Chapter: 12: Touch of a Healer

I woke up in an obscure room. My head was spinning, and my body felt heavy as if I’d been working nonstop for over a month.

Nothing around me appeared familiar. However, judging by the cold concrete cube I was sitting on and the dark brick wall, I could confidently say I wasn’t in my room.

It took my eyes a few moments to adjust to the blinding darkness before I could see more of the strange place.

The floor was dirtier than the premium guestroom before I’d cleaned it, as if no one had been here for ages.

Water and moisture leakage had damaged the wall and made my hair stick to my damp forehead.

My eyes wandered, observing more of the dark square until I found a row of dull, gray bars cutting me off from the tunnels on the other side.

A prison.

I’d been placed in a prison.

I panicked and frantically looked around for a way out. Unfortunately, the only exit I could find, apart from the barred door, was a sealed window I could hardly fit through.

Desperate, I tried summoning my powers, but nothing happened. I was so drained of energy that I could hardly stand up.

Then memories of the past hours flooded me.

The dinner, the cut, the prince, Knox, Mom—

I stormed toward the bars, searching for Mom’s figure in the other cells surrounding mine.

She wasn’t there. No one was there. I was all alone.

“Let me out!” I screamed, beads of sweat coating my forehead as my chest constricted.

I’d passed out after my fight with Knox. I hadn’t been able to protect her, and there was no telling what they’d done with my mom if she wasn’t here with me.

“Hello!” I shouted again. “Where is my mom? Please! Someone!”

The humid air made it unbearably hard to breathe. I couldn’t tell if it was tears or water from the air that soaked my cheeks when I began hyperventilating.

What had I been thinking?

The guardians were probably already on their way to our house to retrieve Dad and Tristan. I’d doomed all of us by failing to save Mom.

My vision blurred as my throat closed up. What had I done?

I let go of the bars and turned to the nearest corner. The filthy floor stained my dress when I sat down, but I didn’t care. Then I tugged my legs closer and made myself as small as possible.

It had been a colossal mistake to use my powers. I could’ve tried to stop Knox in other ways first.

Footsteps echoed through the dungeon halls, followed by metal grinding against metal.

I looked up and saw two uniformed men in black approaching me.

My eyes widened. “What is—” I whispered when they opened the cage. “No. Stay back! Leave me alone!”

My cries and pleas were rudely ignored.

“Get up,” one of the men said.

The man impatiently grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet when I didn’t comply immediately. His partner grabbed my other arm so they could carry me out of my cell.

I didn’t have the strength to fight back and let them guide the way without complaining.

“Wh-Where are we going?” I sobbed. The moving statues gave me no answer. All I could do was wait.

We rounded a few corners and up a pair of stairs before I began recognizing our surroundings. We hadn’t left the mansion.

It wasn’t surprising that the Deverouxs had a cold dungeon hidden beneath their house, but it didn’t make sense why I was being carried up here again. Perhaps Knox wanted to finish what he’d started.

My heart started racing again, pumping bursts of adrenaline through my system. I would rather die than have him touch me again.

I dug my heels into the floor to stop the guards from carrying me any farther.

They didn’t even flinch, hurtfully unaffected by my attempt to escape their grip. I did the same again, and the guards lifted me from the ground like I was a sack of potatoes.

Pain shot through my wounded arm. I pressed my teeth together to suppress the whine pushing to escape my lips.

I changed tactics and relaxed, making my body as annoyingly heavy as I could. It didn’t seem to bother them remotely.

They kept walking, ignoring every attempt I made to break free from their iron grips.

I sighed despondently when another memory grazed my mind.

Knox had been bleeding during our fight. I hadn’t been able to determine the extent of his injuries, but perhaps it wasn’t Knox who had sent for me. Perhaps it was his mother.

I couldn’t tell which of the two would be worse.

I looked up to check out my surroundings and attempted to predict where we were heading.

My chest tightened when I recognized the naked walls.

This was the only hall in the mansion without paintings of various people from different historical periods of Heliac’s time.

There were only the white marble floors and the chandeliers lighting the path ahead.

Horrid memories of Knox pressing me against the wall, his lips touching my skin, and his whispers of promises spoken into my ear flashed past my eyes when we rounded the next corner.

The crown prince had been a Water Iridis. He had the power to heal, so what if he’d healed Knox already?

I desperately resisted the guards’ grip again, not stopping when their grasp tightened. I was not surrendering my fate without a fight.

Then we passed Knox’s room and continued to Master Deveroux’s office at the end of the hall, leaving me puzzled.

My legs weren’t strong enough to keep me on my feet when the guards pushed me through the door. I fell to my knees, scraping my skin against the wooden floor.

“Willow.”

The room was bright from the setting sun shining through the panoramic view, and I had to blink a few times for my eyes to adjust.

I’d barely regained my ability to see before I was pulled into an embrace of familiar warmth.

