Author's Note: So it's only been forever. My bad *awkward smile* Anyway, this chapter is short, but I hope you still like it, and if you're still reading, please leave a review and let me.

Gray, cold, angry.

Everything was gray. The sky, the waves breaking on the rocks, the sand. Naomi thought that she might've loved this place once. But it wasn't the same. She was trapped in a perverted version of it, one where the sun never shone, and the howling wind whipped at her mercilessly.

On the best days, she just felt cold. On the worst, everything hurt.

And as she sat on the beach, staring into the water, she couldn't help the anger.

She tried to tell herself it was the curse, that it was poisoning her mind as well as her body. She knew she had loved people once, her family, Ben… But that once was beginning to seem so long ago, and she couldn't help the anger.

Why had they left her like this for so long? Why didn't they care enough to save her? And how dare they just move on with their lives while she suffered day in and day out?

But the worst was Lydia.

She supposed in some other situation she might've been grateful that her sister visited her so diligently. But all she could feel was resentment. It was Lydia's fault that she was trapped there in the first place. Why did no one else care to visit? And why did Lydia constantly torture her?

It was beginning again, she could tell. "No," Naomi whispered as she tried to hug her knees more tightly to her chest.

Lydia must have touched her. Naomi felt the warmth of her sister's healing powers begin to creep into her finger tips. For once, they didn't feel like ice. She indulged in the feeling as it slowly spread up her arms, breathing more easily. She drank in the feeling as the chill disappeared from her bones.

But then, just as quickly as it started, Lydia released her, and the warmth disappeared. In its place was left a more painful, bitter cold, and Naomi tried not to cry, knowing the tears would simply freeze her cheeks.

She dropped her head onto her arms. "Damn you, Lydia," she sobbed, unable to keep the tears at bay.

If she could've died, she would have. But she was trapped, and there was nothing Naomi could do about it.

Lydia tried not to cry as she studied Naomi. Somehow, even though Lydia didn't know how it was possible, Naomi's once beautiful face grew more skeletal each day as the bruises continued to pepper her skin. Most frightening was the blood that had begun to drip from her nose.

Lydia dabbed at it with a tissue. "There has to be something we can do," she insisted.

Hazel put a hand on Lydia's shoulder. "We're trying everything."

"No," Lydia shook her head. "Not everything." She could feel Hazel tense but pressed on anyway. "We haven't tried a fire fairy."

Tallulah was so surprised by Lydia's suggestion that she dropped the potion she had been stirring. Iris cleaned up the mess with a wave of her hand. "Fire fairies are difficult to come across, Lydie," Iris reminded her.

"And even if we did," continued Hazel, "they can't be trusted."

Lydia sighed in frustration, putting a hand to her temple. "Could things really get worse?" she demanded.

"Of course, Lydie," Tallulah frowned. "She could d—"

"She is already dying!" Lydia exclaimed, the hot prick of tears burning in her eyes.

"We'll find a way," Hazel insisted. She reached out to lay a comforting hand on Lydia's arm, but the princess jumped away. She threw Naomi's tissue down and fled the tower, unable to stand it for any longer.

It was still early, a side effect of the fact that she wasn't sleeping much. The bags under her eyes made that clear. When her parents asked, she brushed it off as a side effect of the Selection, which she could tell made them both feel guilty. But what else did she have to use as an excuse? She couldn't tell them about Naomi. She couldn't tell anyone, a fact that was starting to weigh more heavily on her.

Since she had time before she would be expected at breakfast, she decided to grab a cup of tea and try to relax in the gardens with Vito for a little bit. After wrangling her drink and her cat, she made her way to her usual spot.

It was a bench nestled beneath a willow tree that faced east over the hills and trees of the castle grounds. And surprisingly, it wasn't empty today.

Lydia froze, unsure of how to proceed. She was contemplating finding a new location, but Baloo noticed her first and gave a soft whine, alerting Fallon to her presence. She forced a smile when he turned to look at her.

"Your Highness," he greeted her, immediately standing to bow.

"Oh, please don't," Lydia hurriedly countered, thinking of what she'd read about his injury in his medical file. It had felt invasive to read that he'd lost part of his leg in an accident while he was in the military, but given the background checks that were conducted on the Selected, it was almost impossible for her to avoid.

He didn't bow, but he didn't sit down either. "Is this… your spot?" he guessed.

"Kind of," she admitted, "but I'd be okay with sharing if you are."

He hesitated for a moment. Not like he was considering how to decline, but more as though he was surprised by the offer at all. "Of course," he replied as he sat down, making sure to leave enough room for Lydia.

