One-thousand, three hundred, and seventy-five.

That's the number of lines on the cell wall.

Boredom has struck.

Time was impossible to keep track of in the jail.

Dungeon.

Whatever.

It kept inching away, seconds, hours, days, possibly weeks. Every breath took forever. Every second drowned  on and on and on into eternity.

And it didn't help when the man in the cell next to mine snored.

It didn't help at all.

Even Rosinka was at a loss.

And when the tag-along doesn't know what to do… then it’s really bad.

I'd practiced every spell I knew I could without getting into trouble. I even tried the one that was supposed to destroy the cell bars. The only movement I received was a small quake and a screech that caused the watching murae-guard to stand in warning.

You know, you can try to get the cavalier from Sleeping Beauty while he slumbers.

Laughing would only encourage her, so I tried to stay as quiet as I could. No, I'm not going to do that.

Why not?

I glanced to the side. Arioch’s beard fluttered up and down with each breath he took. With his arms crossed over his chest, he nearly could have passed for dead.

Because I've already lied to him once.

Rosinka hushed after that. As much as she aggravated me, and as much as I disliked her, especially since she was in my head, we were both occasionally the same. With what I'd been told, she was just me, but evil.

She still held some of the same values.

I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall. The man I spoke to after Rosi took over and tried to kill Will and Merlin, the Brennen guy--his story kept circling around my head for some reason.

I don't know why. My goal was to find a cure for miralis, not hear an autobiography again.

Stupid bored mind.

My fists clenched--not on my terms. Don’t insult me.

Don’t take control of my body.

A smirk formed on my lips. Touché.

I sighed. Up until then, each day was the same. I’d wake up, eat, have a lesson from Arioch, eat, see William, get a glare from King, eat, and sleep.

Except that day. William had yet to come get me, and it had passed to nighttime while I waited.

Worry gnawed at my stomach whenever I thought of my friend. He had been so scheduled each day, for him to miss meant something was--

Something was wrong.

Immediately, I focused my thoughts on something else--anything else. Just the idea of Will…

I couldn’t finish the thought.

A mangled laugh managed to force its way from my throat. A month ago, my father would have gotten onto me about thinking of a boy so much.

It was easy, then. I had my brother. Mother. Father. Even though I claimed to have no friends, I had them. I wanted to pretend to be a girl from the books I read so I could escape what I called “boredom of everyday life.”

Not live like the people in the books.

Because all they received was pain and death. They were book characters.

I was not. I was alive. I had a life.

I had one until it was destroyed by muraes.

If time could go back…

If time could go back, my family would be safe.

But I'd still be the same Clair.

I liked what I'd learned. I'd grown. While I was still the same age, I wasn't a little girl anymore. Needing to know about life--now that was essential. Not living inside a bubble.

But, if I had the choice to save my family from what they'd been through, I'd take it. No matter what the cost.

Arioch stirred in the cell beside me. Still asleep, he pulled against a chain at his neck. A few of the beads on it clicked together, tiny drumbeats in the stillness.

My mind raced back to a few words he'd told me earlier--sayings, he called them. They were all in his language, but he translated for me. The first, he said, was a phrase nearly all of the older Luschonese people knew. It was an old saying of theirs,  ‘Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.’

The next was my favorite. ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.’

Some part of me felt like I could connect to the verses. They made sense.

They were also about death, but that was nothing new.

A loud clatter from the jail door made me open my eyes and look up. A light broke through an opening, barely getting through the murae standing guard.

It hissed at whoever was out there. The next words spoken were not from it, but from a higher voice outside the door.

“Leshna yaj mushan. Ya compranne shlota Clair.”

Clair.

That's me.

I bolted off the ground and pressed my face against the bars. The murae didn't catch my excitement. It moved away from the door after a moment and quietly made its way over to me, where it held out its hand and just tapped on the bars I fought moments before. They shifted, opening with a clang.

It pointed to the door. “Five hours starts now.”

That only meant one thing.

William.

Smiling so wide it hurt, I tore from the cell and to the door. Leave it to him to save me from death by nothing.

As soon as I stepped out of the jail, the door slammed behind me. Before I could even glance at Will, he took my hand and tugged the slightest bit to the left.

“Come on,” he ordered, voice raspy. “We need to go this way.”

Where is he taking me?

He led me down the hall, around the corner to emptiness. No light shone from the lanterns hanging on the wall, no window was without cover. Not even a trickle of moonlight seeped into the hallway to light the way.

I ran my hand against the wall. It was cool, like William’s hand. No rough edges marred the smooth stone.

No blood.

The muraes hadn’t raided that part of the castle.

William stopped. If it wasn’t for the light from the hallway behind us, I would’ve rammed into him.

“Do you see any muraes?”

Down this way?

“No.”

His hand slipped from mine. Dull yellow light gleamed against his face for a split second.  

A split second before he fell.

My heart leaped to my throat, which was impressive considering it felt as if a stone had been shoved down it. A strangled cry wanted to break the silence of the night; it wanted to do the only thing it couldn’t.

