The barrier collapsed, and I fell into Miles. He wrapped his arms around me and pressed his face into the side of my neck. I gripped his wrist, just to remind myself that he was there.
Keely stared at her queen, who lay sprawled on the ground. The faerie’s blood formed a bright pool around her broken form. It had slowed to a halt in its spread. “Keely--” I began, then stopped.
She looked up at me. “I never really liked her, anyway.”
I reached out the hand that wasn’t holding Miles’ arm. “Still.”
Keely padded unsteadily forward, then sunk to her knees and let me smooth her hair. She scrubbed her bloody hands on the rocks, making a small sound when the red didn’t rub away completely.
“Thank you for saving my life,” I said.
She scanned my face. “You are not so bad, really. I never hated you.”
“I never hated you, either.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not going to start being nice, though.”
“Neither am I.”
From where his mouth was muffled against my jacket, Miles mumbled, “You two never stop, do you.”
Keely looked behind her. “Do you want your dagger back?”
I dropped my head against Miles’s and shut my eyes. “No. I don’t.”
Dragonet-snuffling heralded Sinnym’s approach. He nosed my cheek. “You’re alive!”
I groaned. “Barely. Miles provides all the magic, but I’ve got the physical side of the bargain.” I slumped further against Miles’s chest. “Everything aches.”
My eyes opened as Yymerenn stalked over. “I should thank you, faerie,” she rumbled.
Keely folded her arms, careful of her bloody hands. “You should. But I do not want to hear it.”
I swallowed. “Yymerenn? Ma’am?”
“Yes, girl?”
“Could you lift the Shadow? Please?”
Miles sat up. I could sense his gaze was locked onto the dragon, just as mine was. “My family lives near the Vale,” I continued. “Now that you’re awake, they’ll be quickly overtaken. Thousands of people are going to die. Dying now, maybe.” I sucked in a breath. “I nearly died fighting for you. Miles and I saved your son. There’s ways to protect Sinnym without the Shadow. And--” I fisted my hands. “I have to save Miles.”
Yymerenn made a sound that must’ve been a draconic sigh. “You humans are nothing if not persistent.” She considered us. “Fine.”
I gaped. “Seriously? Really?”
“I said ‘fine’, didn’t I?”
“I just-- I can’t believe it!” I grinned at her, then at Keely, then at Sinnym. “Wow! Something went right! For once!”
Yymerenn’s eyes shifted from me to Miles. “This is the last of your power, boy,” she said. “Your shadows. Your immortality.”
He nodded. “I know. That’s what I want.” He grinned, sliding an arm around my waist. “Quit stalling.”
Yymerenn grumbled. She spread her wings, all but covering my view of the sky. The undersides of her membranes were speckled with bright stars, little pinpoint constellations swirling across the deep indigo of her skin.
For a breath, the stars flared brighter. Then the darkness fell in.
There was the feeling of something very immense collapsing in upon itself. Shadows rushed by me like the wind, tearing at my hair and tugging on my jacket. Miles gasped in shock, and I twisted to hold him tight, both to support him and to give myself an anchor. Keely’s weight pressed into my back, and I reached behind myself to grip her arm. The rushing sound of the shadows swelled to a roar. I shut my eyes against the onslaught of the dark.
Yymerenn’s voice screamed out in a deafening bellow, the sound echoing for ages against the distant Spine. A sudden, golden warmth ran gentle fingers along my scalp.
I opened my eyes to sunshine in the Fairy Wood.
The lake, now a calm blue, glittered under a clear sky. The noon sun beamed down, and I tipped my face back to recieve it. Oh, I’d missed the sun.
Across the lake, the mist of the Fenglow swirled, the valley’s eternal magic beyond Yymerenn’s Shadow. Beyond, on either side, ran the Spine, its wooded slopes purple-blue in the distance.
“Ah--”
I looked over. Miles’ eyes, no longer flat onyx but with normal black irises, were wide as he gazed around. His grey-black skin had become deep brown, his ears curved and human.
He noticed me watching him and grinned with flat teeth, not a hint of fangs. “I’ve still got my smashing good looks, right?”
I hugged him. “Even better,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “You’re gonna make all the village girls insane.”
His fingers gripped the back of my jacket. Something wet and salty pooled against my collarbone as he pressed his forehead to my shoulder. “You stupid human,” he whimpered. “I love you.”
