Ten Years Ago
For days, he wouldsneak into the dungeon to check on her. Each time, he’d masked himself and changed the color of his eyes. He told himself that it was better that way—that she didn’t know it was him.
He made sure that she was fed and had Desi escort her to the baths each day to make sure she was clean. Camalia had even held true to their bargain, ensuring that the guards that were posted by her cell were ones that wouldn’t be interested in a woman, much less a young girl.
Five days passed with him sneaking in while she was sleeping, slipping various pieces of food through the bars before he finally saw her awake.
The moon shone in through the small, circular window on the back wall of her cell, illuminating her hair to the point that it was woven with moonbeams. She blinked at him, seemingly stunned by his appearance.
He’d glamoured himself to look different to her once again, his hair a ruddy brown and his eyes the same deep purple of the dress he’d brought for her to stand trial in.
Aziel received word, just earlier that day, that she was to be prosecuted in the morning.
“You’re the one who has been coming every day.” Not a question. A statement. He didn’t cower at her assessment of him, only held out the dress to her. “You smell like cherry blossoms.”
“Is it bad?”
Nymiria shook her head and took the dress from him, clutching it to her chest like it was the finest piece of fabric she’d ever seen. “Not at all.” She smiled.
He was glad. After spending the last several days in Camalia’s bed, he’d prayed he didn’t reek of her stench. He’d scrubbed himself raw before coming here, using a soap Desi had gifted him for his birthday. She said the cherry blossom scent was supposed to make people happy.
He left her in the dungeon, bidding her good fortune on the outcome of her trial. She thanked him with another small smile, her face brightening more when Desi came down to escort her to the washrooms.
Chapter 16
The Choking Vines were just as she remembered. Dark and looming. Ominous. They wove around one another like snakes searching for mice, slithering and hissing as they sensed their approach.
Aziel moving in her peripheral caught her attention. Nymiria tore her eyes away from the vines to watch as Aziel walked to one of the nearby trees and pulled a bag from a hole in the trunk. The bag contained hooded cloaks and masks. When he handed them to her, Nymiria moved to shrug off the jacket he’d given her, but his hand falling upon her shoulder stilled her movements.
“Keep it on.”
She didn’t understand his command, but seeing as he’d traveled this path far more often than herself, Nymiria kept his jacket on, slipping the cloak around her shoulders and pulling the mask over her face before lifting the hood. Aziel watched her, his eyes flickering over her before giving an approving nod. She was ready.
Hands clammy with sweat and her heart pounding, Nymiria and Aziel stepped towards the vines. She couldn’t help but to marvel at the length of their thorns—all of them nearly the size of her forearm and just the right girth to impale someone if they wished.
How she’d made that mad dash through these vines at the age of fifteen was beyond her.
The story of the vines was one she'd heard as a child, sitting upon a burly guard's lap as he rocked her to sleep. She could remember the darkness of his eyes and the various, intricate braids in his dark hair. He'd told her that the vines were created by the gods as a means for protection from the outside world—magicked to not just keep the evil out, but to keep their peoplein. It was too much of a risk to allow anyone out. All those that managed to escape their realm either came backchangedor they never came back at all. Nymiria understood. After spending ten years in the human realm, she could see how that darkness could have changed someone.
"Are we supposed to run?" Nymiria asked, adjusting the ends of her hair so that they were secured under the cloak.
She could hear the smirk in Aziel's voice when he spoke, the glimmer of wild excitement in his eyes making her heart feel like it was plummeting to her feet. "Like hell." He confirmed with a nod.
There wasn't a moment to think before Aziel's hand was slipping into hers and tugging her towards the vines. He began to pick up his speed once they were roughly thirty feet away, his grip on her hand never faltering. With the single hand that was available, he pulled the sword from it's place at his side and wielded it, the metal shining so brightly that it nearly looked as if it were made of glass.
She braced herself for the impact of the thorns, to feel them brushing against her clothes in an attempt to snatch her up.
Ten feet.
Five feet.
Her heart was in her throat, her ears ringing as she continued to look at the thorns on the crawling vines. Small puffs of fog filtered out from the gaps, clouding the air in front of them with an ominous, misty smoke.
Two feet.
Aziel picked up his pace, both of them moving in a blur as they charged straight into the bramble. He let out a grunt, his sword whistling through the air as he swung at the vines to hack them away. But, instead of hearing the crunch of theimpact of his blade against the vines, Nymiria felt his hand slip from hers and heard his sword clatter to the ground.
She opened her eyes, only for them to open wider when she saw what was happening.
