As soon as he stepped onto the sand, he nearly fell again. To his horror, Kyle realized they had been terribly wrong about the time as well. The sky had turned pink, and the sun was beginning to sink below the horizon. Had it really taken them that long to get back? He distinctly remembered the sky and could say with certainty that they had only found the second spring around noon. Had their group really wandered that deep into the forest? No wonder Aion’s condition had worsened. Apparently, it had taken an eternity to return. Kyle clenched his teeth in frustration. He had tried to move as fast as possible. He didn’t want to blame his own weakness.

“Oh, damn it!”

Kyle waded into the water up to his knees and stopped. He simply couldn’t go any farther. The water kept trying to push him back up like a buoy. He remembered the stupid nickname Aion had given him. Back then, it had really gotten under his skin.

Rolling his eyes, Kyle carefully lowered the prince into the water. When Aion’s head came to rest on the sand while his body remained submerged, a smile appeared on the prince’s face. Only the heat radiating from his skin reminded Kyle that he was looking at a living person. He carefully placed a hand on Aion’s chest and felt the steady beat of his heart. Letting out a relieved breath, Kyle decided to cool off and relax for a while himself. Every single day brought nothing but trouble. He buried the prince’s head slightly in the sand so he wouldn’t slip under the water, then, after thinking it over for a couple of seconds, pulled off his shirt and jumped into the sea.

Throughout the entire long day, Kyle had noticed a lot of strange things. First, the day had ended far too quickly. He simply could not and did not want to believe that he had spent more than seven hours carrying Aion back to camp. Second, it seemed as though everyone who came to the ocean inevitably witnessed the sunset. According to Kyle’s calculations, there should have been at least an hour left before it. Third, Gilem was clearly hiding something about the mosquito snake. Fourth, starting a fire was no easy task, and it was usually Ilai and Risa who handled it. And on top of everything else, Kyle couldn’t stop thinking about what Aion had done. Why had he stepped forward in the first place? Maybe it was because Aion wanted to be useful for once. Maybe the prince had saved his life. Kyle slowly moved his arms through the water to keep himself from drifting too far. The sea was perfectly calm, and that soothed him. Just like when he was a child, he could close his eyes and let go of everything that had piled up during an unbelievably eventful day. The water dulled his worries a little. Kyle looked back at Aion. The prince was still lying two-thirds submerged in the water and seemed noticeably better. The Unsinkable tried dipping his hand deeper into the sea to check the temperature below the surface, but couldn’t quite manage it. The last thing they needed was for Aion to catch a cold on top of everything else. Eventually, Kyle returned to the idea of heading back to camp and figured that a stuffy nose wouldn’t exactly be a problem for the prince anyway. Smoothly rolling onto his back, he floated toward shore.

Kyle placed a hand on Aion’s forehead to confirm his suspicion. The fever had broken. Now all they needed to do was get back to camp and try to start a fire. The rest had done him good. He now had enough strength to carry his “burden” again. He easily lifted the prince and looked out at the calm sea. The blue surface had turned shades of violet. The sun seemed to be squeezing out the last of its strength before disappearing. Kyle had already admired enough sunsets for one day, so he turned on his heel and headed back toward camp, urged on by the cry of an unfamiliar bird.

Kyle did not lay Aion back in his sleeping spot. There was a tree a few yards away, and he decided to use it as a makeshift chair for the prince. He needed to start a fire as quickly as possible before Aion’s body temperature dropped to that of an actual corpse. He shamelessly borrowed two pieces of flint from Gilem, quickly built a small shelter of sticks and dry leaves, and began striking sparks. Wet and freezing, Kyle didn’t succeed on the first try—or the second—but he stubbornly kept banging the stones together. Fifteen painfully long minutes later, he was already feeding kindling into the smoldering grass to keep the flame alive. After checking Aion’s temperature one more time, he sat beside the fire and watched the prince through the flames. He had started shivering again.

“If it’s not one thing, it’s another. You’re not going to die if I leave for five minutes to gather more branches, are you?” Kyle waved a hand at Aion and headed down the already worn path.

Aion heard him, but neither his natural stubbornness nor his carefully cultivated pride gave him enough strength to respond. At the moment, he was trying to figure out where he was and how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was rambling nonsense about his lack of breathing while talking to Kyle. The whirlwind of thoughts made his head spin. Aion tried to focus and force his eyes open wider, but groaned in pain. He was right on the edge, yet still far too stubborn to lose consciousness. On the fifth attempt, he finally managed to pry his eyes open.

