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Shifters crowded behind me. One of them approached with my clothes—it was Sadie. She was kindly handing me my clothes. Well, that wasn’t a terrible idea considering how close the roots gathered. It’d be a pretty tight squeeze for me. Galanthia was strong, but she wouldn’t be able to climb out successfully while carrying an unconscious kid. She didn’t have the option of using her wings.
I had to get down there and help.
“Let me go in your stead,” someone offered, and it took me a second to realize that Izdor had approached me. He bowed at Sadie before turning entirely to me. “I can get the branches apart enough for her to get out.”
“Are you sure?”
Juriah appeared next to Izdor. “We’ve been in tangles in Estaria. We can easily help.”
Warring thoughts made me reconsider my trust. I had sent Galanthia right into the lion’s den without thinking about it. Now these two wanted to toss themselves into the pit. Was that really a good idea?
Izdor held my shoulder. “It’s alright. We’ll get him out.”
There wasn’t much time for me to argue when they both zipped past me. Spectators watched as the roots were pried apart, some shifters cheering them on while others remained hauntingly quiet. All I could do was watch in horror. Being this helpless was too new for me, too foreign.
I had been such a bad father to Leo before he fell into this pit. I hadn’t even had the strength to locate him properly. What kind of parent was I that I couldn’t even find my own kid?
Everything converged into one giant thought—I was just one massive failure. My own instincts couldn’t be trusted. If that was the case, then I wasn’t fit to continue being a parent.
Maybe Leo’s mother had thought the same thing. Maybe my own mother had seen that in myself, but she hadn’t said a word because she didn’t want to deter me from learning for myself. But that didn’t mean an innocent child had to suffer. Usually when lessons were learned people got burned. Unfortunately, that included my own kid.
Sounds of roots being torn from the ground silenced the onlookers. Izdor and Juriah worked hard to clear the way, creating such a gaping silence in the crowd with their actions that it made me wonder if I was hearing the roots being torn at all.
Some kind of blurriness came over me. Some kind of fogginess.
It was like I was standing inside of a nightmare.
It was scary to think that moments ago Galanthia had just suffered the same thing. She had struggled with what I knew now was a flashback about the things that she had experienced before. She hadn’t even needed to tell me. I just knew in my body that she was experiencing something horrific and there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it.
“Almost there!” Izdor cried. “Just a few more!”
Applause broke out around me. Tears stung my eyes as I watched the men haul aside what was left of the roots so Galanthia could use her wings. Dark boots touched the ground in front of me and prompted me to drop to my knees. It was strange how the tables had turned, but I didn’t think too much of it as I cradled my boy in my arms.
“You saved him,” I whispered. “Goddess, you’ve saved him. You’re an angel.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard that,” Izdor piped up.
Galanthia elbowed him. He grunted while slipping out of view, returning to the crowd with everyone else, a starry-eyed Sadie on his tail.
I held Leo like he had just been born. And in a lot of ways, sitting here like this was almost a mirror image of that night. Jazmin had been in labor for almost two days at that hospital and she’d told me many times how much she hated me. But none of that had mattered to me once I had Leo in my arms.
He was so fragile right now that it almost seemed like he was a painting or a photograph that I was looking at.
With everyone gathered around us, I felt even further removed from reality. Galanthia turned around to shoo everyone away. As soon as we had enough space, she returned and rested her hand upon the gash in Leo’s forehead.
Spirited light unlike anything I had seen in my life came from her fingertips. And only her fingertips. Her eyes glowed as well, reminding me of the comets I had seen streaking across the night sky.
Golden light like hazy dawn. Golden like corn from the field. The light reminded me of the things that I loved the most about this place. And it reminded me of a special place in my heart that was set aside only for her. The more I tried to push that thought away, the more it burrowed into my mind as true.
Whatever she was doing to him, she was doing to me. I wasn’t about to stop her.
Just like this morning, Leo opened his eyes. He took a shaky breath for a second, and then looked at Galanthia like she was his guardian angel. Grace could be found in that exchange. Nothing more than gratefulness and grace.
Galanthia touched my shoulder. “We have to get him to the health center.”
“You’ve saved him,” I repeated shakily.
She helped me to my feet. “Here, I’ll take him if you trust me.”
