She stared at it, brushing the tip of her finger over the miracle that it was. Brielle was going to be alright. Brielle would live, and magic was real.
Chapter twenty-seven
Two Beds
In a cove where the moonlight kisses the tide,
Lived a mermaid with secrets the stars could not hide.
Her voice held the hush of the deep ocean swell,
And legends would bloom where her melodies fell.
-The Mermaid Song
Just as he promised, Ira didn’t make them stop more than they had to, and the way down the mountain was much easier than the way up. Every now and then, there would be a hint of cinnamon in the air, and Luci knew Elowen was watching, if not intervening. Mostly, all Luci could think about was how Brielle was going to gloat about having been right about magic existing.
By the time they made it back to The Enchanted Sleeping Inn, Luci’s legs, arms, and brain ached with the effort of the pace they set. In fact, everything was a bit hazy when she stumbled into the inn and found no one at the front desk. In fact, the stable was empty as well. Less people meandered the street. It was nearly unsettling if it weren’t for the sounds of laughter and talking from the dining room.
Luci and Ira exchanged glances, but much like he did at every opportunity, Ira slid his hand into hers and pulled her towards the smell of warm biscuits and laughter. When they rounded the corner, nothing prepared them for the sight before them.
The once-empty dining room was littered with people eating and talking. At the front, a woman sang while a man beside her played a violin, the words of her song melting together into a beautiful symphony. By the fireplace, Calcifer lay sprawled out getting a good head scratch from Cochran, who didn’t have a smudge of dirt on him.
“What is happening?” Luci asked.
Ira grinned at her. “Magic.”
“Liam! Bridia!” Agnes yelled the moment her eyes latched onto them.
She disengaged from a table she’d been dropping food off at and immediately walked over and wrapped them in a large hug.
“Come in, come in. How was the Blue Mountain? Calcifer had the time of his life! Just look at him over there like the king he is. Sit, sit. You both must be starving. Your room is just as you left it. If you want to get washed up first, and Bridia, I hope you don’t mind, but I saw a dress at Raelynn’s yesterday and immediately thought of you and your dark hair, but oh, look, you washed it out. I’m not sorry to see it, though. A woman’s natural hair color is exactly what it’s meant to be. Oh dear, I’m going off, aren’t I?”
Before anyone had any chance to utter a word, they were sitting at the only empty table with a single candle flickering between them.
“It’s good to see you, Agnes. It looks like business is better.” Ira said.
She looked around at the packed room, and emotion clouded her eyes.
“Not really. After you two left, I remembered why we built this inn in the first place. It’s meant to bring folks together. Maybe this village doesn’t have much, but we have each other, and that’s worth a lot. I traded a week's worth of meals for the dress for Miss Bridia, and Cochran earned his keep cleaning in between seeing to Calcifer. Thomas always said a community that takes care of its own is a happy community. I somehow forgot that.”
“It’s easy to get lost in what you don’t have and forget what you do,” Luci said.
Agnes nodded her head, tears escaping from her eyes. She clasped Luci’s hand in hers and nodded.
“That it is, sweet girl, that it is,” she said. “Now look at me leaking all over the place. I’ll go ask Ollie to get some warm food started for the two of you, and Lacy will bring up some hot water to wash up.”
There was no arguing with her as she walked off to complete her tasks. Truly in her element, she stopped to swap a joke with one patron while grabbing a drink from another to refill. It was like life was being poured into her, making her skin glow a little more.
“It’s like a different place,” Luci said.
“It’s fantastic,” Ira murmured, looking around with a spark in his green eyes.
The fervor in his voice made her heart stammer.
“I'd better go wash up and put on that dress after all of Agnes’ effort,” she said.
For the first time since leaving the mountaintop, there was an awkwardness between them. They hadn’t talked about anything that happened between them. It hadn’t felt like an insurmountable problem until they were faced with an inn and a night of comfort between them. There was no denying how she felt anymore, but some things were hard to face. If Brielle were there, she would remind her that she could do hard things, but being vulnerable enough to let another person in was something else entirely.