“Oh, barf,” Keely’s voice grumbled.
“Go away,” I growled. “I’m having a moment with my boyfriend.”
“There is nowhere to go,” she said. “We are stuck in a lake.”
I whipped around, glaring. “You’re a water faerie. Water’s your thing! Go take a dip!” I stopped and stared. “Oh, woah, you’re gorgeous.”
Miles laughed, the sound so warm and alive I almost started crying again. Keely blushed (yes, really!). Her white skin had colored to a creamy pink, her golden hair thick and wavy. Her eyes were a brilliant green. Tiny silvery scales speckled her skin. She folded her arms, making an effort to be surly. “I do not need your approval, human,” she sniffed. “Your standards are very low.”
“Excuse me?” I shook Miles’ shoulder. “How can you call my standards low when I’m used to gazing at this face?”
Sinnym rolled into the argument. “You’re all ugly to me!”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
Yymerenn fluttered her wings before tucking them neatly to her sides. Inhaling the Shadow had made her seem bigger, her scales darker and her eyes brighter. “Your path should be clear. If anything kills you, it’s not my fault.”
I scampered over and hugged her foreleg. I couldn’t wrap my arms all the way around. “Thank you, Yymerenn.”
“This is very strange,” the dragon grumbled. “I will tolerate it for five more seconds before I fling you into the lake.”
I made a tactical retreat.
Miles stood looking out at the water, his hands on his hips. I sidled up to him. “Whatcha looking at?”
He pointed. “Our smashed boat.”
I followed his finger and found the floating pile of driftwood. “Ohh…”
“I can’t fly us back. We’re going to have to convince Keely to carry us.”
I glanced sidelong at the faerie. “Good luck with that.”
“It’s our only option.”
I gazed at the water. “What about that serpent? Is it still there?”
“No idea.”
I groaned. “This just gets worse and worse.”
I heard a scuffling behind me and turned to find Sinnym froliking at his mother’s feet. “Please, can we? Can we? Ma? Can we can we--”
Yymerenn huffed another draconic sigh, the air from her immense lungs gusting across the dessicated Hill. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she muttered to herself. The dragon stomped over (I may have tried to hide behind Miles) and knelt, lowering her wing. “Get on.”
Keely gaped openmouthed at Yymerenn. I stared. “Wait, what?”
“I said, ‘get on’. I’ll carry you as far as the mountains. I’ll still have some shreds of dignity left by then, I think.”
Sinnym headbutted Miles towards Yymerenn’s waiting wing. “Hurry up! I wanna fly.”
I carefully climbed onto the dragon’s wing. The membrane was warm and felt very thin. I tried to avoid injuring her as I raised myself toward her back. Yymerenn huffed. “You can go faster. You can’t hurt me. I can’t even feel you.”
“Oh.” I picked up my pace and crawled onto her broad back, settling myself between two of her ridge spines. Miles perched behind me. I turned and watched Keely as she gracefully scampered up Yymerenn’s flank.
Yymerenn’s great head turned to peer at us. “Are you ready? You’d better hold on tight.”
“Great,” Keely grumbled.
“Ready,” Miles called.
The dragon flared her wings and leapt into the sky. I gasped and wrapped my arms around the spine before me, watching the ground sink away at a rapid pace. Yymerenn’s flight was choppy; every time she raised her wings we sank a little, and with every downstroke we shot towards the sky. It was stressful, to say the least.
Sinnym kept pace beside us, riding the gusts created by his mother’s wings. He screamed with joy.
Behind me I heard Keely whimpering. “I do not like this. This is too high. Water faeries do not fly. Can she not fly any lower?”
We must’ve reached a certain altitude, for Yymerenn’s flight evened to a smooth glide. Cold air blew past us, but the dragon’s heat kept us from freezing. Behind me, Miles started laughing. “I’ve never flown this high!”
I turned to find him grinning wide, his arms stretched out to either side and his smooth black hair streaming behind him like the once-black Iss Noor. My braid slapped me in the face. Miles reached over, snickering, and tucked the plait into my collar. “At this rate we’ll be over the Spine by midafternoon,” he called over the wind. I craned my neck to peer over Yymerenn’s shoulder at the mountains. I could see the West Fang, its peak no longer shrouded in darkness. Something thrilled inside me as the truth sunk in: I’d done it. I’d beaten the darkness and now I was going home.
