Cambria starts ticking things off on her fingers. “High ground, so less likely to be caught off guard. Didn’t want to be bottlenecked and trapped without knowing what was in there. And three, those caves-“ she shudders “-no clue what might be living in them and we’d have been surrounded with no way out but forward.”
Lucien returns with a singular, bruised, blue apple and a grimace. “Rest were already picked over, it’s all I could find. There’s just too little of anything out here.” We all eye it hungrily, but none of us say a word as he passes it to Atlas.
The man looks positively furious about it when he does, refusing to take it. “There is absolutely no point trying to keep me topped off at this point and you damn well know it. I can’t make the stupid ring do what we need, and even if I could, what good would it be for if the three of you starved to death before I pulled it off?”
Cambria grabs it, rolling it over in her hands. “Anyone else feel like it might be poisoned? A single, magical apple the only thing left to eat when we’re all hungry and growing desperate?”
Now that she points it out, I can’t really argue the point. It’s too poetically convenient. We already have the evil queens, being hunted through the woods, and a lost chosen one. Cursed fruit would just be the icing on the cake.
“Here-“ she thrusts her hand out towards Atlas “-check and see if it’s poisoned for me.”
He snorts, grabbing it and rolling his eyes. “Geeze, princess, just make me do all the dirty work for you, why don’t ya?”
She fights her smile as her eyes twinkle with mirth. “Don’t worry, if you pass out, I’ll be the first in line to kiss you.”
Raziel dives for Atlas’ head, a small raven landing in his hair and fluttering its wings. After this long studying the three of them, it’s easy to note who’s who no matter what form they’re currently wearing. Each of their personalities shines through, and Raziel? Absolutely as overprotective as Lucien. He drops a worm onto Atlas’ head, convinced he can’t keep himself alive without the changeling’s help.
Atlas just sighs, used to it by now and accepting it as a mild annoyance. He narrows his eyes as he brushes the worm out of his hair, but there’s less hostility in them than before. “I see what you’re doing. I thought you promised never to manipulate us?"
“I promised never to use my abilities to manipulate you,” she corrects, reaching up to pluck the bird from his head. “Not my fault you think I’m charming.”
His eyes soften, marking his defeat as she plays him so flawlessly. He takes a small bite before offering it back to her. “There. Now split it between the rest of you already.”
Realizing he isn’t going to bend beyond that much, she takes it back, slowly bringing it to her lips. “I imagine it would take longer for the poison to hit your system, but fine. You want to make our story into one of star-crossed lovers, I’ll humor you. Who else better to follow into the grave than a stubborn human?”
“I have to be stubborn to handle your nonsense,” he counters, but he’s fighting a grin now, the tension diffused so easily.
Honestly, I think that might be the greatest gift that Cambria possesses. She’s able to make even the most hopeless, shitty situation not seem so bad, just by being there to help bear the burden.
We pass it around between all of us, but it’s gone far too soon, and just leaves my stomach aching even worse from being teased with a slight amount of food. Raziel glares at his spurned gift wriggling on the floor and flies off to pout.
We start walking after the changelings, careful of our footing as the ground sinks slightly beneath our steps like memory foam. There’s nothing left for us in the shadow court but heartache and rage, so the wasteland is a balm to our increasingly frayed patience.
It’d be so easy to break an ankle here, between the ground sucking our feet in and the rocky terrain making each step up uneven. Azazel returns a little while later, his tiny nails leaving scratches as he tries to climb up my arm like he’s still a snake, not realizing the difference right off the bat. After he’s on my shoulder, he seems to curl in on himself like it finally hit him, and makes to amble back down like he’ll seal the wounds, but I reach up to keep him in place.
“All good, buddy. Just stop wiggling so much, okay?” I scratch behind his ears. He repays me with a twitching foot that thumps into my shoulder and nibbling on my hair like its straw.
“Maybe there’s a different solution,” Lucien muses aloud.
Hopping up onto the next ledge, he extends a hand to help Cambria up as we begin the arduous ascent up one of the mountains. We’re heading away from the light court into new terrain, ready to just get the hell away from both of those kingdoms. Staying in the wasteland as much as we can, we’re less likely to run into any fae, no matter where they hail from. Even if they didn’t recognize us on sight, we look rough enough that it’d raise suspicions. We’ll only be able to go so long without venturing into one of them to search for food, but I’m hoping we can hold out until we’re far enough away from Elorie’s kingdom that they won’t have even heard about the bounty on our heads.
“Such as?”
My hand slips as the chunk of rock beneath my fingers disintegrates. Atlas snatches my collar before I can so much as blink and I grip his arm like the lifeline it is. With a grunt, he hauls me up enough that I can get a new handhold, my heart thudding heavily in my chest.
Breathless, I hurry away from the edge and closer to the rest of them. “Thanks.”
He smacks my shoulder without a word before turning to start working his way up the next section. Lucien hovers, and I’m not stupid enough not to see through the silent plan the two of them agreed upon in that brief moment they exchanged a loaded glance. Atlas will pave the way and test where’s safe or not, Cambria and I will follow his lead, and Lucien will go last in case one of us falls so he can save us from breaking our necks.
Ishouldbe annoyed that they deem me such a weak link, but they’re treating Cambria with the same caution despite being the most immortal one of us all. It’s just how they show they care, and I’m not about to throw a bitch fit and snap my neck out of spite.
It just sucks that I haven’t figured out what ability I’m able to manifest. I’m not about to entertain the thought that I drew the short straw and can’t access any magic, because it’s just highly improbable. Lineage may have played a factor where Lucien was concerned, but not Atlas; he and I are the same in this.
It’s more likely that I just haven’t found my trigger to jumpstart it. Lucien has to get pissed off, only really discovered what he was when someone tried to slice Cambria’s arm off and he hulked out. And Atlas had to be desperate enough to bleed himself dry before he conjured the ring to save us.
As much as I want a cool power, I’m not sure I’m ready for someone else trying to kill us so that I can discover it. I’m hungry, thirsty, and so mentally tired. A good night’s sleep before I’m forced to rescue someone is needed, or I very well might fuck it up and fail anyway, powers be damned.
“So-“ Cambria scales the terrain with more ease than any of us, accustomed to hiking the mountain back home “-what new solution were you thinking, Luce?”
