35. Chapter Thirty-Five Rhea
Chapter Thirty-Five: Rhea
A low, familiar growl suddenly slices through the darkness before the king screams behind me, jolting from an impact that causes him to drop his hold on me. I freeze for all of a second before scrambling away, already knowing it’s Bella. She’s here, and she’s finally getting to attack the king.
The guard whose sword was drawn—ready to kill Flynn—runs past me to help King Dolian. Using the distraction, Flynn twists his body and jerks out of the guards’ hold on him, grimacing as the movement pulls at his wound. Rolling onto his back, he kicks a leg out and knocks one of the guards at his side down while the other stumbles towards him—tripping over something in the darkness. Grabbing his sheathed sword from the ground as he rolls to a stand, he narrowly dodges the swinging arc of a golden blade, gritting his teeth as he clutches his wound with one hand. Both the guards advance on him as he rights himself and begins to walk backwards, sliding the sword quickly from its scabbard. I start to take a step in Flynn’s direction, unsure of how I can help but knowing I just need to get to him.
“Rhea, you need to run,” he grits out, blocking a swing of the guard’s golden weapon with his own, the clashing metal vibrating in the night air.
“I’m not leaving you!” I scream as a hand grips my arm and jerks me back forcefully. Gold armor glows on the arms of my newest captor as the nearly full moon casts its ethereal light, finally fully risen in the night sky.
Bella growls as she snaps her jaws at King Dolian again, nearly close enough to bite his hand. The fourth guard swings his sword in Bella’s direction, but she easily dodges it and again darts towards the king. The guard holding me has his full attention on Bella, so I use every bit of strength I can to push him away, watching as he stumbles and lets go of me to catch himself as he falls.
“What’s going on down there?” a new guard shouts out from the bridge as he looks down at the field.
“The king is under attack! Assemble the rest of the King’s Guard!” one of the king’s trusted yells. The guard on the bridge turns and runs, shouting something I can’t make out as he crosses the long bridge to the castle.
I hear Flynn curse under his breath at whatever is being said. My eyes then move to the king and his guard as they still fight a quick and ruthless Bella. She manages to crunch down on my uncle’s leg before she lets go to dodge the guard’s sword. Closer to me, the man I had pushed is now scrambling back to his feet. He glares at me as he straightens to his full height, but then the king gives another shout of pain and he turns his attention back to him. The entire scene around me is pure chaos, and my feet feel frozen to the ground. I turn my head to look at Flynn, watching as one guard circles him while the other he was fighting lays motionless in the grass.
“Sunshine, run. I’ll catch up to you. Please,” Flynn’s voice sounds so wrong, so devoid of the usual cheer and confidence emanating from him. “Please,” he begs again as he fights the guard, holding his sword with one hand. Even injured, his moves are graceful and impressive, but I’m worried it won’t be enough. I have to do something to help him.
“I am not leaving without you,” I repeat. My magic pushes against the barrier of my skin, the sensation both warm and cold.
I move to Flynn’s right as he kicks the guard he is fighting in the chest. The man stumbles back, falling down into the shadows cast by the moonlight on the grass. Flynn acts quickly, bending down to pick something up before grabbing my hand, leading me as we run towards the forest outlined across the field of flowers. Bella’s name is a call on my lips as I turn my head to look for her, but Flynn stumbles and takes us both down before I can find where she is.
“Flynn!” I shriek, crawling over to his body where he lays in the wildflowers. The sweet fragrance and the delicate, colorful blooms around us mock me, hiding in their shadows the blood and death that is waiting behind us.
“It’s okay. I just need a minute to focus, and then we can get back up again,” he says on a grunt, bringing his hand to his stomach, but I’m not waiting any longer.
“I can heal you,” I plead, averting my gaze from his and all the questions that I’m sure are dancing in his eyes.
“Rhea, no, you don’t have to—”
“Stop it,” I whisper, removing his bloody hand and placing my own over his wound. “I can’t lose you too. I won’t.” I hear voices, and when I quickly glance behind me, two of the king’s trusted guards are running in our direction. My eyes go back to Flynn’s wound, closing as I inhale and gradually blow the air back out. I will save him.
“Sunshine, listen to me, I only need—” But the rest of his voice is drowned out as I focus on calling my magic to the surface as quickly as possible. It answers—faster than it did with Bella or Alexi—the shimmery white light glowing even through the darkness of my shut eyelids. My hands tingle with warmth, my heart pounding madly as I focus everything I have on healing Flynn. In my mind, I picture my magic flooding into him, reconnecting veins and muscles. It stitches together his beautiful tanned skin until no mark remains, until there is no evidence that anyone hurt him. It feels so right to use my magic on him, and I swear I feel something inside of him answer in response. It’s like a recognition or a bone-deep knowing. It calls to my magic, to me, and I swiftly answer.