At Miles’s guidance, Yymerenn deposited us in the Fang’s foothills. I tried not to remember the last time I was here, and the Face Wearer that had nearly claimed both my life and Miles’s.
Sinnym bounded over. “Goodbye, goodbye! You’ll come see me again, right?”
I glanced at Yymerenn, wondering if she’d let us back into the forest or if she’d squish us on sight. She considered me and Miles and snorted. “I suppose I could tolerate you two.” Miles snickered in response.
I was unsure how to address the dragon, so I gave her a little bow. “Thank you. For flying us. And for releasing the forest.”
Her warm breath gusted over me as she touched her muzzle to the top of my head, just as she’d done to Sinnym. My scalp felt like it was glowing. “You’re welcome, Madeline.”
I bit my lip as a swell of some big emotion rose behind my eyes, but her kindness did not last long. She reared away and opened her wings. “Let’s go, Sinnym. These humans will make us smell.”
“Goodbye!” Miles called after them as they soared away. Keely harrumphed, but there wasn’t any acid behind it.
I turned to the faerie. “What will you do?”
She sighed. “I will find a calm pool and sit in it and never leave.”
I grinned. “Don’t go too far from the edge of the forest. I want to be able to find you again.”
Miles laughed. Keely made a face. “That sounds vaguely threatening,” she grumbled.
“It is,” I assured her. “I’m threatening you with company. Grarrr.” I raised my hands and waved them like claws.
She rolled her eyes. “Like Yymerenn said. I suppose I could tolerate you two.”
“You’re pretty nice, for a faerie,” Miles said.
“Oh, shut up."
We trekked through the woods for ten days. Our progress was much faster leaving than heading in, for we traveled downhill, we had a clear destination, and nothing was trying to kill us. Keely left a week into our journey to follow a river. She promised she would find us if we ever came back to the Vale, then she surprised me by kissing both of us on the cheek and running away. Miles cackled at my expression.
Food was a tricky matter, for Miles was used to hunting with his talons and teeth, and I had no knife and no experience. We both had to learn how to build snares and traps. Thankfully, I’d gutted and cleaned animals before, so once we actually had a dead rabbit, we were in business. Though weilding a sword to do it was an experience.
There were several edible plants I recognized, though blackberries put me off my appetite. I wondered if I’d ever be able to eat the little things again, after the wolf pack.
Finally, on the morning of the tenth day, we left the arms of the Fairy Wood and stepped out onto the grassy slopes of the Madean Hills. I pointed over the hills’ crests. “I live about two days beyond there. If it’s clear, we should be able to see the town from the tops of the hills.”
Miles smiled and tugged me onward. “Let’s go already! I’m sick of this forest.”
At noon, we reached the hills’ smooth peaks. The air was too muggy to see my village, but I could trace the road to it off into the blue-grey. Miles sat and offered me a wrapped piece of rabbit and chickweed. I chomped on it while he stared at the landscape. “I-- remember,” he said.
I stopped eating. I’d wondered about that several times, but we’d been busy and I hadn’t known how to ask.
“There was a boy named Luke,” Miles said. “I was in love with him. But he became very, very sick. So I went into the Shadowvale to find the magic that could save him.” He looked at me. “I guess that didn’t work out too well, huh?”
I swallowed some rabbit, the food feeling too large for my throat. “I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. But I think-- I think I’m alright. It’s been a very long time since then. I’m just glad I made it out at all.” He smiled at me. “Besides, I got to meet you.”
I leaned my head against his shoulder. Miles slid his arm around my waist. “What was your name, before?”
“Aidan.”
“You do seem like an Aidan,” I said, peering up at him.
He kissed me, and I shut my eyes, happy to simply be alive and kissing the boy I loved. Then he pulled back and rested his forehead on mine. “I’m sticking with Miles.”
It took three days to walk the two-day journey to my village, but I may have been stalling. I wanted to see my family again, but I was also not ready for the earful my father would give me and the verbal smackdown my mother would unleash.
We reached the town proper at two o’clock on the third day. Several people stared at Miles. The town was small enough that everyone could recognize everyone, and they’d never seen him before. But more people gaped at me. Gwenneth Fell sidled up to me and asked how I’d survived.
“Your father said you’d disappeared, and he thought you’d journeyed to the Shadowvale.”
