“You were meant to fly.”
Loch was right. I didn’t need him to save me. I could do it myself.
The shadow dove toward the prince, and he ducked, making the branch bounce.
I reached inside myself and tugged at that thread of power. The same one I’d pulled to summon all my other magic. Except this time, I asked for something different: I asked for the power to fly. Power I deserved.
My wingstwitched in response like Spirit Sky had heard my request. Slowly, my wings flapped behind me.
“Poppy,” Loch breathed, looking down, pride shining in those blue eyes. “You’re doing it. You’re flying. My little bird.”
I flapped my wings harder and let go of the branch, heart swelling at his nickname for me. My body floated in the air. Spirits below. I was actually flying.
“That’s it,” Loch said, a grin splitting his face as clouds drifted closer, blanketing the sky and dousing the forest in darkness.
“Loch.” I pointed. “Your shadow!”
It flew off toward the canopy and disappeared through it. And then it was gone. Loch had saved me, but in doing so, he’d doomed himself.
Chapter Forty-Six
LOCHLAN
She hung in the air like an ethereal being that had descended from the sky itself.
“You’re magnificent,” I said, unable to tear my eyes away from her.
“Did you hear what I said?” Panic flashed in her eyes. “Your shadow is gone. You came after me, and now it’s gone.”
She looked up at the sky helplessly, searching for it, but I knew it was futile. The sun was out again, the clouds fickle today as they rolled through the sky. My shadow likely was hiding in another part of the forest now, one far away from me.
“It’s okay.” I began climbing down, and she fluttered her wings and lowered to the ground, sitting and crossing her legs, shoulders shaking, tears welling in her big, green eyes.
Oh, spirits below, not the crying.
I finally dropped to the ground, and Poppy looked up at me, eyes now puffy and rimmed with red.
“You came for me,” she said while sniffling. “Now your shadow is gone, and you’re going to have to journey back to the shadow court toget it, and if my gran is here, then I have to try and find her. I might not be able to go with you.”
My heart cracked at the words.
I crouched before her and hooked a finger under her chin. “I came for you, and I’d do it again. I will always come for you. There isn’t a place on this continent you could run that I will not find you. From the pits of the Dragonstone Mountains to the icy plains of the frost court to the marshes of the shadow court. Where you go, I follow. It’s that simple.”
Her crying had stopped, and she stared at me, the shock written plainly across her face.
“But you flew. You did it.”
“No.” She wiped at a few more stray tears. “You don’t need to make these kinds of choices anymore, Loch. You chose me, and your shadow got away, and now, I might lose you because of it.” She parted the flaps of my shirt, staring at the blue lines.
She spoke as if going to the shadow court was a death sentence. I supposed for many it was.
I swallowed. “You just can’t resist getting a peek at my chest, huh?”
A laugh burst from her before her face turned grave again.
“There it is.” I traced her lips. “That smile.”
“Loch, this is serious,” she said.