“Mom?” I whispered, unable to believe it was her.

“Oh, honey,” she whispered, sobbing into my messy hair.

The hairband that had kept my braids in place had fallen out during the battle, leaving my hair untamed and wild like my powers.

“Thank the spirits that you’re okay,” she continued, tightening her grip around me.

“Are you really here?” I whispered, burying my face in her shoulder. “How? Why?”

Mom let me go and helped me to my feet with a smile. Then she backed away so I could take a look around.

Lady Deveroux was standing in the far corner of the office with a mix of fear and anger painted across her face. Those emotions were undoubtedly directed toward me.

Master Deveroux held her in his embrace, but I couldn’t read him. His eyes looked empty and soulless.

Knox was nowhere to be seen. Instead, I saw three people I hadn’t expected to be here still. The king, his son, and a slender man whom I didn’t recognize.

Blood drained from my face, and my palms turned damp.

The prince stepped toward us, and I pushed Mom behind me to protect her if he should decide to attack us. I might not have had any energy left to command the air, but he didn’t know that.

“Willow, was it?” the prince asked before he stopped a few feet from me.

My skin turned cold when he pronounced my name. Not because I felt disgusted like the time Knox had said it, but because his voice sounded strangely calm and comforting.

His hair had escaped the sleek man bun I’d seen him with before. Instead, its soft waves gently licked his cheekbones and nearly reached the nape of his neck.

The royal suit he still wore no longer appeared stiff and neat. Instead, buttons hung loosely in the persistent threads, and he’d lost the tie.

Cuts had severed areas of the fabric, which I could only assume had been caused by my vicious storms.

My cheeks warmed as I found myself embarrassed by my lack of control. I didn’t let him see me waver. Instead, I kept my gaze locked with his, not confirming or denying his questions.

The prince took another step toward me, and despite my desire to appear unfazed by his power, I took a step back.

Two hands on my back prevented me from retreating. I looked back and saw Mom smiling at me.

She didn’t look remotely worried, which could not be possible in the presence of Heliac’s golden future, especially not right after I’d displayed my true nature before them.

“How is your arm?”

I turned my head again. My breath hitched when I caught his deep blue eyes staring gently at me.

There was no trace of the hostility I’d expected to find. Instead, they looked kind and full of wonder.

The frown I’d imagined remained as nothing but a smile stretching from one side of his face to the other.

The prince chuckled when I stayed speechless.

“I choose to remain confident that you already know my name, but I would like to introduce myself formally,” he said, placing his hand right above his heart.

“I am Atlas Caiden Pavo, the golden crown prince of Heliac. We have much to discuss, but first, I’d like to offer my assistance once again if you’d let me this time.”

He slowly reached for my wounded arm. I instinctively pulled it back to me, which only exacerbated the pain.

My struggle with the guards must have reopened the wound, causing it to bleed underneath the layers of bandage.

“Let him, darling,” Mom whispered and put a calming hand on my shoulder.

I was hesitant but surrendered when I noticed that the prince was still waiting for permission to touch me.

I let him loosen the bandages around my arm but had to bite my tongue not to scream when he removed the last layer sticking to the partly dried wound.

The pale-blue blood trickled down my arm and onto the floor, leaving a faint trail of color in its wake.

“May I ask for a glass of water, please?” Prince Atlas asked, talking to no person in particular.

I nearly dropped my jaw when Lady Deveroux went to the cabinet and poured him a glass of water which she left on the counter beside us.

~What in the name of the five realms had happened while I was gone?~

Prince Atlas raised his hand to hover above the glass. Then the water started moving until it defied the laws of gravity and floated freely in a bubble commanded by the prince.

It was fascinating.

His left hand kept my arm steady while he moved the water to my wound. It stung when he first applied it, but then it started glowing.

I’d never seen a healer work before, but I’d never heard of a healer using water to cure a wound, either. It must’ve been Prince Atlas’s own technique to master the ability of the white-blooded.

Learning to control the specific element itself was demanding enough, but it took even longer to master the abilities of the associated colors.

I’d once tried to manipulate sound, but I’d barely been able to create a pitch. Teleporting had been entirely out of the question.

Prince Atlas let my arm go, and I twisted it to check if the wound was, in fact, healed.

The water had washed away the excess blood. It was as if nothing had happened in the first place—something I honestly wished had been true.

The prince then looked over his shoulder at his stone-faced father.

Prince Atlas’s expression changed from the kind, helpful soul to the royal diplomat I’d seen him be so many times in front of the cameras.

His smile disappeared, leaving his face blank and unreadable. The next time he spoke, it would be as Prince Atlas Pavo—the golden heir.

“We have a proposition for you, Miss Aldwyn,” he said, folding his hands behind his back.

I cocked my brow.

What could I possibly have to offer the golden royals of Heliac that they didn’t already have?

“We would like you to join the Crown Trials as the twenty-fifth suitor.”