The Midnight Prince

Moonlight First Aid

Ashen

Blood had a way of making the forest look hungry.

It dripped between my fingers, warm against my palm and wrong against the cold night air. Every step sent pain tearing through my side, but Solan’s moonlight held the worst of it back.

Barely.

It was strange magic.

Not healing.

Not ice.

Not anything I could name.

The moon hung full above the pines, and silver light wrapped around my wound like threads pulled tight. I could still move. I could still walk. I could still feel the wet heat of my own blood under my hand.

But the bleeding had stopped

Solan walked beside me with one hand lifted, two fingers trembling slightly as the moonlight bent between us.

“Try not to bleed faster than I can slow it,” he said through clenched teeth.

I glanced at him. “I will do my best to make my injury convenient for you.”

“That would be appreciated. I am royalty. I bruise under pressure.”

“You almost froze half a room of bounty hunters.”

“And now my arms feel like decorative noodles.”

Moon made a sound near my other side.

Not quite a laugh.

Not quite a sob.

She had one arm around my waist, trying to help me walk without making it obvious that she was half holding me upright. Every time I stumbled, her fingers tightened. Every time the wound burned, her breath hitched like she felt it too.

Because she did.

I could feel that now.

Not clearly. Not like hearing words.

But enough.

Enough to know the pain was echoing through the bond and finding her body with mine.

That made me hate the wound more than I would have if it belonged only to me.

“I can walk,” I told her.

“I did not say you could not.”

“You are holding me like I might fall.”

“You look like you might fall.”

“I have fallen before.”

“That is not comforting.”

Nara walked a few steps ahead with a knife in her hand and guilt in every line of her body. Veyra moved beside her, scanning the trees, one hand still stained with fae blood from the portal she had torn open to save us.

Lord Pebblewick sat on Veyra’s shoulder like an offended general forced to travel with amateurs.

Every few seconds, he made a judgmental coo.

Veyra finally glared at him. “Unless you have healing magic tucked beneath those useless feathers, stop commenting.”

He cooed louder.

“He sounds worried,” Nara said quietly.

“He sounds self-important,” Veyra replied. “That is his natural dialect.”

The attempt at humor did not hide the shake in her voice.

None of us were fine.

We were alive.

That was different.

The forest thickened around us. Behind us, somewhere we could no longer see, my mother’s cabin had folded its secrets into snow and silence. The hidden room. The portrait. The banners. The letter.

The letter.

I touched the inside of my coat with bloody fingers, feeling the folded parchment there.

Dear Little Prince.

Those were the first words I had seen before the attack came.

I did not know what to do with that.

My legs buckled.

Moon caught me with a sharp gasp. “Ashen.”

Nara spun around. “Ash!”

“I’m fine.”

Solan made a strained noise. “Excellent. The traditional words of a man about to collapse.”

The moonlight around my side flickered.

His face went pale.

I noticed then that his nose had started bleeding.

“Solan,” Moon said.

“I see it.”

“You are bleeding.”

“That is usually what blood means.”

“You need to stop.”

“If I stop, he starts bleeding normally again, and judging by the quantity already trying to escape him, I suspect none of us would enjoy that.”

Veyra stopped walking.

Her silver-green eyes narrowed as she looked at me, then at Solan, then at the forest around us.

“We need better healing.”

“No fae healing,” I said.

Her mouth tightened. “I know.”

Direct fae healing hurt.

Not like normal pain.

It felt like something inside me was being peeled away from bone. I did not know why. Veyra did not explain why. She only looked guilty whenever it happened.

But potions were different.

Usually.

Veyra pulled a tiny silver blade from her sleeve.

Moon’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

“Stealing from myself.”

Before anyone could ask what that meant, Veyra sliced her palm again and dragged the blood through the air in a quick symbol.

A small green-gold tear opened between two trees.

Not large enough to step through comfortably. Barely large enough for her.

Solan stared. “You can still open portals?”

“Tiny ones,” she said. “Ugly ones. And if anyone insults them, I will leave them behind.”

“I was going to say charming.”

