by J. Kearston
I grit my teeth. “This is ridiculous. There has to be a way out of this mess. We can’t spend the rest of our lives living this way.”
Cambria sighs, scrubbing a hand down her exhausted face. “I just don’t see a way out. Not one that has a happy ending, at least.”
Dorian steals her hand and kisses the mark on the back of it. A symbol of twisted knots; perfect depiction of the fae. Twisting you up and ensnaring you until you can’t see a beginning or an end, just a web of imprisonment disguised as something beautiful.
“We’ll figure it out.”
She releases a humorless breath, looking dejected and hopeless, but there’s at least more life in her than there was before. It may not be a perfect solution, but I just can’t imagine a light as strong as Cambria’s being snuffed out from the world. She’s too vibrant, throwing herself all in no matter the situation. How anyone could look at her and see anything beyond the amazing person she is, I just can’t wrap my head around.
“Can we go home now?” she implores, looking directly at Lucien, since she knows he’s always the quickest to agree to leaving this place at any given time.
He frowns. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
My face mirrors the shock on hers.
“But you hate this place nearly as much as I do,” she protests.
However, he’s already getting up, brushing his knuckles gently across her cheek on his way to the sink. “I do,” Lucien agrees. “But in the state you’re in, you’ll likely only make it a day before needing to return. We should stick around until you’re fully charged.”
Cambria thumps her head on the table and Dorian pats it consolingly. “I was getting along just fine until you three showed up,” she complains.
“No you weren’t,” I snort and she turns her head to look at me. “You were existing in a little bubble of denial. You were surviving, not living. That’s not ‘just fine’, Cambria.”
She flips me off, but there’s no heat behind it. “Way to call me out, jerkwad.”
I shrug. “Maybe you need it. You spend every waking moment pretending things are good enough as they are so you can make your peace with it. A little slap of reality isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
Dorian runs his fingers through her hair, letting the multicolored strands slip through them like silk. “Instead of worrying about a bed today, let’s avoid town. Is there anywhere around here not filled with bitchy fae or face eating tigers?”
She sits up, looking more awake. “You three up for a hike? It’ll take most of the day, but if we head out soon we should get there before nightfall.”
It’ll mean camping then, and we don’t have a single supply for it, but it sounds like the best idea I’ve heard all week.
“Then what are we waiting for?”
***
“I wouldn’t exactly consider this hiking,” Dorian huffs out, paling when he risks a look down.
Her hair is tied back and she’s drenched in sweat like the rest of us, but she has a huge grin on her face. “Semantics,” she manages between breaths.
We’re a few stories above the ground, the incline so steep we may as well be free climbing the side of the mountain. It’s primarily rock, with a sparse forest covering it. The trees are spaced enough that nothing can really sneak up on us, but it offers a bit of coverage from anyone on the ground getting a clear view. We had to go way out of our way before even starting to climb, bypassing the direct path through the dense forest in favor of the less risky edges. We unanimously decided that anything lurking in there that’s enough to drive a tiger into the city is something we have no interest running into.
“Fuck, this is fun for you, isn’t it?” I pant.
I’m not out of shape by any means, but a few hours at this pace is a hell of a workout. Despite the state she’s in, Cambria grins, looking better than she did before we set out.
“A little bit,” she admits with a laugh. “Nature combined with the thrill. This steep, if I lose my footing, I might just break my neck.”
Lucien glowers at her. “You’re psychotic.”
She full on laughs at that, a rock breaking loose beneath my foot as I lurch to get a hand on something, joining Luce in glaring.
“I’d say more of a thrill seeker than psychotic,” she argues. “It makes me feel alive. All the adrenaline, the burn in my muscles; it’s intoxicating. Practically foreplay.”
Lucien sits down on a boulder and wipes sweat from his brow. “We need to find you a better hobby.”
I flop down on the ground near them, leaning my back against the rock to catch my breath. Dorian follows our lead and it forces Cambria to slow down for a minute, climbing onto Dorian’s lap. He doesn’t bat an eye at the dirt or sweat, wrapping his arms around her stomach and resting his chin on her shoulder.
“Or my humans need to step up their game. Maybe that desk job isn’t good for your health, Luce,” she teases.
His tight expression smooths out a bit as she starts falling back into her usual self again. “That feels a bit like a challenge, little fae. You don’t think I can keep up with you?”
She hops back up to her feet and fixes her ponytail. “Think? I know.”
I groan, getting to my feet. “Thanks a lot, asshole,” I throw at Lucien. “As if this wasn’t bad enough, now you’re going to make us run?”
Lucien’s amber eyes flash in the late afternoon light. “Only one of us needs to keep up with her,” he counters.
“So we should make it more interesting,” Dorian adds, feeding into this nonsense.
“Why?” I groan in exasperation. “When did you guys become such masochists?”
They don’t answer me of course, but I can’t even be mad. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Lucien Avrell playful in my entire life. Cambria may think she sucks the life out of people, but it’s a damn lie; she inspires the people that actually see her for who she is to reach new heights.
