The Cursed Wish | ONC 2024

Ch 16: The Heart of Magic

Elowen helped Fletcher and two guards move Avangelique to a bedroom. The prince made sure the comatose girl had the finest doctors monitoring her, and they would be altered if her condition changed. She'd wanted to stay at Avangelique's side, but the doctors insisted that the princess have no visitors, so she left them tending to her unconscious body.

Fletcher was slumped against the wall in the hallway outside Avangelique's room. He'd waved off a doctor earlier, but his skin was waxen, and his breaths were unsteady. He wouldn't meet her eyes as she approached, and she wondered if he still wanted her around.

"Elowen," his voice was hollow. "You came back."

"I'm not going to stand by and watch as my stepmother destroys Cyra or Sahar," she said. "I might prefer my kitchen, but when I have the power to help, I will do anything, Fletcher."

It was true. Elowen liked shadows, but she was selfless. She'd never expected anything in her life to be handed to her. She'd taken over the kitchens at her house because of her mother's absence, but she'd fallen in love with the role and disappeared.

Now that she was out in the open, she was finding that attention wasn't so bad. Fletcher only wanted her safety, but he wouldn't hold her back from the fire if she charged headfirst. He never judged her or undervalued her opinion.

"Don't suppose you know how to kill that fairy?" He gave out a ragged laugh and shook his head. "I can't believe she was in Nene all this time under our noses. I've been to your family's manor for parties dozens of times."

"I've lived with her since I was thirteen," Elowen said. "How do you think I feel? She imprisoned Wryn, and she had the fairy prince comatose in a basement I didn't know existed until this morning."

Fletcher sighed. "So we both have rotten luck. It's a shame I didn't meet you earlier, Elowen. You are something remarkable."

"Are you really going to marry Estefania when this is all over?" She asked.

He winced. "The doctors don't think I'm going to live three more years. I don't want to subject anyone to this kind of life expectancy."

There was a simple solution to his problem. They both knew it, but Fletcher was too noble to entertain the idea. He'd rather let himself expire than let anyone else experience pain.

She stared at the defeated prince. "What about Lorenzo and Nathaniel? Do your brothers agree with you?"

"We're so used to pain," he said. "Eventually, we all just want it to end."

"So your plan is to give up?" She reached for his hand. "I don't accept that, Fletcher. There has to be hope somewhere. Wishes can be undone."

"Elowen," her name sounded like music on his tongue, but he pulled his hand out of her reach. "I've accepted my fate. I'll get out of my marriage if I'm able, but I can't save myself."

"No," her defiance made him jump. "We're going to see Trix. Together, we will defeat Mona and find a way to reverse all of her magic."

She practically dragged him down the hallway and back to the main ballroom. It was almost empty except for servants cleaning up and Trix standing in a corner. The fairy was staring out the window, gazing into the beyond.

Elowen cleared her throat, and the fairy looked back at them. Unlike Rillian or Mona, she didn't have wings, Elowen realized. Trix's eyes were glassy, and she seemed even sadder now that Rillian was gone.

"Is there any way to break the king's wish?" Elowen asked. "We cannot let the princes and the marquis suffer any longer."

"Mona granted the king's wish," Trix said. "Only she or the empress herself could undo the wish. Since Mona's wish had such specific consequences, it cannot even be transferred to another. Besides, what Avangelique did was very dangerous. She had no certainty that would end in death sleep."