I knew the way to the garden from the kitchen. I wasted no time getting there.

Waves of snowflakes in the hallway told me I was on the right path. I entered the garden and looked around.

Like the other rooms, the garden was ruined. The mighty statues were knocked over or smashed to pieces. The canopy at the center of the garden’s roof was smashed to splinters. Hedges once perfectly clipped and manicured were now spindly imitations of hedges. Ice pillars of ice flowed down from the roof and sat frozen to the ground. The place was deathly silent. It looked like it hadn’t seen a living soul in years.

“Faustine?” I said into the silence.

Nothing except the snow and quiet.

I took the rose from my coat. Its light was just barely flickering now.

I began walking amongst the paths. “It’s Marius.” I stepped over a shattered beak. “I want to talk to you.”

I felt the weight of despair and sadness around me. It was as if it was in the air itself. Her emotions affect the world like this. There was despair so powerful it permeated everything. It was no doubt as deep as the soil by now.

“I found my way through the forest on my own. Can you believe that? I didn’t need the horse.” I laughed weakly.

I listened for something, anything. Still nothing.

I found myself in front of a large raven statue covered in shadow. Was this all for nothing? Was I out here on a fool’s errand?

I stared up at the statue and hugged the rose close. “Please, Faustine. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Two brightly glowing appeared in the dark above me. My blood froze.

I heard a rush of wind and the sound of massive wings unfurling. The sudden gust knocked me to the ground. I stumbled back and picked myself up as a giant bird stepped off the podium and onto the stone path before me. She towered over me with feathers black as pitch. Large reptilian feet dug great holes in the snow. Giant talons the length of my hand scratched into the stone underneath. Eyes as cold and bright as evening stars stared daggers down at me. Her cruel hooked beak looked ready to snap me in two. Darkness swam in the air around her like a negative halo. Her powers had transformed her into what she saw in herself.

With every step I took backward, the bird stepped forward to me. Her gait showed a very pronounced limp on the left side. Her head did not bob or turn in that flitting curious manner that birds did. She just stared at me with a gaze as sharp as a blade.

“Faustine,” I uttered. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but I knew it the minute I saw her.

Her eyes narrowed.

I clutched the rose tightly and met her gaze.

“Why did you come back?” She demanded. Her voice was the distant rumbling of a coming storm.

“I wanted to see you.”

Her eyes slid to the rose in my hands, then back to me. “Then you have come far for nothing.”

“I came for you.”

“You are a fool.” She rumbled and stepped closer. She lowered the end of her beak to my face.

“But I didn’t. Do you want to know why?”

“Leave me alone.” Faustine turned and began sauntering away. “You’ve wasted your time.”

“I came back to tell you that I forgive you, Faustine.”

She stopped.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think in the last few days. I thought about a lot of things. In that time, I realized something great. So I decided to come back.”

“Like you returned an ink brush,” Faustine murmured. Her shoulders hunched.

I approached her slowly. “When you told me the truth, I felt so betrayed I didn’t know what to do with myself.” Before I could look her in the eye, Faustine turned away. “But I realized something while I was away.”

Faustine said nothing. She remained turned away from me.

“Faustine? Look at me. Please.” I pleaded.

“I lied to you. You were ever only kind to me. But all I ever did was lie.” Faustine rumbled. “I do not deserve your pity.” She began lumbering away into the garden again.

“Which is why I came back.” I started after her. “I realized that we’re alike.”

Faustine stopped suddenly. She turned on her heel and reared up. She then plodded toward me and stared down her beak at me. “We are nothing alike.” She growled. “Stop pretending like you understand me.” She stomped one of her feet near me into the snow. “No one understands me, and no one ever will. You wouldn’t have the slightest idea who I am or what I feel!”

I held her gaze. “And what’s so terrible about you that I couldn’t understand?”

“Stop it!” She screeched into the night. The sound rang through the air like a squalling wind. “Stop pretending like you care!” Faustine unfurled her wings and flapped them angrily. The wind from the wingbeats blew snow and twigs into my face. She tucked in her wings and brought her head to eye level, gaze piercing through me. “I am a beast! You cannot understand me!”

