was an explorer stumbling across uncharted territory, and finding beauty that she never imagined existed in the planes of his face.
Adrenaline made it impossible to tear her gaze from him. Their death was moments away, tangible and real, and she was too concerned with the wrinkle between Javi’s brows. The molten gold of his eyes.
And then it hit her like a giant airship careening toward the earth. Risa finally,finallyunderstood what her insides had been trying to say all this time. Why her heart twinged painfully in her chest when he was away. Why she couldn’t breathe when he looked at her.
Why she couldn’t breathe now as he stared at her as if she were more than just a girl.
She had no idea when it had happened. Only that now that she realized it, it felt like magic.
“Curses,” she breathed.
Javi tilted his head a fraction of an inch, mouth twisting in confusion. Dirt had somehow joined the smudge of crimson across his face. As they hurtled toward the ground like a star shaken from its place in the sky, he looked more handsome than she ever thought possible.
“What?”
She was falling in love with him.
He was infuriating and self-serving, obsessed with himself and his image, but he was also rather quick-witted, and he never failed to smile. He didn’t know much, and he wasn’t particularly skilled with a sword, and he might be a talented singer if he could come up with better rhymes, but those weren’t things she cared about. What she loved was that he ate salted fish soup without complaint. He nuzzled with Brunie when he thought she wasn’t looking, and hadn’t complained about his stuffed nose since the first day. She loved that for someone who loved to be loved, he didn’t mind so much that shedidn’tcare for his charm or his smile. She loved that he kept at her side despite knowing she had a secret, despite knowing it could hurt him in the end.
This time, when he lifted his hand, he placed it on her shoulder and anchored her in place. His gold gaze met hers.
“Have you finally realized you’re in love with me?”
“What I’ve realized is we’re about to die in a fiery, burning crash.”
He didn’t tear his eyes away. “It would appear so.”
“Could be worse,” she tried to say, though she wasn’t sure if the words ever really formed.
“Blast it,” Javi cursed. “If I don’t do this, I’ll regret it forever.”