A rough hand lands on my shoulder, and my eyes fly open as I scream my frustration at being interrupted. Penetrating cold flows through my skin temporarily, my vision swimming in darkness. The hand disappears instantly, and I focus back on Flynn. Warmth replaces the bitter cold, my vision becoming clear again. His eyes are wide as he looks at me. My fear that this may be the last straw for him comes roaring to the surface. He didn’t know I had magic; he didn’t know I’ve been lying to him this whole time. Will he understand? Will he still look at me like I’m the only person in the room? Or will this betrayal disgust him to the point that he realizes I’m not worth the trouble?
The light of my magic reflects in his dark irises. His face softens immediately, the corners of his full lips reaching up towards his eyes. The skin along his handsome jaw glows with my magic but also with health—with life now. He is radiant against the backdrop of the night sky, a beckoning star guiding me to him from the very beginning.
“Rhea, I’m okay,” he says, but I have to make sure. I can’t stop until I know he is totally healed, fully whole again. “Sunshine, look at me.” He sits up easily, but I keep my hands pushing on his stomach, my magic flowing into him and filling his torso with white light. I don’t know how the guards haven’t stopped us yet, and I’m tempted to look behind me, but Flynn’s hand cups the side of my face.
“I can’t lose you,” I breathe the words—my voice a frayed, panicked plea through the tears falling down my cheeks. I hope he can feel the truth of it, of just how much he means to me.
“I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. Nothing in this realm or any other could get me to leave you. Nothing,” he promises quietly, placing affectionate kisses on my cheeks and the tip of my nose and sealing the promise of his words with his lips. “Call your magic back,” he whispers over my mouth, his hand moving from my cheek to cup the back of my head. He pushes our foreheads together tenderly—his eyes never leaving mine. Flecks of silver are reflected there, commanding me to get lost in them. Somehow forcing the delirium of watching him get hurt to calm. “Call it back, Rhea.”
There is no anger or disappointment or fear on his face or in his voice like I expect, so I obey his gentle command and let my hands ease up on him. Like when I healed Bella, I imagine the magic slowly coming back into my body to settle in again. It moves like water trickling into a lake, like it’s slowly arriving home. Returning back to its source. The glowing that I hadn’t realized was around us dulls, our surroundings coming back into focus. Noises of men grunting and faraway footsteps pounding on stone rend through the air, rushing back into me like they were waiting just beyond a barrier. As if a shield was around us.
“Don’t look back,” he says as unease slithers inside me, wrapping around my heart. Holding my hand, he quickly stands and helps me up, grabbing his sword from where it lays amongst the flowers. It’s now that I notice he was able to snag both satchels before we ran. He puts them on, the straps crossing over his muscular chest.
“Bella!” I yell, trying to look back, but Flynn just pulls me closer to him as we run towards the woods.
“Just a little farther,” he urges, tugging me another few steps until we are nearly halfway through the field. He finally stops, turning us around but making sure that I am a step behind him. His sword is drawn in front of him, his stance wide, as we both try to find Bella in the dark. In the distance on the bridge, I can hear the rhythmic pounding on the stones get louder.
“What is that?” I ask Flynn, my hand gripping onto the back of his tunic.
“More of the King’s Guard. We need to get Bella and leave now before they have the chance to surround us,” he urges, his free hand running through his hair.
“Bella!” I shout, as I swing my head from side to side, frantically searching for the glow of her white fur in the moonlight. The early summer air is warm though no breeze rustles the trees or makes the flowers dance. It’s as if the universe, or maybe even the gods themselves, are hushed at this moment. Flynn’s head snaps forward as two tall figures emerge from the shadows only twenty feet away. But it isn’t the two guards who I saw before.
“How long have you had magic, Rhea?” My uncle’s voice is cold and strident, while his face is a painting of pure fury. Silver light pours over him from above as he limps closer.
He knows. He knows. He knows.
The silence carries a heavy weight as King Dolian and one of his trusted guards stand across from us, both wielding swords. Both ready to drag me back to that prison. “How long have you—”
“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” The severity of Flynn’s snarled words startles me, my fingers gripping the fabric of his shirt even more tightly.
“You dare talk to your king like that?” the guard shouts, his teeth bared in a menacing half smile.
“He is not my king.” Flynn’s answering growl threatens the space separating us from them. His sword lifts higher as he draws his right leg back in a fighting stance that I notice is different from the guard posed across from us. King Dolian’s eyes are calculating as he studies Flynn. My own gaze is drawn to the glints of gold on the bridge behind them. Row after row of King’s Guardsmen descend from the castle. They near a small staircase that connects the bridge to the grasses below. There are so many of them that my breath hitches in my throat, pure fear making my hair stand on end.
