CHAPTER FORTY TWO
— we gladly feast on those who would subdue us
THE CORNER OF TOM'S MOUTH TWITCHED INTO SOMETHING THAT ALMOST RESEMBLED A SMILE AS HE STOLE A GLANCE TO THE GIRL SEATED A FEW ROWS TO HIS LEFT DURING HISTORY OF MAGIC. Rhea sat casually in her chair, quill in hand and hardly listening to a word Professor Binns was saying about the fourteenth century wizarding economic bubble. As though sensing his gaze on her, Rhea slid her attention away from the ceiling of the classroom and to Tom with a small, knowing smirk on her face.
For the past few weeks, Tom and Rhea had spent every night in the Dark Forest, practicing and perfecting his skills. He was surprised by how patient Rhea was with him; Even when he would get frustrated when he wasn't able to immediately master a spell, she would calmly wait until he got it. And getting to watch her practice her magic up close was another thing all together and Tom would always leave practices with the same thought ringing his mind:
Rhea Hel is truly one of a kind.
Rhea wouldn't deny that she enjoyed having someone who understood how wonderful dark magic could be. It was one of the thing's she liked most about Tom. Unlike her, he hadn't grown up in a family that specialized in and preached about how sacred the Dark Arts were, but he could still see that they were a misrepresented form of magic with limitless potential for what it could achieve or do. Magic had and always would be Rhea's greatest love and no one, not Eddie or Tom, could ever take its place.
They would spend hours in the Forest, talking about magic and, occasionally, stealing kisses from one another without worrying about what it means or the consequences of what they were doing. For the first time in Rhea's life, she didn't worry about what her family would think if they found out what she was doing. Her and Tom's relationship was their little secret and she didn't want to share it with anyone else.
In hindsight, Rhea wished she'd paid a bit more attention when a neatly wrapped letter landed on the table in front of her while she ate breakfast in the Great Hall amongst the other Slytherins. Persephone was rambling on and on about their upcoming end-of-the-year exams while Walburga and Druella whispered quietly to one another. Rhea didn't pay any mind to who the letter was from — assuming it was her grandmother or stepmother writing to her like they usually did — but when she slid the letter from the envelope, her stomach plummeted to her feet and a deep, angry frown formed on her face.
Rhea,
I hope you remember our last conversation. Sneaking out to the woods every night with the half-blood boy will surely raise eyebrows and it would be such a shame to see you and Atlas's engagement come to an end over something that couldn't possibly last.
Gaia
Rhea crumpled the letter in her fist and abruptly rose from her seat, ignoring the looks of confusion from her friends as she stormed out of the Great Hall. Rage built up inside of her when she thought of Atlas's mother and how she was interfering in her life.
Rhea had done everything to prove to his family that she was worthy — she even crossed into the plane between life and death because it was tradition — and this was how they treated her? She was Rhea Hel and she wouldn't let Gaia get away with this.
Rhea found herself in the library during her free period between History of Magic and Charms. She had a large tome in front of her, but instead of paying attention to the words on the page, her sharp gaze was trained on the table of students near the window overlooking the grounds outside. Nesta Greengrass sat comfortably in the wooden chair beside Damocles Rowle and Juniper Prewett. A light pink blush spread over the Greengrass girl's cheeks at something Damocles said before she carefully took her gaze away from him and allowed it to sweep across the room to where Rhea was sitting.
The corners of Rhea's mouth upturned when she saw Nesta's noticeable look of distaste upon seeing the girl sat there with her gaze on her. Nesta mumbled something to Damocles before she gracefully climbed to her feet and made her way across the room.
Nesta Greengrass reminded Rhea of herself in many ways, and it wasn't just because of their similarities in appearance. Like Rhea, Nesta had always put family above all else and the Greengrass's were another Sacred family that espoused the philosophy of pure-blood supremacy. In fact, Rhea didn't think there was any other family, including the Malfoy's, who so vehemently believed in the superiority of their blood. And when Rhea's father publicly pledged his support to Grindelwald's cause, Nesta's father, Farai Greengrass, hadn't been far behind in declaring his own loyalty to the dark wizard. Farai was currently serving a life sentence in Azkaban, but Nesta and Rhea had never forgotten the time when their families only had each other to rely on. The Hel's and Greengrass's were practically family and when Rhea came calling, Nesta was always ready to help out her old family friend, even if she didn't always want to.
