by Melody Rose
“This is not real,” the girl in front of me said. She spoke in a clear and crisp tone, like the bells above the castle.
At the thought of the bells, a ringing started in my ears. Loud and startling, I jumped back from Heloise and scurried away from her.
“No, Kehn, do not be afraid.” She reached out and tried to grab my wrists, but her hands fell right through mine, like a ghost. “Well, that is unhelpful,” Heloise commented to herself. She turned her attention back to me. “This is not real. This is a memory. You are with me, trapped in a cabin. Stella is there, with Troylan and Uri.”
As she said each name, a face appeared in my mind’s eye, and the surrounding scene shook. The ashen town of Hillcrent flickered, replaced by a round face girl with blond girls. A long-faced man with a bush of black hair. Then Uri, my djer who once was right beside me, now hung upside down, like she was roasting over a fire.
“No!” I cried out. I reached my hand forward as if to grab onto the image, but it disappeared into smoke before me. Back was my blackened hometown, and a whole new wave of nausea overtook me. I stumbled back and nearly fell through Heloise all over again.
What was happening to me?
“We are on a mission to find a key,” Heloise continued like she was reciting a list from memory. “So Eva can defeat the false king.”
That was it! The name of the girl I wanted to kiss from before.
Eva.
The name unlocked something in my mind. A series of images flashed in front of us at an unbelievable speed. Gone was the image of my hometown, replaced with a dozen flying memories.
Seeing Eva in the woods for the first time when she dared me to shoot her.
When Eva bravely ran up to a green dragon and stood between it and my arrows.
Eva sweating through a series of difficult and harrowing training exercises but never giving up.
Eva cuddled against my chest in a cave.
Eva glowing in a blinding array of light, backed by the setting sun.
Eva moaning beneath me in a flurry of pleasure.
Eva with her hands dirty from chalk and a streak of it across her forehead, dazed and caught up in her work.
Eva walking down the grand staircase in the most gorgeous gown I had ever seen on her.
Eva riding atop the same green dragon with her hair flowing behind her and her arms over her head in triumph.
Eva.
Eva.
Eva.
The last memory, one of just her heart-shaped face and green eyes, shattered the remaining memories and pain into a thousand pieces. I covered my head and crouched low as the colors exploded all around me, raining down like a blizzard.
Suddenly, the world went white and silent.
The pounding behind my eyes stilled, and my stomach finally settled. I had enough courage and stamina to straighten up and take in my surroundings. I half expected to be back in the cottage, tied up to the chair. However, I found myself in the white space.
I had only been here once before, but I knew about it from Eva, who was a frequent visitor. Neither of us knew exactly what this space was, but Eva learned she could manipulate it and bend it to adhere to her will. I had not spent enough time here to find out what kind of power it held for me.
That said, my previous visit also included an unpleasant encounter with the false king himself. Panicked that I might see that bastard again, I whirled about and tried to ready myself for any kind of attack, despite my lack of weapons.
I was not alone in the white space, except my fellow occupant was not Reon. It was Heloise, standing straight but looking utterly confused.
“Where the hell are we?” she asked me with a shaky voice.
“This is the white space,” I answered.
I was relieved to hear my familiar deep voice, but I looked down just to make sure. I seemed to be my proper build and had the right amount of hair on my chin, from what I could feel. Even Heloise was shorter than me again.
“Like where Reon meets Eva for their chess games?” Heloise asked as her eyes darted about worriedly. Like me, the caretaker was concerned that the false king would pop out any second and contaminate us.
“Supposedly, yes,” I replied, refusing to let my own guard down. “But he usually appears by now.”
“Oh, that is right,” Heloise said, her eyes lighting up at the memory. “I forgot you came here once before.”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “It was not a pleasant experience.”
“So, what we are doing here then?” Heloise asked the most obvious question.
“I do not know,” I said as I shook my head. I refocused my thoughts and assessed the situation. “What happened from your perspective?”
“I watched that creepy old couple blow the powder in your face,” Heloise recalled. Her eyes went a little cross-eyed when she spoke as she remembered. “Then you got this weird glazed look over your eyes, and you started talking, I think it was to Hannan.”
“You heard my memory,” I deciphered as I tried to tamper down the embarrassment at being so exposed.
“At first, we all did,” Heloise admitted. She took in a deep breath. “But that was when it got weird for me. I took your hand and started seeing what you were seeing.”
“How much did you see?” I asked, not out of concern for my privacy but more out of the desire to put all the pieces together.
“Hillcrent, and when you hit Hannan in the head with the sword,” Heloise confessed with a hint of shame in her voice. “But I could also see the cabin. It was weird how both scenes were happening simultaneously. Like I could see through the memory and knew that it was just a memory, whereas you were so immersed in it. You were like a little kid again.”
“I know,” I said as a shiver went down my spine.
My brain raced to figure out what happened to the both of us. It was clear that the old couple had used some kind of illusion powder or something to get me stuck in my own mind. But the mystery was Heloise. How could she have seen through the magic? Especially when she had not been the one affected by it.
