08. past, present and future

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𝖆𝖚𝖗𝖔𝖗𝖆 • the grand palace (the next morning)━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

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𝖆𝖚𝖗𝖔𝖗𝖆 • the grand palace (the next morning)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

When Aurora's birthday arrived, she couldn't stop pondering over what her father had told her. Exactly how soon was she going to be meeting her mother that he was speaking like that?

The question didn't leave her mind, to the point where she barely found any sleep because of all the thoughts racing through her, her lack of knowledge taunting her. She supposed she didn't mind if it did so long as she and her father were reunited with her mother again. It was the only dream she had as a child-and even know, it was all she could bother to think about.

When the attacker had stabbed her in the side, she was worried about never seeing her father and mother again, and Dawn and the few people she knew closely. But it was especially her family (which obviously included Dawn), and that was what helped her hold on.

Now, the next morning as she fixed her gown in front of the body-length mirror in her chambers, she couldn't help but continue to wonder. There was a sense of giddiness in her, and it wasn't from turning eighteen.

"At least Dusk can stop teasing me," she murmured to herself, turning sideways to inspect her angles. "Beautiful as always."

Aurora smiled at her reflection, grabbed a pen and jotted down 8 on the post-it note stuck to the corner of the mirror, then took one last moment to fix her appearance.

The knock that sounded at her door gave her the chance to break away from admiring herself and pull her out of her thoughts.

Taking in a deep breath and letting it out, she nodded to herself and turned on her heel, heading for the double doors. She pulled them open, slightly curious as to who would be up at nine in the morning and not grumbling for breakfast.

"Dusk," she said.

He smiled widely, handing a small box tied with a ribbon over to her.

Brows furrowing slightly with confusion, she took it from him, holding it up as she inspected it.

"Happy birthday," he said. "Even if it means I can no longer call you a baby." She rolled her eyes playfully with a faint smile, moving her hand from the door to unwrap the present. "No! Not now." She looked up. "Not until you've opened the others."

"Okay," she murmured, setting it to the side in her bedside drawer. "Thank you. Even though I've told you time and time again you don't have to buy me a present."

He frowned. "Um... it's a birthday. Isn't that the whole point? Cake and presents?"

"I prefer being surrounded by the people I love, actually," she said.

He let out a laugh. "How humble."

"And I don't like cake."

"I know." He grimaced slightly. "You disgust me." She rolled her eyes again. "Now come down. Your father's called a jeweller over and he wants you to look at her selection."

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