Page 49 of The Curse of Ophelia

“This is my journey—my fault. If anything happens to any of you, I won’t forgive myself.” I tugged the ends of rope as tightly as they would go and held them up for Tolek to see: what appeared to be two separate loops, each feeding into the other, but it was really one string.

He brushed his fingers across it. “Looks great.”

“It’s called an infinity knot,” I mumbled.

Jezebel pushed aside the tall grasses to lean back on her elbows. “We all made the choice to come with you.” All I could see was her bleeding beneath the winged beast.

“She’s right.” Tolek scooted back to recline against a tree, and I could only look at his wounded leg. “I’m healing. Jezebel was hardly injured. Rina and Cyph will return with supplies, and we’ll be on our way. As a group.” With that, he pulled his journal from his bag and disappeared into its pages.

It sounded so simple coming from their lips, but I could not let go of the piece of me that wanted to jump in front of my friends at any hint of danger.

*

The hours dragged with the three of us sitting in our small circle under the cypher trees. At each shuffle within the grasses, I jumped to my feet, hoping to see Cypherion and Rina returning, but it was never them.

I continued to tie my knots, practicing for Spirits knew what, as Tolek and Jezebel argued over every Angel-sent topic they could think of. Currently they debated which bread was the softest, adding tallies of how much they suspected our friends would bring back.

“Maybe they’ll find lemon cookies for you,” Jezebel prodded, but I only nodded. Though I was not engaging in their conversation, their voices calmed my nerves. It was a hint of normalcy in this unusual journey.

From where she stood beneath the cyphers, Sapphire whinnied. I set my rope aside and moved to my horse. “What is it, girl?” I whispered, running a hand down her mane, carefully picking fallen leaves from where they’d gotten tangled.

They were crisp and brown in my hand, crinkling to pieces beneath my touch. I looked up, branches spotted with bare patches staring down at me. Odd, I thought, as I untangled the rest.

Sapphire’s energy was anxious—it swarmed between us. “We’ll be moving soon, don’t worry,” I muttered, brushing her until she settled. I was glad we had not decided to stay in Turren for the evening.

Finally, when the sun had passed its highest peak in the sky and started crawling back down, I couldn’t take another second of waiting.

“Something’s happened,” I growled, swiping up Starfire from the ground. “I’m going in after them. Jez, stay and watch over Tol.”

“Oh, hell Spirits,” Tol grumbled from where he was handing small pieces of fruit up to Astania. I ignored his eye roll.

Jezebel ran to me, gripping my wrist over the spot where the Curse hid, pain shooting up my arm. I wrenched it from her grasp with a grimace, but she shouted, “Wait!” I followed her eyes down the hill to where two shadows moved among the grasses. The sun reflected off of Cypherion’s auburn hair, and I slumped against Jezebel as a weight left my chest.

“Thank the Spirits,” I mumbled.

“Are they back?” Tolek called, not even bothering to crawl toward us.

“They’re back,” Jezebel answered. Though she had acted unaffected by their extended absence, I heard a hint of relief in her voice.

I paced circles around Tolek, left hand rubbing the place where the Curse burrowed into my wrist, until Rina and Cyph reached us. They slumped to the ground, the weight of their journey pressing down on them. The tight set of their mouths and aversion of their eyes stopped my movements.

“What’s happened?” I asked, looking between the two of them.

“Did you bring food?” Jezebel asked, digging into their packs and pulling out a piece of dried meat. She released a sigh as she bit into it.

“Something’s wrong.” I didn’t say it as a question.

Cypherion distributed food to the group—sure enough, handing me an iced cookie that smelled of citrus—but I merely twirled it between my fingers, too nervous to eat.

Santorina threw Tolek a small jar of something yellow and fresh bandages. “Put that on your leg, and then I’ll rewrap it for you.” She stretched her arms over her head, rolling her shoulders. Her pack must be heavy. Good.

“You are an Angel, Santorina Cordelian,” Tol gushed, doing as she instructed.

“We know that took longer than planned,” Rina said, sitting down. “But we have good reason.”

“Were you noticed?” Tolek asked, hands freezing as he unwrapped his soiled bandages.

Cypherion shook his head. “Nothing like that. We got supplies quickly and would have been back an hour ago, but we overheard something.” He exchanged a glance with Santorina. She nodded for him to continue. “There’s a tavern right by the entrance to the market, and a group of warriors were surrounding it, drinking ale, gossiping.”

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