Chapter 15
The air filled with static as Elphaba breathed in. It had been five days since she woke, and she was more than ready to be done with bed rest. She wanted to go to her classes, take her own notes, walk through the garden, and dance and sing at her favorite little Quadling tavern. There was also the small fact that she wanted to give Fiyero his bed back. Not that it mattered much, considering every night she silently asked him to stay, and he obliged without question. She couldn’t do any of that if every time she stepped outside everyone was far too loud.
“Magia aliorum;
tace me.”
She felt a humming, and a chill running over her skin, leaving goose bumps in its wake. It was a simple spell, and she expected to feel little to nothing at all. Still, it left her feeling off, considering that she was still weekend. She expected to feel lightheaded, or to bleed slightly. Instead, she felt perfectly fine.
Well not perfectly fine. A tiredness grew over her, like she had been awake for hours longer than she had thought mere seconds ago. Despite being curious as to whether the spell had done anything at all, she decided she would close her eyes and rest. She could deal with it once she woke up.
--
She didn’t know where she was. It was cold, though, not as cold as Shiz currently. It smelled of earth, grass, and snow. Plainlands, possibly, but it had been long enough that Elphaba wasn’t quite sure. She was outside, no, inside. In a tower of some sort. She could feel stone below her fingers and wind against her face. She was looking out a window, maybe. She wasn’t sure, really. Everything around her was blurry and unfocused. She could see but she couldn’t make out anything. She could hear but not recognize sounds she should have known by heart, like the wind or the tapping of heals against the stone ground.
“This is the third time your curses have failed,” a voice, possibly a man, grumbled. “If I did not know better, I would say you had no want to succeed in our plans.”
“It isn’t my fault,” another voice, maybe a woman but Elphaba could not tell with certainty, defended themselves. “It’s the girl. Rain said she was powerful, but I have never seen anyone with that level of raw power. To grab a curse directly and hold onto it for as long as she did, she should be dead.”
The first person, a blur of black with a red outline that reminded her very much of a Gale officer, turned. Elphaba couldn’t make out his face, yet she could see him discontented all the same.
“Would she have?” the first voice asked. “If not for the interventions taken?”
The second figure, a more feminine silhouette, shook their head.
“I don’t know, but it had to be done. If she had died now, there would be too much suspicion. Too many eyes looking where they shouldn’t.”
“There already is!” the first voice yelled.
A sound of something clattering filled the blurry void Elphaba stood in. A plate maybe, or a glass.
“She has clairvoyance, a type that seems oddly attuned to death. As long as she is around the prince or his family, it will be hard to make any such moves without someone noticing. Either the girl herself, or another by proxy. I know you would rather have set the stage to weigh in your favor, but with these developments, I do not think that will be possible anymore.”
The first blur took in a deep breath. Obviously, anger was rife within them, a fuming building up as they desperately tried to calm it down.
“The Vinkus will be mine, come next fall,” the first voice growled out. “I suggest you start making yourself conducive to that goal if you want your end of our deal to stand.”
--
“Elphaba!”
The loud shout had her waking up, bolting slightly until she saw the face above her. Fiyero looked at her, panic in his eyes. She was caged in by his arms and couldn’t easily break the closeness of the two of them.
“You were shaking,” Fiyero’s voice cracked slightly. “And sweating, and your ears…”
There was no need for him to continue. She could feel the warm liquid in her ear, dripping down to her jaw.
“I had this dream,” she tried to explain, but found herself at a loss for words. “I think… I think I saw whoever has been placing curses on your family. They want to overthrow your family. They want the Vinkus.”
Fiyero shook his head, not in disbelief but in exhaustion. How many times was she going to be hurt on his behalf. This dream, what it had done to her, leaving her body sick and with the bleeds, and for what, some piece of information which Rain had come to the natural conclusion of anyways.
“Hey,” she whispered. “Hey, I’m okay. I’m okay. I have dreams sometimes, it’s not your fault. It comes with the magic.”
“Elphaba,” he whispered.
His voice was sore and strained. Something told her he had been yelling her name for a long while before she actually woke. She hadn’t even felt like she had slept for that long. She felt his hot breath on her face. It was a labored panting, the adrenaline fading from his system, leaving his body exhausted. She leaned forward, trying to catch his eyes. They shone deep blue, like that of a deep lake. Truly they were beautiful, even more so when they held such care and reverence.
“I’m here,” she whispered, placing her hand on his cheek. “I’m right here.”
It could have been the touch of skin, the heavy breaths, or the care so vividly exchanged in nothing more than a glimpse of blue and green. It could have been all of it, or none of it at all. It didn’t matter as Fiyero’s face came down and Elphaba’s moved up. Their lips crashed onto one another, hungry and wanting. One of Elphaba’s hands gripped the fabric on his back tightly, while the other found the back of his neck, pulling him in close. A moan hummed against his lip as her grip tightened.
The sound seemed to bring Fiyero back to reality as he harshly pulled away. He looked down at Elphaba below him, flushed and heaving. This was wrong. He wanted her, but not like this, when she had been stuck with barely anything else to choose from, recovering in his room while he played nurse. He pulled away, sitting himself on the edge of the bed. Running his fingers through his fair, he tried to figure out what to do next.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to…I shouldn’t have done that while you are still recovering.”
Elphaba let out a sigh that seemed almost disappointed at his words. She stood out from the bed, grabbed her books from the side table, and found her shoes at the door.
“Where are you-”
“Back to my dorm. I was able to cast the muting spell earlier today.” she said. “And I think it’s clear I’ve overstayed my welcome.”
Before Elphaba had a chance to open the door, Fiyero had made quick strides across the room, his hand against the wooden frame.
“Elphaba, don’t be dense. You know I didn’t mean-”
“I know exactly what you meant,” she spit back, pulling at the doorknob as if it made any difference.
“Just let me-”
“What? Explain? I don’t want an explanation. I want you to open the damn door Fiyero!”
Whatever will he had in him, whatever fight he had against constant attempts to push him away, seemed to die in the moment. His hand loosened against the door, and he backed away, letting her open it.
“Elphaba.”
By the time her name had left his mouth, she was already gone.