I just stared her down, unafraid. “I don’t see a beast.”

The coldness in her gaze cracked. “You’re lying.” Tears, large and shining, collected in the corners of her eyes and rolled down her face. “You see a liar.”

“No.”

“A disappointment.” Her voice cracked. Her bottom beak quaked.

“The farthest from it.”

“A failure—” The last word was barely a whisper as the tears flowed freely from her eyes. Her head bowed as her body heaved with slobs. Thick teardrops splattered into the snow, leaving big craters in the white. Faustine’s wings drew up to cover her face as she sobbed.

I realized I’d never seen her cry so hard before. It reminded me of when I was a child, weeping because of a hurt knee or a child’s jeering at school. Mother told us that it was never anything to be ashamed of. It was a sign that we were human above all else. But her tears were different; These were the tears of someone who had never been allowed that luxury. Years of unbearable pain flowed out of her, and I could feel it.

Her sobs eventually quieted down. Faustine’s beak pointed at the ground. “This is the fate I deserve. This is what I am. I destroy everything I touch. I hurt all those who care about me. I deserve to be like this forever.” She mumbled.

I gently took her head and raised it. “There was a time when I felt the same. But then something amazing happened.”

“What?”

“I realized I was human.” I wiped a tear from her cheek.

“What do you mean?”

“I thought that when I left home, I was abandoning my family. I thought I was selfish and ungrateful. But it was because I thought I couldn’t help them how I wished. I only ever wanted to help them. And when I came home after all that time, they forgave me. They didn’t need me to be anything other than family. I was just too wrapped up in myself to see that.”

“But I wasn’t worth the effort,” Faustine whispered. “I hurt you, so you left just like everyone else.”

“The people who hurt you abandoned you. But I came back.” I stared more intensely into her eyes. “We were both hurting in different ways, Faustine. But that doesn’t mean we’re evil or broken. It just makes us human.” Tears started forming in my eyes now. “And you are more than what they told you. You are not a liar, failure, or disappointment. You are beyond that. You are so much more.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Then why did you forgive me?” She asked in a small voice.

I couldn’t forestall it any longer. I knew the reason why I took this mission. It was the thing that I knew kept me tethered enough to make it through the forest and find her. My single impossible drive, the singular flame that animated me and brought me to this point.

“Because I love you.” It was a whisper so quiet that only we could hear it. A secret that only we could share.

The world went deathly silent. For a second, I only heard Faustine’s deep rumbling breaths.

“You… love me?” Faustine said. She looked at me with a profound innocence.

I nodded.

Faustine gingerly pressed her forehead to mine. “You love me.” She repeated as if savoring the word.

I held her closer, breathing in that lavender aroma and feeling her pulse against my hands and forehead. Her body as her breathing eased. For an eternal, beautiful moment, we were all that existed.

“Faustiiiine…” A low moan pierced the silence.

Faustine’s eyes widened in terror. My blood froze.

“Oh God.” She whispered. “He’s here.”

Sloppy squelching filled the air.

“You have to hide.” Faustine declared. “He can’t find you.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

I scanned around the area. A clutch of bushes looked like they could provide decent cover. “I’ll hide there. What about you?”

Faustine bowed her head. “I can take it. I always do.”

You don’t have to, I wanted to tell her. But the slithering was getting too loud. I jumped into the bushes.

“Faustine…” The Maer called again. “Where are you, girl?”

Through the bushes, I watched Faustine stand alone in the garden. She said nothing.

Squirming tendrils dripping black oil slithered down the stone path. The entire writhing form of the Maer soon appeared above Faustine, rising above her like a slithering dripping monolith. That facsimile of her father’s cruel face formed out of the oil and stared down at her with cold empty eyes. I was too close to the Maer for comfort. I could smell it now: like tar and low tide. I fought the urge to gag.

“Why did you not answer me when I called you?” The Maer gurgled.

“I was waiting for you, Father,” Faustine said with her eyes on the ground. “You told me to stay here. I did as you asked.”

“But you did not answer me when I called.” Pale, long-fingered hands formed out of the mass that was the Maer’s body. “You disobey me still.”

