You have beautiful eyes.
I gasped, lurching awake. My vision flashed to life, like a match struck in a dark room.
"Bird!" It was Jasper, hovering over me, emanating concern and fear and anger all at once. His dark hair was disheveled. "Stay awake, Bird, you need to stay awake. Look at me."
We weren't alone—I was on a small bed, surrounded by people and voices and motion. Channing, Lily, Emmy. I sensed a quietness, and a faint memory of a violin's mournful song. Melody?
I could scarcely keep myself from fading back into the darkness. "It's too bright..."
"You have my sympathy, but right now, I really don't care. If you close your eyes and lose consciousness again, you will die. Now look at me."
I forced myself to stay awake, focusing on the details of his face—the slope of his nose, the little freckle on his cheek, the downy softness of his hair.
"There was an arrow," I said slowly, tiredly, "an arrow in my chest." My brow furrowed. "I...I should be dead."
Jasper cracked a grin, though his eyes still held a spark of turmoil. "Yes, you would have been. It's a good thing you've got a wizard on your hands."
"Give her some space," muttered Ash's voice, "you're practically crushing her." Jasper's form receded from my limited, shaky view, and I glimpsed Ash looking at me anxiously. "Are you all right? Emmy told me what happened. I'm so sorry, Bird."
My head pounded, but I managed a weak laugh. "Don't be sorry for me, I'm all right now."
The worry didn't leave his face.
Someone gripped my hand. "Bird?" asked Melody.
Ugh. Everything ached. "I'm here."
"Emmy said you were hurt," said Melody, swallowing and lowering her eyes, "because you were looking for me. And I, I feel..."
"It wasn't your fault."
"I should have been there. Maybe I would have been struck and not you."
"Hey," I said, frowning, "listen, I'm alive. I'm going to be fine. Don't wish it another way, because if it had happened any differently, someone could be dead right now."
She nodded and gave a fleeting smile.
Jasper snapped his fingers. "I need you to stand up," he said. "We have to get your blood circulating properly." He rested his hands on my shoulders. I could feel the warmth of magic pressing into my skin. "Can you sense that? It'll keep you on your feet and prevent nausea."
"Thanks," I said, carefully sitting up. Channing helped me out of the small bed. I looked around; my vision was improving, widening, and I could see my surroundings. I'm in the apothecary, I realized. They really did think I was going to die.
Of course we did, said a wry voice in my head.
I shot Jasper an alarmed look. He didn't even glance my way. Had I imagined the voice? I must have. I don't...think Jasper can use telepathy.
Could he?
The voice remained silent.
I regained my strength much quicker than I'd thought I would. It was a strange feeling...like lying on the floor, and then slowly pulling myself back to my feet. I was thrilled. And yet—at the same time, I wasn't.
How much of his energy had Jasper used to heal me?
I could die, or be seriously injured, he'd said. But how much magic was too much? He hadn't seemed tired in the apothecary. He'd seemed almost electrified, bursting at the seams with energy. He didn't even hesitate when he fed that last measure into me to keep me strong.
He's okay. He had to be. It didn't make sense for him to be anything otherwise.
~~~
Melody bit her lip as she poured me a cup of steaming hot tea. "Something's wrong," she said.
It was a beautiful afternoon, rich with sunshine and brimming with unsung music. Nursery rhymes nagged at me, filling my thoughts, softening my movements.
My brow creased at the dark tone of those words—words that were all too familiar to me. "What do you mean?"
She handed me the tea cup. The delicate porcelain was warm to the touch.
"I haven't been able to contact the rebellion in nigh on a week," Melody said. She threw herself down on the sofa, rolling onto her back and covering her face with her hands. "That's why I was missing earlier. I was trying to leave the castle, but it's no use. Everything's tense, Bird, like a bowstring fit to snap. Can you feel it? It's in the air, taut and ready. Waiting."
A swirl of fragrant steam rose from the cup, brushing my face and curling against my cheek. I closed my eyes. "I've felt it," I murmured.
"And what's worse, Vang has tightened the guard around the castle. Especially near the majority of the secret passages I know."
My eyes flickered open. "He's onto us?"
"I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I've paced and paced and thought for hours, and there's no other explanation." She stood and walked across the room to her desk, returning with a messy stack of old papers. "Here. Maps. Look them over. All of the exits I've discovered are marked in blue."
I scanned the pages, flipping through them with one hand and holding my tea in the other. "Some are crossed over in red."
She nodded, her red curls bouncing. "Those are the ones that have become unsafe."
I searched, but there wasn't a single one left uncrossed. This doesn't make sense. I coughed, pressing a hand to a sharp, sudden pain in my chest, but the magic swiftly swept it away. Still healing. "Wait—here's one. Either you missed it or..."
Melody didn't even look. "It's the only one. Leads to the stables. It also has a branch-off tunnel leading down to the dungeons, but that's the last place we want to go."
"Oh."
