“You are no better than him, are you?” The hatred in his snarl emerged from a deep, dark place inside him. “Take, take, take! That’s all you do. That’s all you know how to do, isn’t it? And then you expect me to help you after you swoop in and try to steal my daughter from right in front of me.”
“I’ve done nothing wrong, sir. I wouldn’t hurt Veda. I wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“Yet.” His stare glazed over, my words falling empty to the ground. “You’re just like your father, and you’ll destroy everyone around you. If you want to know all about it, go ask him yourself. Let them tell you all about their toxic relationship, but keep your family’s poison away from my daughter.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Veda said, tugging on her father’s arm. “Fallon hasn’t done anything to me. I was the one who brought him here. I was the one who told him about the curse. If you are going to be angry with anyone, be angry with me.”
“Well, that was your bad judgment, but I’ll bet he’s the one who orchestrated the whole thing.”
“I did not,” I yelled, stepping up to the man.
He inched closer, but I stood tall, biting down on the inside of my cheek. My words had caused enough trouble for one week, even though they collected in my mouth ready to fire.
“You’ll not get another thing from me.” A spray of spit escaped his twisted mouth and landed on my cheek. “Get out of this sacred place, you don’t deserve to breathe its air.”
I stared back with as much fury as I could muster. He already expected nothing but royal privilege and my narrowed eyes gave it to him. “Gladly.”
I turned on my heel, his hot breath against my neck as Veda took my hand and we started to walk away.
“Don’t think I’m going to let you leave with him.”
She glanced up at me, then glared at her father her hands shooting to her hips. “When did my choices become yours?”
“You’ve always been my smart, strong, girl Veda, but right now you are acting like a petulant child.”
She ground her heel into the dirt, her eyes still locked on her father’s angry expression. “As are you.”
His face exploded into one hundred shades of red, his robes billowing around him as he stuck his arm out and pointed. “You are not leaving this mountain, and that’s final.”
Veda sighed and her head dropped to her chest, quick and sharp like a guillotine blade. Her father spun around and stomped off toward the temple. Not a bird chirped, not a breeze rustled through the air, the world silent as if he’d condemned the universe instead of his daughter.
With a deep breath, life reanimated in Veda and she burst past me toward Alizeh resting on the far end of the temple grounds. I tripped after her, her small frame determined and focused like an arrow loosed from a bow until she stopped abruptly and I nearly fell over her trying to slow my own feet.
“Just tell Ali where you want to go and she’ll take you there. Call her name first, and then give directions so she understands, and remember to speak loud enough for her to hear if it’s windy.”
“Wait, you’re not coming?”
She crossed her arms and looked away, water pooling in her stare but she blinked and pushed it down. “You heard my father. I’m not to leave this mountain.”
“But he can’t stop you. We could be gone before he’d even realize you’d left.” I placed my hand on her chin and turned her face to look at me. “Come with me.”
“It’s not that simple. Besides if anyone should understand about having to stand by their father when they don’t want to, it would be you.”
“I don’t want to leave you here.”
She placed a hand on my chest and pushed me toward Alizeh. “I’ll be fine. He’s angry with you, but once you’re gone he’ll calm down. Plus, if I stay around a while I might be able to convince him to talk to you again, or at least find out if he knows anything else. Now get going before he decides to come back and argue with you again.”
“But how will you get back home?”
She kept pushing me to go, but I held my stance.
“Ali will come for me. I’ll call her and she’ll come.”
I placed my hand over hers and held tight. The look of determination melted and the strength in her stare wavered. I put on my best face. The one Mosa city girls went wild for. But Veda didn’t surrender. “Are you sure you won’t leave with me?”
She shook her head, the lost look in her sad frown stinging in my chest. I pulled her to me and she rested her hands at the base of my neck as I held my arms tight around her waist. I let myself breathe her in. Taking every last opportunity to create a memory to carry back home.
“When this is over, come to the castle and look for me.”
Veda unclasped her fingers and twisted out of my grip. She took my hand and walked away, her skin lingering against mine until the last second before the link broke to let her go. The small smile she offered me dying as the space between us widened.
I pulled myself up on Alizeh’s back and watched Veda shrink in the distance, a piece of me following behind and leaving me painfully hollow.
Moonlight cut through the valley illuminating the castle like a beacon calling me home. As we approached, the city grew larger, spreading out beneath us with its shops and taverns and familiar smells. But the closer Alizeh flew toward the castle grounds, the less I wanted to get there.
"Alizeh, the ridge on the left."
The bird obeyed sweeping around the city to a flat peak, just big enough for us to land. She ground her talons into the earth as dust spit up
