The Princess of Elfhame

One

I am Rhea. 

I am the daughter of Cardan Greenbriar and Jude Greenbriar-Duarte.

I am the sister to Aeden and Trevan Greenbriar-Duarte.

I am the niece of Lord Oak Duarte. 

I will be the Queen of Elfhame. 

I will not go quietly, but screaming and fighting. 

As I roll over in bed, I look over at the wall. 

The bright red letters of the clock read the time: 

1: 18. 

No wonder I'm awake. 

I would've been awake for nearly 6 hours back home already. 

I roll out of bed and pull my robe a little closer. 

I open the door and pad quietly into the living room of Aunt Vivi's house. 

Aunt Vivi married Heather 10 years ago, and I smile as I see Mom sitting on the couch, reading. 

"I knew you'd be up" I say softly as to make her not jump and she looks up calmly, and returns my smile. 

"Rhea. Your brothers and your father are fast asleep." 

I roll my eyes as I sit next to her. "Are you really that surprised?" 

She brushes back my long hair and smiles. "After 19 years, no, I am not surprised." 

I sigh and look out the window and open porch to the ocean beyond. 

"Are you ready to go home?" Mom asks and I nod. 

"The mortal realm is... enjoyable to you because it reminds you of your past, but for me.. Elfhame will always be home." 

She smiles. "In that case, should we wake up your brothers and your father?" 

I pause. "It'll probably be easy to get home in the dark, rather than in the day an entire family just disappears." 

Mom nods and stands up. "I'll go and wake them." 

As I dress in a soft white dress with silver spiderweb etchings woven into the fabric and when I enter the living room, everyone is there, packed, ready to go. 

Dad smirks at me, his telltale smile an identical replica to the one on my face. 

"Someone got home-sick?" He asks, placing an arm around my shoulders and I elbow him. 

"Don't pretend you never got home-sick the first few times you came to the mortal realm. I'm itching to talk to Bay and Nara." 

Mom smiles. "I never expected you to befriend the daughter of Nicasia and the son of Lord Refferend." 

I shoot her a grin. "You befriended assassins." 

She scoffs. "No, I befriended a circle." 

She squeezes Dad's hand and me and Aeden roll our eyes. 

"Yeah, a circle of assassins. Really, you don't see the problem there?" Trevan asks, raising a perfectly arched eyebrow.

 Dad ruffles Trevan's hair. "Where did you get that smart-ass mouth?" he scolds and Trevan pushes Dad's hand, grinning. 

"Umm, you?" 

I giggle as Dad's eyebrows shoot upward and Mom shoots Dad a glare. 

"We should leave before the sun begins to rise or we wake up Vivi and Heather." 

Cardan sighs. "If you insist. But waking them up would've been fun."

"Sure. If you want to poke the bear, you can be the one to serve them coffee and bring them breakfast in bed." Mom sighs and as we step through the gate to Elfhame, I breathe in the earthy smell of fresh rain, resenberries... 

home. 

Mom smiles at my face as Dad hands her her crown and they each place it on their heads as we approach The Hill. 

"Welcome home, Princess of Elfhame." 

Unfortunately, as soon as we arrive, everyone is clamoring for Dad and Mom to help them with a meeting and they're immediately whisked away. 

Trevan and Aeden mumble about getting ready for bed, despite just sleeping around 10 hours and I head to my room to unpack.

There's nothing special about my room, other than all of Mom's swords, and my own, hanging on the wall. 

Tournament ribbons hang proudly on the wall, and unfortunately, tiaras and crowns sit on the enormous bureau that Dad built for me when he found out Mom was going to have a girl. 

He crafted all of the tiaras himself, because unfortunately, his sister's crowns had long since been destroyed by our psycho uncle, Uncle Dain. 

Dad never speaks about his siblings that much, other than the fact that my name is Rhea Caelia Elowyn Greenbriar. 

My two middle names are of his dead sisters. 

The doors slam open as I'm about to strap on armor and I whirl, grinning as two girls enter. 

"Nara! Melanie!" 

Melanie is the daughter of a fawn, and Nara is the daughter of Nicasia... 

and The Ghost. 

Nara hugs me tightly, her beautiful sea foam dress pristine. 

"You look like hell." Melanie says with a laugh, crossing her arms and I grin over at her over Nara's embrace. 

"Feel like it. Couldn't sleep so I was up all night." 

Nara yawns. "You should've seen the party that Taryn threw. It was splendid." 

I give them a smile. "You look exhausted, Nara. How's this, I'll see you at the fete tonight. Go home. Sleep." 

Melanie grins sleepily. "That's the first intelligent thing you've said since we got here." 

I laugh as I push them out the door and look around my room.

 To other people, this room is too mortal.

 To me and Mom... it's paradise. 

It's just the right amount of mortal and fae, and Mom was overjoyed when we redecorated. 

Dad nearly had sage sprayed throughout the entire Hill because we used 'human paint' instead of berry coating on the walls and it stunk for days. 

Dad enforced that every time I enter or leave my room to close the door immediately as to not stink up the rest of the place. 

I had laughed so hard I nearly toppled into Naercé, Oak's daughter and she nearly threw wine at my head to make me stop. 

 As I throw the blackout curtains shut, I crawl under the covers of my blankets and sigh with relief. 

Home, with it's wonderful scent and it's perfect serenity. 

As I fall asleep, I wonder if Mom and Dad have the luxury of going to sleep yet. 

We have a fete tonight, and we need to be at the top of our game. 

Especially Dad. 

A/n: So what do we think of our Jurdan daughter?