Lydia sat down on the bench beside him, settling Vito on her lap. Baloo seemed intrigued by the cat, but as a testament to how well-trained he was, he did little more than give Vito a quick inspection. Vito, on the other hand, took it upon himself to prance right over Fallon's lap and give Baloo an inquisitive poke in the snout with one of his paws.

"Vito!" Lydia admonished with a giggle as Baloo shook his head in surprise. "I'm sorry," she told Fallon as she pulled Vito back towards her. "I'd say he's forgotten his manners, but he pretty much acts like he owns the place all the time."

Fallon smiled tightly and patted Vito's head. Lydia laughed as her cat looked at the man as though he'd received a great insult. "Not a cat person?" she guessed.

"Not really," Fallon admitted with a small laugh.

"Are you usually an early bird?" Lydia asked.

"Not if I can help it," countered Fallon with a wry smile. "I guess I'm just adjusting to sleeping in a new place."

Lydia nodded, feeling guilty. The Selected had all been torn out of their lives, and she wasn't even planning on finishing the Selection. She wouldn't have to, after all. Once she saved Naomi, everything could go back to normal.

"What about you?" Fallon reciprocated.

She shrugged her shoulders and tightened her grip around her mug. "Just…"

"We don't have to talk about it," Fallon offered, like he sensed her hesitation.

She smiled, appreciative of his offer. "I just have trouble sleeping sometimes," she confessed.

"I know what that's like," Fallon nodded.

She thought back to his file, remembering that he'd also been diagnosed with PTSD following his military service. While it wasn't comparable to Fallon's military service, she couldn't help but wonder if the Naomi situation was traumatizing her in a similar manner.

If so, it was no more than she deserved.

"Has everything been alright for you?" she asked. "Accessibility-wise, I suppose."

Fallon's expression was drawn, and Lydia suspected that he didn't like talking about his injury. "Yes, thank you for asking," he replied politely.

"Cool," nodded Lydia, "So that's the last I'll ask about it."

"It's not the asking that bothers me really," Fallon admitted. He shifted, clearly uncomfortable. "It's most the reminder that once people know, they pity me, or treat me differently."

Lydia shrugged. "I don't pity you," she declared. He glanced at her, one eyebrow raised like he almost dared to believe her. "I don't," she insisted. "Everyone has… stuff. Some people it's their powers or things they've done in the past or things that have happened to them that they wish they could change. But it doesn't define them or change who they are." She stared into her mug of tea. She meant everything she'd said to Fallon but desperately wished she could approach herself with the same understanding.

A silence settled between them for a few moments. Finally, Fallon said, "That's a very mature way of looking at the world."

Lydia smiled. "I tend to surprise people in that regard sometimes."

"Pleasantly," Fallon noted, smiling over at her.

"We should probably get back for breakfast," Lydia noted as she realized that her tea was empty. Fallon nodded and stood, offering an arm to Lydia. It was a sweet gesture, and she accepted, letting him escort her back to the castle.

Breakfast with the Selected was always an interesting occurrence. Some—like Skadi and Cohen—resented the early eight o'clock hour, while others were already full of energy, like Pascal and Bex. Aunt Avery's presence made it even more interesting, as her power tended to draw the attention of the Selected even if they tried to help it.

Lydia took her seat between her mother and brother and turned her attention to her food while everyone else settled in. Shortly into her pancakes, one of the Selected seated closest to her caught her attention. "Have you ever been to the National Aquarium, Your Highness?" Logan Wyatt asked.

"I have," confirmed Lydia. "Not in a long time though. Do you like aquariums?"

He nodded. "I have a pet fish back home," he explained. The way he said it made Lydia giggle, as his fish seemed to be something he geeked out over.

"Would you want to go to the aquarium?" she pressed.

Logan looked surprised. "With you?"

"If that's okay," Lydia chuckled.

"Of course!" beamed Logan. "Whenever you're free, I'd love to."

"What about today?" shrugged Lydia. "I don't have anything on my schedule after breakfast."

Logan enthusiastically agreed, and after breakfast, Lydia met him outside the castle for their aquarium date. "I haven't been to the aquarium since we were kids," she admitted as they slid into the backseat of a car.

"I've heard it's the nicest in Illéa," Logan commented, clearly excited.

"From what I remember, it was great," she admitted. She tried not to linger on the thoughts though, as they inevitably involved Naomi. "So, you're a physical therapist, right?"

"Yeah," confirmed Logan. "It's pretty great."

Lydia smiled. "It's always nice to hear when people enjoy their jobs," she noted.

"It's kind of like your power," Logan added.

