“Do you think he found her?” Alastair asked Ophelia as they walked together.
She thought for a moment. “He’s very determined when he sets his mind on something, but there are so many factors in this that I don’t know. It would really be on luck I think.”
Ophelia stared down the long hall they were walking. She wasn’t sure if she wanted Evander to find Aurora or not. They didn’t know anything about this girl, other than she was poor and in a bad relationship with a terrible man. She may have spent some time with them, but Evander didn’t know her.
She ground her teeth for a moment as she thought about it. She didn’t him to be tricked into something and then feel he was obligated to stay after, if things were to change between Aurora and him. She shook her head and stopped. She gazed out of one the open windows. A pair of birds fluttered by the window and landed on a branch in one of the cherry trees outside.
She wasn’t one for symbols, but she just hoped the pair of birds weren’t just coincident as she had thought about Aurora and Evander.
“Ophelia?” she heard Alastair say behind her. It shook her from the strange feeling she’d felt wanting staring at the birds and looked back at him. He wore a concerned look on his handsome face.
She smiled and turned back to him. “I’m alright, I was only thinking.”
“Of Evander?” he said.
She looked at him.
“I don’t know Aurora. I don’t know what kind of girl she is. I just don’t want him to fall for someone who is going to use him instead of love him. Do you know what I’m trying to say?”
Alastair was silent for a moment. “I do. I know you deal with that with every turn.”
“We’re not talking about me,” she said with an icy stare. Coldness washed over her as she felt her own anger well up about the distrust she held for her suitors. It was true, but she knew Alastair also faced the same problem. The three of them couldn’t know for sure if someone wanted to be with them for their titles and wealth or if they truly loved them.
She closed her eyes and took a breath. She didn’t want to think about it. She had time with Alastair and she didn’t want to ruin it with thinking about that.
A smile crept over her face as she let the anger in her ebb away. “I want cake.”
“That was a change of topic,” he said with a grin.
“I don’t like being angry,” she said. “Also, I don’t want to think about politics and matchmaking right now.”
“You’re the one who brought it up,” Alastair mumbled, and she pretended she hadn’t heard him.
“What do you think the kitchens are serving for desserts?” she asked.
Behind her they left the open window with the two twittering birds sitting on the branch. They sat and sang sweet notes that filled the hall and followed Ophelia and Alastair into another wing of the castle.
Suddenly behind them they heard racing footsteps and they turned to see a soldier in full sprint coming toward them.
The soldier slid past them, giving a rushed salute to both, not bothering to stop his feet from moving and kept on. His hat was tucked in the crook of his arm and his sword was at his side with his hand to the hilt to keep it from slapping his leg as he ran.
“What?” she said and gave a look to Alastair. He shrugged and the too ran after the soldier. If there was one thing around the castle one didn’t want, it was alarm and fast feet. It only brought bad news. They followed the soldier, falling behind but able to hear his footsteps ahead of them and see the startled looks on the guards around the halls to know which way he was going.
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Shadows of Iraedes | NanoWrimo 2021
RomanceAurora Bailey has had a hard life, and the horizon is only looking harder. She's finally had enough of her abusive partner and decides to leave him, but finds she can't when he keeps pulling her back, sometimes even physically. After many attempts t...