William’s face before he fell flashed through my mind. The brown in his eyes dulled to the color of mud, the color in his face turned from tanned like a cherry tree to pale like maple.

What I noticed the most was the lack of wood. His face, his hands, they were skin, they were soft instead of rough.

I knelt down. William’s hand clenched against the wall like it would help him get up. His eyes barely flicked up to mine.

“Th-the s-spe--”

He didn’t finish his sentence before a fit of coughing shook him.

Coughing.

Coughing that required lungs. Air. A heart.

His other hand found my elbow. “H-help me up,” he breathed. “We n-need to get some--somewhere King can’t--”

William grabbed at his shoulder. A clot of blood formed at the cut.

An earthquake shook the building--it had to. Otherwise, it was just me shaking and why would it just be me?

My muscles seized. A hand clamped around my chest, my throat, my head. It wouldn’t let me go, wouldn’t let me

breathe.

Which is what William needed to do.

Grab him. Do as he says.

With strength that wasn’t my own, I reached my arms out, grabbing Will under his shoulders. Limp weight crashed down to the floor, never reaching it.

His legs shook with effort as he tried to help me. Tried to walk. Each step was a mile. His fingers brushed against the wall like it was helping him stand. Anything to keep him upright.

A footstep that wasn’t one of ours echoed down the hallway.

“Muraes.”

The word came from my mouth, although I wasn’t the one who spoke it.

William grimaced. With the arm that wasn’t wrapped around me, he pointed to a door a few feet away.

“In there.”

Somehow, we made it to the door. It opened without either of us touching it and closed the same way.

A light in the ceiling flickered to life, disturbing a few roaches who had made a home in the shattered wood of a bed frame. Pieces of torn cloth lay strewn across the floor, one wrapped around my ankle.

William let out a sigh of air. “Thank you.”

Suddenly, I could no longer hold him. He knees buckled and he slid to the ground, pulling me along with him.

It was all I could do, making sure he didn’t hit harder than he would.

Laying down, he could almost pass for a normal kid. It seemed he just stared at the ceiling out of boredom.

Not because his eyes became glassy.

His throat bobbed up and down. He closed his eyes, squeezed them, then opened them once more. The light no longer caught in the corner of the brown.

My fingers brushed away a lock of his hair from his face. It was dark brown, nearly black. Thick.

William’s hand wrapped around my wrist as I brought it back. His skin was like ice.

Instead of looking at him--at the face of the dying, I stared at the back wall of the room.

Because it couldn’t be Will. Will was strong. Playful.

Human, inside and out.

Humans die.

“C--clair, please.”

Please what? Do what I could not? Face him, tell him he’d be fine when in reality he would be dead any moment, tell him goodbye, it was nice knowing him?

I couldn’t face him like a guilty brother couldn’t face his sister.

Somehow, it was my fault.

His chest rattled. It was not a breath, but closer.

When he breathed, he died.

“C-cur-ly?”

A fist rammed itself into my stomach. Tears bolted to my eyes, only to be blinked away.

I looked down.

A smile, so small and childish, twitch up at the ends of Will’s mouth. His hand that wasn’t wrapped around mine fell against his chest, causing a hollow thud to sound across the room.

All changed but his chest. Heart. Lungs.

Everything he needed to live.

He gave my hand a squeeze. It would not have harmed a fly.

“Thank you.”

Two words, so soft and quiet, were what caused me to realized it wasn’t a nightmare. It was real.

Heat squeezed the top of my head while cold shook the rest of my body. My heart sped up so fast it may have raced a horse.

“For what?” I choked. The ground blurred into a flush of colors the longer I stared at it. I looked away, back to my friend, but saw him blurred as well.

Blaming rain would no longer work.

A tiny laugh escaped Will. “Being there. Being a friend. N-not caring I w-was a prince. Putting up with me. S-Shall I continue?”

The smile hurt enough to paralyze me.

Me, but not Rosinka. She reached forward, fingers splayed, to his chest.

“Don’t.” William barely swatted my hand away. “It-it’ll kill you. My lungs, my heart, th-they’re forming again.”

In a voice smaller than the one he’d just used, he breathed “You can’t be the one to die.”

Of course I could. It was easy. All it took was just one touch. One word.

And I would condemn an entire kingdom by saving one life.

“Tell me…” he swallowed again, eyes closing as he did so. “My mother u-used to tell m-me stories bef-before I fell asleep.”

I can’t do this.

But I could.

My voice freed itself from its prison. “What would you like to hear?”

He didn’t answer, just shrugged his shoulders.

“Anything,” was the breath of a word. “Just… distract me.”

Distract him from the obvious? From the death, from the pain?

I squeezed his hand tighter. All my mother’s stories didn’t seem like they would fit. They were all too happy. Too fantastical.

My voice quivered when I spoke. “Not long ago, there was a girl.”

A grin formed on his face.

My eyes closed. “Now, this girl lived in kingdom not too far away from here. The king, who ruled over the land, was a coward. He made a deal with a monster--a deal that would trade a girl for a war which no longer waged.”

