EXPLODE

eighteen

True to the King's word, we left the safe-house forty-eight hours after his death. A funeral was arranged for the public, and we were heading back to the busy streets of Auradon immediately.

The castle had been almost completely obliterated after the Rebellion's attack, and it was unsafe to stay there. Not wanting to give our location to the public, we stayed at my home; which I hadn't visited in over a month.

Evan was preparing a speech, completely formal, trying to make the public agree with the Factions becoming equal, but every one of us knew it would be useless when the people found out; it might be safer to just wing it.

I was becoming anxious the more and more time I spent inside my home, for it was no longer a sanctuary.

So I did what any other girl would do; I snuck out my window and unto the forest, making my way towards Gaby's.

I hadn't made a trek like that in almost a month. My thighs were burning, I was out of breath, my throat was raw with thirst. If I didn't know better you'd think I'd never walked the distance before.

When Gaby's home came into view, I almost wept with joy. Her mother was sitting out front, talking with a boy with long-shaggy brown hair, who I didn't even recognize as Sadri until he was directly in front of me.

"Dawn. Oh my goodness," Sadri whispered before wrapping me in a hug.

Dirt covered his caramel colored skin, smudged and inked with no sign of going away no matter how many showers he took. His normally happy brown eyes seemed dull, tired, dead, and his normal buzzed-hair now fell into his eyes.

"Sadri. Are you feeling better?" I asked, recalling how sick Gaby's mother made him out to be when I talked to her. He smiled at me, and some life returned to his eyes, but he didn't look like himself.

"After you and Evan got us all vaccinations, I've never been better," he told me. Gaby's mother smiled at me also, wrinkles crinkling around her eyes. "I still don't understand how you're going to become Queen in a few months."

"More like a few weeks. You know about the Queen, but the King...he passed in his sleep a couple nights ago. He was horribly sick," I whispered. "Evan and I have to make a speech in a day at most. We're trying to make this big announcement and it's so stressful. No one knows I'm here."

Gaby's mother gasps, pulling me into a hug. "Oh, Dawn. Surely you're ceremony will be a lot less stressful."

"My ceremony?" Then I remembered; I saved Evan and his mother. I almost crippled with exhaustion, and Gaby's mother pulled me inside. "Where's Gaby?"

Both of them sighed sadly. Sadri's eyes returned to the dead state the were in before. "What happened? Tell me."

"Gaby. She was working during the attack and got hurt," Sadri told me. I gasped. How could I not know? Gaby was one of my closest friends and I forgot she worked at the castle. I felt horrible.

"No, no, no. Is she okay?" I asked, bringing a hand to my mouth in shock. What kind of a person was I, forgetting about my friend? Was she...dead?

My questions were answered. Gaby sat propped on the couch, eyes closed, breathing labored, and I rushed to her side.

"So many people got hurt that night; hundreds injured maybe a thousand. There's such a long waitlist trying to get people in for treatment. First and Second Factions go first, of course, but they're barely bothering with the Third Faction," Sadri whispers, taking Gaby's hand in his, completely limp and taking on a bluish tint.

Gaby's face had many healing scars, and her burns were treated, but what really scared me was the bloody stump where her left arm ended at her elbow. It was obvious someone messily sewed it up, but there was most likely infection.