The Beast whined again.
“No, no, I’ll be okay. You have to do this for us, all right?”
The Beast licked her face. Sighing, Kite stuck her hand into its massive jaw, and scraped her skin against a sharp canine. A single drop of bluegreen blood beaded on the back of her hand.
“Good boy,” she told him.
Kite extended her hand over the blade, turning it so the palm was face up, and waited as the drop of blood dripped over the blade. For a moment the black metal had a blue sheen from the wet drop. Then the blood vanished, absorbed by the sword. Linking their bodies together. Blood magic: forbidden magic.
Another law broken. Another step away from the throne, from the promises made by her DNA.
Another step toward chaos, wonder, and freedom.
Licking the wound clean, Kite then reached out with both hands and tore at Clytemnestra’s enchantments, clawing the blade free from the suffocating magic. The sword twisted, the metal gears turning, spikes writhing and roiling like snakes, and then it stabbed the air and tore through the fabric of time and space. Kite, her hair moving as wildly as the metal arms of the strange blade, grabbed hold of the hilt. The Heir and the Beast stepped through the tear …
And onto a frozen ocean of black. The sky swirled with purplegrey clouds, and flakes of snow fluttered down like moths to settle on her neck and shoulders.
A small figure huddled on the ice, shivering. Arms wrapped around their torso. As Kite walked forward, clutching the sword, the figure came into sharp focus. Dark hair tousled with wind and pomade. A T-shirt torn in several places. Black skinny jeans.
Kite nearly dropped the sword in astonishment.
“Cam?”
Twenty-Nine
THE HEALER
They were lying naked in a field of purple, petals crushed in their hair. The sweet and acidic scent of a girl made of thorns was fading. The outline of Eli’s body was still pressed into the flowers, but she was gone again, and Cam was gone, and time was running out.
Tav sat up and brushed petals from their hair. A single bee landed on their forearm. They weren’t afraid of being stung. They reached out and gently touched a golden stripe. The bee danced on their arm for a few moments, buzzing fiercely, full of life and death and hope and fury. Then it flew away again, joining the swarm.
Tav stared at the empty place next to them where Eli had been, and then buried their head in their hands. Eli had blades missing from her belt, and she was vanishing more and more often, becoming more Heart than girl. What if she stopped coming back? Could a body carry that much magic and survive?
Tav dressed, and then waited for a few minutes. Eli didn’t rematerialize. Finally, Tav walked away from the field, the forest, the bees, the smell of clover honey and citrus. They climbed back on the bike and drove back to the apartment.
The ride back was long and lonely.
When they arrived at the apartment, Eli was waiting.
“How?” said Tav wearily, dropping their keys noisily on the coffee table. There was no other question. It wasn’t Eli’s fault she kept disappearing … unless she was doing it on purpose? Tav pushed the thought away. Did it really matter, in the end? They had been left behind, abandoned, and that’s all that mattered.
How do you love the Heart of a planet?
“I don’t know.” Eli looked unhappy; what Tav could see of her face, anyway. The Heart was glowing, and the light obscured the delicate human features of the jar that held the light of a world.
“Not a big cuddler?” Tav tried for a teasing tone but it came out flat.
Eli shrugged with one shoulder.
Tav wanted nothing more than a hot shower and a nap, but there wasn’t time for what they wanted. There never seemed to be, these days.
Their voice came out low and quiet. “What if it happens again? When we’re making a door?”
Eli looked away. “It won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I don’t think it will.”
“Oh, you don’t ‘think’? It happened last time! We needed you, Cam needed you, and —” Tav cut themselves off, the anger choking their throat.
Cam had needed both of them. They had both let him down.
“What do you want from me?” Eli moved suddenly, with the languid grace of a hunter, until she was behind Tav. Tav didn’t turn around. Eli’s breath was cold on her neck, like a winter chill. “You’re just angry that I left, aren’t you? It wasn’t on purpose!”
Tav didn’t answer.
Eli vanished and then appeared front of Tav. Tav flinched.
Slowly, Eli stepped back. Tav couldn’t see her face through the blinding light that radiated from her torso. Her voice was quiet but steady. “Still afraid of me?”
“I’m not afraid of anything.”
“Then I guess we’re both liars.”
Tav glared at the ball of light, eyes watering from the effort of staring down a sun.
Eli moved away first, drifting back to the window, to the outside world, and away from Tav with the grass stains on their knees and the aorta that leaned to the left.
She’s untouchable, thought Tav. Part of them was jealous, wishing that they, too, could sometimes disappear. Part of them was scared: Tav wanted to grab Eli and hold her in this world, keep her from turning into a tree of light. But not even the Healer had that power.
“A message arrived while you were out,” said Eli, as if Tav had been out joyriding. They felt a flash of resentment at this brutal summary of the morning. Hadn’t it meant anything to her? It had meant everything to Tav.
“And?”
One finger tapped the windowpane, then two.
“Your friend wants to talk.”
“My ‘friend’?” Tav’s stomach lurched.
Three fingers playing a silent melody on the glass, something only Eli could hear. “The Hedge-Witch lost people in the attempt that failed. She wants her payment now.”
All the blood rushed out of Tav’s head. Their hand scrabbled against the faded floral-print wallpaper for support.
