Fantasy ~ A Klaus Goldstein Story

Nineteen

Klaus stayed with me that night and provided the warmth he knew I'd need, making sure I was comfortable and waiting patiently for me to fall asleep before he himself resigned to rest.

Yet the whole time I'd been helplessly awake, feigning slumber until I felt Klaus's muscles relax next to me to indicate he was asleep. As soon as his breathing shallowed, I twisted in bed and shook my weary head.

All I could do was think. And no matter what I tried, my brain couldn't halt the endless barrage of questions and fears that had been laid out before me.

I'd been endlessly analyzing every word Klaus had said in what he revealed, and every time I couldn't help but grow a little more bitter.

It appeared to me that not only where my biological parents and Mr. Goldstein chaining me to some mystical fairy thrown, but even Klaus.

After all these years, all this time, now I was supposed to suddenly leave my life at the academy and my studies? My friends? My lover? And all for the sake of a kingdom that I never knew existed, because it's my so-called birthright?

I was trying to justify my anger with these petty thoughts, and to no avail. Frustrated and exhausted, I rolled over again and curled up into a ball, as if I were defending myself in some way from my own anguish.

The truth, I knew, was with my parents. I was hurt, more so than I'd ever thought I could be. And all because I felt alone.

They abandoned me. Whatever nonsense excuse "protecting me" was, it didn't justify them leaving me to live oblivious all these years. Whatever spell was holding them back, shouldn't they have never stopped trying to lift it? I wouldn't have if the roles were reversed!

I felt hot tears prick at my eyes and I had to force myself to keep quiet for the sake of Klaus. Heaven knows how exhausted he must have been from shouldering this burden for all this time.

And now what was I to do? I was weeks away from being crowned Queen of a society that didn't even know me, a society that I didn't even know. And I was suddenly supposed to lead them through a war that I also knew nothing about?

And why couldn't my parents keep their throne to begin with? Why did it have to go to me? Why now?

A weak and pathetic sob escaped me and luckily I was able to muffle it with my pillow. I sniffled, running a hand through my hair and trying to steady my breathing.

With desperate hopes of clearing my head, I rose from bed gently as not to wake Klaus and, after realizing I was still in my day clothes, changed into my pajamas.

Sighing, I took a step out onto my veranda into the frigid night air and remembered the night I had first discovered my ability. How it felt like an eternity had passed since then.

Reminding myself not to stay out in the cold for too long, I leaned against the railing and waved my fingers through the air and almost smiled when the breeze caught around me and followed as I moved.

I looked down at the garden below, recalling the day everything began and how different I was. How much had I changed over the span of this ordeal? How much was I going to change in the end?

As I had been staring blankly in thought at a patch of weeds adjacent to the garden, I had failed to notice the silence of the wind and what felt like the temperature dropping a few degrees.

Suddenly realizing the eery shift, I looked back through the glass dome that concealed the garden and nearly fainted.

Flowers and weeds alike, shrubs and trees, had all somehow turned to me with faces. Actual faces, all smiles and grins. Immediately I closed my eyes and shook my head in hopes of awaking from such a nightmare.