CHAPTER 18
Afew days had passed since our secret visit to the faery kingdom, but, within my mind, conflict still raged like an intense battle. I knew I’d eventually have to go back, even if it was just to confront Arenn about the behaviour of one of his guards. It wasn’t his fault, I knew deep down it wasn’t, but still, I couldn’t help but blame him for giving the order to send Raena away. The poor girl had spent most of her time over these past few days resting and avoiding anyone but the servants who came in to deliver food. Whenever I’d try to go in and comfort her, she’d insist she just needed time alone. But it was so hard to give her that time when I’d lay awake at night listening to her screaming nightmares through the walls.
The sun was just hovering near the mountainous horizon as I returned to my tower after another long dinner with Lukas. Ever since he’d barged into my room, we’d spent our evenings together again in the dining hall. I’d been hesitant at first, but now, I was glad to have something to clear my head – even if that meant only replacing one kind of confusion with another, like the strange yet warm feeling I’d get every time our eyes met.
I turned a corner into another window-lined corridor when suddenly, a sharp cry echoed down the walls. “Healer! We need a healer!” A young woman dressed in a bright green gown was running frantically through the hallway. “Please, somebody help him!”
My heart leapt into my throat, and without thinking, I raced towards her.
“Where is he? Where’s the patient?” I demanded through shaky breaths.
“In the palace grounds, by the big fish pond. But we need a healer, now.”
“You’ve got one,” I told her while hoisting up my skirts, and before she had a chance to reply, I’d sprinted to the archway that led outside.
A small crowd of people had already gathered by the time I arrived. The sun was just setting, casting a rosy orange hue across the nobles and servants that swarmed around the mystery patient. In truth, I’d never healed a real person before, but I’d passed every single Corlixin healing exam with flying colours and could name over a hundred different illnesses. How hard could this be?
“Step aside!” I commanded as the small crowd parted to make way for me.
In the centre of the mob, a young, finely dressed boy was lying flat on his back against the grass. With his small frame and innocent-looking features, he must’ve been no older than fourteen. As I studied him, I noticed his clothes were soaking wet and covered with pondweed, while his lips were a ghostly shade of blue. But I didn’t need to be a healer to realise what was wrong.
The poor boy had drowned.
“How did this happen?” I asked the crowd urgently, lowering myself to the boy’s level.
“Nobody knows,” someone answered. “We just found him face down in the water. He must’ve slipped in.”
My fingers desperately searched his neck for a heartbeat. There was no rise and fall of his chest, so he wasn’t breathing, but perhaps there would be some life still. When I felt no pulse, my mind raced.
‘Think,’ I hissed internally. Any other kingdom’s healers would’ve given up at this point. With no heartbeat, that meant the person’s soul had already departed. But the Corlixins had a way to bring them back. There was no magic involved, it was pure science – compressions on the chest and air into the mouth. Only it’d been months since I practised heartflow restoration, and even then, I’d never tried it on a real person. But still, I had to try.
Bracing my intertwined hands over his ribs just like I’d been taught, I began pumping into his chest. His lifeless body squirmed underneath me as I pumped, sending gasps echoing around us. A few tried to question me, but I remained wholly focused on the patient and the counting I was doing under my breath.
“Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.” The whispered number increased with each compression. There was no change in the boy, but I didn’t stop. I remembered my teachers insisting that sometimes you would need to do this for ten minutes before heartflow would be restored.
“Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty.” I leaned forward and pinched his nose tightly, bringing my lips to his. Shocked noises radiated through the mob surrounding us, but I ignored them, forcing air deep into his lungs.
“She’s kissing him!” a man gasped. “This is obscene!”
“One, two, three, four,” my whispers continued, his comment passing straight over me.
‘Come on,’ I begged silently, ‘You’re so young and I don’t even know your name, but I need you to breathe.’ How long had it been since I’d started? Surely no more than a minute, but I had no idea how long he’d been in the pond before someone had fished him out. Heartflow restoration was most effective when it was performed immediately after the heart stopped beating.
