But as soon as I stepped out of the cave, I fell face-first. I heard Robin’s startled shout, felt his fingers go through my elbow, his effort to save me as pointless as ever. I sank into the earth.
Somehow, I pulled myself out of its layers, and hovered over its surface, trembling. I lifted my ghostly skirt to check my numb foot—and found nothing.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Robin knelt by me, staring in horror at my right leg where it stopped above the knee.
“The last time I saw something like this, there was a lot more blood and screaming involved,” he choked, the sight of my missing leg seeming to disturb him even more than when my arm had vanished. “Somehow, this is even worse.”
The panic that had risen within me like a wave, crashed and dissipated at his distress. “I guess this trip is costing me an arm and a leg.”
Robin’s whole face crumpled as he groaned at my attempt to make light of it.
Will turned green like the bark of the pink-leaved trees in the distance. “The medic called it—a trans-formal amputation?”
“Trans-femoral,” Robin said, his expression one of drowning helplessness. “Can you stand?”
I tried to will myself upright, and couldn’t.
Robin exploded to his feet and ran away, yelling over his back, “I’ll bring Amabel.”
“I forgot all about the horses!” Will cried out.
Ashen-faced, Meira pointed ahead, her gaze fixed on me.
Our horses seemed to have long found their way out, were grazing in the distance. If we’d paid them any attention, we could have followed them out, saving ourselves the time that was eating away at me. The time I’d purposely wasted in my reluctance to find the Spring Prince.
Robin ran back with Amabel galloping beside him, and she kneeled so I could drag myself onto her back.
Before I could get my frazzled thoughts together, the others mounted their horses, and we began our foray into the Spring Court.
None of us spoke, thankfully, since I couldn’t hear any more about how I reminded them of the soldiers the war had maimed. I was nothing like those brave men who’d defended our land. I was the useless girl who was disappearing under a petty curse, while unable to find the right words to break it.
Meira finally broke the silence. “Since this is the time the Wild Hunt use the caves to go to the Folkshore, if we keep on this path, we ought to bump into them. I just hope we don’t go too far east, as I’d really like to avoid being spotted anywhere near the capital.”
“Why not?” Will asked her.
Meira’s lips worked nervously. “King Theseus would have executed me for staying behind to help Fairuza without his approval. The Spring Queen would probably turn me into a frog or a butterfly, while keeping my mind intact, to punish me for altering her curse and interfering with her will.”
Yet she was braving such a terrible fate and wading deeper into said queen’s territory, all to help me.
Weighed down by guilt for ever blaming her for any of this, I fell behind as she and Will galloped ahead. Robin hung back, keeping me company.
And I couldn’t take it anymore. Just having him so close was killing me faster than this curse.
I had to tell him.
As if reading my mind, Robin said, “You were going to tell me something in the cave, but you stopped. Don’t stop now. You can tell me anything, Fairuza.”
He was right. I’d told him everything I’d never dared tell anyone else, including myself.
Then as I met his fervent gaze, a new hope blossomed within me. He cared, deeply. Maybe more than I thought?
What if what he felt for me was enough? If it was, and he broke the curse, I would make sure he was free to do whatever he wished afterwards…
“ROBIN!” Will’s bellow splintered out our charged moment. He was galloping down the hill towards us, shouting maniacally, “I found them! I found the Wild Hunt!”
Then he swung his horse around, and thundered up the hill once more.
Robin’s face split into a bright grin of relief. “Looks like all our worries are almost over!”
Any thought of blurting out the thoughts roiling in my mind vanished as he turned away, towing Amabel in a speedy gallop up the hill.
As we rode up to the others, I saw Meira put a hand over her mouth, sharing Will’s stunned expression.