“You took my hand,” I recalled. I remembered feeling her touch just before they infected me, and she had confirmed it just now. “You took my hand.”
“Yeah?” Heloise said, unsure why I was so elated.
“It is my gift,” I realized.
Then I realized I had never told Heloise about my ability. I swallowed and fought the urge to keep it a secret. It was too late now. I had a feeling that Heloise had seen a lot more than just Hillcrent and when I accidentally insulted my friend. She passed through my memories into the white space, and that meant all of my memories, including the ones of Eva.
“What is your gift?” Heloise asked cautiously as if she could sense that I did not really want to tell her.
She officially knew more about me than anyone else on the planet. She might as well know this now too.
“I can enhance other people’s gifts,” I explained. I held out my hands, putting them on display. “If someone touches me when using their gift, then it makes the gift more powerful somehow.”
“I do not understand,” Heloise said.
I did not believe that for a second. I knew Heloise was a very intelligent woman, but I think her ignorance in this instance was due more from fear than from lack of understanding.
“With Hannan, I can make it so he is fully invisible,” I continued, thinking of examples. “With Donnel, he can see and sense disturbances, like the contamination. With Eva, well,” I hesitated, “she kind of explodes with light.”
“Of course she does,” Heloise said as she rolled her eyes.
“Since you were holding my hand, my gift must have activated an enhancement in your abilities,” I said, the words coming out of my mouth as the thoughts clicked in my head. “You can see in the dark, right?”
“Yes,” Heloise said tentatively like she was admitting something secretive rather than just admitting to her djer gift.
“I think my gift allow
ed you to see through other things as well,” I said rapidly, the words tumbling out. “Like the illusion, memory powder stuff.”
“And you are only telling me this now?” Heloise gaped at me. “That could have been so useful so many times before this!”
“Like when?” I wondered, confused by her exasperation.
“Like in the snowstorm!” Heloise threw her arms up in the air. “Damn it, Kehn, if you had just taken my hand, we would not even be in this mess.”
“No one knows about my gift,” I said defensively.
“Hannan, Donnel, and Eva do,” Heloise countered. “And I would assume Uri does too, but that seems like a given.”
“I…” I opened my mouth but then closed it again, unable to come up with an appropriate argument.
“Can I ask why you did not tell us?” Heloise put her hands on her hips. “I do not want to make you feel any worse than you already do. I am sorry for that. And you obviously have your reasons, but what were they?”
“People would abuse my gift,” I said, my voice quiet. “They would use it and me without my permission. I never knew who my true friends were, if they wanted to be my friend because of me, or if they just wanted to use my gift to enhance their own.”
Heloise clicked her tongue. “Yeah, okay, I get that, but when we are going on a life or death mission together, I think telling everyone what is in their arsenal would be helpful.” Then she sauntered up to me and put her hands on my shoulders. Unlike in the memory, our contact was solid, and I could feel the weight of her on me. “Because, Kehn, I know we are not the best of friends, but we are on the same side here.” She looked me directly in the eye. “If I have the ability to see through walls, snow, or illusions, I would like to know that ahead of time.”
I sucked my teeth and could not come up with a response.
“And I would never, ever, abuse you or your gift, got it?” Heloise leaned her forehead against mine in an oddly intimate gesture. This time when she got so close to me, my ten-year-old self was not ogling to kiss her. I, instead, accepted the friendship she was offering and took it without regret.
“Yes,” I agreed. “I got it.”
“Great,” Heloise said as she pulled back from me. She gave me a short nod. “Glad we finally understand each other.”
“Me too,” I said, my cheeks red with minor embarrassment.
Heloise paused for a moment. She looked up and to the corner of the white space in thought. I waited for her to finish whatever thoughts she was having, but I was impatient to get out of here and beat down that couple. If I remembered correctly, they said that someone working for Reon was coming to get us, if not Reon himself. We had to get moving and fast.
The caretaker finally looked back at me. She had a sympathetic gaze in her purple eyes that almost frightened me.
“What?” I asked.
“You really love her.” Heloise spoke the words as if they were fact rather than a comment she was making.
I realized what she was talking about, and how, in that one statement, she confirmed my suspicions that she had seen more than she originally let on.
I swallowed any pride I had left and opened up. Heloise already knew the answer to this. She knew my feelings and had seen them as plain as day. What she was doing now was giving me the opportunity to admit it to myself. To confess to one of my greatest fears in the safe space that was the white space.
“Yes,” I said with a single nod. “I love Eva very much.”
Heloise’s face broke into a smile. “I think she loves you too.”
I could not help myself. I scoffed automatically to her comment. “I do not believe that. Not after I hurt her like I did.”
“Have you heard of this thing called forgiveness?” Heloise chided. “It is really helpful in situations like this.”
“What I did was unforgivable,” I said with a lowered head.
“From what I saw, and I saw a lot,” Heloise said with bouncing eyebrows, “it is definitely forgivable.”
