To Capture A Heart (girlxgirl)

Part Twenty-Three

Golden sunlight beamed in through my window the following afternoon and suffice to say, Avery's parents hadn't returned after their little conversation.

Avery needed some time alone and to think, so I decided to take a walk our side.

Considering it was the Moon season, it was actually a pretty pleasant day. I watched as the rime began to thaw on the fences in the castle garden.

As I walked on, I wondered what in Wingacre I was going to do now. I did have the emperor's daughter living here now, and for understandable reasons she didn't want to go home with her parents any time soon.

Stranger than that, though, I found myself not wanting her to leave either. The two of us had grown so much closer since she had started to live here and I would be lying if I couldn't admit I was just a fraction obsessed with Avery Sparrow.

I thought about her always. I just wanted her to be safe. One of the ways that was going to happen would be to figure out what her parents were planning.

The empress, Alecia, looked as though she could be on our side.

Emperor Andreas, however, didn't seem to be convinced in the slightest. That was the one thing that could grow to become a problem for both Avery and I.

I just knew that I didn't want her to be taken from me. I only wanted her safe. Her father had his ideas about me but he was sorely mistaken. I took my duties as empress seriously and Avery was one of those responsibilities now. I refused to allow anything to happen to her. As much as she looked out for me, I would look out for her too.

I didn't want people to live in fear anymore. That included the two of us.

One of the castle dogs walked out into the garden, then, as though offering me an ounce of solace.

I just reached out to give it some scratches behind his ear. 

"We'll work this out," I whispered to him.

One way or another.

I wasn't going to give up on my goals yet. I still had a lot that I needed to do.  As I stood in the garden, the golden sunlight washed over me. It allowed me to feel a glimmer of hope for a moment that maybe everything would be okay. I just had to be confident in myself now, too.

"Good morning, pumpkin," a warm voice said from behind me, and I turned to see Avery stood there.

Of course, I didn't even need to turn to know that it was her. There was only one person in the entire castle who called me pumpkin.

I smiled towards her as I replied.

"Hey. How are you doing?" I asked.

Avery took a deep breath.

"I'm okay," she said, "Still a little tired. Good morning? It's afternoon isn't it?" she smirked.

I simply gave her a slight nod of my head.

"Oh. I must have just slept all day," she said.

That wouldn't have taken be by surprise.

"I'm still annoyed," she said.

I raised an eyebrow at her in curiosity.

"My dad touched you. He laid a hand on you and he hurt you, Haven," Avery said then. Her eyes darkened as her fist clenched up, "Am I supposed to just let something like that slide? I really can't."

I took a step closer to her, then.

"Hey, listen. It's okay. I'm okay," I told her.

Avery seemed a little more relaxed after I had said those words to her, though I could tell she was slightly on edge. I couldn't blame her for that, though. Her father had been fairly callous.