7. Chapter Seven Rhea
Chapter Seven: Rhea
T he morning after the king visits me, I expect to be somewhat bruised and sore, especially on my face and ribs, but my body shows no signs of the beating it took. All I feel is a slight headache. I have noticed my healing after punishments from my uncle is becoming more accelerated. But even now, looking over my skin in the vanity mirror, I’m still surprised to not see even a hint of a fading bruise. I take one last look at my complete lack of injury before I go downstairs.
Since I awoke, that odd dream and what the ethereal woman spoke to me has replayed in my mind. Trust the stars over the ancient trees to guide me from the false king. And look to the east for the answers I seek. What could that possibly mean? Sitting at a small table, I write the words down so that I don’t forget them. Something about them feels significant, though I can’t exactly pinpoint why.
Later, I rest in the library, getting lost in book after book to keep my mind off of… well, everything. How would I spend my days if I had not been born a princess to parents who were murdered? If I had not then been thrust into a tower by my cruel uncle and kept here against my will, guarded by men who are sworn through magic and blood to keep me here? Would I still spend much of my time in a library pondering the history of our realms and the intricacies of blood oaths? It is an interesting thing in and of itself— magic in the Mortal Kingdom. It supposedly comes from the Continent, though all the history books I’ve read have never explained how that came to be or why mortals can only access it by giving up their blood.
My attention goes back to the current book in my lap. In the story, the protagonist is in love with her best friend, but she doesn’t believe she is good enough for him. So she goes on an adventure through her world to try her hand at becoming different versions of herself in an attempt to be something she thinks he could love. However the best friend confesses he adored her as she was. He didn’t want to change her; he just wanted her. Is it possible that this kind of love exists outside of stories? The thought that, if I ever get to leave this tower, there might be someone who isn’t put off by my lack of social, personal, and relationship skills weighs heavily on my mind. It is nice to daydream that there might be someone out there that would like me for me, despite how broken I know I am.
When the sun starts to dip, coaxing the moon out of its hiding place, I light a candle so I can finish my book, reading to the very last page and then blowing it out. Bella is already asleep upstairs; she had popped her head into the library a few times before returning to the balcony to soak up the remaining sun. It is something she has loved to do for as long as she has been here. While I am so grateful to have her in my life, helping save me from truly being alone, I can’t stop the seedling of guilt I feel for the years she’s been with me—a wild fox trapped in a small, stone cage. It was that thinking that had led me to beg Alexi to free her, to let her out of the tower all those years ago.
The night Bella nearly died is something that will forever be burned into my memory; not only because it was horrific, but also because it was the first time that I realized I was different . That I wasn’t just a mortal, but instead I had something other flowing in my veins. Something that shouldn’t be there, that didn’t make sense. And on that night, I had called upon it somehow. Swallowing anxiously, I move upstairs to draw a bath and relax before bed, lighting some candles in the bathroom for light. Once the hot water fills the tub, steam swirling and twisting above it, I slide into the water and close my eyes. Despite the way my muscles relax in the bath, flashes of that night—when things both changed and didn’t—begin to play in my mind, one after another.
When I was seventeen, Alexi told me he had spotted her on the castle grounds one night, skulking through the garden trying to hide within the flowers. He grabbed a bow and arrow, intent on hunting the white fox down, but the minute he had met her gaze through the various blooms, he felt she was different. Something in his gut told him not to kill her, and he listened. When he lowered his bow and dropped down on one knee, Bella had slowly made her way to him. She was docile—keen even—and that night he brought her to me.
I named her Bella after a favorite book character, whose name in the story meant “hope.” I was so ecstatic, so beyond happy to have another living being here with me, so hopeful for a future without that constant void of loneliness. Alexi had tempered my excitement by warning me not to let the king see her, that my uncle would take her away or, more likely, kill her if he knew she was here.
For a few days, I did nothing but relish in having this new being here with me. I talked to Bella as if she were mortal and could understand what I was saying. All that was missing was her ability to speak back to me, but even then, she always had a way of communicating.
