Smoke and Mirrors (25)

Twenty-Five

Shadow Fever

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I awoke to a man’s scream which shattered the silence like glass.

I sat up quickly. At first, I forgot where I was. Roots hung like vines from the dirt ceiling, barely visible through the darkness, and small claw marks were carved into the wall, as if other creatures once lived here. Everything came rushing back to me–the fight, the shade bandits. Sterling. I knew then that the scream was his.

I rolled onto my knees and fought back a yawn, which quickly tried turning into a sneeze. I managed to fight it off, too. Hooray for me.

Sterling was shivering in the dirt, wrapped in nothing but his own clothes and the shadows around us. His forehead was tight with an expression of horror, and the hair at his temple was black. Solid black. I grimaced and looked for Adrian, but he was gone.

Inhaling, I rubbed my hands together and tentatively touched Sterling’s forehead. Ice seeped into my skin and I yanked my hand back. It wasn’t natural to be this cold.

I scrambled back and poked my head out of the cave.

Adrian sat beside the entrance, his fire gun in his lap and a dagger at his waist. He looked at me and must have noticed my worried expression, because he said, “I was just keeping watch. In case we have any more shade bandits, you know.” He leaned over and peered inside the burrow at Sterling. “He’ll be okay. It just takes time.”

I slipped out of the burrow and took a seat beside Adrian. “Wanna know a secret?” I asked quietly, eyeing my fidgeting hands.

“Oh, I get it. Cousin slumber party? We get to braid each other’s hair and swap crush stories?” He grinned.

I snorted. “No, I’m afraid not.”

“Oh good. I don’t actually have any crush stories, so things might have gotten awkward.”

I grinned and shook my head, but my smile faded. “Nope. It’s just. . . this is going to sound completely awful, but I honestly. . . don’t know that I want Sterling to get better.” I looked up at him. “That’s terrible, right?”

The space between his eyebrows furrowed. “Well yes, but can I ask why?”

I pulled my knees to my chest and hugged them. “We’re betrothed, Adrian. If he survives this–Ugh, if any of us survive this–we’ll have to get married. Married! He has tried to kill me multiple times, and will continue to do so.”

“Ah. That makes sense.” He looked up at the sky, which was black and empty, like looking into a sea of ink. Or a powered off TV. “The Matchers weren’t kind to you two, were they?”

“The Matchers? Who are they?”

He ran a hand across his jawline, which was growing stubble from not shaving. “They select the Royal Marriages. They look into the genetics of people and decide what couples would have the healthiest offspring, the best benefits for the kingdoms, and so on. Unless all of the kingdoms agree to change the match, what they say is final.”

I shook my head. “That is totally unfair! I mean, who are they to decide who people can and cannot marry? That’s ridiculous.”

“Ah, they don’t decide for everyone, just the royals.”

“Oh, of course.” I sighed. “Things just get worse and worse for me, don’t they?”

He gave a breathy chuckle. “Sorry.”

I glanced at him. “So what about you? You’re a royal. Do you have to marry someone?”

“I knew this was going to turn into crush stories. It always does with you girls!”

I laughed. “Alright, fine! Keep your secrets.” Dramatically, I added, “If you want to die on a hill of unshared secrets, that’s fine with me!”

There was a pause. “It’s killing you not to know who I’m going to marry, isn’t it?”

I sighed and dropped my shoulders. “Yes.”

He grinned. “Well, if I want to keep the title of Crowned Prince of Pyronoth, I’m supposed to marry some Marchioness from the Dream realm–also known as Wystilor.” His grin dropped. “But I’m not sure if I want to be the prince. I don’t know that I want to marry at all.”

I tilted my head. “Aren’t you an only child?”

He nodded. “I am. In all honesty, I have no choice. I have to take the throne–and the girl-- whether I want to marry or not.”

I sniffed. “Royalty is annoying.” Sterling gasped from inside the burrow, returning me to my earlier thought. First, I glanced inside to make sure he was still asleep. He was. I returned to my seated position. “I don’t know what to do. I’m–terrified of marrying him. And last night, when we stayed in his castle, I couldn’t get our marriage off my mind.” I let go of my knees and leaned my head against the tree behind us. The cold, wispy sensation from the tree rolled against my skin. “All I could think of was our wedding night. That should be something every bride looks forward to–but all I can see is the wedding ending, and I become trapped.” I sighed. “He’ll kill me.”

