AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My head whipped up to the call, and Iro circled above his mistress’ coffin before slowly descending to me. He landed on my shoulder and nipped at my ear with his beak. I smiled. It was the first one in the last three days. It felt good that I could smile, but it was only because I knew how much this bird meant to Autumn.
I put my finger up to rub it against the bird’s chest. Iro ruffled his feathers but let me touch him. So unlike the outward animosity, he usually showed me. I had asked him to find Autumn’s parents and bring them to her resting place so they could say goodbye to their heroic daughter. I knew they would want her body to rest in their home village, but such things would need to be discussed before moving forward.
My mind snapped back to Iro as he clicked his beak. He was agitated, and I could not speak bluejay.
“Are her parents coming?”
He hopped his legs on my shoulder and bobbed his head. I took that as confirmation.
“Good.” I sighed as I rubbed my chest. My heart physically ached at seeing her in that coffin. It hurt every time I looked at her, but I couldn’t not. She had saved my life. I would never get over that cost; it would follow me all my days.
I was not worthy of such a sacrifice, and I hadn't fully comprehended what I had witnessed when I came back to consciousness in that throne room.
“I loved her. I didn’t tell her. I should have. I…” Tears fell freely, and I didn’t wipe them away. My heart was breaking, and it had just begun to form. When she’d plunged into death, I felt my heart rip out of my chest. I hadn’t realized a heart could feel that way. I hadn’t even realized the depth of what I felt until that moment.
Then it was too late.
Jay. Jay.I shook my head as the jay called in my ear. It was melodic but harsh in my ear. I almost brushed him off my shoulder in annoyance, but he flew off in a huff instead. There was something I was supposed to understand that I just wasn’t. But then again, I couldn’t talk to birds.
I let a deep, soul-wrenching exhale.
“Oh, Autumn, my love. I wish…” I shook my head sadly. “Far too many things at this point. But it all starts with not telling you that I began to fall in love with you that first moment you held a dagger over my heart. Then it was precious moments, small gestures stacked up until I plunged hard. I wish I’d told you. Now I’ll never get to.”
Death was something we couldn’t outrun, but Autumn hadn't tried to outrun death; she’d accepted it so long as her friends lived. It was beyond honorable. I couldn't accept it; grief would be a long road to endure.
I glanced up as the call of the jay pierced the air. It sounded hopeful. Like no sound I’d heard from Iro, I wished I understood what he was saying because now was not the time for optimistic sounds. I ignored the bird and ran a hand over the glass where Autumn’s lips were. As if I could feel their softness against my fingertip.
“She is not dead, son.”
I jumped, and my hand went to the dagger in my vest. In seconds the blade flashed, yet the voice was one I knew as well as my own.
My eyes found his brown ones. I swallowed as he stepped closer. He looked the same as before the queen had run a blade through his heart. I searched his chest as if I could see the organ. I knew hearts—I knew them far more intimately than I wanted to admit. I had carved them from numerous young women over the years. Yet, if he were missing his heart, there was no indication on his muscled chest.
Was this a trick? An illusion spun from Amira beyond her death to make me crazy?
Argen had mentioned that sometimes curses, bargains, and spells have long-lasting effects that outlive the caster. Contracts, however, always die with their maker. Thank the Goddess of the Beyond.
But there was no mistaking Bereile’s voice. I knew the timber. He’d barked orders at me plenty, offered praise and comfort when I needed it most, and I hadn’t realized that affection had formed between us despite Amira’s opposition to connections.
The voice shook me to my core, and tears formed in my eyes. I didn’t try to dash them away, and I knew Bereille would never fault tears as weakness. He had always told me not to hide emotions because if I did, those emotions would consume me with no outlet. He said to use them as fuel to push onward but never to be ashamed of them. Damn, if the man wasn’t a well of knowledge.
I stared at him in awe, still unbelieving that he was here, whole and alive in front of me. “How—”
Bereille gave me a sardonic smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I was cursed to live half my life as a bird and half at Amira’s side. She’d cursed me, as had another, and those curses twined, connecting and saving me. Fortunately, Amira couldn’t kill me because I was also the jay. She thought she’d found a solution, a way around the curse, but she’d been wrong. But my human counterpart couldn’t come back until she was dead. The curse, though, insisted on sacrificing one pure of heart.”
His eyes fell and lingered on the glass coffin, and fondness blossomed in his dark eyes.
“Who was the other that cursed you?”
Bereille let out a deep sigh, his eyes never leaving the coffin. “I witch in the wood. I had bartered for my niece's life and walked into a curse.”
My brows lifted, but I said nothing, digesting that information. I had always known there was something about Bereille that didn’t quite stack up.
Bereille let out another deep exhale. “If she is not awoken in two days, she will die.”
My heart stuttered when his words sunk in. Brightness filled my vision to the point that I grew faint with the hope that blossomed from his words. “She is not dead?”
“Amira put a curse of perpetual sleep on anyone that was able to kill her.”