“You are free to go— Flynn, was it?” King Dolian asks, taking a step forward and lowering his sword. The guard standing next to him looks over from the corner of his eye and matches the king’s step until he’s next to him again. “I give you your freedom, and in exchange, you leave Rhea here.”
Flynn laughs, the sound rough and menacing and so godsdamn deep . “How about instead, I cut your head off?”
The king takes another step forward, his eyes gleaming with rage. Behind him, the new batch of King’s Guardsmen begin to pour off of the steps, like molten metal leaking onto the earth below.
“Flynn,” I whisper, tugging on his shirt to make sure he sees what I’m seeing. The king is stalling, and we can‘t wait here any longer. Where is Bella? Flynn lowers his sword and steps back so that he is in line with me.
A look of triumph twists the king’s features as he moves another step closer to us and extends his hand out in front of him. “Do you see, Rhea? No one cares about you as I do. No one else can make you a queen as I can. That’s all I have ever wanted for you,” he says, reaching his hand out farther. “To be safe, by my side. As mine. I do not even care that you possess the very magic that I would kill others for having.”
“I am not your queen,” I shout, my hands balling into fists at my side. That darkness inside of me sings in approval as iciness coats my veins, my skin, my soul. “Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever .”
King Dolian’s eyes narrow as his body tenses, his arm dropping back down to his side. He watches as Flynn intertwines his fingers with mine, giving them a reassuring squeeze from where he stands next to me. Not in front of me, but beside me.
“I see,” my uncle says, his gaze lingering on our joined hands. Those hazel eyes flick back up to mine, intense anger swimming in their depths. “This is your destiny, Rhea. You cannot escape it. You cannot escape me. You may run and hide, but I will always find you. And when I do, I will make sure you never leave again.”
“You will die before you ever get anywhere near her,” Flynn assures before tugging my hand and leading us in a run to the woods.
The trees are pitch black, their outline somehow darker than the landscape around them. The moon lights a path for us as we run through the flowers, a small part of me hating that such beauty will be trampled over and destroyed because of me. Flynn tugs my hand hard, willing me to push my body to keep up with his. Movement draws my attention to my right, and I see a bundle of white fur and pointed ears keeping pace with us as we sprint to reach the safety of the trees. Bella. I nearly scream with relief.
I hear shouting behind us, and so many sets of large booted feet are pounding into the earth that I can feel the rattling of it under my own. I glance one last time over my shoulder as we near the edge of the treeline. The king isn’t chasing us like I expected. He stands eerily still, his sword pointing down at the ground by his side. He’s too far away to make out the expression on his face, but his posture is relaxed, and that sends a chill through me. His trusted guard chases after us, and I wonder where the other remaining two I saw as I was healing Flynn are—assuming that Flynn incapacitated the fourth and Xander is still tied up. Perhaps they were busy trying to capture Bella before she managed to escape them.
My final view is that of my tower. The gray stone looming high into the sky comes to a pointed tip as it glows under the starlight. I stare at it for a few seconds, marveling at the fact that I’ll never see the inside of it again. How many times had I looked out onto this land from the balcony and imagined dragging my hands along the wildflower petals? How many times had I seen the forest in the distance and wondered what might lay beyond it? I suppose it is only fitting that the king would ruin my first experience outside of that prison.
Turning back forward, my feet move faster, my free arm pumping by my side as I grip onto Flynn’s hand with my other. The scent of the trees begins to roll towards us, tugging on my brain in familiarity. I breathe it in deeply, my chest heaving with the effort of running. I do not think I could have kept up with Flynn in any capacity if Alexi had not made me exercise. Even now, my lungs and legs burn with exertion. About ten feet separate us from the forest, the trees so thickly woven together at the top that no light from the moon and stars pierces through their canopies.
Something whizzes by my head, and Flynn jerks me to him quickly. “Shit,” he curses as we finally reach the forest and cut in between the trees.
“What was that?” I gasp, stumbling while we run in near darkness. I keep tripping on roots, but Flynn somehow keeps me from hitting the ground. I can hear Bella’s panting breaths on my other side, and relief washes over me that we made it. That we are all here together.
“An arrow. They shot an arrow at us.” He slows our pace down slightly. I can still hear the footfalls of the guards behind us as they also enter the forest, their armor and weaponry clanging together with their movements. Flynn somehow navigates through the near pitch black, until a small pocket of moonlight comes into view ahead.