I leaned down to force more air into his lungs.
“Come on,” I growled, out loud this time. He was far too young to die like this, and drowning in a fish pond – of all the ways to die!
I continued compressions for what felt like hours, but it must’ve only been a few minutes. Around us, time seemed to slow, and all I could focus on was pumping and breathing, pumping and breathing, pumping and—
The boy gasped beneath me. It was strained and waterlogged, but still, a breath was a breath. Green murky water spouted from his mouth as he coughed and sputtered into the grass. Pulling my hands away, I finally noticed how much they were shaking. I’d never felt such overwhelming relief like this before. It was deep and raw and made me want to scream.
“She used magic to bring him back!” someone accused from within the crowd. “The princess gave him a magic kiss of life!”
“She’s no princess. That’s dark magic! No one can bring someone back from the dead,” another voice snarled.
Dismissing their shouts, I remained focused on the boy as I helped him to sit up. His face was pale with shock, and his whole body shivered like a little mouse. “D-did you s-save me?” he wheezed.
I nodded, then tried to speak in the gentlest voice I could muster. “You were found unconscious in the water. I used an advanced healing technique to restart your… to wake you up again.”
The boy shuddered, seeming to not notice the arguing mob surrounding us. “Th-thank you.” He shivered, pulling his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around his drenched tunic.
If only everyone else was as grateful. The people that circled us had descended into chaos, their accusations and suspicions swirling around like a dark storm.
“Did you see that? She kissed a dead boy!”
“It’s some kind of trick for her to win favour. The boy wasn’t even dead.”
“The prince will handle this; he’ll throw the wicked mage out on the streets!”
Amidst all the commotion, a deafening scream pierced through the crowd, forcing all their mouths to clamp shut in unison.
“Nathan!” A familiar highborn woman shoved through the mass of people. Her frustratingly beautiful face was speckled with tears, and she wasn’t wearing her usual smirk, but still, I recognised her immediately.
“My sweet brother,” Giselle wailed, almost collapsing to the floor as she pulled the boy’s shaking body into a tight hug. Her whole body shook with violent sobs. “Thank the Forges you’re alive. Someone told me you’d drowned! What happened to you?”
“The p-princess saved me.” It was difficult to hear his voice over Giselle’s sniffling, but the moment she realised what he’d just said, her tear-filled gaze flicked over to where I was still sitting on the grass.
“You? You saved my baby brother?” she squeaked through sobs.
Unsure of how to respond, I just nodded.
Something inside her seemed to break then as she leapt towards me, arms outstretched. Her body collided against mine, almost sending us both tumbling against the grass. For a moment, I thought she might be angry, but then her arms wrapped tightly around my shoulders as she pulled me into the most grateful hug.
“Thank you. Thank you so so much, Princess Naria,” she cried into my neck.
Around us, a strange hush fell over our audience, broken only by the occasional whisper. Each of them observed our interaction as though they didn’t know what to make of it. Perhaps Giselle had more influence than I’d thought.
“I don’t care if she saved him. We all just witnessed forbidden magic,” a woman’s voice shot from behind me. “We all saw it! She kissed a dead boy and now he lives!”
Slowly, Giselle pulled away from me as I stood and turned to face the woman. Her thick black hair was piled high on top of her head, adorned with pearls and beads, while her umber arms sat folded in front of her chest.
“That was not magic,” I explained in a calm tone. “I just used a healing technique.”
“No amount of healing can bring someone back from the dead,” she spat. “And Lady Giselle is a fool to embrace you, who knows what manner of curses you could place on her.”
Shocked whispers echoed throughout the mob, and a few servants shot me looks of disgust.
“The duchess is right. We should take her to the prince to see what he makes of this,” a gruff voice said as I felt someone grasp my wrist.
“Stop that!” Giselle protested, but her pleas were ignored. Suddenly, bodies piled in on me, shoving Giselle aside and wrestling with my writhing arms. All I could see was furious faces as my chest tightened. This was all too much. Too many hands. I couldn’t breathe! Heavy air blocked my throat as I suffocated with fear.
