The Bride

Chapter 45//: Goodbyes

♕✿~♕✿~Chapter 45//: Goodbyes♕✿~♕✿~

Madison's POV

After the tense agreement made between Ahren and Arenal, I decide to spend my time with someone that I haven't seen in a long time: Sydney.

As I walk to where she is staying, I think about the times we had spent together when we were younger. I smile as I think about the time I had cut off the hair on Sydney's doll, and she had retaliated by cutting off my hair. I had been beyond angry back then, but now I looked back at the memory with fondness and nostalgia.

I reach the door to Sydney's temporary bedroom in the palace. Raising my hand to the door, I knock on it and listen as, from inside, she walks across the room and twists the doorknob, pulling the door open.

Her face breaks into a grin upon seeing me. She throws her arms around me, making me stumble back a bit at the force put behind it.

"I'm so glad you're here right now. I'm terribly bored, and I'm not sure what I can do in this place," Sydney whines. I smile as I pull away from her death grip.

"Maybe we can go to the women's room. There's a huge T.V. in there. There's a movie theater too," I tell her excitedly as we loop arms and start to head down the hallway.

Sydney tilts her head to the side a bit. "Those sound like great options. But what are we going to do after all of that?" she asks.

I'm quiet before I say, "We could go out to the gardens. The weather is nice today, considering the season. Maybe we should take advantage of the good weather." The idea of going back out to the garden, where everything had gone downhill, made my stomach turn. But if Sydney wanted to spend some time outside in the gardens, I wouldn't object. And it would be silly if I always tried to avoid the gardens.

Sydney slips her hand into mine and holds it tightly. "Only if you want to do that."

I nod. This was all a part of me moving on from what happened, from Nathan. I wouldn't let him control my life and choices. And this would be my first step to do so. "I want to go out to the gardens."

Sydney's grip on mine never falters. "Okay."

We make our way down the stairs, heading towards the garden doors. Out in the gardens, I could see guards around every corner. I doubt there would be much use for so many guards, though. The Scarlet Guard was no longer going to be a threat, and the Rogue Dawn was nonexistent now, with their leader dead and he majority of their members sentenced to the Bowl of Bones.

Sydney and I walk into the garden, stopping to sit on a stone bench surrounded by slowly dying rose bushes with the oncoming winter. I let Sydney braid my hair, her fingers moving gently through my hair.

We're silent during all of this, until Sydney breaks the silence with the words: "Do you love him?"

I start a bit at her question. I knew she was referring to Ahren. I hadn't told anyone of the words we had exchanged before I passed out and after I came to.

"Yes." The word slips from my mouth with ease, and I wait tensely for what Sydney will say next.

"But...do you think he's good for you?" she questions hesitantly.