Night After Day

Chapter 26: A New Time

I relaxed my breathing, holding the bow steady. The silence of the snow was deafening. And the cold made it hard to keep my hands from shaking. It was better than the alternative which was staying with a vampire who, with the day of her coronation coming up, was getting even more on edge than ever before.

The fur of my jacket whipped across my face and reminded my nose just how numb it felt. The thin gloves I wore slipped slightly but I held on. Then smoothly let it loose. The arrow slammed into the tree a few centimeters below of where I had been aiming and a sliver of ice was disturbed off the tree. I shook out my fingers, getting the blood working back into them, and then drew another arrow.

***

Jason

Jason stood at the window of his bedroom and watched the snow gently fall to the ground far below. The trees were dusted in a faint frost, turning them white, and the covering on the ground was a few millimeters deep. The beginning of winter. An echoing thud registered in his ears and he peered down to the grounds. A small figure in the distance was firing arrow after arrow into a tree. She looked as though she was pouring all of her frustration into her actions. Finally she just threw her bow down where it stayed, buried in the snow and she stood there, still. She picked up the weapon and, dusting it off and slinging it over her shoulders, began the trek back to the house.

***

Hayden

I shook off the snow in the kitchen and grabbed an apple off the counter. As i took a bite i also took off my hood, pulling my braid out and walking over to the fireplace and trying to defrost my fingers.

Roughly 24 hours to go until Angeline became the new Queen. And by the way Jason was acting, it seemed like his little rescue plan was based around the ceremony. I hoped for both me, and Owens sake that it went well.

Owen.

I felt my cheeks blush and I sighed, rubbing my hands together one final time and heading off up the staircase. Preparations had already begun for the coronation and the after-celebration. I hoped that I wouldn't have to stay there for both. My past experience was not anything good to go off.

"Hayden!"

I poked my head into a room and saw Angeline getting fitted for her dress. There were three servants taking her measurements to perfection as she was standing in front of a massive wardrobe.

"Yeah?"

"They need to do yours next, and I need to choose a dress for you."

I sighed and walked into the fitting room, putting down my bow and shrugging off my coat in the pleasantly warm room.

Angeline smiled at the servants as they finished and gestured for them to move on to me. I stood as still as possible for them. Even though Angeline had been walking around the room like nobody's business. I wasn't a spoiled brat so I stayed where I was.

"It's formal wear, so Cole and father are wearing their old-fashion suits. As with mother. But this is a new generation and I don't hold much stock to the old style."

I thought of all the different clothes I had seen her in and had to agree.

She pulled out a tight fitting blue dress which had gold embroidery and long sleeves and smiled, putting it aside and nodding at a servant. "I'll have that one, thank you. " She continued rummaging through the endless number of dresses and eventually pulled out another. It was similar to the one I had worn last time. Gold. but this time it had short silk sleeves, floor length. It had no diamonds but instead was made out of a fabric which seemed to flow like liquid.