Hidden Spirit

Chapter Twenty-One: Unshielding

Lucia's carriage had left not a week before.

But it was sunset once more. Rosa's hand traced the cold stone rail of her balcony.

There was no one else in the keep. Maids and servants had no name to be called people.

And her manipulations had stretched much further than anyone could've expected.

Their blood would taint her fingers.

With a bit of... help.

She only had to wait one more day. Might as well... make a bit of fun out of her last hours of freedom.

Below her, Princess Amelia was walking back from the forest. It all made sense after that man had put it in her head — that the Constentinian princess had a friend. The mutt that lived in the woods.

Andrew must have introduced them. The elf-boy dared not expose himself to anyone else. The others had refused to tell Rosa what his real purpose was, but Andrew had known.

Rosa had become curious on her own, once... long ago. She had tried to meet him. He'd turned her away before she could hardly ask his name. He knew who she was. He'd known what she was; what she'd done. Why they were in Leera in the first place, rather than Firica's capital. He knew who she'd tormented in order to have them forced away, and he knew the deep essence of her, as if he could smell her soiled blood from miles away. Rosa had been attracted to him at first — he was, after all, the only non-human creature she knew of within the vicinity. That was why she had wanted to know him in the first place — because maybe they could have had something in common. But, as it turned out, they did not share the same motivations.

As the memory of Feren rejecting her came into her thoughts, her mouth edged into a snarl above the girl. Who was she to come and garner their attention and good graces so easily? Someone so worthless and unimpressive. No one would miss her; her country was dead already. But her position, her family's blood, could help Rosa elevate her own status much more easily.

If Feren wouldn't accept Rosa, but he would take Amelia, what was he worth to the Family? He could go, too. He would be of no use to her. In fact, it would be better if there was no magical blood around her whatsoever, excluding, of course, her own.

Her hands grasped the railing so tightly her knuckles were white. Amelia Kiari below her slipped back over the stone wall, adjusted her skirts, and walked back as if she hadn't just been trampling through the woods, where no person was allowed to wander. This meant she hadn't actually been staying in her room all day, every day like Lucia had believed. That sneaky little rat.

But maybe that would've been best. If Rosa had her way, the girl would never be a problem again.

Rosa left the balcony.

***

A letter sat in her hands, yet opened, her name elegantly scribed across the parchment, a simple bit of wax concealing the interior. This was the first opportunity she might've had to read it.

The letter had been sitting on her bed since the day it arrived.

If she'd thought her days had gone quickly before this, when still her knees were weak from exhaustion, they were nonexistent then. Her... momentary happiness with Feren was robbing her of time.

Her fingers flipped open the envelope, drawing the parchment from its slip so she could read it and be rid of it. She looked down at Andrew's handwriting.

"'I'll not bother with formalities'," she whispered, reciting the letter aloud. "'I fail to see how it could suit either of us.'"

I've only written this because it is expected of me. If this does not find you, I will not mourn it.