"I thought we weren't supposed to be seen talking to each other while at school," Nesta said as she sat down in the seat across the table from Rhea. Luckily for them, they weren't many people in the library to witness their conversation and Damocles and Juniper seemed too invested in their studies to look to where Nesta had gone. "Could you imagine what people would start to say if they saw the two of us talking?"
That was another reason Rhea had always been quite fond of Nesta. She always thought about the bigger picture — the greater good — and would never do anything to jeopardize her family's reputation.
"Don't worry, I'll make it fast." Rhea grinned. Buried beneath Nesta's sweet expression laid a viper that rivaled Rhea's own. Nesta Greengrass wasn't a person to be trifled with and Rhea was glad to have an ally out of the girl. "I need you to look into something for me, but I can't have anyone else finding out about it."
Nesta raised a brow.
"Go on."
"Ekaterina Dragomir," Rhea said, repeating the name of the person Octavia had said. Nesta's brows pulled together.
"Who is she to you?" Nesta asked curiously.
"Someone connected to the Krane's." Rhea said before sighing, "You know I wouldn't ask you to do this unless it was important."
"Oh, I know you wouldn't. You'd do it yourself except you don't want it to get back to the Krane's that you're going around asking questions." Nesta said before chuckling. "I still can't believe you managed to get yourself wrapped up in that family. I bet you don't even realize how out of your depths you are with them."
Rhea frowned.
"How so?"
Nesta heaved out a long sigh before speaking,
"I don't need to look into who Ekaterina Dragomir is, Rhea. I knew her." Rhea sat forward, intrigued.
Knew.
"Who was she?"
"Someone who got too close to the Krane's and now lies in a box six feet under." Nesta frowned before shaking her head. "For your sake, I'm going to forget that you asked about her and you should forget that name altogether. Let the dead stay dead and let those secrets die with them."
Nesta rose from her chair, leaving Rhea to stare at her retreating figure with a look of annoyance on her face. Rhea watched as Nesta returned to her seat before she briefly turned her gaze to the seventh year sitting beside her. Damocles Rowle met Rhea's gaze with a blank stare that caused alarm bells to go off in her head before he turned his gaze back to the book in front of him.
She nearly laughed, she could hardly believe how she had overlooked him. Damocles Rowle, and the Rowle's in general, wasn't someone Rhea had ever paid much attention to, but she could vividly remember seeing him talking to Atlas as if they were old friends during the Rosier's Easter Party fifth year.
Quickly, Rhea rose from her chair and bolted to the Room of Requirement while she still had time before classes. She was out of breath by the time the door appeared and she tore into the room to find Tom crouching over the Black Book. He glanced up, startled by the interruption, but he didn't seem too upset when he realized it was Rhea until she went up and snatched the book right from his hands.
"What are you doing?" Tom protested, irritation seeping into his tone as he tried to grab the book back, only for Rhea to step out of his reach and flip quickly through the pages.
"Where is it? Where is it?" Rhea said under her breath. Tom frowned as he watched her, wondering what was the matter.
"What are you looking for? What are you doing?" Tom asked.
"Someone has been telling Atlas's mother about us —"
"Us?"
"— They've followed us out into the forest every night and reported everything back to her, but I just realized who it was — here it is!" Rhea cheered excitedly, flashing Tom the page where her mother's handwriting was sprawled all over, telling Rhea how to perform the spell she had been looking for. "If Grindelwald ever suspected that one of his followers was a spy for the Ministry, he would have my father capture them and keep them in the cellar before he would leave to go off to do whatever it was that Grindelwald had him do. But at night, my mum would sneak out of her room and drag them out to the shed. She'd be in there for hours, torturing them and forcefully extracting all sorts of memories and truths from them. By the time she was finished, they'd all be so afraid of her that they'd pledge their loyalty to the cause. She caught me out there a few times, watching it all go down, and she would always tell me what spells she had used on them. This one was her favorite."
Tom frowned. He hadn't heard Rhea talk about her mother in this way before. Usually, whenever she spoke about her mother she would talk about how much she loathed her, but her tone when she spoke of her now was almost fond.
"What're you going to do?" Tom asked, feeling a dark kind of excitement begin to take over. Rhea glanced at him, resisting the urge to grin because she knew that he, like her, was excited to cause someone else pain and scare them into loyalty.
"We're going to do it." Rhea said. "But we're going to need a little help."
