Nocturna (A Forgery of Magic #1)(124)

“I’ve been trying,” Luka said hopelessly. “She’s not responding.”

Alfie laid his hand on Finn’s chest and ran his magic through her. Sombra’s magic had battered her. Her pulse was slow, her shadow a sliver of gray curled at her feet. He might lose her. Even Luka had the good sense to stay quiet and let him work.

Alfie leaned forward and healed a pair of bruised ribs. Had the magic violently flying out of her done this? She’d been healing naturally when they were fighting, but now he could see bruises blooming on her skin. The black magic had left her to fend for herself.

He touched her forehead. It was burning with fever. He laid his hands on her stomach and poured his magic into the wounds that peppered her midsection, then her face and arms. Every wound he found he healed or tried to. Then he remembered the healing draught he’d saved for her.

Alfie hurriedly pulled the vial out of the pouch in his pocket, unstoppered it, and slowly poured it into her mouth. He tilted her head and gently rubbed her throat, hoping she would swallow it.

He’d done what he could. Now all they could do was wait.

“Will she be all right?” Luka asked, his voice quiet.

“I don’t know,” Alfie said. But if anyone could survive this, it would be her.

As if in answer to his worries, Finn gave a groggy groan. She opened her eyes slowly. He could feel his heart pounding in his throat.

“Prince,” she said.

At the sound of her voice, something within him healed so quickly that it felt exactly like breaking.

“Thief,” he said, his voice hushed.

She looked up at him, her eyes searching. “Did you—is it—”

“It’s gone, in the void,” he assured her. Her body relaxed, but she still stared at him, questions brewing between her ears. All at once the answer came to Alfie’s mind. Of course Luka was safe and strangely powerful. Before Alfie had released it, Sombra’s magic had agreed to make Luka strong and not to harm him. How could he not have seen it before? “When I released the magic, I made it promise to never hurt Luka. When you did, the deal was broken.”

Finn nodded, looking characteristically unfazed. “I figured as much.”

Alfie stared at her, amused. Nothing shocked her. She pressed her palms to the ground and, with a grunt of pain, forced herself up slowly so that she was sitting with her legs stretched out before her. Alfie had to stop himself from helping her up.

“Before the magic took me over, I saw Bathtub Boy next to you, and he didn’t have a maldito scratch on him. I remembered what you said, about making the magic promise to never hurt him. Hurting him seemed like a good bet. So I gave his arm a twist for good measure.” She shot Luka a glance, her eyes darting to his arm. “Sorry about that.”

Luka waved the hand dismissively. “None taken. Worse ways to die, but no better way to live if you ask me.”

Finn’s lips slanted into her crooked grin.

“You were amazing,” Alfie said to her. “Really.”

For a long moment they only looked at each other. Their faces were peppered with grime and wounds from battle, but they smiled all the same.

Then Luka gave a high-pitched, “Ah-hem!”

“You were good too, Luka,” Alfie said.

“I was, wasn’t I?” Luka said with a sage nod, as if he were perched on a throne instead of sitting on the rubble-littered ground.

Then Alfie couldn’t stop himself from laughing, and Luka joined in.

“Don’t make me laugh,” Finn said with a grin, her voice tight with pain. “It hurts when I laugh.”

For years, Alfie would wonder how they’d found the energy to laugh after all they’d been through. But later he’d come to realize that they’d laughed simply because there was time.

After days of death and rebirth, of shadow and light, of fear and courage, there was finally time to laugh.





38


The Thief, the Prince, and the End


If days ago someone had asked Alfie how he would feel about saying goodbye to Finn, he imagined he would have a myriad of answers.

All those answers would share the common thread of relief. Of a burden unloaded, a headache massaged away.

The last thing he’d expected was an ache in his chest and a lump in his throat.

He was so at a loss that he’d brought Luka with him to the port to say goodbye, if only to do what Luka did best—lighten the mood. Though he stood straight as they waited for her, Alfie knew he was leaning on Luka like a crutch.

After the disastrous Equinox Ball, Finn had rested in the palace for five days. She’d slept through two of them while Alfie sat at her bedside, pretending to read a book when he could only stare at the same sentence over and over again. He left her side only to speak to his parents, who’d thankfully survived the night, though many others had not.

When she’d finally awoken, her shadow darkening to a healthy shade, Paloma had insisted on meeting with Alfie and her to discuss what had happened, from the very beginning.

After Alfie explained everything up to their meeting at the cambió game, Finn took over, describing the circumstances that led her to the palace and all that came afterward. Paloma watched her silently while she spoke. Alfie nodded along, filling in his own details.

When their story was finally over, Alfie expected a harsh reprimand for his recklessness when it came to releasing the magic and Finn’s crime of breaking into the palace. But instead, Paloma did something she seldom did.