The Daughter of a Knight

Один (1)

Ekaterina had been standing in front of the stairs for thirty minutes now.

The stairs were extremely creaky and she knew that even the smallest noise would wake, the very light sleeper, Ivan Petrov. That would make leaving impossible for her.

So without thinking about it any longer Ekaterina ran down the stairs and straight to the front door as fast as her legs would carry her.

She could feel her legs starting to burn. The manor Ekaterina lived in was an extremely big structure. Some might even call it a castle for its size. Hundreds of bedrooms filled with expensive furniture, an elaborately decorated ballroom behind every corner and a few massive libraries scattered around. Way too many rooms for the three people that lived there.

Her father loved that structure, saying it was the most prestigious and gorgeous placed he'd ever lived in. To Ekaterina the house was anything but a beautiful castle. To her it was a prison, a slaughterhouse and a graveyard. Not a mansion. Not a castle. And definitely not a home. She missed her real home, the home she grew up in, her mother's childhood home back in Russia. A small and cozy cottage with a magically heated greenhouse and a small lake.

Thankfully it seemed that Ivan Petrov was out of the house for he did not come chasing after his daughter. Ekaterina couldn't be happier about it, but soon that happiness was gone.

She stopped in the middle of the entrance hall. Her feet were aching from running through half of the mansion. And her arm was starting to tickle, not painful yet, but on its way there. But Ekaterina didn't focus on the pain in her feet. Instead she focused on the person in front of her.

Andrei Petrov.

The siblings stared at each other for a few quiet minutes. For the first time in a year Ekaterina saw some emotion in her brother's eyes. But she didn't like the emotion. Andrei's eyes were full of betrayal and hurt. Another person in his life decided to leave him.

Just a year ago he had lost his wife Irina. Half a year ago he lost his mother. And now he was going to lose his sister as well. And even though it hurt, he knew this was the best for her. No fifteen year old was supposed to live like this.

So without a single word exchanged between the siblings Andrei took out a small box from his jacket and opened it. From the inside he took a chain which had a charm and two rings on it.

One ring was a Yakushkin family heirloom. A ring their mother had worn with pride. A fox, the Yakushkin family animal was carved onto it. And on the inside the current owners name. The second she puts the ring on her finger, the name Anna Petrova will be replaced by her own name, Ekaterina Petrova.

The second ring was the ring Andrei had proposed to Irina with. The Petrov family heirloom. The ring Petrov men had proposed with for 200 years. Two snakes, the Petrov family animal, intertwined.

And the necklace with the charm was their mothers. A necklace which Anna had promised to give to Ekaterina once she turned 18. But Anna had not lived long enough to fulfill her promise. The charm was just a small blue crystal. The same blue as Anna's eyes, the same blue as Ekaterina's eyes.

Both siblings now had tears in their eyes. The death of their mother still haunted them both. Neither could shake the image of life leaving her body from their minds. The image of their father raising his wand and speaking the cursed words. The two words that would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Ekaterina walked up to her older brother and took the necklace out of his hand. She quickly put it on, next to a necklace he mother had made her when she was ten and lurched towards him, bringing her hands together behind his neck.