“I didn’t mean to, Father.” Faustine whimpered. “I don’t wish to upset you.”

“Yet you continue to disappoint me.” The Maer reached into the bush above me and yanked off a stray branch. Its hands reminded me of pale spiders as they wrapped around the stick. “Why do you trouble me so?”

Faustine didn’t look at the monster.

“Look at me!” The Maer suddenly grabbed Faustine’s beak and yanked it up. Faustine didn’t make a sound. She only stared up with abject fear and despair in her eyes. “Remember this well: you are weak. Weak in spirit, weak in body. You do not deserve the power that flows in your veins. You only still breathe by my hand. You are not worthy of the name De Rosamund!” The Maer angrily threw his daughter’s beak out of his hand. She stumbled to the ground.

Stand up to him, I wanted to tell her. My heart cried out for me to escape my hiding place and help her. I couldn't bear watching this apparition of her father treat her this way. But what could I do against something as terrible as that?

“A blessing in disguise that you cannot play piano anymore.” The Maer remarked, pointing the stick at her wings. “You were always so terrible at it.”

“I was.”

“Your practice was insufficient. If you were better, then your solo would have gone perfectly.” The Maer brought the stick under her chin and coaxed her head up. “Every error must be exorcised. And you have too many errors in you, child.” The Maer readied the stick like an executioner’s axe. “To the count of twenty-five.”

“Twenty-five.” Faustine lowered her head and shut her eyes.

The Maer raised the branch.

My desire for survival failed. I had to act.

“Stop!” I leaped out of the bushes and stood between the Maer and Faustine. I spread my arms in a feeble attempt at shielding her.

The Maer shuddered and lowered the stick. “I thought I smelled a rat.”

“You’re not going to hurt her anymore!” I shouted up at the Maer.

“And what makes you think you can protect her?” The creature taunted.

“I will give my life if it means you never touch her again.” I declared.

“Marius—” Faustine said behind me. I turned to see her lying on the ground. She looked at me with something between love and fear. “Please…”

“I mean it,” I said to the monster. “Every single word.”

The Maer groaned. Its form shuddered and roiled. “Your life.” It said with no intonation. It tossed the stick over its shoulder with a single movement. “So be it.”

Something shot out and seized my throat.

“Marius!” Faustine shouted.

My throat closed. I couldn’t breathe. Long fingers crushed my throat. I lifted off the ground. I tried grabbing Maer’s arm, but my hands touched thick ropes dripping foul black oil. My feet kicked feebly below me into the open air. The Maer’s unfeeling gaze cut through me like a knife.

“I will make an example out of you, peasant.” The Maer turned to Faustine. “See here, child, what your love brings you. I want you to watch as I crush him like an insect.”

I struggled to breathe, but the Maer’s grip only tightened.

“Please, Father, don’t do this!” Faustine begged. “Leave him alone!”

“Silence!” The monster roared. Its human face lost its tenuous form, turning liquid before reforming.

“Faustine—” I choked out. “Don’t listen—”

Faustine stared helplessly up at me. She looked so small from there. She seemed to be silently begging me to give her a sign. But I could do nothing. It was all on her.

I couldn’t take in any more breath. My arms went limp and fell to my sides. I saw Mother, Connie, August, Genny, and Father all standing together in a bright place. They were all smiling at me. The world grew dark. I shut my eyes.

The pressure on my neck suddenly relented as I plummeted to the ground. I hit the stone shoulder first and rolled over, clutching myself in pain. I coughed and hacked as I finally breathed in again. I still felt something around my neck. I yelled in shock as I saw bony white fingers clutching me. I pried the dismembered Maer’s hand from my neck and threw it onto the stone. The fingers curled inward like a dead spider where it lay to rest. Black oil leaked from the severed end.

The Maer shrieked in surprise, staring at its severed wrist. The creature then reformed a new hand out of its roiling mass. It made a gurgling growl and stared down at me with hateful eyes.

I heard roaring winds and a mighty wingbeat. A great shadow streaked above, then landed in front of the Maer. Faustine unfurled her wings, making herself a wall between me and the monster. She was an angel wreathed in shadow, a guardian cut from the very fabric of night.