My heart sank. If Vang knows what Melody's been up to... "Melody," I began, suppressing a small tremor in my voice, "you're the princess. Vang can't have you hanged, can he?"
She shrugged listlessly. "No. Maybe. I don't know. I'm not certain about anything anymore."
Vang couldn't have discovered this on his own. He was brilliant—a true genius—but he preferred to do his work from the shadows, watching and plotting as others carried out his schemes for him.
Someone must have told him, I realized.
But who?
I had no idea, and it didn't matter. Making up my mind, I pressed my lips together. We can't abandon the rebellion. "What about at night?" I asked. "Surely if we're careful, we'd be able to slip past the guards."
"Risky."
I grinned. "You like risky."
Melody eyed me, then gave in. "True enough."
"We shouldn't try it tonight. The assassin's still on the hunt for blood—both the Queen's and mine—and it's only recently that Vang has been tightening the guard. If we rush it, he'll be ready and waiting. We've got to give things a few days to settle down."
"We'll take this passage," said Melody, sifting through the papers. The sunlight silhouetted her from behind, burning a fuzzy gold halo around the edges of her red hair. Her face was cast into shadow. At last, finding the map she wanted, she tapped an exit that had already been crossed over. "Ignore the red; it should be safe enough at night. We'll go this way"—tracing a path through the corridors with her finger—"and come back before dawn."
My eyes sparkled. "Perfect," I said.
~~~
It was the softest of sounds, but it roused me from my sleep, leaving me blinking in the thick darkness. I rolled onto my stomach, unwilling to respond. Go back to sleep, mumbled my hazy, cluttered mind. I sank back into the blankets.
There was the sound again. Soft, insistent.
It was a whistle. Someone was whistling. Whistling at me? I scowled. Go away.
But the quiet whistling didn't go away, and I sighed and climbed out of bed, raking my fingers through my hair as I looked blearily around. "Hello?" I whispered. "Who's there?"
"I was wondering when you'd wake up," said Jasper's voice. I spun around and saw his grinning face, hovering just outside the window. I gasped and rushed to him, grabbing the window frame and gaping out at him; "You're—you're flying!"
He laughed under his breath. "It's the first spell any wizard learns. One of the simplest." A breeze ruffled his dark, unruly hair, and his silver cloak fluttered. "Come on," he said. "I want to show you something."
I tried, but I couldn't possibly hide my excitement. "You mean—with you? Flying?"
"Why not?"
I'm going to fly. I really am a blue jay and I'm going to fly.
I bit my lip, my eyes bright and hopeful. I was nervous, but then again, that had never been enough to hold me back when faced with something stupid, dangerous, and wonderful.
"Don't fly me around the moon or over the mountains. And—and don't drop me in the ocean."
"I won't. I promise."
"All right," I said, and smiled breathlessly. "Then...maybe just this once."
I swung my legs over the windowsill and slipped out. Jasper caught me easily, carrying me in his arms. Fires above, I thought. He was strong. "Hold on," he said, lifting his gaze skyward.
I'm flying. I'm flying.
As smoothly as the single stroke of a pen, we soared up into the night.
The castle shrank away beneath us, a tiny beacon in a sea of sapphire-black. The air was icy cold, but oddly, it didn't sting the way it usually did. Everything was...soft. Still. Breathtaking.
"Are we getting close to the stars?" I whispered.
He just smiled.
There was a sky above us and a sky beneath us. The whole world was a sky. I looked down and saw nothing but inky blackness, spangled with the tiniest spots of light, like stars of their own. All this time, I thought, I've seen the sky as a whole other world, when really it's just a reflection of our own.
"Do you trust me, Bird?" said Jasper into my hair.
Yes, I realized. I do. "I trust you," I whispered.
"I'm going to let go of you. Just keep hold of my hand."
Slowly, carefully, he released me. I gripped his two hands so tightly that it must have hurt, but he didn't even flinch. I gasped, pale with excitement and fear, as I hovered directly across from him.
My feet hung over empty air.
"I'm flying!"
He laughed and twirled me around. "Let me teach you how to soar."
We streaked across the wide, wide landscape of the night, flying faster than the wind. My eyes stung with speed-tears; I couldn't stop smiling.
It was beautiful. Everything was beautiful. And I was so, so alive.
"You're a songbird," said Jasper, giving me that little almost-smile of his. "My songbird."
And we flew on, until the night had fallen to pieces and morning was just over the horizon.
~~~
A/N:
Sooo. We finally have a Jasbird scene. *shippers scream and faint in the distance* What are your thoughts? (Or even less subtly—Team Ash or Team Jasper?)
Anyway, I was flipping through my idea book today and I found this... *cue nostalgia* A moment of silence for the idea that started it all...
If only you'd have known how much sleep you'd lose because of that little idea you wrote down, past self. *sigh.*
I also thought I'd let you know that we hit #289 in Fantasy today! I almost screamed when I saw it and I'm still euphoric. Thank you guys so soo soooo much!!
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