“Last to reach the top has to pay for the new mattress and take everyone out to dinner when we cross over?” Lucien offers and her eyes narrow.
“You know how to light a fire under a girl’s ass, I’ll give you that,” she states. “I haven’t even gotten paid for my first week at my new job.”
“Then I guess you better not lose,” he retorts easily.
“Ready, set, go!” Dorian shouts in a rush, darting off a split second later before we know what hit us.
Cambria laughs, breaking into a dead sprint after him, Lucien right alongside her. I groan, pushing my already screaming legs to their breaking point. Weaving between trees and jumping over roots so I don’t break my ankle, I catch up to the rest of them. Because despite how exhausted I am, my job is way more physical than the others’ and it gives me a slight advantage right now.
It has to be no less than a solid half hour at this rate and I lose sight of the others as I develop tunnel vision, praying to stave off my impending heart attack until after I cross the finish line. I’m starting to believe this mountain has no end, that it must extend into the sky forever. A roar fills my ears the more I press on, and a few minutes later I make it to the top, but just barely. I instantly fall to my ass, lying down and panting heavily, each breath stabbing my lungs in a punishing rhythm.
Lucien arrives next with Dorian right behind, the latter promptly tripping over me and knocking the precious breath I managed to find right out of my chest. I shove him off, rolling him down my legs, and he doesn’t even bat an eye. His chest heaves as he strains for air and I can feel his heart thundering against my shin.
“Looks like Cambria’s buying,” I huff out over the roaring in my ears. “She’s going to be pissed.”
“Not quite,” she chirps, and I tilt my head towards her voice.
She’s directly above us in the tree, sitting on a branch and swinging her legs, perfectly at home and in her element. She grins down, looking honestly happy for the first time in days.
“How the fuck did you get up there?”
“That you are, little fae,” I agree. “So I suppose Dorian here is the loser then?”
Dorian groans in defeat. “If I was going to lose anyway, I should have just walked.”
Cambria laughs, walking over to help him to his feet and off of me so I can stand. “Close your eyes,” she commands, and I happily let mine shut. She takes me by the hand and leads me a little bit away. “No peeking,” she decrees as she goes to get the others.
“You brought us here to kill us didn’t you?” I tease, heart starting to return to a normal rhythm.
“Yep, and you idiots followed me to your deaths willingly. Nobody likes characters that are too stupid to live, Atlas,” she replies with ease.
“To be fair,” Dorian throws out there from my left, “you have a nice ass. Can’t really blame us.”
She chuckles, the sound thankfully easy and more carefree. “Open your eyes.”
When I do, my heart stops. From here, the world looks so small and so massive at the same time. The tiny spec of the city and the castle, the giant green swath of the forest cutting across the land. Mountains and valleys, distant specs of other towns.
More miraculous though, is the way a section of land seems to hover above the ground, unconnected; like something you could only reach if you could fly. From the town, the view is obstructed, and I wonder if it’s from glamour or just the landscape. To my right is the river I heard earlier, tipping over the edge to cascade down in a waterfall that’s far quieter than the ones I’m used to. Even the water doesn’t dare to make too much noise and disrupt the tranquility up here.
I risk a look over the ledge, entranced in the way the water pools a hundred feet beneath us on a platform before continuing to another. The water falls in a series of steps down to the valley far below, snaking off into the distance.
“That city over there,” Cambria begins, gesturing to the most distant one I can makes out.
I wait for her to continue, unable to look away. From here, everything just feels so peaceful. There’s so much more to this world than what we’ve seen and I finally start to understand the appeal of the worlds Dorian throws himself into. If he sees even half of this in his head, is able to capture this feeling to revisit whenever he wants?
I don’t think I can mock him anymore.
“That’s approximately the end of my mother’s territory,” she finishes on a whisper, like she’s terrified someone will overhear the declaration.
My head whips to face her, that lone sentence like a slap to the face. “So why haven’t you ever left?”
She looks out over the world, breathing easier like none of her problems can reach her up here. “Even if she doesn’t treat me like it, legally I’m her daughter. She’d be within her rights to ask any other kingdom to turn me over or allow her forces in to search for me. If I ran, I’d never be able to stop running. I wouldn’t be able to have so much as a crappy apartment to call home for fear of her finding me.”
When she turns to face me, her eyes appear haunted, worries I can only imagine holding her captive. “And she would, eventually. Everything she’s ever put me through would pale in comparison to what fate she’d have in store if that happened.” She looks down, following the path of the river. “So it was better off staying a pipe dream to get through the worst days. At least now, I have a semblance of a life, and that’s more than I ever thought she’d allow.”
I wrap an arm around her shoulders and kiss the top of her head. “Do you trust me?”
She eyes me cautiously. “Nothing good has ever started with that sentence.”
“That a no?” It’s impossible to keep the grin off of my face, and it only makes her that much more wary.
She grimaces. “It’s a maybe?”
Smiling, I kiss her on the lips this time. “Good enough for me.” Dropping my arm from her shoulders to her waist, I bring her body flush against mine, and jump.
Chapter 17
Cambria
He’s fucking crazy.
