The King's Bride

This Is For The Best

Everleigh hates the feeling of her heart breaking, as she leaves the garden and makes her way back to her room, fighting with herself not to breakdown in front of Jensen. She doesn't want him to know just how badly it hurts her knowing that she is leaving him and that he has done nothing to stop her.

Somehow, she manages to get there without falling apart. She enters her room and as soon as the doors are closed behind her, she starts crying, not being able to hold back the tears any longer. She knows she should be packing to leave, but the tears keep coming.

Everleigh lets the tears fall for a few moments before she wipes them away and takes a deep breath, walking over to her wardrobe and beginning to pack her things in her two small bags, making sure only to pack what she had brought with her in the first place, leaving all the gifts that Jensen and Mackenzie gave her behind.

She knows she can't go home, despite that being the place she just told Jensen she is going back to. That will be the first place Mackenzie will look for her to try and convince her to come back, something she never will. She needs time to get over her feelings for Jensen and she is sure that if Mackenzie asks her to return, she will give in and do so. Everleigh decides then that she will travel as far as her horse will take her, preferably as far away from the Castle as possible.

Placing the last of her things in her bags, Everleigh sits at the small desk in her room and writes a letter to Mackenzie, attempting to explain everything and apologizing for leaving without a goodbye, as well as telling her that she had seen no other way for doing this.

Everleigh seals the letter and stands, grabbing her cloak and placing it over her shoulders as she takes one last look at the room where she has been staying for the last few months. She walks out of her room and quietly makes her way to Mackenzie's, leaving the letter on her dresser, hoping the young woman will understand.

Once that is done, she makes her way to the stables through the silent and empty corridors, thankful that there's no one around, everyone either busy with the Ball or already resting. The last thing she wants to run into someone and try to come up with an excuse for why she is leaving in the middle of the night.

As she walks through the corridors, she wishes that things didn't have to end this way. But she knows that she will never be able to be as good a Queen as Lady Laila, if we consider that the woman was raised to one day be a Queen and Everleigh wasn't. She hates how small and incapable people at Court has made her feel, but when she looks at it logically, she knows this is the right decision, or at least that's what she is hoping.

Everleigh reaches the stables, quickly finding her horse and saddles it, the stables quiet at that time of the night, allowing her to do this without anyone noticing, something that she is grateful. The silence and cool breeze that can be felt giving her a sliver of strength to actually do this.

She gets on her horse, pulling the hood of her cloak over her head, and makes her way to the back gates, stopping a moment to look back at the place that she never wanted to be at, but that has become the place she now doesn't want to leave.

Taking a deep breath, she urges her horse forward, riding past the guards on duty and leaving them confused at seeing someone leaving at that hour of the night but not making any effort to stop her. As she rides away, she thinks that this is for the best and that Jensen now has a chance at having a proper Queen at his side.