Wide grins stretched across both of their faces and it took everything within Rhea for her to drag her eyes away from Tom's face to focus on their plan.
Rhea and Tom spent the next few days planning their move on Damocles, meaning they had to be a lot more careful about how much time they were spending together. Luckily for them, most students were spending the time studying for their end-of-the-year exams so Rhea didn't necessarily see Tom unless she was attending Knights of Walpurgis meetings.
The meetings were mostly filled with Tom going on and on while Davina desperately tried to get on his good side. Astrea was hardly ever at them anymore since Tom wanted her to spend "as much time as possible" with the Grey Lady, though he still had yet to reveal why that was.
But, between the planning, Rhea managed to pull Delphine Erebus aside to ask her to look into Ekaterina and her death. Rhea wasn't afraid of Gaia or any of the Krane's and she wanted them to know that they didn't scare her.
When the night finally rolled around for Rhea and Tom's plan, she wished that she would've been able to see the look on Gaia's face when she realized what happened.
Rhea and Tom stood in the dark forest, encircled by trees with nothing to be heard except for the whistling of the summer breeze and twigs crunching from underfoot. Their hands were placed neatly in front of them as the pair of them patiently waited, but they were not alone. Several eyes peered out from between the trees, eager to see what was to come before Juniper Prewett broke through the tree line, a grim look on her face as Damocles stepped into Rhea's line of signt. His expression dropped instantaneously when he saw Rhea and Tom standing side by side.
Damocles stopped in his tracks and turned to Juniper.
"Juniper, what's going on?" Damocles asked, cautiously. Juniper looked at him apologetically.
"I'm so sorry, Damocles." She said before stepping aside. Damocles took several steps back before Orpheus Mulciber and Ramsey Lestrange appeared behind him, cruel smiles on their faces as they pushed Damocles to the ground before Rhea and Tom's feet. He looked up as the other Knights of Walpurgis stepped out from the shadows, watching the scene unfold before their very eyes.
"Expelliarmus," Abraxas said when he noticed Damocles reaching for his wand. Tom took out his wand and ropes shot from the tip before they tightly wrapped themselves around Damocles, immobilizing him. Cassius sat Damocles upright so that he could look directly at Rhea, who had a soft smile on her face.
"Damocles," Rhea said his name happily as though she was greeting an old friend, "How lovely it is that you could join us. Juniper wasn't too sure that she would be able to get you out here, but I managed to reassure her that she could do it and good thing too. Orpheus and Ramsey had much more unpleasant ideas on how to get you to join us."
"What do you want, Rhea?" Damocles asked, silently seething as he stared up at Rhea with fury in his eyes that made her smile widen. She would enjoy watching that anger turn to fear when she finished with him.
"We know what you've done." Tom spoke calmly, his voice void of any emotion as he stared at Damocles like he was insignificant. "Spying on us, reporting back to the Krane's . . ."
Damocles didn't react, not that Rhea had expected him to.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Damocles said through gritted teeth.
Rhea shook her head disapprovingly at him.
"If there's one thing I hate, it's liars and I can always tell when someone's lying." Rhea stepped forward and cradled Damocles's head in her hands. He desperately tried to escape from her grip but it was ironclad and unbreakable.
The Knights and Tom watched in awe as Rhea's eyes rolled to the back of her head so that only the whites could be seen, and low groans of pain began to be emitted from Damocles as he thrashed about.
"You should start talking." Tom suggested to Damocles. "The longer she keeps her hands on your head, the more pain you'll begin to feel. Eventually, you won't be able to bare it anymore. You'll earn yourself a one-way trip to St. Mungo's by the time she's done with you — or dead."
Some of the Knights glanced up, startled, when they heard that part. Druella shifted uncomfortably; Seraphina watched on in horror; Juniper averted her eyes from the scene; Cassius and Jasper kept their gazes on the ground; and Astrea stared at Tom with a look that told him that she hoped he wouldn't let Rhea go that far.
He would.
"P-please . . . stop . . . I didn't . . . do . . . anything . . ." Damocles grunted through the pain and Rhea let out a disappointed sigh.
Liar.
Damocles let out a loud scream of agony that tore through the air and startled everyone around them as Rhea turned up the power of her spell and forced her way into Damocles's mind. His body twitched violently as pain coursed through every inch of him while Rhea sifted through his memories, searching for the one she was looking for.