But I love it.
A scream tears from my throat as we fall, but it morphs from fear to excitement. I’ve never felt as absolutely free as I do in this moment, plunging to my possible death. For just a few brief moments, I feel like I’m flying.
We break through the surface of the water feet first, swallowed by the pond. I launch down until my momentum slows and nearly reach the ground beneath the waves, my feet brushing the rock. I lost Atlas when we hit the water, so I swim up to the surface to make sure he survived the fall, or at least catch my breath before hunting for him.
Sputtering, I suck air into my lungs and brush the water from my face, but smile. Atlas’ head breaks through a moment later, grinning ear to ear.
“Lucien was wrong, you’re psychotic, not me,” I laugh, splashing him.
“You’re both crazy!” Dorian shouts from far above us, still on the ledge with Lucien.
I tread water, beckoning them to join us. “Come on, boys! All the cool kids are jumping off the bridge, you should too!”
“Do it, do it, do it!” Atlas chants beside me.
“I think we’ll walk, thanks,” Lucien calls out, frowning down at us.
But with the way he’s looking over the ledge at us, he isn’t watching Dorian behind him, taking a running start. The two of them fly over the edge and Atlas and I kick out of the center of the pool hastily to avoid being crushed. Lucien’s surprised shout and Dorian’s whoop are lost as they crash beneath the surface, moments later coming up sputtering and cursing.
“I will kill you,” Luce threatens, looking at Dorian with murder in his eyes.
Dorian’s blonde hair is plastered to his head and his bright blue eyes are sparkling as much as the pool he’s treading water in. “Worth it.”
“Well boys,” I point out, jabbing a thumb over my shoulder. “We’ve come this far and there’s only one way down from here.”
Lucien glares at the waterfall as if frivolity is a personal affront. I swim over to him and kiss his cheek. “No need to be scared, my little human, we’ll be with you every step of the way.”
He splashes me and scoffs. I don’t hide my grin at finally breaking through the icy exterior of the man, loving the one I found underneath. He may wear a mask to keep the rest of the world at bay, but so do I. Here though, when it’s just the four of us? We don’t have that need, and I can’t explain how much it pleases me he’s starting to feel the same.
I know I’m not much better some days, only showing a fake version of myself to the world, but I embrace my flaws. I’m a hypocrite. A thief. A far cry from a martyr, and a small step away from a murderer. I’m a mess, but they love me anyway; just not half as much as I love and need them.
“I’m the oldest one here,” he argues. “Little human and young ward, my ass.”
I tsk under my tongue. “No need to be sensitive about your age, we don’t judge here.”
He rolls his eyes. “Let’s get on with this, shall we?”
Atlas and Dorian are already nearing the small waterfall to the next pool beneath us.
“Come on, Luce,” Dorian cajoles, “loosen up for once. None of us would dare tell a soul that C.E.O. Lucien Avrell actually knows how to have fun.”
“Ooh,” I purr, trailing a hand across his chest, “I knew you were important at your office, but I didn’t realize how much so.”
He scoffs and grabs my hand, dragging me closer so that we can follow the others who didn’t bother to wait for us. “Says the princess,” he counters.
“Now, now, I’m far more akin to the black sheep. But we came out here to forget about my depressing drama, so enough about that.”
He drops it easily without any further urging. “I’m not the C.E.O. Yo
u guys really need to quit tossing terms around if you don’t know what they mean.”
“No need to be embarrassed,” I console. “You’re obviously doing well with whatever position you have.”
Atlas holds onto a rock to keep from getting tossed over just yet. “Well he should, since he owns the place.” My eyebrows hit my hairline, impressed.
Lucien takes it in stride. “Not nearly as exciting as you’re thinking. Just means twice as much work and far more responsibilities. Now, I thought we came out here to get away from all of that?”
“You first or me?”
He doesn’t release my hand, dragging me beside him as we get tossed over the side with the current. I whoop out a laugh on the way down, feeling weightless and free. Lucien doesn’t let go that much, but he half smiles as we resurface on the next platform. Atlas and Dorian went on without us, and we make our way down three more levels before we reach the river in the bottom of the valley.
We haul ourselves onto the bank, thoroughly drenched and dripping water all over the place. My clothes weigh heavily on me and my shoes are filled with small pools of their own.
“I might not have thought this all the way through,” Atlas admits. “Walking home is going to be a bitch.”
“You never think anything through, but I should have seen it coming before you jumped and stopped you,” Lucien agrees, wringing out his shirt.
“To be fair,” Dorian adds, stripping off his shirt like Atlas, “it was much better than going back the way we came. I would have likely tripped and tumbled down the mountain. Besides, it would have taken us another day to get down that route.”
I squeeze as much water as possible out of my clothes and hair before starting to walk. “I’m with Dorian. He would have broken a leg,” I tease, sticking my tongue out. “Come on, we better start walking. I’ve never taken this route, so I have no idea what we might come across and it’s getting dark. We’re going to have to cut through at least part of the forest now, so thanks for offering us up as dinner to the monster, Atlas.”