“How dare you disobey your father?” The Maer growled.

“You are not my father,” Faustine growled back.

With a frightful cry, the great raven lunged at the monster.

The two creatures whirled around in a mess of feathers and tentacles. They threw each other against statues and into hedges, the force of the impacts shaking the ground. The ice shattered and rained down over the garden. The Maer managed to grab Faustine and throw her to the ground. It raised an arm, now a tendril as thick as a log, and brought it down with immense force. Faustine leaped away just in time as the tendril smashed a statue’s head to dust.

“You were always so selfish. You never considered my desires. I only ever wanted to help you. Now look what you are making me do.” The Maer vibrated with rage. Tiny tendrils grew out of its body and whipped wetly around before receding into its form.

“It was always about you, wasn’t it? You never cared about me! It was all to serve you and your stupid legacy!” Faustine snarled, positioning herself in front of me again. “I’m not listening to your lies anymore!”

“You disappoint me, Faustine.”

“And I despise you!”

Faustine leaped again with wings spread. She brandished her talons like eight black swords and set upon the Maer. I watched in morbid fascination as her claws ripped and shredded the slimy body that made up the monster; thick ropes rent to ribbons, their remnants splattering across the stone and onto the nearby walls. The Maer tried to fight back, but Faustine dug her beak into his body and tore out more tentacles. The creature howled in pain and defeat and feebly whipped its tentacles through the air. Faustine snapped them away with ease. She shoved her claws down into the mass one last time. A flurry of tentacles whipped feebly into the air, then stopped and laid still.

Faustine’s form cast a fearful silhouette. She stood surrounded by the destroyed garden, a powerful and terrifying visage. Her body rose and fell with labored breaths which resounded throughout the air. She turned to look at me. Her eyes pierced through the dark.

“Do not be afraid.” She said softly.

I swallowed and stepped toward her. Black oil mixed with snow, which connected in a large star-like pattern that grew larger and thicker as I moved closer to Faustine. Soon I was by her side. At her feet were the remains of the Maer in a pool of inky slime.

“Dear God.” I breathed. “There’s nothing left.”

“Good riddance.” Faustine flexed her talons. Her scaled feet were stained black. I imagined the rest of her body was stained with that creature’s slime, though I wouldn’t be able to tell. “It made the mistake of touching you.”

“Thank you.” I laid a hand on her side. “I’m very grateful.”

My hand felt warm and wet. I thought it was more of the oil. I inspected whatever stained my hand closer.

A coppery smell hit my nose.

Blood.

Faustine groaned and fell into a patch of untouched snow beneath a tree. She rolled over, revealing the white to be stained black and red.

“No.” I harshed. “No, please.” I knelt by her and cradled her head.

Her breathing was shallow. Her eyes were heavy, and each blink was labored. “He still won in the end, didn’t he?”

“That thing is dead. You killed it!” I replied, trying to hold her head up. “You did it!”

“I did…” She whispered. The corners of her beak turned up. “I wouldn’t have done it without you.”

“You could’ve at any time. You had always had it in you.”

“No.” She shook her head and drew in a shaking breath. “You gave me strength because you came back. No one ever came back. But you—” Faustine let out a croaking sigh. “You came back for me.” A large wing closed around me and held me close. “You said you would die for me. Consider us even.”

“Please don’t say that.” Tears ran down my face. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“Then stay with me.” Her eyes began glassy and glazed. “Hold me.”

I let out a little sob but nodded and held her head in my lap. Faustine smiled again and nestled more comfortably in my lap. I looked down at her staring lovingly up at me as tears streamed down my cheeks and my chest rocked with sobs.

I could hear her heartbeat. I mentally counted the seconds in between each beat.

One. Two.

“Do you remember what you asked when you left?” She whispered.

One. Two.

I shook my head. I couldn’t speak lest a sob would come out.

One. Two. Three.

“You asked if any of it was real.”

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

“All of it was real, Marius. And it was beautiful.”

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven.

“I know,” I uttered. “And I’m glad we spent it together.”

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight.

Nine. Ten.

I shut my eyes. I knew what was coming.

I love you.