Mention of her power in a medical context always made Lydia pause, because it made her feel guilty that she wasn't healing everyone that needed it. She nodded. "I'd like to do more with my power," she admitted, "but then it becomes the question of when do you draw the line."

"It's just nice that you have such a positive power," Logan replied. "I've heard of some that aren't so great."

"It doesn't feel fair a lot of the time," she admitted. "We get ours just from being royalty. Everyone else earns theirs."

Logan swallowed nervously. "Well, some other people get them because of their family," he countered.

"Did you?" Lydia asked.

"Yeah." He set it quickly, like he didn't want to linger on the subject. "So, can you heal like anything?" he asked. It was an obvious change of subject, but Lydia didn't comment on it

"To an extent," Lydia admitted. "People, animals, plants. But if it's too serious, sometimes there's nothing I can do."

"Cohen told us you healed your cat," Logan smiled. "That's pretty cool."

It was nice to be complimented on her power for once, instead of focusing on what it couldn't do. "Thanks," she beamed.

When they arrived at the aquarium, they waited in the car while one of their guards spoke with the aquarium staff. One of the staff members joined them and offered to give the pair a behind the scenes tour, since it was safer than releasing Lydia into the general public.

They started with the mammals. "Most of our animals come to us because they were born in captivity and can't survive in the wild, or because they need rehabilitation," the staff member explained.

"Wow, to think you could've been a penguin rehabilitator," Lydia teased Logan, causing him to chuckle.

"Would you like to pet one?" the staff member asked. Logan immediately agreed, and Lydia followed along, though she wasn't actually committed to petting a penguin.

"This is Rosa," the keeper explained as she led a penguin towards them. "She was recently attacked by a seal. It's been a tough process, but she's on the mend."

Rosa was a very friendly penguin, though she walked with a limp from her accident. Seeing the penguin hobble made Lydia think of Joey, and a thought blooming in her mind, she reached out and set her hand on Rosa's injured side. She felt Logan's eyes on her as she focused, and a moment later, she knew it had worked because she felt drained enough that she had to sit down.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Rosa walk flawlessly back towards the enclosure.

"That is seriously cool," Logan declared.

She smiled. "Uh, would you mind getting a snack before we move on?" she suggested.

He agreed, and they decided to split a giant cookie while they were free of Collette's watchful eyes. "So your power kind of drains you," he noted.

"It's a trade off," she shrugged. "It can't come out of nowhere, I suppose."

"How do you… how do you control it?" he asked. "Like, how do you stop yourself from healing things every time you touch them?"

"It's the opposite," she explained, "I have to focus to make it happen."

Logan sighed, like he was disappointed that she didn't have a secret to control. "If you were curious about that though, you could talk to Iris," she offered, "She's an air fairy, so I think your power falls within her realm."

He perked up. "That would actually be cool, if it wasn't too much trouble."

"Not at all," shrugged Lydia, "I'll let her know." She grabbed the last bit of cookie and stood up. "I think we still have a few more things to see if you're interested." Logan grinned and stood up as well.

They spent the rest of the afternoon strolling through the aquarium. Logan had the brilliant idea of buying Lydia a hat and sunglasses from the gift shop so they could join the rest of the visitors without any hassle. It worked particularly well, except for a few eagle-eyed individuals that approached them. Every time Lydia encountered a member of the public unexpectedly, she was reminded at how good Naomi had been at handling the attention and how particularly bad she was.

But the afternoon passed without much trouble, and they made it back to the castle in time for dinner. Afterwards, Lydia planned on barricading herself in the library for the few hours to see if she could find any leads on fire fairies.

On her way to the library though, she noticed that Skadi and Leif were lingering down the hall. Leif held Skadi up as she looked at a picture of Lydia's grandmother, Queen Helen.

"Hi, guys," she smiled as she joined them.

"Your Highness." Leif bowed.

"We're exploring!" Skadi explained excitedly.

"Oh, really?" smiled Lydia.

Leif nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "Is that okay? We're not looking at anything personal or anything."

"Of course," Lydia insisted. She paused before she added, "I mean, if you needed a tour guide though, I do know my way around the secret passages pretty well."

"Secret passages?" Skadi gasped. She insistently grabbed Lydia's hand. "Please show us the secret passages!"

"You really don't have to," countered Leif, "You're probably busy."

Lydia thought of her plans for the rest of the afternoon: scouring the library for anything on fire fairies and sitting at Naomi's bedside. She always felt it was her duty to keep Naomi company in her comatose state, but she couldn't pretend that it wasn't wearing on her. "Actually, my night is pretty free," she countered, "if you wanted some company."

"Please, Pappa!" Skadi begged.

Leif laughed at his daughter before he sent a gentle smile at Lydia. "Yeah, that'd be great."

