Girl of Iron and Magic

26.

26.
PRESENT DAY

"Lotte," Maloru cried, leaping onto the roof of the engine from the adjacent car. "Lotte!"

He fell to his knees by her side. The wind whistled in her ears, whipping her hair around her face. Everything was bathed in silver light, and when she looked up, the moon seemed close enough to touch.

Below, the world was black and red, the flowing lava from the volcano pulsing orange like a beating heart. The fumes winding up in pointy swabs looked like a cottony mountain. She could smell their sharp odour, but they were too high to be dangerous.

Maloru wrapped an arm around Lotte to steady her. "It broke," he said, voice trembling. "The enchantment broke."

"They all had to break," Lotte said weakly. "So I could make this one."

"Lotte..." His eyes were sparkling with unshed tears, rays of sunlight in the night.

"I'm not dead yet."

"But you're dying. I can feel it. I'm doing everything I can but you know there's no cure for chaos—"

She hugged him. She'd always wanted to be able to love, and there was so much love she could give right now. She loved Maloru. It wasn't hard to figure out. They easily belonged at each other's sides. And she loved Blue. And even Rowan, whom she barely knew.
And she loved Poe, even if that love hurt.

She even loved Mr. Henri, Mrs. Herbert and her neighbour Emmi.
Even if she'd die now, at least she got to love.

She didn't want to be thinking those thoughts. She didn't want to start crying. She didn't want to die.
She desperately wanted to live.
But a strong will couldn't change what she was.

"I won't die yet," Lotte said. "We need to reach Serades, remember? There needs to be a reason for things."

"Lotte? Is that you?" said Rowan, head peeking out of the open window of the engine. "You got your voice back!"

Maloru helped Rowan onto the roof of the engine. She shivered in the cold, despite wearing a thick down coat, and crawled wobbly towards Lotte who stretched out an arm to steady her from her other side.

Rowan settled in beside Lotte with Maloru on her other side and Fintan on his shoulder. The four of them watched the land below in silence.

"Isn't it weird how beautiful it is?" Rowan said.

Lotte nodded. "Poe once told me that Leilan elves are like volcanos," she said. "They're the beauty of destruction, devastation and power."

"But they can't be just that," Rowan said. "Who's Poe?"

"Rowan's right. If Leilan elves were just destruction, your Poe wouldn't have been able to teach you so much. I'm Yomi and also, you know, want to destroy things..."

"And I bet your mother or father, whichever of them was the elf, fell in love with a human. That's—"

"Self destruction," Lotte said. "My mother was Leilan, and she knew that having me would kill her. But she did it anyway."

At least, that was what Poe had told her. But how could she trust him when he promised her he couldn't lie?

And that turned out to be a lie.

"We'll be landing soon," Lotte said. "We have to run as soon as this thing touches down."

"I'm ready," Maloru said.

"I'll never be ready," Rowan whimpered.

But the ground was always ready for flying things to land.

They were on a rise that overlooked Mount Kelt. The devastation was too far away to be of any consequence here. The train slid onto the ground at a neck breaking speed, sparks flying from its wheels.