“I am not going to appreciate you knowing so much about me when we get out of here,” I commented offhandedly.
“Speaking of which, how do you plan on getting out of here?” Heloise crossed her arms, ready to take action. “And then how do you plan on getting out of the creepy couple’s cabin?”
I considered her words. My training came back to me as easily as counting. I plotted out the situation in my head and ran through various scenarios. I assessed what we had and thought through all of the possibilities.
Heloise waited patiently as I plotted. She rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet but seemed to understand that I needed some time to think and plan. So, she respected that and did not interrupt me with more life lessons about trust or any other nosy questions about my feelings for Eva.
Part of me was in utter disbelief that I admitted that aloud to Heloise, of all people. She and I were not typically close, having only really known each other through Hannan and Eva. But here we were, locked in the white space together, learning more about each other than we ever wanted to needed to know.
After I paced about a bit, I stopped and pointed at Heloise. She raised her eyebrows and pointed to herself in response.
“What do you need from me?” she asked with a sly grin sliding across her face.
“I wonder how much you can push your gift,” I admitted, while still pointing at her even though it was unnecessary. “The old couple mentioned something about solving a riddle and finding a previous thing that the king wants.”
“I remember that,” Heloise mused. Then, her eyebrows raised so high I thought they might disappear into her mane of red curls. “You do not think they have the half of the key, do you?”
“I think it’s worth a look. Come here,” I said as I held out my hand for her.
She took it but with a skeptical look in her eye. “I thought we already established you are in love with Eva, and no offense, I am really in love with my own woman.”
I rolled my eyes at her attempt at humor. “No, you are going to need to use my gift for this.”
“Okay,” Heloise said slowly. “What do you want me to do?”
“Well, Heloise, tell me,” I said as I squeezed her hand, just as she had done for me right before we got flung into this crazy detour. “What do you see?”
27
“I cannot possibly choose between the two of them,” Monte protested. “It is wildly unfair.”
“Is this really a difficult choice for you?” Opala said as she cocked her head to the side.
“Should it be simple?” Monte questioned. “I have a relationship with both of them.”
“Up until a couple of weeks ago,” I muttered under my breath.
I couldn’t help but feel hurt by the consideration Monte was taking with this situation. On the one hand, I was happy that he thought about everything so seriously. That said, the fact that he didn’t choose me instantly hurt my feelings more than I would like.
I didn’t know how I could sit here through his indecision. Discomfort crawled up my arms like spiders, and I rubbed on them incessantly. My impatience from before came back in spades. This woman was insisting we discuss these problems instead of focusing on the thing we need to do to save the world. Her priorities were seriously screwed up.
“Something bothering you, Eva?” Opala asked, calling me out.
“Lots of things are bothering me,” I responded tartly. I clicked my tongue against my teeth. “Like all the time we are wasting being here instead of collecting the key at the mermaid kingdom.”
“I explained the situation to you,” Opala reminded me. “It is Montgomery who decides the amount of time he needs.”
I huffed out a sigh and crossed my arms. “Well, I don’t have to hang around for you to make your decision. Because if you haven’t made it by now, then I’ll make it for you.”
“Eva,” Monte said, his voice pained, “what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I have a job to
do,” I snapped, my own voice sounding harsher than I would have liked. “I thought you were going to do it with me, but if not, then I’ll be on my way.”
“Do you think it is that easy for me?” Monte’s fuzzy white eyebrows cinched together. “Is it really that easy for you?”
I rolled my neck around and touched an ear to each shoulder. None of this was easy for me. I wanted Monte to pick me, and the jealousy pricked at my insides like a bad bout of food poisoning.
“You will not be allowed to leave until Montgomery has decided which bond to save,” Opala announced, though her voice sounded like a teacher explaining an assignment rather than threatening.
“Says who?” I challenged, letting my irritation take the wheel.
“Yerti!” the old woman called out. “If you would be so kind as to shrink the door.”
“What?” I exclaimed as I whirled around to face the doorway.
Before now, the entryway was large enough for Monte to stick his head and neck through. I could have slipped past or the dragon could have pulled back so I could get through. However, the four of us inside Opala’s chambers noticed as the door frame shrunk around Monte’s neck as if it were putting him in the stocks.
“Montgomery!” Arabella rushed closer to Monte’s head and put a hand in his hair. “Are you alright?”
“I am not physically harmed,” Monte assessed. “However, I believe I am stuck.”
“Shrinking?” I whirled on Opala with my hands on my hips. “Really?”
“She has the gift of altering the size of inanimate objects,” Opala said with a gentle tone. “It comes in handy for numerous things.”
“Like trapping a dragon and his two djers?” I asked with sarcasm.
Opala only smiled brightly, and her eyes crinkled at the corners. I wanted to stick my tongue out at her and blow the biggest raspberry. I stopped myself because I didn’t need to lose any more respect from this woman.
“Montgomery,” Arabella said, her voice laced with sweetness like a jar of honey. “Please choose me so we can all get out of here.”