Lydia smiled in return. "Well, let's go then."

Although she wasn't sure what the secret passages had been built for originally, they were mostly forgotten by the inhabitants of the castle and rarely used anymore, except for the royal children. Lydia and Cohen had originally discovered them for stealing snacks from the kitchen, while Naomi had used them to meet Ben secretly when he visited. Now, Lydia mostly used them to escape.

But she didn't feel worried about sharing her hiding places with Skadi and Leif. Skadi's excitement made it hard to be concerned, and seeing how sweet Leif was with his daughter immediately warmed Lydia to him as well. In some ways, it reminded her of how her relationship with her own father had been before Naomi's accident.

She couldn't help but comment on this as they took one of the passages that led to the highest tower in the castle. It used to be Lydia and Naomi's favorite place to look for shooting stars or constellations. If their parents ever suspected them to be out after their childhood bedtimes, they would just dash into the passageway to hide. "You're really sweet with her," she noted as Skadi rushed to the window to stare out at the grounds.

Leif smiled. "She's the best thing that's ever happened to me." He glanced at Lydia before he added, "Are you close with your parents?"

She smiled sadly. "I used to be," she admitted, "especially my dad."

"What happened?"

She took a deep breath, and Leif quickly added, "Sorry. That's probably pretty personal."

"It's okay," she assured him. "I guess… I just became a different person."

Leif's brow furrowed, and for such a giant man, he looked oddly vulnerable. "The growing up is what I'm dreading most," he noted. "For the day she won't need her Pappa anymore."

A lump of emotion caught in Lydia's throat, and she tried to swallow it away. "We always need our pappas," she countered. Before Leif could pick up on her sadness, she joined Skadi at the window and pointed the Big Dipper out to the little girl. The squeal of delight that Skadi let out when she found it almost chased Lydia's melancholy away.

"Where are we going next, Lydia?" Skadi demanded cheerfully as the trio made their way out of the tower.

"Well," Lydia considered, "I could probably show you guy the Royal Vault."

"What's that?" Skadi asked, her nose wrinkled in confusion. She already clung to Leif's hand as they made their way through the stone passage, but she reached out for one of Lydia's as well, which forced a smile to Lydia's face.

"It is where we keep very special things," Lydia told her. She gave a pause to build suspense before she added in a conspiratorial whisper, "Like tiaras."

Skadi got so excited that she literally started bouncing up and down. Lydia was about to lead the way when she noticed a door to her left. She froze in place as her mind went into overdrive.

It looked like any other of the doors that led off the secret passage ways – wood, brown, nondescript. But Lydia had visited the tower hundreds of times throughout her life, and she knew that this door had not been there before.

"Is everything okay?" Leif asked, noticing her change in demeanor.

"Can we take a short detour first?" she asked. Skadi looked disappointed, but Leif gave her a 'behave' look, and the two followed after Lydia as she practically raced through the door and up the stairs that lay behind it.

"This is it," Lydia whispered to herself. When she reached the top of the stairs, there was another door. This door was outlined in characters that Lydia couldn't read but had seen before – fae. She threw open the door.

The only thing in the room was the book, placed on a pedestal. It was exactly as Iris had once told her. Lydia walked to the book, and taking a deep breath, she opened it.

They were separated by element. She flipped all the way to fire.

"Uh, what is this?" Leif asked as he and Skadi finally joined her.

"It's a register," Lydia explained as her eyes scanned the pages. "Of fairies. It updates itself. It records a fairy's birth, power, last known location, any house affiliation or powers they've gifted."

"You'd think a room like this would be locked," Leif mused.

"It's smarter than that," countered Lydia. "It doesn't always appear in the same place," she explained, "I've never seen it before now." Her breath caught in her throat as she finally found Agnimitra's name.

But the location hadn't changed, and Lydia's hands balled into fists. She knew where Agnimitra was, that had never been the problem. She turned her attention back to the page, looking for anything.

Then, she realized there was something smaller written under Agnimitra's name. "Of the Folkvardr family," she read.

Leif raised his eyebrows. "Folkvardr?"

Lydia glanced at him. "Yes. Does that mean something to you?"

"Uh, it's just Norse," Leif explained, "Old Norse, actually. It means 'guardian of the people.'"

Lydia's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "That makes no sense," she muttered, thinking of all the stories she'd ever heard about Agnimitra. She looked back down at the page.

"Are we going to see the tiaras soon?" Skadi whispered to Leif loudly.

Lydia glanced up and smiled. "Of course," she offered. There was no more she could glean from the book about Agnimitra anyway. She closed it, the word Folkvradr bouncing around in her mind.