a/n: Why not have an unedited fic? The title is from Hadestown.
Disclaimer: Ha, ha, no.
Title: wait for me, I'm coming too, I'm coming too
Word Count: 632
Summary: She had no bow nor Gemma's magic and the help of their friends, only a candle to help bring a ghost home. [Post-Series, Fix-It Fic]
Felicity felt the trees watching her. The air was thick with enchantment and jagged shadows, where only a sliver of moonlight broke through the heavy canopy of leaves. She knew Pippa was behind her, she's humming a hymn from their school days at Spence, her presence a ghost Felicity was not allowed to look at.
Together, they followed the crooked dirt path. Something else watched them in the shadows and Felicity itched for her bow and arrows, even though she knew the Winterlands have changed and the rules were different for the creatures in the realms, she couldn't help but feel afraid for her soul. No matter how many reassurances she had found in molding books and ancient crones, she also knew the stories of those who failed on this path lined with purple berries and dark trees. Orpheus failed, she recalled the pen-and-ink illustration of a man stepping out a cave, his lover reduced to mist in the sunlight. I will not.
Felicity raised the candle higher, feeling her blood sing in her veins with borrowed magic.
"We're getting closer, Pippa," she said. Thunder rolled somewhere in the sky and Pippa cried out in fear. She almost sounded alive.
Don't look! Felicity had been warned before the start of her quest. Her heart jumped in her throat as Pippa's cold hand closed around her free one. She hardly felt real anymore, and the memory of the last time she saw Pippa lingered, how pale her skin was and the blood that once stained her mouth. She was not Persephone or Ophelia, none of the girls whose corpses were romanticized in paintings as they drowned in darkness, just a girl lost in her death and unable to find her way out.
But Felicity was going to try.
She had no bow nor Gemma's magic and the help of their friends, only a candle to help bring a ghost home.
"Fe, it's so dark out," Pippa whispered, her voice caught between her monster and girl self. Somewhere in the distance, a stream gurgled, and Felicity shivered. "Felicity, I'm scared."
There will be two of her, the witch had said in her cottage. The monster who fed on the berries and the girl with your heart. You must not look back or only her wraith-self will remain.
The ritual was simple, as far as Felicity had been able to tell. She had feed a mixture of her blood and the woman's to the candle with Pippa's name etched around the wick. Old magic, she had been told, the kind to help her walk the oldest road. This is a desperate chance, the witch had said, sea-green eyes bright. You must keep on walking and don't look back.
The forest remained the same as they continued on the path. The darkness pressed on them from either side, the moonlight weak and the candlelight a flicker in the night.
"Do you remember when I wove violets in your hair, Fe?' Felicity asked. Hot wax spilled over her hand. "We were weaving garlands and you wanted to be the princess of the fairies…" With a dry throat, she forced herself to continue. "Or our first dance lessons and you insisted on stepping on my feet the entire time as I led? Pippa, Pippa, do you remember?"
Pippa made a soft sound. Her corpse-cold hand carried a spark of warmth. It flashed like quicksilver between them.
A bird's cry broke out and a spring wind rustled around them.
Felicity said, her voice softer, "Do you remember how much I love you?"
"How can I not?" she said, sounding more awake.
The candle's flame grew. There was a hint of sunlight on the path, and Felicity took Pippa's hand with renewed hope. "Come on," she said. "We're nearly home."