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Lina turned a brilliant, shining silver as she froze. Which, of course, meant her wings stopped working, so she started to freefall.
Wings?
I shot out a hand to catch her, still trying to wrap my head around the fact that she couldfly.Because she hadwings.Giant, iridescent, diaphanous wings—delicate like those of a butterfly, and nearly half as tall as she was.
When she tumbled into my hand, I felt something damp as well. Concerned, I lifted her up, twisting my hand until I could see her back. I gasped. It looked like the wings had ripped right through her skin, like they had been growing there all along and couldn’t be contained any longer.
But she wasn’t pulsing with pain anymore, and whatever wounds had formed when the wings popped out had already completely healed over. Either Ucafre’s ointment had healed the damage as soon as it had occurred, or her body was just righting itself now that she was like she was meant to be.
Her back spasms made more sense now, though I couldn’t imagine the kind of pain she had been in. The spasms that only a cream from her uncle could help…
I looked at him, my eyes narrowing.
“Did you know she would get wings?”
“You don’t get to question me, boy,” the troll grumbled.
Lina was angrily getting to her feet, rising to her full not-quite-five-inch height, so she could glare at Rumplestiltskin.And me, of course.
I had wanted to tell her the truth so many times, for so many reasons. First, just to have honesty between us, and later, because some selfish part of me wanted her to understand the way my life was tied to hers, no matter what I did. I had thought of the truth as freeing, though, somehow glossing over the part where she felt like nothing between us was real, and I was just a liar.
“Maybe he doesn’t get to question you,” Lina said to Rumplestiltskin, “but surely I do. Themedicineyou’ve been supplying me with for the last several years was supposed tohelpme? Help me what, Uncle?” She was a ball of fury. The red light glowing from her was also getting warmer by the second.
“There is so much you don’t understand, Lina.” Rumple looked sadder, softer than he had ever looked in my dealings with him. “I never wanted you to be in pain. But I needed to keep you safe. Keep you hidden. And those,” he pointed to her wings. “Those wings tell the world who you are. That wasn’t something I wanted for you.”
Not for the first time, I wondered who Lina was to him… why she was important enough for him to make deals on her behalf.It’s not my time to ask questions, though.
“Wanted for me? What about what I wanted? What about what I needed? What right did you have to make these decisions for me?” Lina shook her head, all the shock of a moment ago giving way to a color I had never seen before, a sallow gray. If I had to go on her expression, it was somewhere between defeat and bone-deep disappointment.
Guilt clutched at my chest.
“Lina—” I started, but she shook her head, again.
She furrowed her brow in concentration, then was once again hovering in the air, her glorious wings beating softly.
“Just don’t. I can’t handle another lie from you, Edrich.” She lifted her eyes to mine, pausing before she added. “Or another truth, for that matter.” She gave the man who had been an uncle to her a last disparaging glance before she floated down to the tent opening.
“Come on, Maggie,” she called, sadly. “We’ll find the fairies on our own.”
“You can’t just leave, Lina. It’s not safe,” I called after her.
“Oh, right.” Her tone was numb, but her voice carried from inside the tent. “I get it now, why you were always so concerned about that.” She shook her head in disbelief, but she didn’t get anything.
She didn’t understand that the idea of her being in danger, being hurt, made me feel like I was being eaten alive by those wraiths, after all.
I didn’t know how to tell her that and make her believe it, though, so I said nothing.Maybe she was right when she basically called me a coward earlier.
Rumplestiltskin cleared his throat. “I know you’re angry, Lina.”
There was no response.
“But you can’t just go off alone in this forest.”
She came back out, having secured her small satchel to Maggie.
“Maggie will be with me,” she said. “Besides, nothing feels quite so lonely as being with the two of you right now.”
Whatever anger I felt earlier dissipated with those words, into the kind of hurt I had begun to believe I wasn’t capable of feeling anymore.Not after leaving the first time.Even Rumplestiltskin’s face broke apart.