“How do you know where to go?” I whisper, afraid to let go of his hand for fear I’ll fall into the abyss of darkness and be lost forever in the woods.
“I’ve made this journey a few times, so I know the general direction we need to go in,” he huffs while keeping his voice low. “Though I usually don’t leave in the middle of the night when it’s this dark and I normally enter the forest near the capital.” There’s a hint of uncertainty in his voice that puts me on edge. It feels like we keep to our jogging pace for hours. My back is drenched in sweat, and my feet feel swollen and tight in my boots.
“Flynn, I need a break,” I admit from where he’s practically dragging me behind him. Even Bella’s panting is loud next to me from the pace we’ve kept. Without another word, he brings us to a large tree, the outline of the trunk against the black night barely visible as he guides me to sit on one of the hard, exposed roots. Bella flops down next to me, laying on her side as she breathes heavily. Flynn stays standing, his sword drawn as he surveys the area around us.
The forest is quiet, the voices and banging of the metal armor lost a ways back as we ran. I lean my head back against the bark of the tree, closing my eyes briefly. But when I do, all I can see is Flynn’s blood pooling around him in that field. Flashes of the night Alexi died get interwoven with the thought, a reminder that I almost lost Flynn too. My eyes open and go straight to him. He’s here, and he’s whole. Questions that I know we don’t have time to answer right now push against my lips as I watch him.
“I have magic.” My voice is a tiny whisper, both out of fear of the guards that may still be coming and out of insecurity that Flynn may be upset. I don’t know why I say it. He obviously knows the truth of those words by this point without me having to speak them.
“You do,” he acknowledges with equal softness. Prickling awareness causes goosebumps to break out over my skin as I sense his gaze on me.
“Are you upset with me? For hiding it?” I still feel it was the right thing to do. The less people that know about me having magic, the safer I am, but I can’t help but feel nervous that he won’t feel the same way. That he’ll wonder if I didn’t trust him with this secret. I suppose that, in a way, I didn’t. At least, not when I thought he had the magic of the blood oath binding him to the king. I hear—more than see—him take a step to me and lower down to one knee. Fallen leaves from the surrounding trees crinkle under his boots, the smell of the decayed foliage—as well as something more earthy—stirring up from the motion.
“No, I am not upset,” he says firmly, his voice low. His fingers gently touch the back of my hand, letting me know that he is there before they slowly travel up my arm and shoulder. I shiver as he trails them to my neck until he cups the side of my face entirely. A breath shudders from me under his touch, my shoulders relaxing vaguely from the invisible weight of worry that was sitting on them. We’re not out of the woods yet, literally, but knowing that I’m here with him—that we’re here together—settles me. His thumb caresses my cheek, and he whispers, “I understand why you wouldn’t have told me. How long have you known you’ve had magic?”
My hand follows the line of his arm up to his shoulder, taking my time to feel the warm skin on his neck. “Since I was seventeen. I accidentally used it to save Bella from dying. I didn’t know that I had it before then.” I hear him take a deep breath, but he stays still as I bring my other hand to his face. “Thank you,” I say, moving myself closer to him at that achingly slow pace he always uses with me. Giving him time to move away if this isn’t what he wants. It’s not the right time—here in the forest while we run from the King’s Guard—but the fact that I nearly lost him has me feeling desperate. Desperate for his touch, for his safety, just for him.
He moves willingly with my hands as I pull him to me steadily until our noses brush. “For what?” he asks, his breath an airy brush against my lips.
“For not being upset with me.” I slide one hand up to his hair where I know a few of the strands will be hanging over his forehead. My fingers push them back, but the strands immediately flop back in place. I don’t know why I love that so much, why his hair has always been this irresistible part of him that I’ve yearned to touch and run my fingers through. “For making me feel less alone. For risking everything to help me leave.” I move the hand in his hair down his chest until I feel the beating of his heart beneath my palm as I murmur each statement. “For seeing me as more than a princess locked in a tower.”
His hand moves to tangle in my hair. Our lips barely touch, but I can tell he is smiling against mine. My magic starts to hum inside of me, the warm feeling moving slowly up my torso and down my arms to my hands. They begin to glow faintly, the magic pulsing to the beat of my heart. The angles of Flynn’s face are illuminated by the mild white light between us, his smile causing that throbbing to go faster. My eyes flutter closed as his lips finally seal over mine, his hand tightening slightly in my hair. It’s a more delicate kiss, our lips moving like we’re mapping out unexplored territory for the first time. I’m lost in the passion of it, every nerve ending on edge while my mind is a quiet calm.
Perhaps Flynn is just as distracted, and that’s why neither of us hear the crunching of the leaves or realize that Bella is growling until it’s too late and a searing pain flares to life in my thigh.