Reckless (Free Preview) (34 page)

She put her
hand on his chest.
 
Jacob felt a piercing
pain in his heart.
 
Blood seeped through
his shirt, and when he tore it open he saw that the moth above his heart had
come to life.
 
Jacob grabbed its swollen
body, but its claws were sunk so deep into his flesh that it felt as if he were
tearing out his own heart.

"They say
that to humans, love often feels like death," she said.
 
"Is that true?"

She crushed
the moth on Jacob's chest, until all that remained was the imprint on his skin.

"Release
your brother as soon as the gold is clear again," the Fairy said.
 
"There's a carriage waiting by the gate,
for you and those who came with you.
 
But
remember what I told you.
 
Take him as
far away from me as you can."

52

Happily Ever After

The tower, the
scorched walls, and the fresh wolf tracks — it was as if they'd only just left,
but the wheels of the carriage crunched through freshly fallen snow as Jacob
reined in the horses.

Fox jumped out
and licked the cold white powder from her paws.
 
Jacob climbed down from the driver's box.
 
He took the golden ball from his pocket.
 
The surface was almost clear, and it
reflected the cloudy morning sky.
 
During
their journey, Jacob had looked at the ball so often that Fox had probably
guessed what it contained.
 
But he hadn't
said anything to Clara yet.

It had taken
them two days to get back to the ruin.
 
At the last coach station, the stableboy told them that the Goyl had
turned their King's wedding into a massacre and had kidnapped the Empress, but
nobody knew any more.

Fox wallowed
in the snow as if she wanted to wash the past days from her fur.
 
Clara looked up at the tower.
 
Her breath clung to her mouth in white
clouds, and she was shivering in the dress Valiant had bought her for the
wedding.
 
The blue silk was torn and
dirty, but her face still reminded Jacob of damp feathers, even though all he
saw on it was her yearning for his brother.

"A ruin?"
 
Valiant climbed out of the carriage and surveyed his surroundings with
dismay.
 
"What is this?" he
hissed at Jacob.
 
"Where's my
tree?"

A Heinzel
scampered out of the shadows and quickly picked up a few acorns out of the
snow.

"Fox,
show him the tree."

Valiant
marched after the vixen so eagerly that he nearly fell over his own boots.
 
Clara didn't even look at them.

It seemed such
a long time since he'd first seen her standing between the blackened
pillars.
 
Jacob went over to her.

"You want
me to go back, don't you?"
 
She
looked at him as only she could.
 
"You can tell me.
 
I'm never
going to see Will again.
 
It's okay.
 
You tried everything."

Jacob took her
hand and put the ball in it.

The gold
gleamed as if it had been cast from the sun itself.
 
"
You're trusting
the wrong Fairy."

"You have
to polish it," he said.
 
"Until you can see yourself in it as clearly as in a
mirror."

Then he left
her alone and entered the crumbling ruin.
 
Will would
want to see Clara's face first.
 
And
they lived happily ever after
.
 
Unless the Dark Fairy had deceived him, as her sister had.

Jacob pushed
aside the ivy that covered the entrance to the tower.
 
He looked up at the sooty walls and
remembered how he had climbed down for the very first time on a rope he'd found
in his father's study.
 
Where else?

The skin over
his heart was still sore, and he felt the imprint of the moth like a brand
under his shirt.
 
You paid the price, Jacob, but what did you get in exchange?

He heard
Clara's suppressed cry.

And then
another voice spoke her name.

Will's voice
hadn't sounded so soft in a long time.

Jacob heard
whispers.
 
Laughter.

He leaned
against the wall, which was black with soot and damp with the cold caught
between its stones.

It was
over.
 
The Fairy had kept her
promise.
 
Jacob knew it even before he
pushed through the ivy again, before he saw Will standing next to Clara.
 
The stone was gone, and his brother's eyes
were blue, only blue.

Go, Jacob!

Will let go of Clara's hand.
 
He looked at him, stunned, as Jacob stepped out from between the walls,
but there was no rage on his brother's face, no hatred.
 
The jade-skinned stranger had disappeared,
though Will was still wearing the gray uniform.

He went up to
Jacob, his eyes fixed on his chest as if he could still see the blood gushing
out after the Goyl's bullet hit him, and then he hugged him, clutching him hard
as he used to when they were children.

"I
thought you were dead.
 
And I knew it
couldn't be true."

Will.

He stepped
back and looked at Jacob as if to make sure there was nothing missing.

"How did
you do it?"
 
He pushed back the gray
sleeve and touched his soft skin.
 
"It's gone!"

He turned to
Clara.
 
"I told you Jacob would
figure it out.
 
I don't know how, but he
always could."

"I
know."
 
She smiled, and in her eyes
Jacob saw everything that had happened.

Will touched
his shoulder where the saber had cut the fabric.
 
Did he know that the stains were his own
blood?
 
No.
 
How could he?
 
It was pale Goyl blood.

He had his
brother back.

"Tell me
everything."
 
Will
took
Clara's hand.