I fingered my braid. “Um. Yeah. I kinda did.”
She gasped, as did several eavesdroppers. “What--”
“But don’t worry!” I said. “That place is just a forest now.” I frowned, thinking. “I still wouldn’t go in, though. There’s some nasty water faeries in there.”
Gwenneth gaped. I glanced around and noticed Miles, who seemed a little out of place amid all the people. “Oh, yeah!” I smacked his shoulder. “This is Miles. I met him on the way.” I deliberately avoided saying that he’d been a shadow beast at the time and had tried to take over my brain.
Brianna Weaver crowded in. “But-- you said the Vale’s not there anymore? How--”
I shoved Miles between the shoulderblades, pushing him down the street. “Talk later! I’ve gotta go see my family now.”
Once we’d left the range of their ears, Miles asked, “What the heck are we going to tell them?”
I groaned. “I have no idea.”
We walked down the main street until the buildings fell away and we entered the farmlands. Stone cottages dotted the fields. Miles laughed at the sheep. “They look like angry clouds!”
We passed through a copse of red maples, and there was my house, looking just like I’d left it. The hardwood shingles were grey with age, matching the grey stone of the walls. A split-rail fence corralled the pigs. Out in the pasture, our solitary, evil cow grazed, chewing the cropped grass. Our fields of wheat, root vegetables, and apple trees opened up beyond her.
“They’re going to freak out when they see you,” I warned him. “After they finish freaking out about me.”
“Should I be worried?”
“Maybe. My sister will be ecstatic. My parents will think I’ve been possessed.”
He grinned. “You were. For a few hours.”
“It’s called two souls working as one, ex-arcane.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
I wove my fingers through his. “Ready?”
He nodded, his eyes bright. “Mm-hmm.”
I strode up to the front door and shoved the heavy thing open. The handle had to be jiggled slightly, so the wood wouldn’t catch on the threshold.
I stepped into the cool main room. My mother would be in the dairy, making cheese. My sister was probably mucking the cow’s stall, or maybe baking bread. At this time of year, my father would be harvesting carrots.
I inhaled the warm, dry smell of my house. The scent swirled between my ribs and lodged itself against my heart.
I gripped Miles’ hand.
“We’re home!"
Keely stared at her queen, who lay sprawled on the ground. The faerie’s blood formed a bright pool around her broken form. It had slowed to a halt in its spread. “Keely--” I began, then stopped.
She looked up at me. “I never really liked her, anyway.”
I reached out the hand that wasn’t holding Miles’ arm. “Still.”
Keely padded unsteadily forward, then sunk to her knees and let me smooth her hair. She scrubbed her bloody hands on the rocks, making a small sound when the red didn’t rub away completely.
“Thank you for saving my life,” I said.
She scanned my face. “You are not so bad, really. I never hated you.”
“I never hated you, either.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not going to start being nice, though.”
“Neither am I.”
From where his mouth was muffled against my jacket, Miles mumbled, “You two never stop, do you.”
Keely looked behind her. “Do you want your dagger back?”
I dropped my head against Miles’s and shut my eyes. “No. I don’t.”
Dragonet-snuffling heralded Sinnym’s approach. He nosed my cheek. “You’re alive!”
I groaned. “Barely. Miles provides all the magic, but I’ve got the physical side of the bargain.” I slumped further against Miles’s chest. “Everything aches.”
My eyes opened as Yymerenn stalked over. “I should thank you, faerie,” she rumbled.
Keely folded her arms, careful of her bloody hands. “You should. But I do not want to hear it.”
I swallowed. “Yymerenn? Ma’am?”
“Yes, girl?”
“Could you lift the Shadow? Please?”
Miles sat up. I could sense his gaze was locked onto the dragon, just as mine was. “My family lives near the Vale,” I continued. “Now that you’re awake, they’ll be quickly overtaken. Thousands of people are going to die. Dying now, maybe.” I sucked in a breath. “I nearly died fighting for you. Miles and I saved your son. There’s ways to protect Sinnym without the Shadow. And--” I fisted my hands. “I have to save Miles.”
Yymerenn made a sound that must’ve been a draconic sigh. “You humans are nothing if not persistent.” She considered us. “Fine.”
I gaped. “Seriously? Really?”
“I said ‘fine’, didn’t I?”
