The Golden Chalice

✰✦✰ Chapter 1 ✰✦✰

✰✦✰ Chapter 1✰✦✰
" Death Day "

CONSIDERING IT WAS eight years later, I felt I should've already got used to the feeling. But I also didn't think it was fair to assume that one would ever get used to the death day of their entire family passing.

Because I knew I certainly hadn't.

Because the twentieth of December had haunted me for as long as my mind stretched back. Even though it had only been eight years since the fall of my kingdom and the deaths of everyone I'd ever known, it truly felt as if nothing else existed before that.

Of course I had searched for them. Of course I'd gone from isle to isle, city to city asking them if they knew an Iris or a Cynthia. But no one did. Even as I described what they looked like. I had never stopped looking. Forget pictures, I didn't have them. For five whole years my search had led me nowhere. It had only landed me in my bedroom with eyes brimming with tears and choked cries.

Eventually I'd given up. They had to be dead. They were dead, rather. Otherwise I was certain I would've found them.

I stared into the meadow as the sun set, wondering how much my life had changed. If anyone besides Sarinne knew that a princess of Goldaria and the heir to the throne, no less, was alive—they'd never stop searching for me. Some would even come to kill me for reasons that linked to my villainous father.

Then there were days where I wished myself not to wake up. Sometimes I wished that Death would sneak up on me in the middle of the night and claim me. Because I felt I had no one. But then Rinne would wake up and she would hug me and she would remind me of all the reasons I was still here, even if she never spoke them aloud.

As if on cue, my best friend approached me from behind, dropping into the grass next to me with a breath. "Hey," she said.

I smiled as I met Sarinne's puppy-like, brown eyes. She would always tell me to stop calling her that but I couldn't help it. It was true, even if her personality was the complete opposite of that. Like the sharp tip of a dagger. Though Sarinne's kind eyes usually made people feel like they could walk up to her and talk, as soon as one did, her eyes turned into slits and told you she'd be eating your soul in a few seconds.

To put it simply, Sarinne hated social interaction and people. She believed they were poor excuses for replacements of dinosaurs. The only good ones were the people with magic running through their veins.

She nudged me as the breeze brushed her rich, jet black waves into her tanned, honey skin that was natural to her southern heritage. "Why are you being such a loser all by yourself?"

"I wasn't being a loser," I argued.

Sarinne clicked her tongue. "Except you were."

I chuckled, pulling my legs to my chest. "I don't know," I lifted a weak shoulder. "As always, today's just hard."

Sarinne didn't need to be told twice. Her silence was enough. The smell of approaching spring wafted through the air and I welcomed the distraction dearly. My gaze raked over the swaying meadows and I inhaled the freshness of the evening.

Rinne knew what had happened all of those years ago—she hadn't exactly lived under a rock. And usually she would comfort me, tell me how grateful she was for me and then we'd drink Sparks before passing out in bed.

I was sure this time wasn't any different. And somehow, I loved it.

"Need I remind you how much I absolutely and completely adore you, Scarlett Solaris?"