Leta's family were presumably killed during a Rebellion, and she was whisked away by one of her father's most trusted guardsmen to a faraway island to live out her days in exile, as ordered by the new King Calas. After King Calas's death, the Lady L...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Francis watched his niece disappear from the hallway and closed his eyes against the emptiness. He wished he could close his ears to the sounds of Helena's screams. He never wanted this for his girls. His whole family deserved better and he failed them. This was his last thought as the blade pierced his sure and all went black. His conscious self seemed to no longer exist as the blackness engulfed him completely. Time contracted and expanded all at once and Francis no longer felt or thought as he once did. He did not exist as he once did, yet he was not gone completely. Francis couldn't have said how long the blackness lasted. Was it minutes? Hours? Years?
"Go to her."
A sharp push on his back made him stumble forward, and for the second time today pushing him out of his daydream. He turned and was met with familiar gray eyes, deep and wise and luminous with life.
"I look at her and see Helena," he confessed. "I still catch glimpses of her, from the corner of my eye. She was light itself with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen."
He'd hardened under her loss. Her death took something human out of him.
Someday he would forget all about this. He would forget how she looked at him and he would stop dreaming about her every single night, wishing for her to come back. He would forget the way she laughed at every little thing he said and how he was different; happier, with her. They would be too far away from each other and they will have forgotten everything. Someday, what they had wouldn't matter anymore, and he will never cry for her again.
"How can I tell that girl I failed her parents?" He looked to Cedric. "How can I tell her I couldn't save her own mother? Her father?"
"What happened to your family was a terrible crime. And you survived. You survived, and now you are carrying the ghosts of everyone you'd ever left behind on your shoulders.
"Forgive yourself. Forgive your past. You're worthy of a future."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
After a week with fever and chills Astrid's strength returned, and she grew weary of convalescence. She insisted on getting up to sit by the fire or to take short walks on Leta's arm-- and when feeling bold, she'd insist using Tristan's arm for support. When after two weeks she was fully recovered, the wild winter weather set in, and they were snowbound.
