She only made it another two minutes before her legs gave out and she went crashing to the forest floor, Taiyo fumbling to stop his horse before he left her behind. She wheezed a minute before pushing herself off the ground, ignoring the scrapes she’d accrued and climbing up behind him on the horse. She took the reins from him and kicked the horse back into motion, desperately trying to catch her breath.
“I said my goodbyes when I went after you,” Taiyo murmured as she wrapped around him, and she knew he could feel her thundering heart and her whole body convulsing where she was pressed up against him, gasping for air. “Haruko knew I wasn’t likely to come back. Please, it’s alright to stop. You don’t have to keep trying. I just wanted to spend this time with you.”
“You—are. I’m—right—here,” Hellebore huffed, jutting her chin over his shoulder so she could see. “Maybe—this is—how—I—want to—spend—it.”
Hellebore kept her eyes peeled as they raced through the forest. No irises.
She stopped only to keep the horse from keeling over from dehydration. She also took advantage of the water, but they did not rest long. Not even when the sun set and Taiyo could no longer keep his eyes open. His head was leaned back, tucked intoher neck, and she thanked every good gene she’d gotten to have a torso tall enough she could see over him.
He bled through his stitches.
She couldn’t stop and do anything about it.
Hellebore just focused on keeping Taiyo upright and the horse riding as fast as they could back toward Auror even in the middle of the night. She could feel his sluggish heart fighting with each beat. If she could get him back before the eclipse, if there was even just a single petal left in the garden…
The morning of the eclipse, Hellebore, one arm wrapped around Taiyo, the other steering, raced through the city gates. No one stopped her, thankfully. She didn’t know if it was because they recognized Taiyo in her arms or her. Since she looked like a banshee in her tattered shreds, she doubted they recognized her.
When Hellebore brought the horse to a screeching halt at the closed castle gates, a shout went up. “It’s the king and queen!”
Soon enough, they were opening and Hellebore brought them through right as Haruko ran out of the palace doors. Haruko’s eyes widened when they landed on Hellebore. “You came back?”
“How long until the eclipse?” Hellebore gasped as she moved to dismount.
“Thirty minutes before it begins. Taiyo, is he—”
“Are there any irises left? Any at all in the garden?” Hellebore hit the ground, but her legs buckled and she went to her knees.
“Not that I know of. There might be some in the city that were cured, but considering how unlikely it is the Moon Elves make it here—”
“Send out whoever you can to go see! And help me—” Hellebore tried to get up from her knees. Her vision was swimming. She needed air. She needed food. She needed water.
She was about to faint.
She reached up and her fingers fumbled with the saddlebag. She dug in and wrapped them around the vial, pulling it out.
She needed to save her husband.
Haruko helped Hellebore to her feet as she held the vial. Haruko looked over her shoulder and barked at the guards gawking at them. “You heard your queen! Get to it! Find us some irises!”
Once Hellebore was on her feet, vision steadying once more, Haruko turned to her and said, “I’ll send for healers—”
“Don’t bother. If we only have thirty minutes—” Hellebore took a deep breath. “They can’t save him. But I can.”
She reached up for Taiyo, who was about to topple right off his horse. His side was soaked with blood. His stitches had come undone. Haruko immediately helped her get Taiyo off the horse as he came back to awareness. He caught Hellebore’s shoulder and murmured, “Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t. I’m not going anywhere,” Hellebore said, taking one side while Haruko took the other. “We’re going to go to the garden, can you do that?”
He nodded, eyes tightly shut as he squeezed Hellebore’s shoulder. She looked up at the sun. They didn’t have long.
If there was just a single petal left…
They went in through the back, Haruko holding open the gap in the branches for them.
Hellebore stumbled into the garden, crashing to her knees with Taiyo and landing in the ash. She called out to Haruko as she came in after them, “Look for a bloom, petals, anything that could still have magic in it!”
Hellebore was careful to leave Taiyo in a comfortable position before she tore through the remains, digging her hands into the ash. It was all black. There was nothing left there.
But there had to besomething.
