The Princess and the Warlock

Chapitre Vingt-Cinq

Kaius took us back to Gossington the following morning, after Freesia made breakfast—fish of course. Though I didn't remember the path to Freesia's shack, the trek home felt almost familiar, each curving tree and charred branch tickling my memory in a way I didn't understand. In the daylight, the Wildwood was safe to travel, though we were careful to keep our footsteps light and our voices hushed. I knew I should be nervous, especially fact that I almost died a few mere nights ago in this very forest, but I felt no inkling of fear. With Kaius warm hand in mind, my thoughts were far from caring about the Wildwood.

It was still strange, touching him like this. Or, more strangely, him touching me like this. Willingly. Affectionately. His thumb as we walked smoothed over the skin on the back of my hand, absently, as if he weren't even conscious of it. The fact that his hand absolutely enveloped my own sent a new feeling of peace through my veins. I felt safe, cared for, different.

Along with the long, billowy skirt Freesia had lent me, as well as a white cotton tunic, Freesia had given me a pair of slippers to wear home, a little too big for my small toes, and I had to walk precariously to keep them from tumbling off. Kaius glanced down at me with a gentle gaze, keeping me close to his side. "How are you feeling?"

He'd already asked me the question, several times, that morning, but I wasn't even merely annoyed. The fact that he kept asking proved even further that last night hadn't been a dream—his confessions were real. "I'm feeling okay," I told him, my repeated answer. His hair was like spun silver in the sunlight, and I realized this was the first time I'd ever seen him in it, aside from the day we first met. One of the first times I'd seen the sunlight while being in the Wildwood. "How are you?"

Kaius squeezed my fingertips lightly, looking ahead to the path. "I'm great," he said, light catching in his eye. I saw his mouth catch on an upward tilt. "Despite everything that's happened the past few days, I'm good. Does that sound horrible?"

"No," I replied, pressing deeper against his firm coat and feeling his body heat seep from him, reaching up with my free hand and tucking my hair behind my ear. "Not at all."

We walked further along the path that wasn't a path, scattered and littered with twigs and fallen branches, overgrown grass and moss catching at the hem of my skirt. Our silence didn't drive me mad like it had before; what we were lacking by speaking we were making up for by little touches, glances.

I never thought this would happen, but here I was. And here he was. My insides were doing a happy dance.

Kaius' footsteps faltered a bit suddenly, turning to face me. "Are you in any pain?" he asked. "I want to show you something, but only if you're feeling up to it."

Though the stinging seemed to be a constant ache in my side and back, the sharp pain was gone. "I'm all right," I answered. "I want to see what you want to show me."

We switched directions, turning east from our trek north. "You spoke of your mother once," he said as we walked along. "Was she like your father?"

"You mean horrid? Not as bad." It was true, my mother—what much I remembered of her—wasn't like Father. She never raised a hand to me, unlike my Father, never treated me as an outcast or a currency for the kingdom, unlike the king. Though my memories of her were faint, a ghost that would appear for a moment only to vanish in a whisper of wind, I never once doubted her affection toward me. "She had her own troubles, but who doesn't?"

Kaius let loose a breath, a sigh to the trees that were leading us in a different direction. "Sometimes I wonder what my father and mother would think of me," he said quietly, gaze somber, "if they were to see me now."