Fantastical (Fantasyland #3)(41)
“Take care of him?”
“He’s in pain. He’s been up in that tree for awhile, no water, no food. He’s not half dead, he’s mostly dead. I need to take care of him.”
I tilted my head to the side. “Take care of him how?
“Take away his pain.”
Oh no. I was pretty sure I knew what he was saying.
“Are you saying –?”
He must have read the horror on my face for he answered swiftly and gently, “Yes.”
“Tor, no.”
“It’s the right thing to do.”
“We’ll find a vet.”
“Pardon?”
“A vet, a veterinarian. A doctor for animals.”
“I know what a vet is, love, what I was trying to ask without saying it is, are you mad?”
I stepped back. “I’m not mad! Maybe something can be done.”
“Something can be done and if you would go with Salem to the road, I could do it and put this creature out of its misery.”
“Chirp” came from Aggie which unfortunately meant “chirp”. Therefore, no clue what Aggie thought of this conversation and his impending euthanasia at the hands of a hot prince warrior.
“Tor –” I whispered.
“Sweets, go.”
I shook my head. “We can get him water. Food. Maybe he’ll perk up.”
“Sweets… go.”
I stepped into him and put my hand back on his chest. Leaning in and up, I begged again, “Please.”
His eyes moved over my face before he said quietly, “I give in, we do this bird no favors.”
Oh my God. Was he going to relent?
“We can nurse him back to health. Get him some seed, water, then to a vet the first chance we get,” I suggested.
His jaw clenched.
My hand slid up his chest to curl my fingers around his neck. “Tor, please, he’s Aggie. The first being I saw in this world was Rosa, the second, Aggie. I don’t have a sister at home and I had Rosa for about ten minutes before she was gone. Aggie was swept away in the wind when the vickrants came. They both can’t be gone. I couldn’t bear it. It may sound crazy but he’s important to me. I can’t do anything to help Rosa but maybe I can do something to help Aggie. Help me help him. Please.”
Okay, truth be told, I was laying it on a bit thick but the reason this bird had been stuck up in a tree for days was because I had inadvertently started a curse that struck up a wind that caught this little creature in it so it was all my fault his wing was mangled (kind of).
Tor held my eyes then he lifted his hand and cupped my jaw.
Then he murmured, “Go get the waterskin. Let’s get this bird hydrated.”
He relented!
Goodie!
I smiled brightly at him, lifted up on my toes, pushed in (careful not to further crush Aggie) at the same time my hand slid to the back of his neck and pulled down. He bent and I touched my mouth to his.
I pulled back an inch and looked in his beautiful eyes.
“Thank you, honey,” I whispered, watched his eyes light but I had things to do so I didn’t dawdle.
I let him go and raced to Salem to get the waterskin thinking as I did it that maybe Prince Noctorno Hawthorne wasn’t all that bad.
Chapter Twelve
Bellebryn
“Sweets, wake up.”
I shifted physically but in my unconscious I executed a lazy br**ststroke toward consciousness, decided I liked the warm, safe waters I was in, gave up and floated.
Tor’s deep voice again penetrated my slumber. “Cora, we’re almost home.”
That got my attention and my eyes fluttered open.
I was turned fully to the side in Tor’s saddle, snug between his legs and up against his chest, my cheek pressed deep, his arm cradling me, my arm cradling a recuperating Aggie.
I tipped my head back, sliding my cheek against his chest, saw the underside of his strong, stubbled jaw tilt down and his beautiful light blue eyes hit mine.
“Hey,” I whispered.
“Hullo, sleepy,” he whispered back.
My stomach melted.
Mm.
I gave him a small smile. He returned a gorgeous one.
My stomach melted more.
Mm.
“We’re nearly there?” I asked and he jerked his chin slightly up and replied, “Turn and see.”
I started to turn, thinking that I wished we weren’t nearly to his castle.
It had taken not three days to get there, but four.
This was because we stopped at a large village with a veterinarian who looked at Aggie, did his best to set Aggie’s wing, gave us some medicinal herbal drops, a kind of rudimentary eye dropper we could use to give Aggie water and some tiny balls made of suet and crushed seeds that we could give Aggie to eat.
Even with this, Aggie had not made a turn for the better until that morning. He took his drops, he took his water, he gamely swallowed down the suet balls but he hovered at death’s door until that very morning when we woke to see him hopping around and chirping, partly, but not fully, back to his old self.
It had also taken us four days because Tor stopped in other villages and a small town. He did this so we could eat in pubs or, when we were in the town, a surprisingly rather cosmopolitan café that had great pastries. He also did this in the evenings so we could rent rooms in inns in order to have a soft bed to sleep in at night and, major bonus, hot baths (heavenly).