The Pain in My Heart [Completed]

Prologue

~Book Two in "The Stars of My Heart" Trilogy~

The Pain in My Heart

Dedicated to my dad who doesn't like reading

but still reads my stories.

Part One

Hidden Mysteries

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

Proverbs 4:23

Prologue

I was foolish to believe my life could be a fairytale. It's been 92 days since the Winter Ball. 92 days since I defeated and was forced to imprison my best friend. I can still hear his voice whispering in my ear. It's always the same. His hot searing whisper in my ear just as vivid as it was the first time I heard it.

"I found you."

Those three words have haunted me ever since they were uttered into existence.

When I had come to the palace of Lumbridge in disguise almost six months ago I never had a doubt in my mind that John would maliciously sabotage me. I played right into his hands. Sometimes I still look at myself in the mirror and I hear all the taunting whispers of my own voice. You absolute fool. How could you not see it?

The resemblance burns in my memory now. John looks just like his mother, Queen Eden. The same dark features that pop against their pale skin. The same soft smile that hides thousands of truths.

He is a prince. A vile, wicked prince... Not the little orphan boy my mother brought in. Not my best friend and brother, but the son of the woman who tore everything from the ones I hold most dear. My mother, my hope, my joy, my friends, my future, my life... and I guess I am soft just like he had ridiculed because I cannot forget the memories of us laughing until we cry or eating peanut butter fudge as we watch the stars twinkle from city roofs. I miss that. The old him.

But he has made his choice very clear not only to me but to everyone in Lumbridge. It cost my mother her life and that very sacrifice saved my boyfriend's life.

Still boyfriend. It's been 76 days since the Christmas Ball when Axil had proposed for me to be his princess; the one to stand by his side and be his equal. And ever since then... nothing. Nothing has been spoken about it and I haven't the heart to bring it up either.

I hate that it pains me. I question if he secretly thinks I could never be good enough to be his princess. After all, the only reason I am here is because my father, the most feared mafia boss in all of Flesherg who sent me here as a con artist. I was supposed to make Prince Axil fall in love with me and gain all the secrets and wealth of the kingdom.

I was not supposed to keep those secrets hidden, becoming a secret myself. And I was not supposed to fall in love too. For a moment, it felt like we were written in the stars and everything made sense. But now there is silence. The wishbone has been snapped and I'm left with the shorter end. Was it all just in my head? Is all of this still some elaborate dream that will kill me once I wake up?

And this is when the whispers creep in. The same pessimistic thoughts raid hrough my head around the clock.

Wake up and count the days since the ball. Think about Axil. Think about John, what I did to John, what John took from me, and my failure to be good enough for Axil.

At least I have Crista. Crista... I took so much from her, but she gave it all up with a smile. And nothing could stand in the way of getting Mika back even if it cost her to give up her magic to Eden, Queen of Malaka and the leader of the Chosens; an elite group of witches that were chosen from the gods to possess and control any kind of magic. She gave it all up to and now I bear her responsibility. That's just how strong her love is. Eden thinks that magic in my possession will end in disaster, making the kingdom fall before her eyes. The thought itself makes my insecurity grow stronger.

And Lucy... her story pains me most. We were practically strangers before the ball. Sure, I got to know her here and there while she masked herself as my servant but that night changed everything. She's not a servant, not even close. She's the true princess of Lumbridge; the princess everyone believed to be dead and an innocent victim to John's black magic.

Adam, her everything, was killed that night. I have never been able to forgive myself for her loss. I was supposed to protect him, protect both of them, all of them... and I couldn't.

It's been 92 days, and soon it will be 93.