The Lady's Highlands

Final

OH MY GOD IT'S HAPPENING I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED THAT THIS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW, THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER OH MY GOD I ACTUALLY FINISHED A STORY FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You all have no idea how huge it is that I actually finished writing something... But without further adoodlido DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Lillia was starting to become afraid for herself as her former fiancé’s raging reaction to her news continued. For half an hour he ranted, growing angrier as time went on, and she found that she began to fear for her wellbeing. She put up a spellbinding performance when she told Lozen about the recent shift in his future, and she no longer wanted to play that game. She watched with wide eyes and Lozen proceeded to destroy everything he could get his hands on like a toddler who had never seen the rod. If Lillia were not so afraid at the moment, she would contemplate showing him what naughty temper tantrums earn. She knew just what to do, too! She watched Scarlette be punished for years as children.

Instead, she backed away from him slowly, as not to startle him, and slipped out the door as silently as possible. Once the door was closed, Lillia let out a breath of relief and placed the palm of her hand on her forehead. There was at least an hour and a half more time before Scarlette, her husband, and the king would make it back to the keep, and she was not sure how she was going to spend her time. The thought of the castle was sickening to her, she wanted nothing more than her western home at that moment, but she supposed her ideas would change once her sister moved in with her new husband.

In all honesty, Lillia was not surprised that Scarlette did what she did. There was never a dull moment with that woman, and Lillia knew her sister well enough that she knew this would not be the biggest scheme she will pull off in her lifetime. Scarlette had a knack for finding trouble wherever she goes simply so she can fix it in the most flamboyant of ways, though Lillia was not complaining about this particular scheme.

Lillia decided to go for a walk on her own, something she liked to do when she wanted to clear her thoughts and simply relax. The garden was just as beautiful as the last time she was in it, and she decided that it would be a good escape for her. She remembered the company she held the last time she strolled through the garden and sighed yet again.

Duke Lozen made Lillia sigh in more ways this past few weeks than she ever had. Whether from girlish fantasy, exasperation, pain, or anger, he seemed to be the reason behind all of her incessant sighing.

She was still hurting about the whole ordeal, no matter what she told Scarlette. She let a fancy turn into love, a baseless and fleeting love, but a love nonetheless, and when it crumbled she fell and was crushed when she hit the ground. She was still recovering. She was hurt, but more from the loss of what her mother used to call her “rose petal eyes”. Her mother always told her that Lillia lived life like she saw the world through rose petals that made everything beautiful. And it was true. Everything was beautiful.

Lillia wasn’t sure if anything was truly beautiful anymore, or if she simply wanted to see it that way. Perhaps one day those rose petals would return, but until then Lillia wanted to see the world for what it was. She wanted to observe people for who they are and learn to deal with them accordingly. No more overly-sensitive, sickeningly-sweet, densely-trusting Lillia. She took a deep breath and held it, ready to let it out in a deep sigh, her last sigh.

But she couldn’t. She laughed, the breath in her chest propelling from her lings in a hearty-breathy way that rand across the courtyard and bounced around off of anything it could touch. She continued laughing until tears fell from her eyes and her stomach cramped. As she laughed, she internally rolled her eyes at herself.