“It won’t be so bad,” he mumbled unsurely. “I mean, you’ve survived this long with him.”

I rubbed a hand across my eyebrow. “That’s because he needs me. Once he gets his hands on the unicorn horn, it’s over.”

He lightly elbowed me. “I’ll protect you.”

An image of Adrian living with Sterling and I popped into my head and I laughed. “Not forever. You have your own life to live. And I’m sorry, but what good is one of you against a dozen of Sterling’s tentacles?”

Adrian smirked and twirled his fire pistol around his finger. “You haven’t seen what I’m capable of yet. Why, I protect my own bodyguard.”

I snorted. “Oh yeah, me too. I accidentally knocked a can of pepper spray into the trash can and pulled it out.”

Sterling cried out again in his sleep, ending our banter.

I winced and glanced at Adrian. “Isn’t there anything we can do for him? Maybe some good food or something to pull him out of it?”

“I’m afraid Shadow Fever is a bit beyond the help of good food. Besides, weren’t you just saying you didn’t know that you wanted him better?”

I sighed, guilt gnawing at my conscience. “I don’t want him to needlessly suffer. He’s a stupid jerk who doesn’t give a thought to anyone but himself, but I don’t want him to live in torment forever, either. I’m for whatever gets all of us out of here alive and in one piece.” Besides, Sterling had our luggage in his mirror portal thingamajig.

A smile brushed the corner of his lips. “You have a good heart, Tessa. Don’t ever lose that.”

I snorted. “Pretty sure questioning if I want him to live disproves that, but thanks.” I avoided his gaze and cleared my throat. “So, what’s Shadow Fever?”

He yawned. “It makes your body very, very cold. Unlike most other fevers, all you feel is cold, but your skin is hot. The hotter we can get him, the better off he’ll be. It will help his blood flow, which Shadow Fever slows.” He shook his head. “Shadow Fever isn’t warm–er, nice. It’s like an infection in his body, but there’s no cure–not that anyone knows of, anyway.”

I bit my lip and twisted my torso to get a better look at Sterling.

“We need to help him, don’t we?” I asked quietly.

Adrian stood and offered me a hand. “I’m here to protect you. Whatever you want to do is your business. But remember, if you were in his place, he’d leave you behind–or finish you off.”

I took his hand and stood. “Thanks, Adrian.” I inhaled and glanced down at Sterling. His forehead was wrinkled in pain and his fingers gripped the dirt, as if that was the only way of grounding himself to reality. “But we need him alive.” The words came from my mouth unwillingly.

Adrian yawned again. “As you wish.”

I stepped away from the entrance into the tree.. “Look, you go get some sleep. You’ve watched us this long, I’ll wake you if I notice anything off.”

He shook his head in determination and stretched his back. “Absolutely not. Your safety is of the utmost importance. How could I, your guard, leave you to guard me?”

“You won’t be of any use to me on our journey if you’re dead on your feet.” I felt a familiar burn in the back of my nasal passages and sneezed. Fire shot out from my hands and illuminated the darkness around us for a moment before it fizzled out in the dirt. I rubbed my nose. “Besides, I can’t sleep anyway.”

Pursing his lips, he examined me. I did my best to square my shoulders and look halfway competent, but he only chuckled and shook his head. “Alright, fine. You, my little fire squid, can watch over us.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Fire squid?!”

“Yup. Night.” He ruffled my hair and ducked my swat before slipping into the hollow of the tree.

I inhaled the crisp, evening scent of shadow vines and dark ferns, then sat down. And sneezed.

Water pooled out from under my feet, as if an underground spring had just opened up. I shot up and jumped away from the water.

We needed to get my powers fixed soon.

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Author note: Yesterday when I was trying to schedule this post (right now for me, but when you read this it will be tomorrow) I kept publishing next week's chapter by accident. Sooo if you got two notifications saying I'd published and thought I was a nice person and just published a day early???? No?? I'm mean as ever, wait till next week XDDD

Love y'all, y'all's responses to this series have made this so much more fun to do XD