"Maybe she should stop." Druella suggested.
"No." Tom spoke sharply. "Let Damocles be an example of what happens to those who cross us."
And he was.
Rhea's magic was feeding off of the fear that was in the air and it seeped off of the people around them in waves. Most of them hadn't truly seen dark magic used in this way up close before and it was one of those things that reminded them of just how deadly and dangerous Rhea Hel actually was. Davina could hardly pick her jaw up from off the ground as she watched the person who she had so long believed to be nothing more than a sweet and innocent girl who could hardly hurt a fly bring Damocles Rowle to the brink of death without even making a sound.
Then, Rhea found the memory and she grabbed ahold of it, extracting it from Damocles brain so that she could watch him lurk behind the trees as she and Tom practiced their magic before he would run back to write letters to Gaia detailing what they had done.
When Tom noticed that Rhea had yet to pull her hands away from Damocles's head, he frowned ever so slightly. And when blood began to leak from the boy's ears, he only said one word of warning,
"Rhea."
She took her hands away from Damocles and he fell to the ground, ropes disappearing from his body as his body twitched. Juniper let out a sob and fell to the ground beside him, cradling his head in her lap.
"What did you do to him?" Juniper asked when Damocles's eyes didn't open. She turned an accusatory gaze to Rhea that made the girl scoff.
"Nothing that he didn't bring upon himself. Now, dry your tears, or have you forgotten that you were the one who lured him out here in the first place?" Rhea retorted before she stepped over Damocles's body and walked off, leaving them all to stare after her.
Rhea was surprised by how revitalized she felt after performing that spell, like she could do anything. She knew that when Damocles woke up, Tom would take care of the rest and get him to change his loyalties to the Knights instead. But, Rhea could hardly focus on that when she thought about where she would be a fortnight from now.
At first, Rhea dreaded having to go off with her father so that Grindelwald could see what she could do. However, she found herself eager to see what kinds of spells and magic he would be able to teach her. He was, after all, the most powerful wizard of their time and Rhea wanted to learn everything she could from him before her grandmother followed through with her plan of murdering him.
Damocles was nowhere to be found in the days that followed and Rhea suspected that he was too afraid to leave his room in case he saw her. He wasn't the only one afraid of her either. Druella, Davina, and Juniper had noticeably been acting different towards her whereas some of the other Knights seemed to have a newfound sense of respect for her. Abraxas, Lupe, Ramsey, and Orpheus no longer seemed to be annoyed by how much closer Rhea and Tom seemed to be. In fact, they were more receptive towards her now than they had ever been before.
Rhea finished up her end-of-the-year exams confidently and, once she packed the last of her things away into her trunk, she took a look at the Hel's Codex that rested on her sheet-less bed next to a vanilla envelope with her grandmother's writing on it. Rhea picked the items up and made her way out of the dungeons and to the ground floor so that she could enter her Transfiguration professors office.
Professor Dumbledore looked up in surprise when he saw Rhea Hel enter his office. Most of his things were packed away too, but he still sat at his desk, reading over something as he prepared himself for the year to end.
"Miss Hel," Professor Dumbledore said, offering her a warm smile. "What can I do for you?"
"Sorry to bother you, Professor, but my grandmother wanted me to extend this invitation to you. She throws these dinner parties every once in a while where she gets people from all over the wizarding world to attend and she would be honored if you could make it." Rhea said, handing him the letter. Professor Dumbledore smiled kindly at her.
"Tell your grandmother I would be honored to attend. It's been a while since I've stepped foot into Hel House, it'll be good to return."
"I will be sure to pass that on to her." Rhea said before glancing at the Codex in her arms with a soft sigh. Her grandmother said that Dumbledore was the key to defeating Grindelwald, but Rhea didn't understand why she had to do this. "My grandmother also wanted to give you this. She mentioned that you were a collector of sorts and thought you might like it."
Rhea handed the Codex to Dumbledore and watched as he inspected it carefully, flipping through the pages.
"What is this?" Dumbledore asked curiously.
"It's a collection of our family's history. We call it the Hel's Codex and my grandmother thought some of the stories may be of interest to you."
"I look forward to reading this. Thank you, Rhea." Dumbledore said. Rhea nodded and turned to go before Dumbledore spoke up again, "Oh, and congratulations on your engagement to Atlas Krane. I've known Adonis and Gaia for a long time and they are wonderful people."
