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“I thought you’d want one. Your prince problem and all… Maybe it will help.”
Shrugging on my jacket, I stare off at the water trickling down the statue. “How so? And what do you know about my ‘prince problem’ anyway?”
His lips twist in a lopsided grin. “I know you locked him in a castle. That couldn’t have gone over well, and when you learned you’d been out of it for a few days, you cried. You thought he’d come for you because of your mother’s deal and he didn’t.”
Lifting my brow, I cross my arms over my chest. “That about sums it up.”
“Look at me,” he commands, and slowly I drag my eyes up to stare into his. “Do you love him?”
“Of course I do. Even if I didn’t want to, I’m not sure I’d have a choice in the matter. My mother promised him my heart in the deal, so between that and us being soulmates, the odds are stacked against me.”
Asmo’s jaw flexes as he turns and starts toward what’s left of our fire pit. “In that case, you have nothing to worry about. He’ll forgive you, and if he needs some convincing to get out of his head, that stone will do the trick.”
“What makes you so sure?” I shuffle in place, tracking his movements as he gathers our things, getting ready to move out.
“Because it’s what I would do. You’ll have to trust me.”
Trust him? I barely know him.
Shoving my hands in my pockets, I wonder if he’s right. Maybe there is a chance–though slim–that Kai will forgive me. That we can get back to a good place once this High King and Michael nonsense is behind us. I certainly hope so.
Asmo clears his throat, and when I shake the thoughts free, our eyes meet from opposite sides of the temple. I swallow hard, staring at the dark veins shifting beneath the skin around his eyes. The color gone, leaving one pure white, and the other black as the night.
“Oh fuck! I’m sorry!” I yank my hands from the pockets, quickly ripping the jacket off my arms as his face returns to normal. “I’ll carry it. It’s too warm during the day anyway,” I say, offering a weary smile.
He shakes his head, turns on his heels, and waves me forward. “Unless you’ve miraculously learned to teleport, we have a lot of time to make up for. I might not completely hate you, but if you touch that stone again, I might.”
Fair enough… I jog to catch up with him, snagging my sword and looping it around my waist as I go. “I don’t suppose you could teach me that, too?”
“I’m honestly not sure if you can. We can try later, but based on the discovery we made last night, I think it’s fair to assume you’re different from my brother and I. Who knows how. You’d think it’d be similar, but our mother wasn’t your kind of witch. She was a descendant of a goddess. Her power is–was–different.” He pauses for a moment, as if the mention of his mother weighs heavily on his mind. “For all we know, you might not be able to teleport, or it could open up a tear in space and time when you do. We can try, though. I’d much rather do that than walk the rest of the way to Solaria.”
13
Alice
We’ve been walking for hours, and seeing how we’ve barely engaged in conversation, it’s felt like days. I’ve gotten lost in my thoughts more times than I can count, which isn’t all a bad thing, but it’s not exactly a place I want to be right now. Not when my love life–and myactual life–have both fallen into chaos.
Asmo’s certain we can make it to Solaria before morning, and I pray he’s right, but rest is still necessary. If only we had the time. At this point, we’re just hoping to reach the golden city before Finn dies, and we don’t know exactly when that will be.
The spell I cast on the tag Finn put in my boot said tomorrow. Who knows if it’s morning or afternoon… late at night? And it’s not like we can redo the spell to double check, since the tag is long gone. The last time I cast the spell, it burnt into ash.
It leaves us to fly solo, like a plane without navigation, or a ship without a weather radar. All we can do is travel north and hope for the best. Luckily, we’re moving way quicker than I would’ve if I made this journey on my own. There haven’t been any hiccups or detours and we’ve managed to evade running into any other creatures since we left the temple. I’m starting to think Asmo’s surly attitude has scared the monsters off, like some sort of awkward, one-eyed homing beacon. They must be able to sense him coming and have all bolted for the hills.
“You never did tell me how you lost your eye,” I say, watching Asmo pull himself up and over a mammoth-sized fallen tree trunk. The thing spans as far as I can see in either direction and considering our deadline, it’s best to struggle going up and over, than waste valuable time trying to find a workaround.
“I didn’tloseanything. It’s still very much there.”
He grunts, pulling himself up to sit on top of the log before reaching down to help me. I’ve never been good at climbing, but I’ve certainly tried to scale a lot in my lifetime, like trees, rocks,ladders…Mostly ladders. I’ve always been better at falling. Which, if Kai were here, I’m sure he’d have some sort of quirky remark. Maybe an Alice in Wonderland pun or two.
It’s amazing how much I hated his Wonderland references. Now, I’d give anything just to hear him laugh, even if it’s at my expense.
For a moment, I try to climb the tree on my own, ignoring Asmo’s outstretched hand, and merely making it a foot off the ground before panicking. There are no footholds or handholds, just bark, and the rounded body of the log makes trying to cling to it more difficult than it should be.
“Can you stop being ‘Miss I can do it’ and take my hand?” My feet land on the ground, and I meet his judgmental stare.
“Fine, but don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold.” Clasping my hand in his, he smirks, and yanks me up and over with a sheer force I didn’t think was possible for one man to have. I land on my stomach, bent across the top of the log, the impact robbing me of air. Taking a moment to catch my breath, I push up, sitting next to him.
“I won’t tell a soul.” He shakes his head at me, appalled that I have to move inch by inch to get to a sitting position, fearing I’ll fall off the side somehow.
