Aurora

11

Arrabella.

nine

I don't know how long we’ve been here or where we were before, but now we both were too weak to move and neither of us knew why.

I blinked in surprise when I heard shouting coming from somewhere that was not in this room.

“Tessa, do you hear that?” I asked her and she nodded softly.

“I don't feel good.” She groaned and I slowly sat up, looking over at her. Something inside of me swelled, compelling me to put a hand on her.

Once I came in contact with her, something deep within me began pour out into her and she almost immediately brightened, sitting up.

She stared at me with wide eyes before going loudly. “Oh my gosh!” She exclaimed before scrambling to her feet. I felt extremely fatigued as I slumped against the wall behind me, watching her move towards the wall opposite of me. She has a device in her hand that glowed green and blue.

“Arra, we've got to- Arra!” She exclaimed as she looked over to me before pacing the room for a moment. She was mumbling something under her breath that I wasn't able to hear, but my hooded eyes caught the movement of her lips.

She stopped in her tracks when she heard shouting, before running back over to the wall and hitting it with all of her might.

I slipped in and out of consciousness, only catching onto a couple of things. A shout here, a curse there, before I felt hands lifting me in the air. I inhale deeply as I was carried out into the open, the pure air refreshing my lungs.

When I came to, I was in the infirmary on one of the lower levels of the castle.

“Thank goodness!” I heard someone exclaim from beside me, prompting me to look over. I frowned when I saw Tessa sitting there. I opened my mouth to speak but no sound came out. I sighed before looking up at the ceiling.

“I um, I'm supposed to be gone now, but I wanted to stay until you woke up to make sure you were okay. You uh,” she stood up, going to the foot of my cot, before picking up a tablet that hung there, “you have internal bleeding and paralysis in all four of your limbs.” She looked up at me and her eyes glazed over before she looked away.

I closed my eyes and reached inside of me, feeling for my magic. When I couldn't find it, my heart began to race. What I found in its place was a thick, ugly mass of glowing black magic that ran through my veins.

“You told me that were we going to talk about our kiss.” Tessa whispered and my eyes flew open to look at her. She pulled in a quick breath before looking away. “Don't look at me like that, I know you can't talk. I just wanted to talk about it before I left.”

I blinked at her, sighing. I didn't know what she was talking about.

“I meant what I said, you know. I just wish I didn't… say it like that. There were so many different ways that I could've expressed myself. I don't know what was wrong with me.” Her lips pressed into a thin line. “That was so-”

She was cut off by a commotion outside of the door. We both looked in the direction and saw a nurse arguing with someone that was trying to enter.

“I'm sorry ma’am but you cannot go in there! Her highness is resting.” I heard the nurse exclaim and the other person seemed to grow even more frustrated before she yelled through the door.

“Tessa! Get out here before I have to hit this woman!”

“Could you give me just a moment, please?” Tessa called back before looking at me and whispering. “Sorry, that would be my sister Analeigh. She isn't very happy I stayed longer than I was supposed to.”