AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Once we have gathered all the crystalline bottles we can carry, we hurry back down the wooden steps.
Just as we reach the lower floor, I see another worker kneeling beside the sleeping one, frantically shaking him. Worst of all, he’s shouting loudly enough for his voice to echo through the entire street.
I curse and bolt out the warehouse, Eliya close behind. As if on cue, a patrol of guards appears from around the corner. They glance between us and the two workers. The bottles of moon-blossom wine bundled in our arms are incriminating enough.
The guards don’t hesitate before charging straight for us.
Twenty-Three
Werun,andtheguardsgivechase.IclutchthewinetightlyaswefleethroughtheLowerCity.Weturnstreetafterstreet,hopingtoloseourpursuers.Exhaustionmakesourbreathsragged,andrawnessburnsdownmythroatandintomychest.ButIpressonatfullspeed.
No matter what, we can’t get caught. Not when it means being disqualified from the trials and never becoming magi.
We reach a dead end. I grit my teeth, examining the wall. The guards’ hurried footsteps sound a few streets away. Maybe we’ll have enough time.
“Let’s teleport,” I say. “Now.”
“To the cliffs?”
I give her a hurried nod, already gathering aether into my hands. I visualize the cliffs lying far beyond the city walls, at the very edge of our island. “Laxus,” I call. As does Eliya.
Just as we unleash our magic, the guards appear at the end of the street.
Fortunately, they are too far away to interrupt our teleportation spells, and we vanish before their eyes.
In the next heartbeat, the blinding light fades into shadowy cliffs. The moon silvers the crests of the waves rolling beneath, and the evening breeze rustles through the surrounding trees. With our arms still full of wine, we continue higher up the grassy mound and collapse at the top.
“Thought they nearly had us there,” Eliya gasps, setting her bottles down on the grass and wiping the sweat from her brow.
“That’s because they nearly did,” I retort. “I thought you promised everything would be fine.”
“We weren’t caught, were we?”
“We were worryingly close.”
“But we weren’t actually caught, and that’s what matters.” She tears the cork off the bottle closest to her and lifts it to her lips.
I watch her for a moment and shake my head, but I don’t continue the argument. I reach for a bottle and sip on the moon-blossom wine inside. The elegant sweetness washes over my tongue, every drop oozing with magic.
There really is nothing better than moon-blossom wine. And this stash might be worth almost getting caught.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to be a moon elf?” I say, shaking the crystalline bottle either side as I muse over it. The dusky liquid swirls within and glitters in the starlight.
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, moon-blossom wine will be much cheaper in Lumaria since it won’t need importing. And if I lived there, I could grow my own moon-berry trees and make my own wine. I could even start up a winery.”
Eliya leans forward, her eyes gleaming. Some of her wine splashes out of the bottle. “If I had my own Lumarian winery, I would drink it day and night. I would have so much I could bathe in it.”
“You wouldn’t be able to sell it if you bathed in it.”
“I just wouldn’t tell any merchants about that part.”
“What if they found bits in it?”
Eliya narrows her eyes. “Are you saying I’m dirty?”
“Maybe,” I say with a shrug.
