“What?”.

A voice echoed in Aerin’s ears, making him groan as he was woken by the sound.

“…deal…”, he heard blurred sentences and meaningless words.

He finally opened his eyes and looked up, he saw Mara’s face blocking the path of light coming from a window to their right. He looked around and saw Rowan standing there, with a strange look of seriousness.

Mara shook her head and Rowan lowered his head momentarily as if agreeing with the silent comment. Rowan turned around his heels and started walking towards the open door, closing it behind him but not before sending Aerin a small sweet smile.

Aerin looked at his hands, some stains of blood tainted them from when he had held Mara’s hand, he looked up at Mara, who was already looking at him.

“Are you feeling better now?”, he asked, his voice small and hesitating.

Mara nodded and looked at her hands, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“I’m better now, I thought I was dead down there”, she looked around, as her eyes moved, Aerin saw the pupil of her eyes trembling, shaking, he frowned, “ I see blurred images, my sight should be normal in a couple of hours”, she finished.

Aerin nodded, taking the answer as the reason behind the weird behavior in her eyes.

“Do you need anything?”, he asked. 

Mara shook her head.

“Just keep me company, I’m afraid someone will slam the door open and take me back to that horrid place".

Aerin nodded and took her hand, he hadn’t asked her who had hurt her, he had a narrow idea of who was responsible for it. He remembered the king’s words.

“Listen to me Haleth… if I find out you have made drastic decisions again without my knowledge, the next head to lay unattached in my castle will be yours”.

Haleth. The king blamed his mother for something, his mind pushed his thoughts toward Mara and her wounds, wounds he now supposed had been made by his mother's command without the king’s knowledge. 

Aerin scrunched his eyebrows and looked at Mara, whose eyes were starting to droop from the lack of sleep. Her face was pale and her breaths were slow and uneven. He gulped.

He pressed two fingers against her neck just below her jaw, being careful not to touch the bright red wound that surrounded her neck.

Thump…

…

Thump…

…

…

The beating of her heart was so slow he was quickly alarmed by it, he surrounded her left hand with both of his and tried to shake it to wake her up.

“Mara?”, he asked, but no response came from her.

He then placed both of his hands on her shoulder and shook her violently, the movement made the gown she had on slide down slightly below her collarbone and the sight of what it revealed made him freeze.

The skin above was black, it was so dry it was starting to peel off with darkened veins visible below the thin layer of skin.

A sob escaped from his lips and his hands desperately tried to cover the damaged surface. His attempts fell futile as he felt Mara’s chest start to move more slowly, the movement was almost imperceptible. 

His hands stayed over the dying flesh, but his head fell down to his arms in a hopeless manner. 

No one can survive such wounds. Not even Mara. Tears fell down his cheeks and soaked the sleeves of his blouse. 

His fingers trembled as the coldness from Mara’s body traveled to his own, he frowned, the small leaves on the tips of his fingers curled, trying to escape the freezing energy. His eyes widened suddenly as the leaves started to fall, turning brown, some of the flowers surrounding his arms beneath the blouse fell against his skin as they faced the same ending as the leaves of his fingers.

The death of the plants distracted him from the changes that were happening to Mara, only when he looked up could he witness how the once dead skin flourished to live, the wounds of her arms sealed, leaving no scar, and the blotches on her face disappeared as Mara’s own eyes stared at him with a horrified look.

“Aerin…”, Mara whispered, but the rest of her words tangled themselves in his mind with no meaning as his consciousness turned off forcefully.

***

Mara stared at Aerin as he slept in his own bed.

She looked at him with hazed eyes, still not believing what had just happened. Aerin slept peacefully, ignorant of the mess his actions could cause if someone had witnessed what he did.

Mara walked in circles around the room, her hand clutched at her short hair.

The sound of someone knocking on the door made her steps freeze and her already terrified face drop to a panicked expression.

She looked around and her eyes stopped at the doors of Aerin’s closet, she groaned and ran to it, almost throwing herself inside just as the door of Aerin’s room opened.

She quickly closed the door silently as someone entered the room.

“Aerin, wake up, the king wants to talk to you”, Haleth’s voice filled the room. Mara looked through the thin gap the doors made and saw Aerin’s mother shake her son’s body.

“Aerin!”, Haleth whispered his name once more. Mara’s heart thumped loudly and it became the only sound she could hear, sweat rolled down his forehead as the sound picked up the pace.

Aerin please wake up.

“Aerin?”, Haleth’s voice turned unsure as she shook Aerin once more. 

Mara closed her eyes, ready to hear a call for help and for running steps to reach the room.

“What?”, another voice asked, laced with fatigue but alive.

Mara sighed with relief but quickly covered her mouth with her hands.

“You scared me”, Aerin’s mother shook her head, “ doesn’t matter now, but you must follow me to the courtroom, your presence is needed there”.

Aerin looked at her confused but wasn’t given any time to question her words as she violently pulled his arm and forced him to stand on his feet.

Aerin was about to walk towards the closet, to change appropriately for the occasion but was stopped by his mother’s hand.

“There’s no time for that”, she said as she pulled him out of the room, Aerin complaining on the way until the sound of their footsteps disappeared to Mara’s ears.

She sighed, the sudden fear that had filled her left, and the only thing that remained was the question of how Aerin did what he did.

How did he heal me?  she thought.