✧The Earthe of the Elves✧

59 - Knox

My mouth drops open. Mia is unconscious in the snow, blood running from her nose. In the dark I can just barely make out smoke rising off of her hands.

She saved me.

I don't hesitate to rush to her side as my mother stands to ward off any Cin that dare to get too close to us.

"M- Mia," I say, my lips numb with cold, my voice just returning from the brink of death. Not even the brink, from actual death.

She doesn't answer.

I shake her shoulders, then tap her face. "Mia, Mia!"

I grab her hands, nausea hitting me like a wall when I see her angry red palms, burned so badly I can see the deep layers of her skin. Even her right arm wasn't spared, with veins of burns running up it. Panic surges through me, my chest tightening. She doesn't open her eyes, and I actually feel like I might throw up.

Frantic, I shake her again.

"Mom..." I start, my voice trembling uncontrollably. I just came back, I can't lose her now. I can't lose her. I can't.

"Mom, mom, mom-" My voice breaks as tears threaten to spill over my cheeks. Rose comes back to my side, gripping my shoulders and studying Mia.

"She's alive," she says, her face sad but determined. She turns to me. "Take her to the hospital right now, and don't come back."

"But-"

"No, stay with Mia," my mother orders. She quickly looks around, her gaze pausing on something over my shoulder.

"We've almost won," she says hastily, pressing a transport stone into my hand and standing, her posture strong and confident. She looks down at me again. "Go, Knox."

I would've protested more if I didn't have Mia with me. But one look at her and I was transporting to the hospital tree, following the nurses as they took Mia's limp form to a bed and started to work their magic. I refused to leave her side.

As the hours grew Mia stayed asleep, but her hands healed fast. To my surprise and confusion, I watched as black ink started to draw over her palm and arm in thin, delicate lines- right over her scars. It took me another hour to understand. The tree on her palm was her dad's symbol.

I know only one person who could have done magic like that without being near her.

I smile at the thought. Wherever Mia is, she got to see her dad. Now she just has to come back.

"Knox," my mom says from behind me. I'm still sitting in a chair right next to Mia's bed, Holding her newly bandaged hand, my thumb brushing back and forth gently.

"Mhm," I reply, not fully turning around.

"Knox." Another voice echoes. One I know, one I have dreamed of for over ten years.

My chair groans against the wood floor as I push away from it and turn to see my dad standing there. He's wearing bloody armor and looks a bit more gaunt than I remember, but there is no mistaking who he is.

"DAD!" the word is pure joy on my tongue as I run across the hospital, now filling up with patients, and crash into him. The dulled memory of his face, his voice and his embrace come washing back to stark clarity as I hug him, as he laughs.

"I missed you so much," I whisper, squeezing my eyes shut and laughing in shock. He's here. He's alive.

"I missed you too, son."

Relief and happiness flood me, temporarily banishing the fear, grief and shock from the battle and everything with Mia.

"How are you here? What's happening out there?" I ask as my father walks over to the bed Mia is lying in. When we reach it he stares down at her, a faint, fond smile on his face.

"So Mia saved your life, I hear."

I nod. "Yes. I think she used the Heartstone, and now she's not waking up." Nerves creep back up on my senses as I explain.

My dad gives me a reassuring look as he takes Mia's hand in his own. "She will. She's very strong." Then he closes his eyes and whispers a short Elven prayer for her.

"I'm here," he continues, answering my questions, "because Mia left me the key to my cell and some Cin clothes before she left Dae Taur. I escaped, and brought all the hostages with me. We got food and armor from rebels in the city and came here as quickly as we could. I told Mia to leave me, by the way. In the Cin's city."

"I know," I reply, remembering her telling me about it. I cringe slightly as I remember how mad at her I was for leaving him, even though he had told her to leave without him.

"I couldn't have done it without Mia," he says truthfully.

"We couldn't have won the war without her," I say, and my dad nods, a smile twitching on his lips.

"She'll wake, son. She is just very tired. Healing. As I'm sure you are as well. Let's go home, get some rest. We can unpack everything else tomorrow."

I nod, only now realizing just how exhausted I am. My eyelids feel heavy already, my body aching and sore. I guess a whole night of fighting will do that to you. Oh, and literally dying and being resurrected.

A yawn slips out of me as I walk out of the hospital, next to both of my parents, under the light of the stars. More stars were added to the night sky today, but because of Mia mine wasn't. Neither was my father's, or my mother's. Or hers.

We won, and I already know the future ahead of us is bright, and with all these people in it, I know it'll be a good one.

As we walk down the paths to the castle, people already starting to celebrate our victory in the streets and in their homes, I glance up at the stars, dimming as the sun starts to rise on the horizon. I can't help but send my love to them as they fade away. I will not join them for a long, long time.

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That's the last Knox chapter! This is officially the end of this book. Thank you to anyone seeing this! I hate saying goodbye to these characters, but their adventure is over. Stay tuned for more books from me though, I have some in the works.

I love you all, thank you for the millionth time!!

- Avery