Page 70 of Healing Elixirs & Wicked Crows

With a heavy, annoyed sigh, I answered, “You both missed a century of time where Rosemary and I both lived, struggled, and survived.You look at me as if I am the same as you, as if Rosemary is the same as Briar, but we are not the same.There is strength in Rosemary, resiliency.Trust me, if my princess were here, she would be the first to tell you to shut up and move.”

My brother dropped his hand from my shoulder and looked away.“That’s not entirely true,” he said, “I was aware of every moment that passed while I was trapped in my crow form.I was there with her; with your princess, and with mine.”He held his hand out to Briar, helping her step from one large stone onto another, avoiding the green slime of liquid settling along the center of the tunnel.“I spent the last forty years watching over them both.What took you so long to find them, Elias?”

To find us,he didn’t add as hurt flickered across his features.

My jaw clenched, but I loosened it.“You want to know where I was, brother?I was slowly dying because I didn’t know any of you still lived.I wished for death a thousand times but was too much a coward to take myself out.Instead, I took the greatest risks and gambled with my life.Mother told me everyone had perished in her curses, and when faced with an endless existence with only Mother left, I fled into the shadows.”

I stormed ahead.I didn’t want to talk about it anymore.I held so much shame and regret, it was the driving force behind why I thought it would be better to break Rosemary’s heart and drive her away from me rather than shackle her to me for eternity.I shuddered at my stupidity.I just wanted to find Rosemary.Needed to find her.The stench faded, or perhaps my nose just became blind to it, but as we traversed the tunnels, I knew we weren’t far from the massive door that led into the castle.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me, little brother,” Darius said, his footsteps steady behind me.I didn’t glance back at him though.I couldn’t.A lump formed in the center of my throat, and I swallowed it back.Now was not the time for weakness.

When I could speak, I only said, “You were right where you needed to be, Darius.I do not fault you for that.I understand, even.If our roles had been reversed, I imagine I would have been there too.”

“I know, but I hate that you were alone for all that.I hate that you had the desire to destroy yourself and then to have been given hope recently just to have that taken away again.What was it like seeing her again?”Darius asked softly.

The only sound as we travelled through the tunnels were our gentle footfalls and our whispered conversation.We seemed completely alone down here, and Briar trailed along silently, letting us have this brotherly moment after so long without one.

“It felt like a gift that I didn’t deserve.My initial reaction was to destroy it,” I confessed, leading our way ever forward.“But gods, Darius, I was so wrong.I thought that if I could make her fall in love with me to break the curse, that I could betray that love and leave her.I thought it would be better for her if I left.I know I’ll never deserve an ounce of her light, but damn it all to hell, Darius, I don’t care.She knew all of this and still broke the curse.She loved me anyway.”

My fingertips brushed away the dampness as it slid down my cheek.Since the beginning, I’d sabotaged our love.All the endless teasing, the incessant need to untangle her braids, everything.I was still stuck in that damn fountain, drowning over and over even after she saved me again and again.I would never feel good enough for her because she was utterly perfect.

I was nothing more than an underserving unseelie prince who gave up and fell into despair.Letting it twist me into something that didn’t even deserve to be in her presence.It was too much.I'd almost ruined everything.

Darius stopped then, pulling me into his chest as I cried.Briar waited several feet away, lightly touching the stone walls then wrinkling her nose as she inspected the grime that came away on her fingers.I wrapped my arms around my brother, holding him to me as I let my tears fall.

“Brother,” he said, “I understand that feeling of unworthiness.The need to push others away before they get too close, to hurt them so they don’t get to know you because you don’t want to let them down.”His emerald gaze filled with such love then as he glanced toward Briar, and a stupid grin split across his face.“Our mother made us that way.All those years ago, Briar and I hid our relationship for a few reasons, and while one of those reasons was our mother, it wasn’t the only reason.The two of us actually fought against the relationship for quite some time before we gave in to it.There was no fighting it, no denying what was between us.”

He held me at arm’s length, staring into my tearstained eyes.“You didn’t betray her, Elias.You found her, and you found yourself.Now, let’s go save her, shall we?”

Nodding, I breathed in deeply.Then instantly regretted it, coughing and sputtering.

Briar tapped my shoulder on her way past, not even bothering to hide her grin on her way by as she said, “I guess you better suck it up, hey crow boy?”

I gave my head a disappointed shake, but my lips twitched in response.

Inch by Painful Inch

ROSEMARY

The thick tang of copper coated my tongue, ran thick through my matted blond hair, and held fast to my skin as it ran in copious rivulets through the sky.I wrinkled my nose at the stench of it, blinking it out of my eyes as everything turned crimson.The sky wept blood.So much blood.

“This is the blood of our people, Rosemary.”

I faced my mother's disappointed voice, blood streaming from her mouth as she witnessed the land decay.Long gone from this world, she stood over me as I cowered, broken in body and mind.Her once pristine white gown clung to her form, turning blood red before my horrified eyes.

Her pale blue eyes, so much like Briar’s, stared down at me accusingly.“Look around you.You failed.You failed your people.You failed your sister.And you failed me!”

I dropped my head in shame, not caring as thick streams of blood coated my cheeks and ran down my neck.It burned my skin, but that pain was but a blade of grass in a meadow to everything I had felt.Something sharp bit into the flesh of my jaw, and I winced, realizing my mother’s fingers curled around my chin.She yanked my face upward.

“Look at me when I am talking to you, child!You are a disgrace!You couldn’t even break a simple curse.”Her words hit me like bladed fists to my wounded heart.There was such hatred painted across her features, such loathing contempt.Had she ever looked at me this way before?I couldn’t remember.How did we ever get here?

When I spoke, it was with a voice I barely recognized.Weak.Quiet.Ashamed."I tried," I mumbled, my voice barely above a whisper, as I attempted to avert my gaze from her piercing eyes.Her fingers were like steel, firmly gripping my chin, holding it in place despite my efforts to look away.Her unyielding grasp kept me rooted, unable to escape the intensity of the moment.

My eyes burned against the pain of the blood rain, and I began reciting the uses of simple plants once found in my cottage long ago in hopes of distracting my mind and heart from the agony of all that had happened.

Parsley.Can be used to treat issues in the lower abdomen related to urine, both for pain and healing.Other known uses are helping eliminate stomach issues.Also found to enhance the appearance of aging mortals when used as a salve.

I let my mind wander with the ramblings, going deeper into each plant until I envisioned each leaf and stem.It all laid out before me like a sketch upon a page.