Stop, please.I wanted to cry for help, but no words came out.
“Enough!” A commanding voice sent a wave through the mob, forcing them to drop my arms.
Lukas…
The crowd slowly parted to reveal the tall, steel-eyed prince, standing just metres away. Concern flashed across his features when he saw me. In the chaos, someone had tugged at my hair, leaving a tangle of ringlets haloing my face. Paired with my tear-stained cheeks and heavy breathing, I must’ve looked a complete mess, but I didn’t care. Lukas was here now, and for once, I was glad to see him.
“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded as he surveyed the scene before us.
The lady with the pearl-decorated hair stepped forward first. Her voice was nasally and grating as she dipped her head in respect.
“Your Highness, we found a young boy who had drowned in the pond. Princess Naria here attempted some kind of rescue, although we all saw her use dark magic to revive him.” Murmurs of agreement trickled through the crowd. “She kissed him at least five times and then, he just woke up. Only a fool would believe that was not magic.”
Lukas stiffened as his brow lowered. “Kissed him?”
My eyes wanted to roll back into my skull. “That’s not true,” I stated, finding my voice. “Yes the boy was dead when I found him, but I was able to restart his heart using heartflow restoration. It is a lifesaving technique that was used in Corlixin hospitals to revive patients. You give compressions to the chest to mimic a beating heart and force air into the lungs to keep the patient breathing. It’s really—”
“You use these big words to try and hide the magic.” The woman’s venom-laced voice cut off my words. “We all saw you, demon! Don’t try and deny what you did.”
“I would rather you didn’t refer to my fiancée as a demon, Lady Vivian.” Lukas’s tone was light, but by the way his face had darkened, I could tell he was deadly serious. “Are you forgetting that Princess Naria here is your future Queen?”
The people around me shuffled awkwardly, including Lady Vivian.
“I did not mean to offend, Your Highness.” Her grating voice remained directed at the prince. “I only wished to inform you of what we all witnessed.”
“You witnessed science.” I whirled to confront her. “I can’t believe this is even up for debate! Your healers might know everything about herbs, but the Corlixins, my people, we understand the body. You have to believe me when I say there was nothing magical about any of that.”
Her gaze skimmed over me as though I was dirt under her boot. I’d never met her before, but her name seemed somewhat familiar. Just then, my memories flew back to the very first dinner I’d had with Lukas.
Lady Vivian wasn’t too happy either at breakfast, when I told her that you were on your way.
Surely she wasn’t another lover, unless Lukas liked ladies on the more mature side. Still, by the way she seethed before me, there had to be more to her anger than plain ignorance.
“I believe her… the princess… I believe her,” a quiet shaking voice cut through the crowd. As the onlookers parted, the young boy I’d revived stood shivering beside his sister. Giselle had bundled him up in a thick cloak, and was desperately trying to rub some warmth back into him. “I’ve felt magic before, but this was nothing like that,” he said.
“Ignore him, he’s delirious,” Lady Vivian spat. “The boy was dead five minutes ago.”
“Do not speak of my brother in that way,” Giselle retorted. Her eyes were glossy with tears as they found mine. “Princess Naria saved his life, and I will never be able to thank her enough.” She then shot a furious look at the duchess. “So, if she insists it was this… sci-ence, or whatever the word was, then it was that! No dark magic here.”
Confused murmurs weaved through the crowd, until Lukas’s commanding voice broke through the noise.
“I’ve heard enough arguing for one day.” Everyone’s heads pivoted to where the prince was standing. “Magic or not, a boy’s life was saved, and we should be very grateful to Princess Naria.” I shuddered as the countless stares of at least a dozen people fixated on my trembling body. I could almost feel their suspicions gnawing at my gown.
As if sensing my discomfort, Lukas stepped forward and extended a hand to me. “Come now, Naria, let me escort you back to your room.”
I nodded, barely hesitating for a second before accepting his waiting hand.
