The Moonshaped Sorrow (Open Novella Contest 2020)

Chapter Twelve: The Last Offer

She stretched out one arm, staring at the smooth skin and delicate fingers with something akin to awe. She glanced up, meeting Cori's gaze, and he knew. She smiled.

His gaze dropped to where the knife had been embedded in her flesh. There was a hole in her dress where the knife had gone in, but no sign of injury.

"Breaking the curse must have healed me," she said.

First his mind was only caught on the healing part. She was no longer dying. But then he realized the fuller part of what she'd said.

"The curse is broken?"

Miraluna laughed, and the sound was light but fragile. "Of course. I can't believe you did it."

"I don't know what I did. I can't believe you jumped in front of a knife for me."

"I couldn't let her hurt you." Miraluna gazed at him so adoringly with golden eyes lit like two suns.

Cori was hit with a tsunami of intense relief: that she was alive, that she was here, that she was human again and no longer bleeding out dying in his lap. He threw his arms around her. He only intended to hug her, but she turned her face, and he turned his, and her lips met his and he didn't want to stop.

He broke away at last to catch his breath, and caught sight of the dawn sunlight glinting off Miraluna's hair. It made him remember they had other problems to deal with.

"We've still got one more problem," he said. "An attack is coming, from Invomir and Thryfor. At dawn. Guin was just the start."

Miraluna's lips tightened into a line. "Of course there is." She sighed. "With the course broken, I now have an army again, but gathering them for a defensive battle will be-" She broke off. Her eyes lit up. "At dawn, you say?"

Cori frowned, unsure of what she was getting at. "Yes, but Mira, look at the sky, it practically is dawn."

"Yes," she agreed, "but not for long."

Miraluna tugged him by the hand through the palace. They hurried past swoths of startled servants who watched and gaped at them as they passed. At first Cori thought Iridessa must have spread the word about seeing Cori and his warning, but their shocked gazes were on Miraluna, not him, and he remembered that the curse had only just broken. It was stunningly easy to adjust to the idea of a human, curse-free Miraluna. She called out orders to some of them as they passed, one of which was to search the palace grounds for the vanished Guin.

She led him out onto a balcony that overlooked the front face of the palace. Down below, he could see soldiers making their way up the shore toward them.

"What's the plan?" he asked, because he was certain she had one, even if he had no idea how to deal with an invading army.

Miraluna gazed out at the enemy. "While I was cursed, I was cut off from my Blessing. But with the curse broken, I can feel it again. It's like a limb being reattached after years of absence." She turned her head toward him. "Do you remember what my Blessing is?"

It took him a second. "To change night and day-oh."

Miraluna smiled at him. That smile faded when she looked out again over the incoming invasion. She lifted her arms and closed her eyes.

For a second, nothing happened. Then the faint sunlight soared backward and a dark sky spread over the world. Cori was blinded as his eyes adjusted to the lack of light. The sudden darkness sent his heart pounding and stomach twisting. He reminded himself that it was Miraluna doing this, which helped a little, but not entirely. It was even more terrifying, he imagined, for those that had no idea what was happening or why.