Wystwood

92. Knock on the door

Ada woke to the sound of bells. She was alone in bed, though the windows across the room were open and letting in a river of golden sunlight. The silver bells were woven down the silken curtains, which gave fleeting visions of the city beyond. Wysthaven was already stirring, the shouts of merchants and the giggles of children rising into a periwinkle sky.

As Ada stood, the bedsheets pooled around her bare feet. She shook them up into the air and they rippled like seafoam against the sky, then fluttered down to reveal a young man leaning against the door frame. Long fingers combed back his damp hair, strikingly dark against his fair face. And while his cheeks were still hollowed, there were no purple shadows beneath his eyes, nor mask to hide the smile curling his lips.

Raeph prowled into the room, his unbuttoned shirt drifting open as his hands skirted down Ada's back to her hips. She turned and traced a finger along his collar, watching the shivers run over his skin. There were only the faintest chains of pink now scarring his otherwise smooth chest, the remainders of a past life that would one day be gone.

Ada's hand came to rest against his heart, and she could feel its quick beating beneath her palm like the trembling wings of a bird. His fingers caught her chin, gently lifting her face as a drop of water trailed down her neck. Soft lips captured it and then kissed up to her jaw, Raeph's breath hot until his mouth slanted over her own and they fell back onto the bed. Ada clung to him, the sunlight warming her through until she thought they would catch alight, their last gasps desperate and sweet.

"Are you certain about today?" he murmured much later, the bed sheets tangled around their legs.

"Are you?" Ada asked and listened to the tolling of the bells.

They ate little for breakfast, as Diane and Solen were packing a picnic into large, wicker baskets. It took all morning for Armestrong to hunt down Min, but eventually they left the house together for the final time, plucking apples from the tree as they went.

Min had insisted she could carry a basket on her own, but let Lark share the handle once they reached the bridge into the outer-city. The sunlight must have drawn the city folk from their homes, for the streets were alive and bustling. Several fae waved to Diane and Solen, though few came over once they caught sight of Raeph striding behind them. Amidst their murmurings, Ada held firmly onto his hand.

They passed freely out of the city and into the valley, where the grass was gilded golden beneath the sun, its banks overrun with buttercups and daffodils. Amongst the flowers, they made a spot for themselves and laid out their picnic, all frosted cakes and crusted bread and spiced wine. Lark produced a wooden pipe he had found at the market, and Solen threw nuts at him whenever he missed a note.

Min hardly ate a mouthful, and stayed fastened to Ada's side when they packed up their picnic many hours later. With baskets in tow, Raeph led them up toward the Wystwood forest, still grey and gnarled and framed between the pale pillars of the engraved bone arch. 

As Above, So Below.

The balance of all things. That was how Hester had given meaning to the words. The balance between nature and people, between human and fae, between one world and another. When Ada had first read them, they had seemed a warning, if not a curse. But now, the words were solemn and still, their meaning older than time and reaching far beyond it too.

They came to the Wystwood and Raeph stopped as if expecting the others to go no further. But Solen patted his shoulder before stepping, hesitant yet determined, into the trees. Diane walked after her, followed by Lark and Armestrong, who clutched at Min's arm. Then, it was only Raeph and Ada alone on the hillside, the Wystwood behind them and the stream a thread of silver on the opposite side of the valley.