“I just-- I can’t believe it!” I grinned at her, then at Keely, then at Sinnym. “Wow! Something went right! For once!”
Yymerenn’s eyes shifted from me to Miles. “This is the last of your power, boy,” she said. “Your shadows. Your immortality.”
He nodded. “I know. That’s what I want.” He grinned, sliding an arm around my waist. “Quit stalling.”
Yymerenn grumbled. She spread her wings, all but covering my view of the sky. The undersides of her membranes were speckled with bright stars, little pinpoint constellations swirling across the deep indigo of her skin.
For a breath, the stars flared brighter. Then the darkness fell in.
There was the feeling of something very immense collapsing in upon itself. Shadows rushed by me like the wind, tearing at my hair and tugging on my jacket. Miles gasped in shock, and I twisted to hold him tight, both to support him and to give myself an anchor. Keely’s weight pressed into my back, and I reached behind myself to grip her arm. The rushing sound of the shadows swelled to a roar. I shut my eyes against the onslaught of the dark.
Yymerenn’s voice screamed out in a deafening bellow, the sound echoing for ages against the distant Spine. A sudden, golden warmth ran gentle fingers along my scalp.
I opened my eyes to sunshine in the Fairy Wood.
The lake, now a calm blue, glittered under a clear sky. The noon sun beamed down, and I tipped my face back to recieve it. Oh, I’d missed the sun.
Across the lake, the mist of the Fenglow swirled, the valley’s eternal magic beyond Yymerenn’s Shadow. Beyond, on either side, ran the Spine, its wooded slopes purple-blue in the distance.
“Ah--”
I looked over. Miles’ eyes, no longer flat onyx but with normal black irises, were wide as he gazed around. His grey-black skin had become deep brown, his ears curved and human.
He noticed me watching him and grinned with flat teeth, not a hint of fangs. “I’ve still got my smashing good looks, right?”
I hugged him. “Even better,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “You’re gonna make all the village girls insane.”
His fingers gripped the back of my jacket. Something wet and salty pooled against my collarbone as he pressed his forehead to my shoulder. “You stupid human,” he whimpered. “I love you.”
“Oh, barf,” Keely’s voice grumbled.
“Go away,” I growled. “I’m having a moment with my boyfriend.”
“There is nowhere to go,” she said. “We are stuck in a lake.”
I whipped around, glaring. “You’re a water faerie. Water’s your thing! Go take a dip!” I stopped and stared. “Oh, woah, you’re gorgeous.”
Miles laughed, the sound so warm and alive I almost started crying again. Keely blushed (yes, really!). Her white skin had colored to a creamy pink, her golden hair thick and wavy. Her eyes were a brilliant green. Tiny silvery scales speckled her skin. She folded her arms, making an effort to be surly. “I do not need your approval, human,” she sniffed. “Your standards are very low.”
“Excuse me?” I shook Miles’ shoulder. “How can you call my standards low when I’m used to gazing at this face?”
Sinnym rolled into the argument. “You’re all ugly to me!”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
Yymerenn fluttered her wings before tucking them neatly to her sides. Inhaling the Shadow had made her seem bigger, her scales darker and her eyes brighter. “Your path should be clear. If anything kills you, it’s not my fault.”
I scampered over and hugged her foreleg. I couldn’t wrap my arms all the way around. “Thank you, Yymerenn.”
“This is very strange,” the dragon grumbled. “I will tolerate it for five more seconds before I fling you into the lake.”
I made a tactical retreat.
Miles stood looking out at the water, his hands on his hips. I sidled up to him. “Whatcha looking at?”
He pointed. “Our smashed boat.”
I followed his finger and found the floating pile of driftwood. “Ohh…”
“I can’t fly us back. We’re going to have to convince Keely to carry us.”
I glanced sidelong at the faerie. “Good luck with that.”
“It’s our only option.”
I gazed at the water. “What about that serpent? Is it still there?”
“No idea.”
I groaned. “This just gets worse and worse.”
I heard a scuffling behind me and turned to find Sinnym froliking at his mother’s feet. “Please, can we? Can we? Ma? Can we can we--”
Yymerenn huffed another draconic sigh, the air from her immense lungs gusting across the dessicated Hill. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she muttered to herself. The dragon stomped over (I may have tried to hide behind Miles) and knelt, lowering her wing. “Get on.”
