If I Never Knew You

Chapter 6

Her body felt like lead, the pain was excruciating. The memories of what occurred last night rushed into her memory. She had given away her magic, forever. She was now completely mortal. The Council had no longer had any reason to make Ben step down from the throne. She was no longer a "threat".

She tried to move her neck, but a sharp pain prevented her from moving it even an inch. "Ahh," she gasped. Suddenly two warm hands were on her shoulders, rubbing her arms up and down.

"Mal," an all too familiar voice whispered softly. Mal opened her eyes, but her vision was hazy, like when you tried to look up at the sun while underwater.

"Ben," she said weakly. She felt a warm hand on her cheek and smiled.

"I'm here, Love," he told her reassuringly. Mal took a deep breathe.

"On a scale of one to ten, how made are—,"

"Thirteen," Ben said. Mal's vision was staring to get clearer, and she could see the dark purple circles under Ben's eyes. Had he not slept at all since she had last seen him? She put a reassuring hand on his cheek and smiled up at him. "What were you thinking?" he asked her as he placed his hand over hers. She stared up into his hazel eyes and exhaled.

"I couldn't let you step down from the throne, and I was sure as hell not about to make it easy for the Council to force you to do so."

"Mal you almost died," Ben said harshly. For a second Mal just assumed he was overreacting, but then she remembered the fall, how she had landed on her back when she hit the water. She thought about how much it hurt to move her body. Had she seriously come close to dying? "You broke your back, Mal," Ben explained to her. "When I pulled you out of the water your body was positioned so oddly—," he couldn't finish the sentence. Mal's heart broke a little as she looked into his eyes. The light that usually radiated inside of them was replaced by brokenness. You're lucky that Fairy Godmother followed my parents and I to the lake, if it weren't for her magic you'd be dead."

"I'm so sorry, Ben," she murmured. "But you wouldn't have let me go if I had told you."

"You're right, I would've tied you to the bed," he said. Mal slyly smiled.

"You did seem to like that the last time we did that," she said jokingly. Despite himself Ben smiled. "So how long have I been asleep? A few hours?"

"Three days," Ben corrected. Mal's eyes went wide. Three days, she had been out for three days. She looked back at her fiancé, whose hair was a mess, who was wearing the same clothes he had when she had last seen him on that night, whose eyes were red and sleep deprived.

"Please tell me you haven't been sitting here the whole time waiting for me to wake up," she said sternly. Ben pressed his lips to her hand.

"Where else would I be but by your side," he asked smiling down at her. Mal rolled her eyes and in doing so caught a look of herself in the large mirror across from the bed. Her mouth dropped.

"I'm—I'm,"

"Blonde," Ben said finishing her sentence. It was true. Mal's once long dark violet hair was now a light gold. Her skin was a couple shades darker, and though her eyes were still a shade of green, they were darker and unable to glow.

"This is gonna take some getting used to," she muttered. Ben's lips were on her forehead.

"I'm just so grateful that you're here, that you're safe and alive."

There was a knock on the door. Ben turned his head to see his father's head poke through the crack; he looked just as exhausted and anxious as Ben had.