Victory.

But Aion immediately regretted being so stubborn.

Standing less than two feet away was that same blue horse. It stared at him with open curiosity and seemed to be waiting for something. Realizing Aion couldn’t pet it, the animal gently touched its forehead to his. Coolness spread through him, followed by the sensation of the splitting pain in his head beginning to fade. The pendant on Aion’s chest grew warm.

A questionable thought crept into his mind.

Could it be a unicorn?

It was easy enough to check, but there wasn’t even the slightest hint of a horn on the horse’s head. It was just a blue horse, appearing for the second time when he was alone. Aion made a mental note to ask Gilem for an antidote to hallucinations as well. The horse looked at him one last time, then bolted into the forest, vanishing just as suddenly as it had appeared.

“You’re awake?”

Aion shifted his unfocused gaze toward Kyle. He was standing there with an enormous armful of branches. Only then did the prince notice the fire directly in front of him. Today clearly wasn’t his day.

“Dying?”

“I think so. The headache’s coming back. My mouth and nose are dry. I’m shaking all over, my entire body hurts, and it feels like my blood is boiling under my skin.”

With a grunt, Kyle dropped the bundle a few yards from the fire.

“How did I get here, and where is everyone else?”

“We carried you.” Kyle decided not to tell Aion how badly he had worn himself out hauling him back to camp. Then he paused, wondering where everyone actually was. “Gilem, Risa, and Redlay went looking for ingredients for the antidote. Before they left, Redlay said the hunting party was already on its way back. Something must have delayed them.”

“I was talking complete nonsense, wasn’t I?”

“You’ll have to be more specific. Which day are we talking about?” Kyle couldn’t resist the jab.

“Stop it.” Aion gave a weak snort. His strength was fading fast. “Ever since I was a child, fevers have made me delirious. I’d rather not expose all the secrets of the royal court because of it.”

“And what secrets could a guy of twenty moons possibly know?” Kyle sat down opposite him, the fire casting shadows across his face.

Aion looked at him strangely. More than anything, he wanted to be home in his own bed, with a warm fireplace in his room and his sister annoying him nearby. At the same time, he knew this was the first experience of its kind in his life, and despite everything that had happened, he actually liked it.

“What curtains the queen uses, why the princess chose the cello instead of the violin, why the honorable firstborn prince took dancing lessons.” Aion was trying to joke, but Kyle seemed to take the last part seriously. “My sister will inherit the throne.”

“And why’s that? Aren’t you the firstborn?”

This version of Kyle genuinely surprised Aion. No arguing, no mocking, no ridicule. Just sitting there and asking perfectly reasonable questions. Unfortunately, Aion’s thoughts were becoming tangled again, and that was not a good sign.

“Haven’t you figured it out yourself?” The fire inside Aion burned hotter with every passing second.

His head felt like a lit torch. Sweat streamed down his forehead. Did he really have to explain it? Why did everyone always ask such stupid questions? The answer was obvious.

“Yesterday we argued for exactly this reason. My nickname. My ability. People who’ve known me for years, people meeting me for the first time, friends, enemies, servants—everyone! Everyone sees it immediately and doesn’t hesitate to say it!”

“To say what, Aion?” Kyle remembered the conversation between him and Sina.

He understood that the prince hated his ability and that it caused him endless problems. But no matter how hard Kyle tried, he couldn’t understand the real issue. To him, tormenting yourself over other people’s opinions was ridiculous. If someone had a problem with his spark ability, they could go to hell. That was how Kyle thought, and how he always would think. But Aion... what exactly was wrong with this little fool?

“That I’m a bird, Kyle! A bird!” Aion jerked one hand and looked away. “And then there’s that weird blue horse. It doesn’t breathe either. It’s blue. A blue horse. It’s hard being an animal in this world.”

“Well, there it is.”

Exactly three seconds later, Aion’s eyes closed and he passed out again. Kyle watched him toss and turn for about a minute before finally dragging himself up to retrieve the prince’s unfortunate shirt. Apparently, the fever had returned. He couldn’t keep carrying Aion down to the ocean every time it happened, especially since the water grew colder at night. First there would be a fever from the poison, then a fever from a cold, and it would go on forever. He looked around but saw no sign of the others. He listened, but heard nothing. Kyle wiped Aion’s forehead, shoulders, and chest with the damp cloth. Only then did the prince’s restless movements and constant shivering finally subside.

“It’s going to be a long night. Where did Gilem put that damned whistle?”