The Heart Of Zara

The prospect of a happily ever after

CH.1
The prospect of a happily ever after.

A happy ever after. That's really all I've ever wanted. Maybe that would be with my fated. Maybe it would be with someone that I chose. But, its all I've ever really wanted. All I have ever needed.

My sister's words echoed in my mind as her cold, lifeless body was lowered painfully slow into the overturned earth. The grave carefully decorated in flowers and wild strawberries. Amelia's favorite summer beauties. Every word from our last conversation was an arrow to my already broken heart. How does one move on and continue to live when the light of their life has died out? Amelia was the light of our clan. The laughter on the wind and the warmth of the love we all hoped to find. She gave us courage. She gave us hope.

And now she was gone.

The wind blew and carried with it errant blossoms which blew around the gathered crowd. A final goodbye from the most beautiful soul. Laurel, my dear sister's fated stood beside me. Pain radiated from him and it mingled with my own. Losing a sister was so very hard but, losing a fated -one that you barely got to have- had to be worse than Grimm himself tearing your soul from the binds of your body. Without hesitation my fingers reached for his and entwined themselves. He squeezed my fingers tightly. And at that moment I knew I was all that was keeping him grounded as they shoveled the earth over my sister.

"I never thought this would happen, not at all this soon." Laurel said later, as we lay under the darkened, star lit sky. Everything had been so quiet after the funeral. No one knew what to say to each other, they didn't know how to keep going. We didn't just lose a princess. We lost a sister. A beacon of hope on all that was ever dreary. Amelia was all that was good. All that could ever be pure. The love between Laurel and Amelia was the thing of magick. Soul mates, as they call it in the human realm. What they base all of their supernatural shift novels off. But, to be a fated? To actually have someone fated for you. . . it was the sunrise, warming your skin for the first time. The feel of a summer rain as you danced without a care. It was living your whole life and never actually breathing until the moment you touch your fated. It was something everyone looked for, no matter how hard they tried to hide it.

In our world, mixing races and species of shifts was nothing strange. The laws of human nature never have applied to our world. Our bright, magickal world tucked away in the corners of time. Fated ones loved and cherished one another. They held nothing back when it came to caring for their counterpart. And to lose the other. . . there was no 'second chance mates' in our world. What we had with our fated was final. We never have the chance to try again. We would go through the rest of our existence simply trying to be stable. Simply trying to live for our fated. To preserve all of the memory.

I've never met my fated, if I even have one. Not all of us do, and its not a sick way of the gods. It just simply is how it is. But, if I do have a fated. . . I envy those who do not. They never will have to go through the pain and the absolute destruction of losing what you can never really replace.

"Somehow you will be alright Laurel. For Amie's memory, you will preserve and carry on. Life will never be easy again but, it will be possible." I grabbed his hand from its position between us. "I will never let you down. We will relive Amie's memory together. For as long as you are blessed to live."

*****
A/N

Sorry my loves for the long wait and I am even more sorry for the short update. I swear that I will start updating much more frequently after March.

All my love!
Xoxo