Once again, I release the power of the Green Flame, willing it to become embers in the hearth that holds my magic. The baron’s screaming at me, telling me this is my chance, I must save him.
And I will. In the way he’s asked me to.
I close my eyes and listen. Listen for the wind my brother heard. It whispers out of his lungs, dancing around his body in celebration.
The last wind. We are the final breath of life as it passes into the beyond.
But it’s not an ugly thing. In fact, it’s beautiful. The changing colors of the leaves, their journey from tree to forest floor, the transitions to long nights filled with stars.
We are the grand adventure between life and death.
And as High Prince of Autumn, my job is to shepherd the journey.
There are other winds nearby. I feel them above me, snagged on bones too tired to carry on, caught in the half-life I trapped them in. They are thralls in a way. Thralls to life, which they no longer belong in.
Thralls to the Baron.
As I am.
“I’m going to protect you,” I whisper over the constellations of freckles on Billy’s face.
It’s not a spell read from a scroll, as I did in Autumn.
It’s a breath. My wind mixes with his wind.I will see you to the arms of our mother. Wait for me. One day, I will join you. And in the meantime, go on grand adventures, and I will do the same. When I next see you, we will have stories upon stories to last us until the end of time.
I keep breathing, one breath at a time. My wind flows with Billagin’s and up through the dark cavern to meet those of my soldiers.I will show you the way.
I gave you a gift, a voice snarls in my mind.
This is no gift, I say back.And I will not let it poison me anymore. For when it is my turn to join my family wherever the Autumn wind blows, I will have them look upon me and know my heart.
I expect him to fight. To crawl into the cracks of fear that lace through my body.
But I have my brother’s wind with me. For his last adventure in the Enchanted Vale, we blow together, filling my chest with all the strength and love of Autumn. And I feel something dark and evil within me extinguish.
Goodbye, little brother.
Up above, lights begin to wink out. One by one, the soldiers I cursed with the Green Flame blow away like embers on a wind.
The air becomes very still.
Now, knowing he is free of pain, I grab Billy’s body and clutch him tight. My heart is shards, as shattered and jagged as bones dashed upon rock.
But it is mine, fully and completely.
“You did that,” I whisper to my little brother, rocking him against my chest as if he were but a baby. “You gave my heart back to me.”
I can’t endure the thought of him down here in the dark. Orange flames envelop us as I propel up the cliffside.
Dayton and Dominic stand back-to-back, surrounded by the fallen bodies of our comrades. Free now to go wherever their families await them.
Dayton’s breathing heavily. He rubs his chest and shakes his head, skin pale. “F-Fare…”
I lower Billy to the ground, and Dom lets out a horrid wail. In this moment, his soul, his heart, has forever been cleaved in two.
I collapse, burying my face in my dead brother’s chest, and howl my grief into the abyss.
50