"Yes, they are." Rhea smiled warmly. "Thank you, Professor. Have a nice summer."
"You too, Rhea."
Rhea would be sad to leave Hogwarts behind, she didn't seem to be anywhere near as sad as Tom was, who looked down right miserable as they boarded the Hogwarts Express and set off for London.
Rhea sat in an empty compartment by herself, wanting the time to think before she was to set off with her father. Green rolling hills of Scotland passed her by as she stared out of the window. She hadn't even told Tom she was going off for the entire summer and she wasn't sure how he would react when he wouldn't be able to hear from her for two months. She wondered if he would even care or if their "relationship" stopped when they left Hogwarts. They'd never quite gotten the details ironed out, but she doubted that he would mind. After all, it wasn't as though they were together.
The door to the compartment slid open and Rhea briefly glanced over her shoulder to see Delphine making her way to the seat across from Rhea.
"Did you find out about Ekaterina?" Rhea asked. Delphine shook her head sadly.
"Bits and pieces, really. All I know is that she came from a wizarding family in Bulgaria, but I don't think they were very wealthy or well known. She attended Durmstrang until her death a few years ago. The story is that she died because of an explosion caused by her sister, but I couldn't find anything that connected her to the Krane's or Atlas. She wasn't even the same age as Atlas, she's a few years younger than us and the sister is two years older than us."
Rhea perked up at that.
"Did you find anything out about the sister?"
"Not really. Her name is Elitsa and she was in Bulgarian wizarding jail for what happened, but died last year."
Rhea hummed, deep in thought. She knew that there had to be some sort of connection between these two sisters and the Krane's, but she wasn't quite sure what it could be yet and Rhea wasn't too sure if she had the time to figure that out when she had bigger problems to worry about when the train pulled into the station.
Rhea thanked Delphine for her help and the girl ran off, leaving Rhea alone in her compartment. As the train drew closer and closer to London, Rhea found herself wondering about Tom and realized how odd it would be to go so long without seeing or speaking to him. He had become a frequent part of her life this year and she didn't want to leave without saying goodbye to him.
When the Hogwarts Express pulled into King's Cross Station, Rhea darted out of her compartment, hoping to catch one final glimpse at Tom before she was to leave. She pushed her way through her peers as they hugged their friends goodbye and made promises to write each other while they were away.
Tom filed out of his compartment behind Lupe and Abraxas. He looked quite upset as he thought about having to return to the orphanage again.
He glanced up when he saw a flash of golden blonde hair from the corner of his eye. He raised a brow when he saw the unreadable expression on Rhea's face as she went to stand beside him as they waited to leave the train. Their knuckles brushed against each other, causing Tom to stare at her blankly, sensing that something was off with her.
"What are you doing?" Tom asked curiously, glancing down at their hands once more. He didn't understand his relationship with Rhea and when he found out that Gaia Krane knew about them, his first instinct had been to end whatever was happening before it really started. Surprisingly, that idea displeased him more than he cared to admit.
"Saying goodbye." Rhea said nonchalantly before she grabbed Tom's hand and squeezed it for a split second. Tom's eyes widened at the gesture, confused at what she was doing and why it made something that had long been buried deep within him come to life. Time seemed to slow down as Tom stared into Rhea's eyes, wondering if he should tell her to stop before someone noticed. His gaze flickered over to Abraxas and Lupe, but their eyes were elsewhere as they moved towards the open door of the train car to step onto the platform. "Goodbye, Tom."
Rhea let go of his hand and moved forward while Tom kept his feet planted firmly on the ground, staring at Rhea's back with narrowed eyes before she turned around again and promised to write to him.
Rhea stepped off the train and glanced around, catching a glimpse of Pluto as he left with their uncle. Rhea pushed through the crowd to retrieve her things when she felt someone tap on her shoulder. Quickly, she spun around and came face-to-face with a man she didn't recognize, but she knew exactly who they were. Rhea threw her arms around their waist, hugging the unfamiliar man tightly causing him to emit a low chuckle before he hugged her back.
"I've missed you, Father." Rhea whispered into his chest. She pulled away, marveling at the effects of the Polyjuice Potion as Cauius Hel smiled down at his daughter.
"And I've missed you, my Rhea." He grinned down at her before taking her arm. "Are you ready?"
Rhea didn't hesitate before she said, "Yes", and together, she and her father left the station and set out for Austria.