He was sweating with panic. “You sure about that?”
“I read it somewhere. Sounds good, right?” she said, smiling through her tears. “Now go talk Jeremy into leaving. I’ll get the horses saddled.”
Rafe pushed open the door. The healer had Jeremy’s shirt off and was wrapping his chest in white linen bandages. Jeremy’s face was gray, and blood flecked his lips. She finished bandaging him and came over to his side.
“A hole in his lung, Highness,” the healer said quietly to Rafe. “He’s drowning in his own blood. This wound is beyond my powers.”
“I understand,” he said. “Thank you.”
She walked out and left them alone together.
Rafe went down on his knees in front of Jeremy and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He couldn’t seem to take a full breath.
“Verdict?” Jeremy gasped.
“You’re going to be fine,” Rafe said.
“Liar.”
“You will. We’re going home. You’ll have surgery.”
“No, we can’t. If we leave, we can’t—” He paused to gulp air. “Come back.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do. You’re a prince here. You’re…You belong here. If I’m going to die, Rafe, let me die here—”
“Listen. Listen to me.” Rafe put his hands on Jeremy’s face, forced him to meet his eyes. “There’s something I remembered that you forgot. I was lost. That day we met? The day you saw me drawing my stupid coyote in my notebook? I was already so lost. If you hadn’t found me, I could’ve ended up just like my father. Do you understand that? And remember you said you could always sense where I was because deep down I knew I belonged here, that this was home. That’s not why. I wasn’t lost because I wasn’t here. I was lost because I’m lost without you. All this time, I’ve been lost without you, and you were the only one who could ever find me. And if you die, I will be lost forever.”
Brothers. Lovers. Best friends. Partners in crime. Cellmates. Soul mates. There was no bond that bound hearts that did not bind theirs.
“You,” Rafe whispered in his ear, “are my kingdom. Where you are is where I belong. And I did remember that I loved you all this time. I just forgot I remembered. I’ll never forget it again. And as long as we’re here, I outrank you, so when I say we’re going home, you say—”
“Time to go.”
“Right, right. Exactly,” Rafe said. “Time to go.”
From the doorway, Skya shouted, “Valkyries! Now!”
Everyone moved at once, bringing round the horses, blankets, water. Only Rafe and Jeremy stayed still and quiet in the eye of the storm.
“It wasn’t—” Jeremy began, then took a ragged breath.
“What?” Rafe asked him.
“It wasn’t a stupid coyote drawing. It was good.”
Storyteller CornerApologies
I’m sorry about this.
To quote the queen, “I wrote the story. I don’t make the rules.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Skya, Emilie, and the Valkyries rode with them, flanking them in case other Bright Boys tried anything else. They rode Rafe’s horse, but Freddy ran with them, carrying no weight, so that they could change horses when Sunny lost steam.
The riding was hard for them all, hardest for Jeremy. Every bump left him gasping in agony. When they stopped to change horses, Jeremy leaned against a tree and coughed up blood. Rafe held him and gave him water. It was all he could do. Whatever this world was, whoever had made it for Skya and filled it with white stags and giants and impossible forests, they’d allowed in death and suffering as well. Maybe that was the rule. Maybe that was the deal. Maybe it was the price of magic. Maybe the price, sometimes, was too high. He didn’t need unicorns and castles. He just needed Jeremy.
It took from morning to evening to make it to the Devil’s Tea Table. The horses had taken them as far as they could go. Rafe held Jeremy steady as the Valkyries formed a circle around them so they could all say their goodbyes.
“Ignore everything you hear and see in there,” Skya said. “Stay on the path. There’s only one path even if it looks like there’s more. I would go with you if I could, but the Bright Boys would come out of the woodwork to get me, and I’d only slow you down.”
“I know,” Rafe said. “We’ll make it.”
“Aurora will go with you. Follow her out as you followed her in.”
Aurora flew overhead in low circles, cawing as if to say, Hurry, hurry…
Skya sighed, wiped her forehead. “So much to say and no time to say it. Your names are written on my heart. And I know my name is on yours. The day I forget either of you is the day my heart stops beating.”
She took Rafe in her arms, but only for the briefest moment, long enough for him to say, “No matter what world I’m in, you are my queen.”
“And you are my prince forever and always.”
Then she took Jeremy in her arms, very gently, and whispered something in his ear. It must’ve been something nice because he managed a smile even through the pain.
