Thornwood by Leah Cypess (read after .txt) 📕

when there is a very good reason to be afraid?” But as I spoke, I managed to slide my leg forward, scraping my knee over the stone.

“Good,” Rosalin said. “Now your other hand. Just like that.”

I obeyed. Once I had started, it wasn’t hard to keep going. All I had to do was focus on the movements, and not think about the drop just inches away. Not think about how if I slipped, I would plummet like a rock….

“Don’t stop!” Rosalin said.

I pulled my left leg forward, then my right hand. Then my right leg, and my knee caught on a bump in the stone, and I tilted sideways and screamed.

“You’re fine.” Rosalin’s hand tightened on mine. “You’re fine.”

But I could hear the panic in her voice. That had been close.

Stupid fairy godmother. Why hadn’t she just put me through the window?

Hand. Foot. Hand. Foot.

Then Rosalin grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me inside, and we tumbled together onto the cold stone floor in the shadow of the spinning wheel.

We lay on the floor clinging to each other. Rosalin wrapped her arms around me, and I buried my face in her shoulder while trying to figure out whether I was going to cry.

It took me a moment to realize that Rosalin was crying.

“I got separated from Varian,” she gasped. “The trees came up between us, and he—he kept going, Briony. He didn’t come back for me.”

I sat up. Much as I didn’t like Varian, I knew what I had heard in his voice when he was begging her to run. He had been terrified for her. “That can’t be true, Rosalin. He must have tried—”

“But he couldn’t, Briony. All this time I’ve been waiting for someone to save me, and now my prince is here and there’s still no one who can help me.”

My prince. I winced. But this wasn’t the time to tell her the truth. I leaned forward, meeting her eyes through the ragged veil of her hair. “That’s not true. I helped you.”

She wiped tears from her face.

“Well,” I amended, “I got your fairy godmother to help you.”

There was a thump at the window, and we scrambled to our feet.

The fairy godmother crouched on the sill. A bruised and bloody creature dangled from her hands: Edwin. He was unconscious, his clothes in shreds and stuck to his body with dried blood.

I gasped. “Edwin!”

“Where’s Varian?” Rosalin demanded at the same time.

The fairy tossed Edwin into the room. He landed hard on the stone floor and flopped onto his side. I scrambled over to see if he was breathing. He was, but the breaths seemed shallow. Was that normal for unconscious people? I had no idea.

“Your prince is safe,” Rosalin’s fairy godmother said to her. “He cut his way back into the castle.”

Rosalin let out a breath. “You’re sure?”

“Oh, yes. It was easy for him, once he was freed from the burden of protecting you.”

Rosalin pressed her lips together. Her cheeks were still stained with tears, but when she spoke, there was no hint of the doubt she had expressed to me. “Is that meant to be an insult? He came here to protect me.”

The fairy godmother spread her wings. The sunlight slanted through them, casting a shifting pattern on the floor. “Did you happen to notice, when you weren’t screaming, that none of the thorn branches reached for him?”

“Because he had the sword!” Rosalin said.

“Are you sure?” The fairy’s eyes gleamed yellow. “How certain are you, Princess Rosalin, that you truly know who your prince is?”

“What about Edwin?” I demanded.

The fairy cast him a quick glance. “Oh, he’s who he says he is.”

“I mean, is he safe? Is he going to recover?”

She shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

“Can you help him?”

“I could.” She tilted her head. “What will you give me in return?”

“I said I’d spin if you help us. He’s part of ‘us.’ ”

“Since when?” the fairy snorted. But she leaned over and gathered up Edwin’s body, moving with an easy, delicate grace. Her dragonfly wings shimmered with constantly moving color, like sunlight seen through lowered eyelashes.

“I’ll be back shortly,” she said, and vanished.

A moment later, the door slammed open, and Varian staggered into the room. He looked around frantically, then focused on my sister.

“Rosalin!” he gasped. “You’re all right?”

“I’m fine, too,” I said. “Thank you for asking.”

Varian and Rosalin ignored me. They stared at each other for a few intense seconds. Varian stepped toward Rosalin and reached for her hand, and Rosalin tilted her chin up. I was too worried about Edwin to care about the kissing that was clearly coming, but I averted my eyes anyhow.

Then Rosalin said, “Who are you?”

I looked back swiftly. My sister’s eyes were cold, and her voice was hard.

Varian blinked. He was so taken by surprise that he continued to bend over her, and his lips were only inches from hers when he caught himself and jerked back. “What?”

“My fairy godmother told me you weren’t who I thought you were,” Rosalin said. “What did she mean by that?”

“Nothing!” I said quickly. “She’s probably just trying to confuse us. Don’t let her do it.”

Rosalin gave me a version of the same icy look she was giving Varian. I had seen it a hundred times, so it didn’t have the same effect on me. I glared back.

“Don’t get distracted,” I said. “Varian is on our side, and I’m not sure that’s true of your fairy godmother. We need to work together.”

“And in order to do that,” Varian said, “we need to be honest with each other.”

No, I thought at him as hard as I could. No, we don’t.

“I can’t lie to you,” Varian said to Rosalin. “Not anymore.”

Yes, you can. Just try!

“I want you to know…” He faltered. He reached for my sister, then let his hand drop. “I…I need to explain something to you.”

A shadow of fear passed over Rosalin’s face. But she stepped closer to Varian and took his hand in hers.

“Come,” she said