Chapter 159: A Promise

Elara:

Before I could stop him, Jasper lowered himself to his knees in front of me. My breath caught as he gently took both my hands in his, his palms warm and calloused against mine.

"I waited twenty years for you," he said, looking directly into my eyes. "Twenty years, Elara. And then you finally came back to me." His fingers tightened around mine. "I finally found the person I’d spent my entire life waiting for, and you are sitting here telling me that you want to take my purpose away from me."

Tears burned behind my eyes. "That’s not what I meant."

"I know," he whispered. "And that’s why I understand what you’re trying to do. You want to give me the choice I never had." He smiled gently. "But this is my choice."

He lifted one of my hands and held it carefully between both of his. "If I were given the choice today, knowing everything I know now, knowing the sacrifices, the danger, the punishment, the sleepless nights, every injury and every difficult day... I would still choose you. Every single time."

My eyes filled with tears.

"Being your blood knight isn’t a job I was forced to perform. It’s something I have been proud of my entire life. My family served the royals before me with pride, and I grew up dreaming that one day I would do the same." His voice softened into something almost unbearably gentle. "But more than that, Elara, you are not just my princess anymore."

He squeezed my hands. "You are the only family I have left."

That was the sentence that finally broke whatever remained of my composure. I crouched down in front of him and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a tight hug. Jasper froze for half a second before his arms came around me, holding me with the same quiet certainty he always had.

I pressed my face against his shoulder and whispered, "Then I’m sorry for ever making you think I wanted to take that away."

He rested his cheek against my hair and murmured, "Just promise me you’ll never ask me to leave you again."

I smiled through the tears gathering in my eyes. "I promise."

And for the first time, I understood that perhaps giving someone a choice didn’t always mean freeing them from something. Sometimes, it meant listening when they told you what they had already chosen.

- - -

The exams finally wrapped up after two exhausting weeks, leaving us with five entire days before the results were announced on February 6th and our vacation officially began. The new term wouldn’t start until March 1st, which meant those five days were the first stretch of completely empty time I’d had in what felt like forever.

There were no exams. No practicals. No assignments. No classes. No studying. Naturally, my first thought was that I should sleep for five days straight, but then I remembered something I’d wanted to learn for years and had never gotten the opportunity to do back in Florida - driving.

Jasper immediately volunteered as my instructor, which I probably should have interpreted as a warning.

The first evening, Violet and Myra joined us, and somehow two hours of learning to drive turned into two hours of chaos, laughter, terrible turns, Jasper repeatedly grabbing the wheel, and Violet screaming dramatically every time I accelerated slightly faster than she approved of. By the time we finished, my cheeks hurt from laughing, and Jasper looked as though he needed a vacation from teaching me.

The following afternoon, Violet had a date and Myra was busy with her own plans, leaving just Jasper and me. The first hour was almost as chaotic as the previous evening, although this time there was no audience to laugh at me whenever I made a mistake. Eventually, Jasper called for a break, and we parked beneath the shade of a large tree while enjoying the coffee Mrs. Carter had prepared for us before we had left.

It was peaceful enough that I almost forgot how badly I’d been struggling with the clutch and steering earlier. After finishing my coffee, I climbed back into the driver’s seat with renewed confidence, while Jasper settled beside me and gave me one final instruction. "This time, you are driving us all the way back to the academy."

I nodded confidently. "Easy."

Looking back, that confidence was probably the universe’s way of mocking me.

The road was usually almost completely empty, which made it perfect for practicing, and for the first few minutes everything went smoothly. I was concentrating so hard on keeping the car straight that I barely noticed the enormous truck approaching from ahead until Jasper suddenly said, "Elara, move to the side."

I immediately tried, but my hands tightened around the steering wheel and the car barely shifted.

"I’m trying!" I snapped, panic already creeping into my voice.

The truck was getting closer.

"Brake," Jasper ordered.

I slammed my foot down. But nothing happened. My stomach dropped. I pressed harder. Still nothing. "Jasper..." I whispered, panic and confusion clear in my voice.

The truck was coming directly toward us, and the brake pedal wasn’t responding at all. Jasper looked confused for half a second before realization suddenly flashed across his face. He lifted one hand instinctively, as though reaching for his magic, and then his expression changed again. His hand fell uselessly back toward his lap.

"Elara..." His voice was suddenly very different. "I can’t sense my magic."

I froze. I reached instinctively for mine and felt absolutely nothing. No familiar current. No elemental presence. Nothing. Somehow, in the middle of the road, we had both lost access to our magic.

There was no time to understand why. The truck was too close, the brakes weren’t working, and there were thick trees on either side of the narrow road. My heart slammed against my ribs as panic took over, but somewhere beneath it, instinct screamed louder.

I started honking repeatedly, desperately trying to warn the truck driver that something was wrong.

"Move!" Jasper shouted.

"I’m trying!" I yelled back, my hands shaking violently. There was nowhere to go except the trees. I turned the wheel hard, forcing the car away from the truck and toward the edge of the road.

Jasper immediately threw himself across me, using his body to shield mine as the car slammed into the trees. The impact came so suddenly that I barely had time to scream. But before the first crash had even registered in my mind, another deafening impact tore through the car. The truck had struck us anyway.

The world flipped violently, metal screamed, glass shattered, and suddenly the road disappeared beneath us as the car was sent tumbling down the steep slope.