Zoe

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Sleep eluded me most of the night. There were too many things on my mind. My mother had been a nymph. My father had kept the truth from me. I could touch things finally. My father was in danger. Felix was in danger. Felix's father wanted me dead.

But of all the things on my mind, one thing stood out, and I also didn't understand myself why I kept coming back to that one name. Rheseis. Who was she?

I probably slept a little, but it felt like I didn't sleep at all. As soon as I saw the sun behind the closed curtains, I carefully got out of bed to not wake Felix up.

To my surprise, I found Alex sitting on the couch with a cup of tea on the table.

"Having problems sleeping too, huh?" she said when she saw me.

"Yeah," I answered and sat on one of the armchairs. "Are you alright? With all the new information, I mean."

Alex took a sip of the tea before answering. "Not gonna lie, I spent most of the night just going over it in my head over and over. But I think I'm done processing it all. Honestly, it's all a bit cool that magic actually exists and that I'm one of few that knows." Her eyes seemed to gleam at the thought. "How about you? From what I gathered, your world has sort of been turned upside down over the past few days."

"It's been a lot," I admitted and sighed.

"What's troubling you most? Felix's dad or your coven?"

"Neither actually," I said and earned a raised eyebrow. "I told you my mother went to a faerie for help."

"Yeah?" Alex answered.

"Well, that faerie, Rheseis. She seemed to have been good friends with my mother and Ash and Pine from what they told me. And she would have known what she did and should have been able to explain it all to me. But why have I not heard about her until yesterday? My father should also have been able to explain, but why hasn't he?"

"Maybe he didn't know?" Alex suggested, but I could hear on her tone that she didn't believe her own words.

"And then comes the fact that apparently Rheseis made contact with Ash and Pine recently. I was feeling extremely bad a couple of days ago and Ash and Pine came and talked to me. I ignored them and didn't look to see who was talking or answered them in any way. By the time I looked up, they were gone. Rheseis was the one that told them to leave. According to them, she said I wasn't ready for the truth."

Saying it out loud made the anxiety that I had worked to suppress all night come to the surface. It came in so strong that I continued to speak without being able to stop it.

"Who is she and what does she want with me? What does she know that I don't? Has she been trying to steer my life in a certain direction all along? And if so, what's her goal? When everything is sorted with Harry and my coven, will she show up with more things that need to be dealt with? What's her plan for me?"

My hands were wringing and I almost couldn't sit still. I wanted to run and hide. I wanted to search and find answers. I wanted to go back to bed and forget about everything in Felix's embrace.

Alex let out a sigh. "I don't know, Zoe. But I don't think it'll do you any good to worry about it. She saved your life as an infant, though, so doesn't seem like she means you harm."

I snorted. "It's always been one thing after another in my life. No one has ever wanted me anything good."

"Felix does."

"He's my mate. He sort of has to."

"I also only want good things for you."

I opened my mouth to argue, but slowly closed it again. A triumphant smile spread over Alex's lips.

"So, now that we got that sorted. Have you any idea of how to go about the issues with Felix's dad?"

I sighed and shook my head, but I also bit my lip to think. During the night, I had thought about it a lot. I had gone through all different types of spells to try to figure something out, but no idea had come to me. Besides, even if it could be solved magically, the amulets would pose a problem as well. Felix might be able to get him out of the house, but he would surely wear an amulet still.

"How exactly does the healing magic work?" Alex asked and startled me from my thoughts.

"The healing magic?"

She looked meaningfully at the plant that was still on the table.

"Oh, well, I haven't done it a lot so I'm not sure," I started. "But when I touch the plant and concentrate, it's like I can see its life energy and I can also see where it's broken. And then I kind of just will the broken pieces to mend."

Alex nodded and seemed to be working on formulating something in her head. "Do you know if it works on humans?"

"I think it should," I answered and started to feel curious about where Alex was going with her questions.

"I've been thinking about what Felix said," she started her explanation. "That his dad said something that made it sound like his mom was killed because his dad trusted a witch. That's definitely something that could break a person and fester into extreme hate if not processed properly. Like damn, people pay tons for therapy for less."

"You mean that maybe I can heal whatever is broken?" I asked slowly and let the idea mold over in my head.

"Yeah, exactly. And if so, he might be more open to accepting you."

I shook my head. "But when I heal plants, it feels more physical. That I'm healing the physical aspects of the plant."

"Well, plants wouldn't have anything emotional to heal, so that makes sense. It doesn't mean you can't."

We both became quiet and thought separately. In theory, her idea seemed okay. I didn't know overly much about life energies, but it would stand to reason that psychological traumas would affect it. But healing that had to need a much more complex type of healing. So far, the nymph magic had seemed very basic to me and maybe it was more complex, but there was no way I was strong and capable enough to perform it. I also had no way to know if it actually was true or not and to do it to Jackson, I had to touch him, which meant getting very close to him. That would be dangerous and hard on its own.

But if it was true, if I could do it, that would definitely be a good way to hopefully open him up to see the world in a different light.

"Try on me," Alex said into the silence, startling me.

"Excuse me?"

"Try if you can do it on me," she repeated herself and her eyes glittered with excitement.

I laughed in disbelief. "You're not serious."

"I'm very serious. Try on me."

"No!" I exclaimed. "I might hurt you."

"How else would you find out if it works or not? Will you let Felix be the guinea pig?"

"No!"

She smirked and moved on the couch so she was closer to me, then reached out her hand.

"Do it, Zoe. I want to help, and this is the only thing I can help with."

"I can't."

"I trust you."

There were burning excitement and determination in her eyes. It was so intense that I succumbed to it, if nothing else, because I could see that no matter what, she wouldn't give up. Better to give in now than listen to her nagging over and over.

I moved so that we both sat on the couch facing each other. She held out her hands to me and I took a deep breath.

"Pull away if it hurts or even just feels weird," I told her.

"Yeah, yeah, I will. It's good that you apparently stay young for forever, otherwise you definitely would have white hair from worrying too much."

I gave her a weak smile before taking her hand.

I focused just like I did with the plants, but immediately I noticed a difference. It wasn't as easy to get an overall view of her life energy, in fact, it was impossible. I tried to push for it, to see all the potentially broken bits. But there was something broken in her hand that stopped me from seeing further.

It was like someone had put back a broken piece at random, resulting in the connection being askew. No matter how hard I pushed, that askew thing made me unable to move forward. So instead I focused on it and in my mind I corrected it and made the road straight again.

As soon as I had done that, I could move further. It didn't take long until I was stopped again, however. There was a dent in the road and this time, I only pushed a little before straightening the dent to move further.

It continued like that. I met several spots that I couldn't move through because there was a problem of some sort. But as soon as I fixed it, I could move along.

Finally, I could see all of Alex's life energy. It was glowing and whole. I focused on it, but all of it seemed to be physical aspects, just like the plants. Before giving up, I gave one last push on it. Tried to see beyond the physical, imagined walking one level deeper into Alex.

At that, it was like a second part opened all at once. Compared to the physical aspects that were like roads, the second layer was a tangled yarn, a labyrinth. Just being able to see it in my mind made my head spin with the complexity of it. I hesitated. It looked so messy, so jumbled and complicated. But that was the goal, so I went in.