William didn’t move. His hand still wrapped around mine, but I felt no shifts in his weight. My heart clawed its way to my throat.

He can’t be…

No. He wasn't. From what he told me, he'd be all human first, and his chest was still wood.

I took a deep, shuddering breath. “After the king threatened to kill her family, the girl went to the monster. She tried to kill him, but to no avail. As fate would have it, they soon became friends, brought together by the dislike of the king.

“Now, the monster wasn't fully monster. He was man, but tortured by an extra soul.”

An extra soul. Like me. Like miralis.

“The more time the monster spent with the girl, the more the soul--the beast--grew stronger. It was soon too strong to control.”

Hands shaking, I brushed the tips of my fingers against Will’s side. Some of the wood caved in, soft and cold.

“While--” my voice cracked. I gasped. “While the girl was away from her town, a challenger to the throne appeared. He struck down the king and became the new ruler. He was the one who dared to challenge the monster.”

A thud outside made me jump. Shadows danced in the light, shadows made from spindly arms and legs searching for a way in.

The door locked before I said a word.

I drew my attention back to William. He tilted his head enough another lock of hair fell down from his forehead. I brushed it back.

My voice quieter than before, I continued. “Challenge, the man did. He fought the monster--nearly killed him. He fought the girl too, but lost, defeated by the power she had harnessed for the old king. Now, the monster, who was near death, had no may of controlling the extra soul. It broke free and tried to kill the girl.”

Blood seeped through the cut on William’s shoulder. A flash of adrenaline shot through me.

Finish. The. Story. Do what he wanted.

I couldn't. My eyes were transfixed on the blood--hypnotized by it. If he'd completely changed, then it was real. Everything was. There was no way for it to be a trick anymore.

“Curly.”

The hold of crimson was broken. Broken by a nickname. A teasing name.

William moistened his lips.  “Look away,” he whispered. “Finish, but… look away.”

I did. I stared at the ground, the hidden sky, the darkness behind my eyelids.

Anything but William.

Without my control, I spoke again. “The thing is, the soul didn't want the girl dead. It had come to care for her. It had to fight itself, in a way; it had to fight itself to save itself.”

Hand still closed in Will’s, I felt it when he stiffened. When he gasped for air he could not choke down.

Somehow, my voice was steady. “The soul died, leaving the monster free. The monster became a man, the girl his wife. They were free because--”

William clenched once more, his hand leaving mine.

“--because the soul chose to set them free. And that, that was a debt they would never repay.”

Nothing.

No noise.

No breath.

No William.

Everything that didn't come as I spoke, everything I couldn't say or feel came out in a flood of air.

Air I could breathe.

Pain struck my chest. It hammered at my stomach. At my heart.

It forced me to open my eyes.

He lay still, like a sleeping child. Eyes closed, hair messy, one hand on his stomach, the other out to the side.

Human.

Dead.

Suddenly, the air didn't come.

Wet fell down one of my cheeks.

No. If you cry, they know. They'll force their way in here and get him. If this is where he wanted to die, then…

Then it was his tomb.

Without looking at him again, I stood. The door was forever away, but I made it.

Opening it felt like opening the door to a different world.

I slammed it behind me. A murae stood less than a foot away.

He heard nothing.

It tilted its head to the side. “Where is the boy?”

Dead. Gone.

I was like stone. “He stayed behind.”

It narrowed its eyes and grabbed my elbow, pulling me along. Back to my cell. Back to nothing.

With no Will--

That was it. The story.

Idea forming, I closed my eyes. You win, Rosi.

What?

It had to work.

You win. I clenched my fists. Take control of my body. You can have it.

If a voice could be speechless, she was.

Um, not that I'm saying no, but why?

He still had time. Moments. Minutes.

To save William. He can still be alive, he just has to breathe. His heart just has to beat.

She laughed. Why do you think I'll help him?

The murae slowed. It put its hand on the jail door.

Because you're me, Rosinka. You're me, whether you want to be or not. You even told me yourself. William is my friend. That makes him yours.

She was quiet.

Please, Rosi. You're strong enough to heal him from here.

The jail door opened. The cell seemed too far.

Why do you believe I'm willing to die for a human?

My voice came out as no more than a whisper. “Because he's your friend. He's the best friend you've ever had.”

The murae stopped and stared at me. “What?”

Rosinka didn't do anything.

I looked away, hope dying. “Nothing.”

It opened the door to my cell and shoved me in. The door slammed shut behind me, its bang like thunder.

I leaned against the wall. Everything was useless. My friend had died. My mother was captured. My father was not even human. My brother was more than likely dead.

And I couldn't save them.

Any of them.

My hand moved up to the tip of the stones surrounding me. My eyes shut.

I wasn't the one who moved them.

Rosinka smiled. “Of all the times to win the battle, you certainly have made me lose the war.”

She placed one hand against the wall and the other on the floor.

I didn't know if it would work. I don't think she did either.

We both knew it was worth a try.

Rosinka took one last, deep breath.

"Arioch was right, you know. There is no greater love than to die for one's friends."

My eyes closed.

Goodbye, Clair.