Keely gaped openmouthed at Yymerenn. I stared. “Wait, what?”
“I said, ‘get on’. I’ll carry you as far as the mountains. I’ll still have some shreds of dignity left by then, I think.”
Sinnym headbutted Miles towards Yymerenn’s waiting wing. “Hurry up! I wanna fly.”
I carefully climbed onto the dragon’s wing. The membrane was warm and felt very thin. I tried to avoid injuring her as I raised myself toward her back. Yymerenn huffed. “You can go faster. You can’t hurt me. I can’t even feel you.”
“Oh.” I picked up my pace and crawled onto her broad back, settling myself between two of her ridge spines. Miles perched behind me. I turned and watched Keely as she gracefully scampered up Yymerenn’s flank.
Yymerenn’s great head turned to peer at us. “Are you ready? You’d better hold on tight.”
“Great,” Keely grumbled.
“Ready,” Miles called.
The dragon flared her wings and leapt into the sky. I gasped and wrapped my arms around the spine before me, watching the ground sink away at a rapid pace. Yymerenn’s flight was choppy; every time she raised her wings we sank a little, and with every downstroke we shot towards the sky. It was stressful, to say the least.
Sinnym kept pace beside us, riding the gusts created by his mother’s wings. He screamed with joy.
Behind me I heard Keely whimpering. “I do not like this. This is too high. Water faeries do not fly. Can she not fly any lower?”
We must’ve reached a certain altitude, for Yymerenn’s flight evened to a smooth glide. Cold air blew past us, but the dragon’s heat kept us from freezing. Behind me, Miles started laughing. “I’ve never flown this high!”
I turned to find him grinning wide, his arms stretched out to either side and his smooth black hair streaming behind him like the once-black Iss Noor. My braid slapped me in the face. Miles reached over, snickering, and tucked the plait into my collar. “At this rate we’ll be over the Spine by midafternoon,” he called over the wind. I craned my neck to peer over Yymerenn’s shoulder at the mountains. I could see the West Fang, its peak no longer shrouded in darkness. Something thrilled inside me as the truth sunk in: I’d done it. I’d beaten the darkness and now I was going home.
At Miles’s guidance, Yymerenn deposited us in the Fang’s foothills. I tried not to remember the last time I was here, and the Face Wearer that had nearly claimed both my life and Miles’s.
Sinnym bounded over. “Goodbye, goodbye! You’ll come see me again, right?”
I glanced at Yymerenn, wondering if she’d let us back into the forest or if she’d squish us on sight. She considered me and Miles and snorted. “I suppose I could tolerate you two.” Miles snickered in response.
I was unsure how to address the dragon, so I gave her a little bow. “Thank you. For flying us. And for releasing the forest.”
Her warm breath gusted over me as she touched her muzzle to the top of my head, just as she’d done to Sinnym. My scalp felt like it was glowing. “You’re welcome, Madeline.”
I bit my lip as a swell of some big emotion rose behind my eyes, but her kindness did not last long. She reared away and opened her wings. “Let’s go, Sinnym. These humans will make us smell.”
“Goodbye!” Miles called after them as they soared away. Keely harrumphed, but there wasn’t any acid behind it.
I turned to the faerie. “What will you do?”
She sighed. “I will find a calm pool and sit in it and never leave.”
I grinned. “Don’t go too far from the edge of the forest. I want to be able to find you again.”
Miles laughed. Keely made a face. “That sounds vaguely threatening,” she grumbled.
“It is,” I assured her. “I’m threatening you with company. Grarrr.” I raised my hands and waved them like claws.
She rolled her eyes. “Like Yymerenn said. I suppose I could tolerate you two.”
“You’re pretty nice, for a faerie,” Miles said.
“Oh, shut up."
We trekked through the woods for ten days. Our progress was much faster leaving than heading in, for we traveled downhill, we had a clear destination, and nothing was trying to kill us. Keely left a week into our journey to follow a river. She promised she would find us if we ever came back to the Vale, then she surprised me by kissing both of us on the cheek and running away. Miles cackled at my expression.
Food was a tricky matter, for Miles was used to hunting with his talons and teeth, and I had no knife and no experience. We both had to learn how to build snares and traps. Thankfully, I’d gutted and cleaned animals before, so once we actually had a dead rabbit, we were in business. Though weilding a sword to do it was an experience.
