Forbidden Love

~chapter 24~

When I left the hospital wing, I got my first look at the condition of the palace. So much broken glass across the floor, decorations destroyed, and menacing red stains on the carpets and walls.

I started up the stairs, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone. As I passed the second floor to the third, I realized that I have never been on the third floor before. The condition of the third floor was basically the same as the rest of the palace.

I walked down the halls, searching for a clue that would point me to Octavia. I then saw a doctor and a few guards walk out of one room, so I'm guessing that must be here room.

The guard noticed me and stopped in his tracks before passing me. "She's been waiting for you Your Highness."

"Thank you." I said with a gentle nod.

Octavia was in her bed when I walked in. Her torso was wrapped in gauze, and her chest was covered by some loose fabrics.

I wanted to run to her, to fall into her arms and stay there forever. But she looked so fragile right now, so I moved slowly until I stood next to her bed.

"I'm so sorry about your parents."

"It doesn't seem real yet," she said, motioning to me to sit on her bed. "Sure my father was very strict and cruel, but I keep thinking that he's in his study, and my mother in the garden, and I keep waiting for one of them to come in here and scold me for not being princess like."

There was a long stretch of silence, and I didn't know what to say. Should I bring up what she said? Would she even want to talk about that right now?

Octavia's hand touched mine. "I want you to know that everything I said earlier was true. Since the day you first arrived I couldn't get you out of my head."

She paused for a moment, looking as if she was scraping her mind for the right words.

"There's something else," Octavia said hesitantly. She then placed a small box into my hands. "Open it." I did as she said and inside there was a ring, shining in the light cascading through her windows.

"Oliver helped me pick it out, and I've been sleeping with it under my pillow," she said, sounding playfully irritated. I looked up at her, still too stunned to speak. "Do you like it?"

A web of silver vines crawled up, forming the circle of the ring. It held two gems—one red, one purple—that kissed at the crown of the ring.

I meant to speak and opened my mouth several time to try. I probably looked like a koi fish opening and closing its mouth. All I could manage to do was smile, blink back tears, and nod.

"I love you," she said simply. "I should have told you a lot sooner. Maybe then things wouldn't have gotten so complicated. Then again," she adding, beginning to smile, "sometimes I think that it was those complications that made me fall in love with you even more."

Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes, threatening to fall.

"In those moments where I was close to death, I was mourning everything I'd lost. How I would never get to see you walk down the aisle toward me, how I would never get to see your beautiful smile again, how I would never get to see streaks of silver in your hair. But at the same time I couldn't care less. If me dying meant you get to live a long life, what could be better than that?"

At that, those tears finally escaped and started to fall. How had I ever thought that I knew what it meant to be loved before this very moment? Nothing had ever come close to this feeling radiating in my heart.

"Seraphine," Octavia said sweetly, "I know that who you see here is a queen, but to be clear this isn't a command. This is a request, a plea. So.. will you make the happiest woman alive. Please do me the honor of becoming my wife."

I couldn't get out how much I wanted this. But where my voice failed, my body succeeded. I crawled into Octavia's arms, holding onto her tightly, but carful not to hurt her. When she kissed me I felt my life settle into place. I found everything that I had wanted here in Octavia's arms.

It seemed too soon when our kiss slowed, and Octavia pulled away to look into my eyes. I saw it in her face. And I finally found my voice.

"Yes."
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XOXO
Prodigal Child

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