Incognito

33

The duke of Averie didn't make it through the night. The healer pronounced Darcy and her father dead once she looked them over.  Zac's condition was still critical and he was unconscious last Angelica checked on him. Now she wandered through the ashy, broken remains of a glorious ballroom. Her arms ached from carrying the sleeping baby for so long. Her throat was dry in the smoky air and her head hurt like she had not slept in days. She did not cry, did not talk. 

Angelica was traipsing on the wreckage of her life. She wanted to flee from death and destruction. Even more, she wanted to flee from the truth. She wanted to run back to her old life of being the mia. She wanted to be alone and undiscovered in the woods, just her and Prosper, with no one else to care about. Her life was flipped upside-down starting the night she found Zac on the side of the road. She could not help but blame Zac for her new misfortunes. If Zac had not been so careless with his life she never would have met him, never would have come back home, never would have known the shambles that Angelica Roslin's life had been thrown into. She hates what Zac stood for. She wished she had let him die. Then none of this would have happened. She kicked a chair and is dissolved into ash and fell to the floor. If it was not for Zac she would not be losing sleep over whether or not a duke's second son lived. She would not care if he lived, she would be busy with her own sorrow. A tear slipped down her cheek and she threw it away, angry at herself for crying. She would not cry over a duke's son after her brother died. 

She was not watching where she was walking and the mia tripped and almost dropped Prosper. She clutched the little girl to her chest and her heartbeat out of her chest. 

"You do not make a careful mother, Angelica."

The mia looked up as Brother Ryley stepped into the ruins. His long robe collected dust and he let out a small cough. The mia felt another tear slip and she was in Ryley's arms. Before she could look up, Rita was there also. The tears fell like rain and sobs broke forth from her weary heart. She couldn't stop as Ryley rubbed her back and Rita cried for her.

"It is alright, dear," Rita consoled.

No, it was not. The mia was broken and lost. She had no idea who she was or what to do with herself now. Men had thrown themselves into death's arms as a sacrifice for her life. But if this was a battle of good versus evil, she had a had time believing she was on the side of good. She was not the mia anymore but she was not Angelica Roslin either. That girl had died the second she laid eyes on Prosper. She was nothing, since the moment Zac pulled her away from the woods.

"Sir Holden and Elizabeth were having a bit of a dispute in the garden last I heard. She might need her big sister at a time like this."

Rita was holding little Prosper before she knew it, a hurried vow being made to never let the toddler leave her arms. The mia was taking her eyes off her own situation and Rita wasn't sure if it was a good or terrible thing.

A year in the forest made Angelica faster than she ever had before. She positively flew through the castle and out into the gardens. The cold winter air bit at her smoke-filled lungs and she had to stop and cough before she could scour the labyrinthine garden for her sister. It did not take long before she heard the betrothed couple.

"Brooks, you have to think of the good of the duchy. We need a duke, and we need one now."

"I need a wife now."

Angelica did not wish to pry but what were big sisters for. She hunched behind a bush and watched Brooks catch the hand Elizabeth was using to wipe a tear away.

"Beth, I can't wait until spring." Elizabeth tried to speak but he shushed her. "I love you. I love you more than anything. My duty is to you first, not to the king and not to this duchy. Let them be mad, you, Beth, will always be my priority. So yes, I will marry you before I bury my father before I take over as duke, and before I rebuild this castle!" Brooks stepped closer. "In order to rebuild anything, I have to have you at my side. I am only strong enough with you."