There were several edible plants I recognized, though blackberries put me off my appetite. I wondered if I’d ever be able to eat the little things again, after the wolf pack.
Finally, on the morning of the tenth day, we left the arms of the Fairy Wood and stepped out onto the grassy slopes of the Madean Hills. I pointed over the hills’ crests. “I live about two days beyond there. If it’s clear, we should be able to see the town from the tops of the hills.”
Miles smiled and tugged me onward. “Let’s go already! I’m sick of this forest.”
At noon, we reached the hills’ smooth peaks. The air was too muggy to see my village, but I could trace the road to it off into the blue-grey. Miles sat and offered me a wrapped piece of rabbit and chickweed. I chomped on it while he stared at the landscape. “I-- remember,” he said.
I stopped eating. I’d wondered about that several times, but we’d been busy and I hadn’t known how to ask.
“There was a boy named Luke,” Miles said. “I was in love with him. But he became very, very sick. So I went into the Shadowvale to find the magic that could save him.” He looked at me. “I guess that didn’t work out too well, huh?”
I swallowed some rabbit, the food feeling too large for my throat. “I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. But I think-- I think I’m alright. It’s been a very long time since then. I’m just glad I made it out at all.” He smiled at me. “Besides, I got to meet you.”
I leaned my head against his shoulder. Miles slid his arm around my waist. “What was your name, before?”
“Aidan.”
“You do seem like an Aidan,” I said, peering up at him.
He kissed me, and I shut my eyes, happy to simply be alive and kissing the boy I loved. Then he pulled back and rested his forehead on mine. “I’m sticking with Miles.”
It took three days to walk the two-day journey to my village, but I may have been stalling. I wanted to see my family again, but I was also not ready for the earful my father would give me and the verbal smackdown my mother would unleash.
We reached the town proper at two o’clock on the third day. Several people stared at Miles. The town was small enough that everyone could recognize everyone, and they’d never seen him before. But more people gaped at me. Gwenneth Fell sidled up to me and asked how I’d survived.
“Your father said you’d disappeared, and he thought you’d journeyed to the Shadowvale.”
I fingered my braid. “Um. Yeah. I kinda did.”
She gasped, as did several eavesdroppers. “What--”
“But don’t worry!” I said. “That place is just a forest now.” I frowned, thinking. “I still wouldn’t go in, though. There’s some nasty water faeries in there.”
Gwenneth gaped. I glanced around and noticed Miles, who seemed a little out of place amid all the people. “Oh, yeah!” I smacked his shoulder. “This is Miles. I met him on the way.” I deliberately avoided saying that he’d been a shadow beast at the time and had tried to take over my brain.
Brianna Weaver crowded in. “But-- you said the Vale’s not there anymore? How--”
I shoved Miles between the shoulderblades, pushing him down the street. “Talk later! I’ve gotta go see my family now.”
Once we’d left the range of their ears, Miles asked, “What the heck are we going to tell them?”
I groaned. “I have no idea.”
We walked down the main street until the buildings fell away and we entered the farmlands. Stone cottages dotted the fields. Miles laughed at the sheep. “They look like angry clouds!”
We passed through a copse of red maples, and there was my house, looking just like I’d left it. The hardwood shingles were grey with age, matching the grey stone of the walls. A split-rail fence corralled the pigs. Out in the pasture, our solitary, evil cow grazed, chewing the cropped grass. Our fields of wheat, root vegetables, and apple trees opened up beyond her.
“They’re going to freak out when they see you,” I warned him. “After they finish freaking out about me.”
“Should I be worried?”
“Maybe. My sister will be ecstatic. My parents will think I’ve been possessed.”
He grinned. “You were. For a few hours.”
“It’s called two souls working as one, ex-arcane.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
I wove my fingers through his. “Ready?”
He nodded, his eyes bright. “Mm-hmm.”
I strode up to the front door and shoved the heavy thing open. The handle had to be jiggled slightly, so the wood wouldn’t catch on the threshold.
I stepped into the cool main room. My mother would be in the dairy, making cheese. My sister was probably mucking the cow’s stall, or maybe baking bread. At this time of year, my father would be harvesting carrots.
I inhaled the warm, dry smell of my house. The scent swirled between my ribs and lodged itself against my heart.
I gripped Miles’ hand.
“We’re home!"
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