Nova really needed to find Haze. But somehow, her sister is nowhere to be found.

Like she gets that this castle is huge but she could find her in the Wild Thicket. How can she not locate Haze in an organized building?

After many winding hallways with no clear direction in mind, she hears a familiar voice.

“Nova!” Haze exclaims, which certainly helps Nova’s search. She turns and readies herself for the strong embrace. Haze practically tackles her.

“You look like a bustling bee. You looking for me?” Haze asks, tilting her head like a puppy.

They never withheld secrets from one another. Nova isn’t sure they know how to.

Nova shifts uneasily on her feet. This feeling cannot be healthy. “I need to talk through something with you.”

“Sure. What’s wrong?” Her sister asks like nothing is wrong. But something is. It has to be.

“Nothing’s wrong!” Nova assures her (not so convincingly). She can tell Haze doesn’t believe that with her bright smile faltering.

Taking her hand, Haze gives her a comforting squeeze. They’ve only ever had one another. Even with whatever is happening with her, Haze is the only one she would ever want to go to. “Well something isn’t normal. You are like a skiddish deer,” Haze points out.

After a deep breathe that didn’t make her feel better, she begins with the easiest part to explain, “I just am having these thoughts. I don’t understand them. And I was hoping you would know or heal me or something.”

“So something did happen?”

Why can’t she just spit it out? She’s never been afraid to tell Haze or anyone anything. It’s like all her self assuredness and confidence flew out the castle windows.

Glancing around to make sure they are truly alone, Nova reveals the purpose of this talk. “I think I’m getting sick. Maybe being away from the Wild Thicket is actually making me ill. Maybe it’s the incompetency of the guards.”

Her sister’s eyebrows go up, and her eyes flood with concern. “Do you feel sick?” Her hand instantly goes to her forehead which is sweaty but not from heat.

Logically, Nova knows it isn’t from high temperatures, so it has to be from being sick.

Right?

“My heart races, my hands get clammy, and my mouth gets dry. There’s this feeling in my stomach which has me most concerned,” she lists.

Something that she says seems to strike a chord in Haze. Her lips twitch upwards in a knowing way (knowing of what, Nova doesn’t get).

“When did it start?” She questions, calmly with no rush in her tone.

Nova’s confused.

“Around the time we got here. It got really intense today though which is why I needed to talk with you,” she tries to convey the urgency of the situation. It should be comforting that Haze doesn’t appear concerned, but it only serves to frustrate Nova more.

“What happened today?”

Thinking back to the day’s events, she recounts, “A lesson for the knights. Faira was annoying like usual.”

“What else? Anything with Ward,” she pushes gently, not wanting to set Nova off.

“Ward and I talked. But I don’t get what that would have to do with this.” Like seriously? Nova is potentially ill and Haze wants to know if she spoke with Ward.

That conversation with Ward was….interesting. He called her fighting abilities ‘starshine.’ No one has has such nice words to say about her.

There it is! She feels her cheeks heat up just thinking about the way he complimented her and his stupid sincere eyes.

Oh my gosh. Ward is making her sick.

Apparently she and Haze were on the same wavelength but on entirely different ends. As if she read her mind, Haze laughs and shakes her head, “Oh Nova. You have a crush.”

A crush? No way. Nova doesn’t get crushes.

“What? Take it away!” Nova exclaims, clasping into Haze’s hands, hoping for her sister’s witch magic to extinguish the symptoms. “I can’t do that. And I don’t want to even if I could.”

“You don’t want me to feel better?” It isn’t an accusation. Nova wouldn’t accuse her of that. It’s more of a rhetorical.

Haze knows this. Doesn’t take offense. “Ward is good for you.” When Nova makes a grimace, Haze puts her hands in her hips and raises her eyebrows as if she challenged her. “What? You disagree?” Haze questions.

“Not necessarily. It’s just don’t think I would have a crush. I don’t trust easily,” Nova states, staring at her fiddling fingers.

“Well that can be true while still crushing on Ward. Maybe he’s found a door in your walls.”

Her hands quiver. When she gets anxious or bored, she would fidget with her knife or whatever weapon she had, but now Nova would cut herself with how shaky she is. “I’m scared, Haze. I told him about my scars.”

Her widened eyes are immediately drawn to Nova’s arm that has the swirling scars. That’s when Haze knows that this serious, whatever it is between Nova and Ward. Nova is a turtle. A hard shell on the outside to shut out the world. The fact that she willingly told someone the trauma of her past means that he slipped through the cracks. Or crack. Because Nova doesn’t have many.

“I know it’s just been you and me, but that doesn’t mean you can’t like him. You have so much care inside you. Some of that can go to him. There’s nothing wrong with you.”

It takes her a few seconds to process what Haze says.

Haze is right.

She is who she was before coming to the castle, even before meeting Ward. Just maybe with a crush now.

Groaning, her head falls into Haze’s shoulder.

She has a crush.