Despite the joy of having a friend, I felt guilty keeping a wild animal confined with me. I questioned if, when she stared out of the tower windows, it was longing she was feeling. If, when she laid out on the balcony in the sun, she missed frolicking in the woods. If she hated being trapped here as much as I did. Her energy even seemed to deplete with each day that passed. It hadn’t taken long to convince myself, but I felt deep down that she would be better off not stuck in this prison alongside me. That she should be able to return to her true home. So I told Alexi he needed to set her free.
At first, he had been hesitant to take her from me, having seen the change her company had brought me even in just a few short days. But I was adamant. I didn’t want to deny Bella her true nature, to have her suffer the same fate I had been given, just because I was lonely. I didn’t want to be her captor.
Bella fought him at first, refusing to follow him through the door. But when she walked up to me, her nose bumping against my thigh, I ignored her. I held back sobs, as it broke my heart to hear her whine and try again and again to get my attention, but it was for the best. She deserved to be free.
Alexi finally managed to sneak her out in the dead of night, promising me that he would lead her away from the palace grounds.
I had never before cried as much as I did that first night without her. The tower felt lifeless to me, as though every bit of joy, excitement, and contentment I had managed to find in her presence had been completely sucked out. I slept through the entire next day, the hours blurring together. It was just before nightfall, the last bit of sunlight streaming through the windows setting the tower aglow in gold, when a loud banging on the door startled me. Then I heard Alexi’s voice. “Little One, it’s me.”
I was not prepared for what would greet me when I opened it. Alexi was panting, his face red from exertion and his salt and pepper hair curling at his temple with sweat. When my attention fell to what he was holding—to the blood smeared across his armor—my confusion turned to growing horror. In his arms was a shaking bundle of white fur streaked with deep crimson.
“Bella,” I gasped, reaching out to touch her. Her blood dripped steadily, quickly staining the stone floor beneath Alexi’s feet.
“She’s been shot with an arrow. I brought her here to see if I can stop the bleeding.” He rushed past me, laying Bella on the gray rug taking up most of the floor in the living area. Bella whined as Alexi carefully removed his forearms from beneath her body. He quickly unbuckled his armor, tossing his blood-streaked breast plate to the side, as I closed the door and knelt beside him.
He moved his hands to where the arrow was protruding from Bella’s side and separated the fur around it, assessing the wound. My hands trembled in my lap, a humming sensation building in me that I had never experienced before. It felt like the warmth of the sun, a bright light just waiting to be called upon. It was a strange bone-deep knowing but I couldn’t quantify what it was that I knew.
“I think I can pull the arrow out and stop the bleeding. Can you go get some towels, soap, and a bowl of water to clean the wound with?” Alexi spoke calmly, assuring me with the evenness of his tone as I gathered the requested supplies.
Coming back to his side, he instructed me on what to do once he pulled the arrow out. Kneeling on the floor, I scooted closer to Bella and leaned down, whispering quietly into her ear, “This is going to hurt for just a second, but then we’re going to fix you. I’m so sorry for making you leave, for causing your pain.”
Bella slowly laid her paw on my knee, the movement shaky as if she used all the energy she could muster. I placed my hands on her to hold her steady as Alexi counted to three and then began to slowly pull the arrow out, the muscles in his arms tensing with the careful movement. A howl reverberated off the walls, piercing through my nerves as Bella vocalized her pain, and I wondered if it could be heard well into the city of Vitour.
It felt like it took years, but with one final small tug by Alexi, the arrow was removed. I quickly placed a towel over her wound and applied pressure, my heart racing in my chest. A minute passed before Alexi gently moved me aside and replaced the now blood-soaked towel with a fresh one, his hands holding it in place. But the bleeding didn’t stop. Bella’s breaths started to become slower and more irregular, her heart beating at a new, labored pace. One of death.
“No. No. No. We pulled the arrow out. Why is she still bleeding so much?” I cried to Alexi. He slowly lifted his hands from her, wiping them on a clean towel as blood continued to leak out. My bottom lip trembled, my hands rushing to replace his, applying pressure.