Before we left the gathering, I glanced at the shivering boy, then addressed Giselle, “Take him back to his room, get him into a warm bath and then some dry clothes.”
“Of course, Your Highness.” She dipped her head in gratitude. “And please understand I wasn’t lying when I said I will never be able to thank you enough. Anything you need, please come to me. I will always serve you.” She bowed deeply, the last of the evening sun rays dancing off her copper hair.
I thanked her with a light smile, before Lukas began guiding me back towards the palace archway.
Walking back through the palace beside Lukas was an entirely different experience to wandering the palace halls alone. Aside from having to occasionally jog to keep up with his long strides, there were no hushed whispers or scowling looks. Instead, crowds of people dipped their heads like little bobbing ducks as we strolled through the endless stone corridors. The prince seemed to pay them no mind, barely even acknowledging their bows as we passed by – though I suppose after so many years, you would get used to it.
I wondered if I ever could.
“You certainly put on quite a show out there,” Lukas finally said while steering me through an archway. His voice was calm, but there was something on his mind – I could almost see it as it tugged on his brow.
The arch led to another familiar window-lined hallway, but we must’ve been drawing close to the tower as this one was empty of any chattering nobles. Now that the sun had dipped below the mountains, small candles held by iron lamps illuminated the path. They cast a warm glow across the tiled floors.
“I did what I had to do to save a boy’s life,” I answered plainly. “It’s not my fault that most of your people misread the situation.”
We continued for a few more steps until Lukas paused and turned suddenly to face me. After a few quiet breaths, he spoke with a tightened jaw. “Is it true that you kissed that boy?”
I wanted to burst with laughter. “Kissed him?”
“Yes, is it true?” the prince demanded.
My mouth fell open. I couldn’t believe it. Was he, a crown prince of all people, really jealous of a teenager? Or was there something else behind his bizarre reaction? Either way, to even ask that was simply ridiculous. He was being ridiculous.
“I thought you were supposed to be sensible,” I scoffed dismissively.
“Tell me,” he spoke again, his tone dark and low. “Did you kiss him?”
“Why would you even ask that?” I threw up my hands. “This is absurd. I saved his life, didn’t I? And if you were there, you would’ve seen that it wasn’t a kiss. Far from it! I was simply forcing the water from his chest—”
“By placing your lips onto his?” he cut in. His features were stormed by such an unnecessary fury, I wanted to scream.
“It does not matter how I did it, because I saved his life!” My raised voice echoed down the empty hallway. “And I don’t understand why you even care about any of this. You don’t own me. Even if I wasn’t trying to just save the poor boy’s life, I can kiss whoever I like.”
“You cannot.” He stepped towards me, and instinctively I backed away. But my voice didn’t quieten. If anything, I was more determined to shout.
“I am a princess,” I fired back. “I don’t serve you, or your father. I serve only my people. And since you have no intention of helping them, I have no intention of ever marrying you. That means, if I wanted to run around the palace grounds and kiss every single man who’d have me then I would.”
“I would forbid it,” Lukas snarled. Fists clenched, he marched towards me, forcing my body back until the cold stone wall pressed against my spine. “You may be a princess, but my father is the King of Drothmore. And while he is ill, this is my court. Everything in it belongs to me, including my own fiancée. Don’t you dare underestimate my power, Naria. I would exile anyone who dared to touch you. I would lock you in your tower if I had to.”
“But why?” My voice trembled as he loomed over me. His jaw was still clenched, and he was so close I could feel the warmth of his skin. The heat rushed through me, igniting my bones and pooling in my lower belly as he laid his hand flat against the wall, only inches from my face.
Before I could shove him away, my breath caught as his gaze lowered to my parted lips. Then, it appeared as if something inside of him had broken. A sudden sadness washed away the rage that poured across his face.
“Because, for some unfathomable reason, I cannot stand the thought of anyone else doing what I am about to do,” he finally said.
“What?” I muttered, not quite hearing him over the blood rushing through my ears.
A heartbeat passed.
Then another.
And then, his lips crashed into mine.