"That's a
long story," Jacob replied.
 
And he
would never tell it to him.

Once upon a time, there was a
boy who set out to learn the meaning of fear.

For a moment
Jacob thought he could see a trace of gold in his brother's eyes, but that was
probably just the pupils catching the morning sun.

"Take him away.
 
Far away."

"Look at
this!
 
I'm richer than the Empress!
 
What am I saying?
 
Richer than the King of
Albion
!"
 
Gilded hair, gilded shoulders — even Jacob had trouble recognizing
Valiant.
 
The gold stuck to him like the
sticky, foul-smelling sap the tree had always discharged over Jacob.

The Dwarf
pranced past Will without even noticing him.

"I have
to admit it," he shrieked at Jacob
.
 
"I was sure you'd cheat me.
 
But for this I'd even take you back into the
Goyl fortress.
 
Do you think it'll harm
the tree if I dig it up?"

Fox also had a
few flakes of gold in her fur.
 
She
stopped dead when she saw Will.

What do you say, Fox?
 
Does he still smell like them?

Will picked up
a small clump of gold that the Dwarf had brushed from his hair.

Valiant still
hadn't noticed him.
 
He noticed nothing.

"I'll
have to take the risk!" he panted.
 
"For
all I know, you might just shake all the gold out of it if I leave it
here.
 
No, there's only one thing left to
do."

He nearly fell
over as he ran off again.
 
Will just
stood there, wiping the snow from the tiny nugget in his hand.

Take him away.
 
Very far, so I can't find him.

Clara
exchanged a worried look with Jacob.

"Come on,
Will," she said.
 
"Let's go
home."
 
She reached for his hand,
but Will rubbed his arm as if he could once again feel the jade growing on his
skin.

Take him away, Jacob
.

"Clara's
right, Will," he said, taking his brother's arm.
 
"Come on."
 
And Will followed him, although he turned his
head once more, looking back as if he had lost something.

Fox followed
them to the tower, but she stopped in front of the entrance.

"I'll be
back soon," Jacob said to her as Clara and Will stroked her fur in
farewell.
 
"Make sure the Dwarf
collects his gold before the ravens get here."

Magic gold
attracted Gold-Ravens, and their cawing could drive you insane.
 
Fox nodded, but she hesitated before she
turned, and the concerned look she cast was for Clara, not Will.
 
She still hadn't forgotten the Larks'
Water.
 
When would he forget?
 
When
they are gone, Jacob
.

He climbed up
the rope ladder first.
 
On the floor of
the tower room, between some acorn shells,
lay
a dead
Heinzel.
 
The Stilt had probably killed
it.
 
Jacob pushed the tiny body under a
few leaves before helping Clara through the hatch.

The mirror
caught them all in its glass, but it was Will who stood in front of it and
gazed at himself as though he were seeing a stranger.
 
Clara walked up beside him and took his
hand.
 
Jacob, however, retreated unit the
dark glass could no longer find him
.
 
Will turned to him, a question in his
eyes.

"You're
not coming with us?"

Not everything
was forgotten.
 
Jacob could see it on
Will's face.
 
But he had his brother
back, maybe more than ever.

"No."
 
He shook his head.
 
"I can't very well leave Fox, can
I?"

Will
looked
at him.
 
What
did he see?
 
A dark
corridor?
 
A
saber in his hand?

"Do you
know when you'll be coming back again?"

Jacob smiled.

Just go, Will.

Far away, so I can't find him.

But Will
left
Clara standing and went to him.

"Thank
you, brother," he whispered, embracing him.

Then he
turned, and stopped once more.

"Did you
ever find him?" he asked.

Jacob thought
he could again feel Hentzau's golden eyes finding his father's face in his.

"No,"
he answered.
 
"Never."

Will nodded
and Clara took his hand, but it was Jacob she looked at as his brother pressed
his hand onto the glass.

And then they
were gone, and Jacob saw just himself in the warped glass.

*
         
*
         
*
         
*
         
*

Fox was
waiting where he had left her.

"What was
the price?" she asked as she followed him to the carriage.

"The price for what?"

Jacob
unhitched the horses.
 
He would take them
to Chanute, as compensation for the packhorse he'd lost.
 
He could only hope that the Goyl would treat
his mare well.

"What was
the price for your brother?"
 
Fox
shifted her shape.

She was
wearing her own dress again.
 
It suited
her so much better than the dress she had worn in the city.

"Don't
worry about it.
 
It's already paid."

"With what?"

She knew him
too well.

"Like I said.
 
It's paid.
 
What's the Dwarf up
to?"

Fox looked
toward the stables.
 
"Collecting
his gold.
 
It'll take him
days.
 
I was really looking forward to
seeing him covered in stinking pollen."

She looked at
the sky.
 
It had begun to snow
again.
 
"We should head south."

"Maybe."

Jacob felt
under his shirt for the imprint of the moth.

"You have maybe a year."

"Well?
 
A lot could be done in a year.
 
In this world, there was a cure for
everything.

He had only to
find it.
 
Somewhere.

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