“Sam!” I cried as I hurried to the cell.
The cell doors had been left open, the guards standing on either side. Both guards bowed to the king in reverent sweeps. I ran through the doors and knelt by Sam’s shoulders. He coughed again. Red rimmed his eyes, and though he was covered in a pile of blankets, he shivered with cold.
“‘Elle? Is that you, ‘Elle?” Sam coughed again, blood spraying on the cloth Lila held to his mouth.
“I’m here, Sam. I’m right here.” I brushed a hand through his red hair. “What were you thinking, crossing the border?”
“I had to see you,” Sam said through a ragged throat. His eyes somehow found Elden and narrowed. “Had to save you from that brute.”
A flush of shock shot through Elden’s features at the venom in Sam’s words.
The king and his guard advanced no further than the open bars of the prison cell. I couldn’t mistake the shift in his eyes. Of the inevitability of the situation. The inevitability of a human’s death. But unlike the elves who watched my father fall to the ground, there was true sorrow written on his features.
“What is happening to him?” I asked Elden.
“He is sick.” Lila knelt across from me. Her face was a bit worn, dark circles bruised beneath her eyes, but she held Sam’s hand firmly. “He needs medicine or magic.”
Elden lowered his head. “He crossed the border between our lands without a blessing. It is an old magic, one that will spread throughout his body until it?—”
“Until what?” Lila and I asked in unison.
“Until it consumes him.” Elden’s words were final.
“No.” I stood and made my way to the king. “You can save him. You can give him permission to cross, to be here, can’t you?”
Elden’s eyes were pleading. “It is too late for me to save him. The magic working here is not in my power to reverse. Nor is it in Jel’s power. King Theronvere told you the truth. Only the magic and strength of his true love can save him from the brink of death.”
“There must be something!” My entire world crashed around the impossibility of it all.
Lila held up a book as thin lines of tears streamed down her brown cheeks. “I’ve been writing a story for Sam all week to soothe his pains. He needs to know what happens at the end, before?—”
I took in the true pain on Lila’s beautiful face. “You’ve been here all week?”
Lila’s slight smile looked more like a wince. “Serrina told me of the human in the cell.” Lila’s eyes shot to the grumbling bodyguard beside the king. “I think she actually felt bad for the pair of us humans in the castle all alone.”
Serrina rolled her eyes, but couldn’t quite hide the slight twinkle.
“And what of Jacob?” I asked, noting the human carpenter who’d worked so hard on my kitchen.
“Oh, Jacob’s been too occupied with his new project to give us much attention.” Lila smiled sweetly, then seemed to remember the handwritten book in her hands. “It started out as a bit of fun, me telling this outlandish story to distract Sam from the illness, but I need to finish the story. I feel that I must.”
“Of course.” My heart raced in my chest as I thought through what could be done to save my Sam. He’d been with me through so much. He’d come here to save me. He’d?—
He smiled brightly through the pain when Lila scooted closer to a place on his bed that seemed custom made for her curves. His arm curled around her, a deep blush creeping into his cheeks now more obvious with his pale pallor. His eyes crinkled at the sides with a deep—affection.
I looked up in surprise at Elden as he blinked back at me, both of our jaws hanging open.
“Nani quickly dismissed the feeling the other fox brought out in her, ‘Jewels are the only things that last. They don’t change and they will never leave.’” Lila’s voice rose as clear as a silver bell through the cavernous prison cells.
Her voice stirred something deep in me. Forged a connection, a tether. I blinked in surprise. It couldn’t be.
“But the young fox, Aman, smiled. ‘Maybe you just need to see the world in a different way.’ Nani was loath to leave her treasure unguarded in the hollowed oak by the creek, but she trusted something in Aman. They wandered beneath towering trees, listened to the whispering winds, and watched the sunset paint the sky in fuchsias and purples. As the days passed, Nani found herself laughing at Aman’s jokes, singing along with the wind, and feeling the joy of the sun on her fur.”
As Lila spoke, something changed within Sam. His cheeks grew pinker, his chest rose and fell with more strength, his arm pulled Lila all the tighter.
The air charged, and I felt it—that warmth in my heart. That connection to Lila, thatmagic. Lila’s story had magic. Elden must have felt it then, for his own arm reached around and tugged me close to him. I pulled him back to me as we stared on, my wonder increasing just as the warmth radiating from my heart. Sam continued to glow, to heal, as Lila read from her story. “The jewels slowly gathered dust as they lay forgotten in the hollow oak by the creek. Nani’s true treasure was the love of Aman as they made their way through their own magical forest.Jewels may lose their shine, but love is the brightest treasure of all.”
And with that, a great heat burned in my heart and filled my nostrils with a strange tang. Sam blinked in surprise, then sat up fully, a smile stretching across his handsome face. He beamed with strength and health. Sam looked around the prison cell, at Elden and me standing with arms around each other, and at the bodyguard Serrina with a scowl on her face (a smile teasing her lips), but when his eyes landed on Lila, his smile faltered.