“You were not.”

“No, but I was going to lie.”

Veyra pointed at him. “Hold the prince-shaped disaster together for three minutes.”

“Which one?” Solan asked.

“All of you royal males are exhausting.”

Then she vanished through the tear.

The portal snapped shut behind her.

Nara moved closer to me.

She had not said much since I took the blade for her.

That worried me more than tears would have.

“Nara.”

She looked down at the knife in her hand. “Don’t.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were going to.”

“I was going to ask if you were hurt.”

Her mouth twisted. “You got stabbed because of me, and you’re asking if I’m hurt?”

“Yes.”

“That is stupid.”

“Probably.”

Her eyes filled again.

I hated that.

I hated that more than the blade.

“Nara.”

“No.” She shook her head hard. “You don’t get to make this better by being calm.”

“I’m not calm.”

“You look calm.”

“I’ve had practice looking calm.”

Moon’s hand tightened at my waist.

Nara looked up at me then, tears slipping despite how hard she fought them.

“He was going to kill me.”

“Yes.”

“And you just stepped in front of it.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

I stared at her.

The question made no sense to me.

“Because you are my sister and I made mom a promise to always protect you, no matter what.”

I think she broke.

“Dumb Stupid overly protective hard-headed big brother”

She covered her mouth a tiny sob escaped as she turned away from me, shoulders shaking.

I tried to reach for her, but the movement tore at the wound, and Moon hissed through her teeth as if the pain had bitten her too.

“I’m so sorry, Moon, Let me try to shut it off soo—”

she took in a broke jagged breath

“No. don’t!” the words were quick. frantic.

“I hate—,” she cleared her throat. “Being shut out. okay?” then she looked away.

My heart skipped

Solan’s moonlight flickered again.

“Everyone stop being emotionally devastating,” he said tightly. “I am holding blood in place with moonbeams and spite.”

A tear reopened between the trees.

Veyra dropped to her knees in front of me and shoved a bottle toward my mouth.

“Drink.”

I stared at the silver-green liquid inside. “What is it?”

“Something that will keep your insides where the Moon Goddess intended them to be.”

“That is not specific.”

“You are bleeding in a forest. Specificity is a luxury.”

Moon took the bottle from her and held it to my lips.

“Drink it, Ashen.”

So I did.

It tasted like snow, pepper, and regret and felt like swallowing lightning.

Heat tore through my side so sharply my back arched off the ground. Moon grabbed my shoulders. Nara cried out. Solan’s moonlight slipped away from the wound as the potion took over.

I felt it closing.

Not slowing.

Closing.

Skin pulled together. Muscle stitched itself beneath the surface. The deep, brutal ache of the blade faded until only a ghost of pain remained.

Moon gasped and pressed a hand to her own side.

The bond warmed between us.

The echo of my wound faded from her body too.

Veyra leaned closer, checking the bandage with careful fingers before pulling it away.

Where the blade had gone in, there was only smooth skin stained with drying blood.

No open wound.

No bleeding.

No torn flesh.

Nara stared. “It’s gone.”

Veyra exhaled. “Good. I did not steal from a sleeping swamp witch for a potion that only half works.”

Solan, pale and sweating, lowered his hand. “Wonderful. Now that he is no longer leaking dramatically, may I collapse with dignity?”

“You don’t have dignity,” Veyra said, handing him a second bottle. “But you may collapse after drinking this.”

He took it suspiciously. “Will this make me grow feathers?”

“Only emotionally.”

He drank, grimaced, and coughed. “That is vile.”

“So are most lifesaving things.”

I sat up slowly.

The wound was healed.

But my body still felt hollow from the blood I had lost and the shock of magic forcing flesh back together.

Moon touched my arm. “Are you still in pain?”

“No,” I said.

Her eyes searched mine.

I told the truth this time. “Just tired.”

Her shoulders lowered as if she had been holding up the whole sky.

I covered her hand with mine.

“I’m healed, Moon.”

She nodded, but her fingers tightened around mine anyway.

This time, I let her hold on.