He whispered remorsefully, “Rhea, it must have hit an artery. I’m so sorry.” I felt his hand settle on my shoulder and squeeze, but I just shook my head. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t lose her. Not like this. “I think—”
“Don’t!” I hissed through my teeth, my jaw clenching so hard I thought they might break. “Don’t you dare say it.”
Tears spilled from my eyes, blurring everything around me. I leaned down, my hands still applying pressure to Bella’s wound as my forehead came to her furry temple. Her eyes were closed, and her jaw had grown slack, but her chest still rose and fell. Though the pauses were growing longer between each strained movement.
“Please hang on,” I begged, my chest heaving with a sob. My hair fell around my face and Bella’s, as if it was a curtain that we could wrap ourselves in to shield everything else out. Alexi removed his hand from my shoulder but stayed kneeling next to me.
“You can’t leave me,” I whispered to Bella. “You have to live. Please , you have to live.”
That warm feeling in my belly stirred again, causing me to gasp and jerk back upright. It traveled up my torso, passing my chest and shoulders until I felt it pouring down my arms, a tingling following in its wake. It was calling on me to use it, to wield it, but I didn’t understand how. This feeling was speaking to me in a foreign language that I couldn’t interpret. All I knew was that I couldn’t give up on Bella. She didn’t deserve this and it was my fault that she was in this position.
“You will live. You will live.” I repeated the words. The sensation that moved through me halted like it was waiting for permission or directions. I couldn’t make sense of it, but I knew we were running out of time. So I closed my eyes and gave my body over to that feeling, to that light I imagined was burning inside of me—not burning to cause pain, but burning with life. A few seconds went by before I felt the warmth gathering in the palms of my hands. I kept my eyes squeezed shut, afraid that opening them would cause me to lose whatever this connection was.
“Gods.” Alexi’s voice was a shocked whisper, but I didn’t stop.
I imagined the luminescence pouring into Bella’s wound and healing it completely. I pictured it restoring her blood loss and making her whole. I saw in my mind her muscles and veins coming back together—becoming one again.
“Rhea.” It was a silvery, ethereal murmur on the wind, but I paid it no mind. I couldn’t. Not with the humming in my body, the warmth flowing through me.
“Rhea,” Alexi said, his voice different from the one I’d heard a moment ago.
His hands landed on my shoulders, but I tried to shake him off. He couldn’t stop me from doing this. I had to do this.
“I’m not trying to stop you, Little One. I want you to open your eyes.”
Open my eyes? I felt his thumbs sweeping back and forth on my shoulders, and the movement calmed some of the frenzy I felt.
“Open them, Rhea.”
My eyes obeyed and immediately focused on Bella. The white light I had imagined inside me was shining brightly from my palms and onto her— into her. My gaze slowly traveled up to Bella’s head, and when I saw her eyes were open, I nearly crumpled with relief.
“Can you stop… this?” I heard the hesitation in Alexi’s voice. The fear.
“I don’t know how,” I muttered, still confused about what had actually happened. My eyes were wide as I looked at him, sweat beading down my neck.
“Try to take slower breaths, like when we do our mind cleansers,” Alexi said, his eyes betraying the attempted calm of his voice. “Bella is alive. She isn’t bleeding anymore.”
I let my shoulders steadily relax, let my mind release all of the worry that I had held there and replace it with relief instead. My gaze moved to hers as Alexi’s words pierced through the haze I was in. Bella was alive. Somehow , she was alive because I had done something to save her. Time lost all meaning as we sat there, no one moving beyond the rising and falling of our chests.
Slowly, the bright light faded from me. Alexi tentatively slid his hands under mine, removing them from Bella’s fur. He laid them on top of my lap, squeezing our blood-covered hands together. Bella was sleeping peacefully. Her breathing was normal and healthy, and she was whole again. I watched her for a few seconds before turning to look over at Alexi. His normally tanned skin was wan, his gaze lost as he stared down at where he was still holding my hands.
“What was that?” I whispered, slowly lifting them from his hold. I examined my palms, checking to see if they looked any different now, but they appeared as they always had.
“Magic,” Alexi answered, his brows drawn up on his forehead in surprise. “You have magic.”