The Golden Chalice

✰✦✰ Chapter 4 ✰✦✰

✰✦✰ Chapter 4 ✰✦✰
" Shielder of Lies "

I PACED AND paced and tried to get my mind to think straight again but it refused. How was I supposed to after the confounding announcement that had riled my brain up so badly I was sure that it had fried?

Sarinne tried her best to calm me, but I did think it was rather easy for her to do, especially when it wasn't someone trying to take her place on the throne. You've always said you don't want it anymore, I reminded myself. Apparently my brain had conveniently forgotten that fact after yesterday and now I was acting as if I was currently Queen and therefore allowed to execute anyone who even attempted to take what was rightfully mine. I splashed water in my face again. Went to my bed. I just needed to sleep. For hours and hours until my disorderly thoughts were flushed away and I could act normally again. That was all I wanted.

"Scar," Rinne pleaded, sitting on my bed. "Just sit down and we'll talk about this."

"How?" I laughed dryly. "This Shielder of Darkness isn't threatening to take your throne, Sarinne, it's mine!"

"And whilst you're right," Sarinne continued as though I were a ticking time bomb, "I think you need to remember that you didn't want the throne in the first place. You told me, even as a child you loathed the idea of having to rule an entire country."

"Yes, but—" I stammered. How was I supposed to argue against my best friend when she had valid points? I'd always claimed that I'd be glad if someone else took the throne since it would mean I wouldn't have to. But I was a child back then and now. . .now I still didn't want to be Queen but I also didn't want some cocky man to have it either. Especially since we all knew how having a man rule had worked out last time.

He wanted to rule like my father. I physically shivered. Crept under my covers and cleared my throat, unable to voice my point. All I saw was his wrinkled face. His beady blue eyes that dug into me the moment I rebelled.

"Perhaps this is a good thing," Rinne whispered. "Perhaps you need someone else to take over."

I shook my head. "No. No, the only people who were allowed to take my place on the throne were my sisters and they're—" I stopped, my eyes stinging viciously.

Sarinne stood and placed both of her hands on my shoulders comfortingly. "I understand. You don't have to explain."

Though I'd warned my tears to stay far, far away, they came running down my cheeks anyway. Mortified, I pressed the heels of my palms to my cheeks, murmuring, "What am I going to do?"

"You don't have to do anything, Scarlett," Sarinne told me gently. "You don't have to and that's what's so good. The best people in life are free, anyway. You're free from that burden now and someone else has come to claim it."

"But at what cost am I free?" I dropped my hands, sitting upright. "How many lives had to be taken for me to be free?"

Sarinne's eyes filled with pity. "Don't blame yourself for that night, Scar. It won't help anything."

And all I could do was nod. Maybe Sarinne was right. Maybe it was a good thing that someone else had now claimed the throne to rule over a country in disarray. I could now lay back and finally live the life that my mother had always wanted for me. I remembered her having said many times how she didn't want me to have to rule. Especially since I'd have to rearrange a nation that my father had thrust into commotion dozens of times.

This was what I'd wanted all these years after all, wasn't it? This was what I'd escaped for. So that I could build a life of my own without worrying about my old one. So Rinne was right. This was a good thing. I just needed to be more optimistic.