4 Princes

XXIV

HERA
I DON'T KNOW WHY I went to her. Why the girl with long hair had entranced Hera Jacobs Carmine Fairisles. Usually, people came to me and not vice versa.

I was so confused as to why I wanted her. I was 17 and I had never wanted anyone, much less wanted someone as much as I wanted her.

Was this... friendship? It didn't feel like friendship. My brothers were my only friends and I definitely didn't think of her the same way I did my brothers. I was dreaming of her, dreams that I had never had with a woman. Dreams that made me wake up sweating, wanting.

I took a deep breath and pressed my back against the wall of the cliff. A rock dug painfully into my calf but I ignored it, instead focusing on the sound of the waterfall, the loud rushing in my ears. Why was I here?

"Stop being rash, Hera," I seethed. "You don't need to be here."

I moved tightly against the wall anyways to get behind the waterfall, desperate to get to the safe spot I had met with her at before.

When I got into the kind of quiet cave, my luck had hit me hard. She was standing there, her red hair draping down her back like a curtain. She was painting, something I hadn't seen be done since my mother, and those memories were very vague, her dark hand moving expertly across the smooth rock.

It was night in the cave, despite the sun beating outside, and it took my eyes a moment to adjust to the dark. When they did, I felt myself falling into her art. The picture of me on the wall was complete, my sharp jawline, my brilliant blonde hair. It was a masterpiece. And I had no doubt that she was the one who painted it.

Candle lights were spiraling across the walls, highlighting some of her pieces. It flickered across her skin, almost giving her a small glowing hue as though she were an angel.

"Rapunzel?" I asked.

She jumped and slammed her back against the wall, fear in her beautiful brown eyes. She realized it was me and let her body untense but I could tell her heart rate hadn't settled. She was so beautiful, with plump lips and a thin body frame. Her eyes were so big and almost glossy. Her mom may have been the witch, but she was the spell.

"Why are you here?" She asked. Her voice was very loud for someone who was always inside. But it wasn't just her voice that had echoed, it was also her question. What was I doing here?

I thought it over in my head, blankly staring at her. "Well, I don't know."

I wasn't a very funny person, I didn't exactly get the respect I had by making people laugh. But Rapunzel laughed at what I had said. She covered her mouth with the back of her hand but it didn't conceal her laugh at all.

"You don't know very much," she joked.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "How dare you?" Nobody ever insulted us Princes, we were too threatening, too monstrous.

She laughed once more and I was on the fence about drawing my sword or just flat out laughing with her. Either way, I was sick of not doing anything.

"My mother is a witch, Miss. Hera. You do not scare me," she winked. "You're the one that should be fearful,"

What had happened to the unconfident girl I had last seen? And why did I like her more now?

I was never any good at explaining things. My father never let us explain ourselves and my mother died far before I knew how to string words together. Explanations never helped anyone. What was the point to them?

"Because you're relaxed,  and my life is so chaotic right now," I explained sadly.

She cast her head down and then looked back up at me through her lashes. "I heard, I am so sorry about your brother."