War in Love

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 

I've always loved the smell of roses, that's why Rose Garden was my most favorite place in the world to go. There were other reasons of course, like tonight. Just one minute till midnight, I felt giddy, as I always did whenever I met with him. I was getting ready to tell him my plan, a plan that everyone would definitely be against. After all, as a royal it's not the way I am expected to behave.

Ambrose is my soon to be guardian. That is no small feat considering that it’s going to be for life. He also happens to be my everything. He's all I've known for 15 years. I'm the third of a group of triplets and as the youngest; I don't fit directly into any important roles in my family. My mother comes from one of the last lines of royals and my father is part of the Council. The Council is made up of five leaders appointed by the main Royal family to lead all of the different sectors. The sectors include the werewolves, angels, vampires, demons, and of course the humans. In order for there to be no wars, there is one of every species represented in the council.

In the end, I was always on my own, not because I'm particularly disliked but simply because Alexander, the eldest, was always with our father preparing for the day when he would inherit our fathers position on the Council. He was assigned double the number of tutors I had, and was trained rigorously, leaving him little time for anything else but he somehow always found little bits of time to sneak into my room and tell me about the vampires or read me ancient stories. Scarlet, the second eldest, was preparing to take the head of the household, including the daily castle affairs as well as the family wealth; she was constantly with our mother to learn how to handle everything smoothly. That left me with a lot of free time, which I didn't mind, I had Ambrose after all and he's all I really needed. He was the son of my mothers best friend and the person who helped her with anything she needed. So that’s how we met. As kids we were forced to play together, all 4 of us. But as we got older and Alexander and Scarlet assumed their roles, only him and I were left. That is until he turned 13 and started having to train to become my guardian. It wasn't so bad at first, I still saw him as often as I pleased but as the training got more intense, I saw less of him which led to our secret meetings in Rose Garden. For two years we have been meeting up secretly.

I closed my eyes breathing the sweet scent of the roses swirling in the warm lazy breeze. Sitting here, I tried to inhale as much of the sweet air as I could and commit it to memory, because this might be the last time that I would ever get to smell the roses if Ambrose agreed to my plan which I was confident he would. 

"Cecilia?" 

I wasn't startled by the voice, in fact the very opposite happened, I nearly melted.

"Ambrose!" I breathed out excitedly rushing over to him. 

He opened his arms for me and I buried my face into his chest, embracing him tightly. He lowered us to the ground to keep us out of sight of anyone who might happen to come around, not that anyone would at this hour.

"It's so good to see you again." He said into my hair, inhaling my smell.

"You have no idea how happy it makes me to be able to see your beautiful face again." 

I felt my insides flutter shyly at his compliment. He never failed to make me feel special and not just because I was a royal but because he knew ME and most importantly, loved me. 

"Ambrose, I've come up with a way for us to be together."

"And what would that be?"

He ran his fingers lightly through my hair as he spoke. I raised my head from his chest so that I could look him in the eyes. 

"Let's leave here. Lets go away so we can be together. No one will be able to tell us that we can't be and no one will even miss us until we're long gone from here." They don’t even need me, I thought to myself. When Alexander gets married he’ll stop coming to see me and forget all about me. Scarlet doesn’t talk to me anymore. She hasn’t in years now.

He stared at me with that gentle look he always gave me. He was quiet and even though I'd been feeling confident before, I started to doubt myself. It was impossible to know what he was thinking. I took comfort in the fact that he hadn't stopped running his fingers through my hair but I couldn't help starting to worry slightly. The silence was killing me even though it had barely been thirty seconds. 

"Okay, Cecilia. In the morning while its still dark, we'll steal away, just us." 

I smiled delightedly at his response clasping my hands together. 

"You know," he paused as he swept my hair behind my ear, "you look lovely in this moonlight."

He leaned forward and pressed his lips gently against mine. I pressed my hands against both sides of his face responding without hesitation.

 

 

 

As the door finally closed behind me without so much as a creak, I let out a relieved and blissful sigh. I walked over to my bed and smiled happily to myself, adrenaline still coursing through me. I should start packing! There was no way that I was going to be able to fall asleep, I was still experiencing that intense high that I always felt after seeing Ambrose. Tonight, however, the feeling was much more acute and it made sense. In a matter of hours I would be leaving this place and its confines behind and spending my life with the person I loved and didn’t take me for granted.

Reaching into my closet, I pulled out a bag that I could stuff any essential things that I would need. Life would be hard, and we would have to be on the run for a couple of years but eventually we would be able to settle down and start a beautiful life, just me and him. I wouldn't be able to take everything so I needed to choose what I packed carefully. I walked over to my dresser and opened a drawer full of _____????____. I started rifling through everything thinking what I would need for a life-changing trip like this. I couldn't take anything that would give me away. 

"Cecilia.."

Normally I would've been delighted to hear Alexander's voice but there was a cold and authoritative sound to it. 

"Alexander!" 

I turned to look at him, hoping I'd been hearing things but when I saw his face, I knew that he was upset and that wasn't something I was used to seeing from him, at least not towards me. 

"Where were you tonight?" 

"I've been here." 

"DON'T lie to me, Cecilia!"

I flinched at the sound of him raising his voice at me. 

"I saw you at Rose Garden. I saw EVERYTHING, Cecilia." 

His voice was hard and it somewhat frightened me. He'd never talked to me like this and every time he raised his voice it felt like a slap. He'd been there. He'd heard and seen EVERYTHING. I was more frightened of what he would do to Ambrose. He couldn't separate us. Ambrose was my guardian, he couldn't take him away from me.....could he?

‘I… i… I can explain” I tried to come up with an excuse.

Alexander just stood there waiting for me to try to come up with what he knew was a lie. Then he just turned around and left.

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