Page 31 of Hearts Lost

“Charming,” I huff. “You happen to be related to King Grathgore?”

Aloserin turns to look at me, his dark eyes peering out from under the tangled waves of his damp hair.

“As a matter of fact, I am,” he says. “I’m nobility on both sides, as my mother loves to remind me every chance she gets.”

“What?” I can’t help myself; his claim is just too utterly absurd to be accepted in silence. “How is that possible? Why in the nine hells would you be serving the Royal Guard?”

Aloserin finishes knotting his cloak in exactly the same way he’d knotted it every other time, gives it a little pat, and pushes his hair out of his eyes. I’m rather unfortunately reminded of how he’d looked this morning, shirtless and dripping with sweat, his muscles rippling under his skin as he’d moved with his blade like a dancer. Like a lover.

“I made a choice,” Aloserin says, somewhat smugly.

I frown at him.

“No one would choose the Royal Guard,” I declare. “Literally no one.”

He spreads his hands wide and tilts his head to the side as if to say I guess I’m no one. For a heartbeat, he looks so stupidly cocky that I want to smack him. Or kiss him. Or both.

“No,” I snap, trying to ignore the complicated heat spreading through my chest and between my legs. “No, that doesn’t make any sense. Why would you choose servitude if you’re, stars, a royal or something?”

His lips twist back into that tight little grin, and some of his cocky confidence dissipates.

“Not everyone wants to be back at home,” he replies.

With that, he picks up the little bundle he’s made of his cloak and comes to his feet. I follow, pulling my own makeshift pack over my shoulders. The two remaining silver spheres press into my abdomen as I pull the severed sleeves of my dress across my shoulders; I can still feel their slick, oily surface, even through all the layers of fabric separating us. A shiver runs down my spine like icy water. Not for the first time, I imagine sinking them into the river, letting the wild water carry them through the forest and into the inky darkness of that strange, wide ocean.

Guilt tugs at my insides like a fish hook as I remember white light swelling inside the teleportation hub, swallowing Princess Elanerill, the one person in this entire world who’d made the mistake of trusting me.

And then I think of my sister, her tear-streaked face in the darkness of the royal gardens. My sister, who’d shown the king’s soldiers what she could do. My sister who had to get away. Your reward, King Grathgore had said. Your punishment.

I press my palms against my eyes, trying to force the sting of tears back to where it belongs. Because we need to get back. Aloserin has a life waiting for him in the Crystal City.

And my work there isn’t done.

* * *

“This is insanity,”Aloserin announces.

He has to raise his voice to be heard over the roar of the waterfall. We’re standing on the edge of the river, Aloserin with his arms crossed over his chest, staring at exactly what I’d expected. And somehow it’s nothing at all like I’d expected.

A waterfall, yes. I figured that was the source of the low roar that had grown all day as we’d traveled upstream. The animals’ awareness seemed to be full of some sort of bubbling, hissing, mist-filled place, and waterfall was the word that fit.

Well, this is a waterfall. Sort of. There is water, and it is falling, but the similarities between a nice, normal waterfall in the Worlds Above and whatever this thing is end right there. Because this waterfall is pouring directly out of the violet sky.

There’s no cliff or mountainside or any sense of topography. There are just trees, pale, winding trees that sway to their own rhythm, like seaweed under the ocean. And then there’s a massive column of water falling from nowhere.

And, of course, there are the shadow animals. Aloserin and I stood here for the better part of the day, watching the water. Watching the animals we’ve been following. It took them some time to adjust to our presence, especially the ones who live around here and haven’t had to deal with our scents and sounds for the past few days. But eventually, we became part of the landscape, or at least non-threatening enough for the animals to resume their usual patterns. Food. Sleep. Travel.

It’s the travel that interests me. Aloserin said people from his kingdom had crossed into the void. If that’s possible, then perhaps the animals also cross into the Kingdom of the Fall. If so, they must have routes they follow, paths they use, when they’re moving from wherever we are to where we need to be.

Stars, it had seemed like such a good plan at the time. More and more animals had picked up this path along the river, and I had this sense that the waterfall was some sort of important place, a gathering spot or convergence. Maybe we’d find a trail leading from the void into something Aloserin would recognize.

But now, this. My teeth sink into my lower lip as I watch water pour from nothingness into a foamy, swirly, pool of chaos before us.

“Shit,” I agree.

Aloserin’s hand wraps around my wrist, and my body pulls tight. For a moment something hot and aching flutters in my chest, but then I turn to meet his eyes and I see he’s tilted his head toward the far side of the river. Toward the massive shadow animal slinking beneath the trees.

It’s the one that’s been behind us all day, keeping a cautious distance, not ready to trust my assurances that we’re harmless. The poor thing’s also the one I’d made some real progress with before Aloserin woke up and tackled me, which is a thought that should irritate me much more than it does. Instead, remembering the way Aloserin’s legs had wrapped around my hips in that field of dancing blue grass just makes me feel like I really need another long soak in the freezing cold river.