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“Why are you here?” He asked.
“I came in...” I hesitated. “I felt your pain. I want to save you.”
“I cannot be saved,” he replied. “The queen told me. She said no monsters can ever become fae again. The change is permanent.”
“You should know better than to believe her,” I said, doubting it myself. “I think I can change you back if you let me.”
“How?” He asked.
“Is this the memory she forced on you to turn you into a monster?” I asked.
“It was the thing I thought about at the place where she called us after the trials ended,” he replied. “Is that what you mean?”
“Yes,” I replied. “She used this memory to convince you that you are a monster. That you deserve to be one... But why? You are not to blame for the accident. Are you?”
“She was my partner,” he said instead of answering my question. “She thought I was going to abandon her when I told her I would be getting her some cold water. Her leg was broken. She did not believe me, and I proved her right.”
“It wasn’t on purpose,” I told him. “You fell into the river.”
“I should’ve convinced her that I would return,” he said sadly. “If I had, she would have stayed. She would have waited for me.”
“It’s not your fault,” I repeated.
There was a pause. He did not say anything.
“What is your name?” I asked.
He hesitated before responding. At first, I thought he did not trust me enough to tell me his name, but then I realized that he had trouble remembering. I realized that he must have joined the trials before my time, at least ten years ago. That was a long time to be a monster and enough time for his memory to fail.
“Gethin,” he finally said.
“Gethin,” I repeated. “Listen. You didn’t do anything. I don’t know what happened to your partner, but...”
“I have to look for her,” he suddenly got up. “I have to find her before she... Before anything gets to her. This forest is full of monsters. And we’re not monsters yet. We cannot fight them.”
“Wait!” I jolted after him as he darted into the forest. He was going in the wrong direction; young Gethin did not know how to follow a trail.
“Fiona!” He shouted into the forest as he ran.
The name made me stop. The memory kept pushing me toward Gethin despite it.
“What did you say?” I asked as I caught up to him beside a giant boulder marking the top of a small hill. “Fiona was your partner? The princess?”
That made him pause. “How do you know that?”
“I know her. I met her here at the arena. She is...” I couldn’t tell him that she was okay. I did not know if she was. The Queen of Light had Fiona. I did not know what she would do to her.
“She is dead?” Gethin asked.
He had seen my expression.
“No,” I replied. “I don’t know. She was... She was with me just a few hours ago. Then... Then, the Queen of Light took her. I don’t think she will kill her. She said something about using her. I...”
“You have to save her,” Gethin said. “We have to save her.”
“To save her, we need to get you out of here,” I replied. “Out of this memory and into the real world...”
“In the real world, I’m a real monster,” Gethin replied.
