Page 75 of Not Another Happily Ever After

Chapter

27

I long for her to know me.

I dread the day she finally does.

Morning arrives with the relentless drumming of finger-like taps on the carriage roof from the pouring rain. The dark gray sky and thick fog make it nearly impossible to see the dense foliage arching over us, let alone the narrow gravel road. In a way, the dreary sight reminds me a bit of home.

Home.A funny word to use, I suppose. I was never welcome in the walls where I was kept. Needed? Certainly.Well,occasionally. But wanted? Cherished? Did I ever truly belong?

Day in and day out I have watched the knights interact with one another. There is a bond that surpasses their bickering. Akinship greater than blood. They’re a family, like the ones forged by battle and bread in the fables of old.

I wonder…is what I had anything like that?

I think of Xander. Of Peony and Rhidland too. Even Gally comes to mind.

We hardly bickered, for we hardly spoke. But though few words were said between us, something powerful was shared. Hope. Enough to keep us going when the days were full of dread. To keep our hearts from curdling like all the others had. We weren’t forged by blood or battle, but our resilience still stands. A family made of misfits. A love with no end.

My chest aches at their memory, the heaviness of my sorrow evident in the tears racing down the hollows of my cheeks.

’Tis a tragically beautiful feeling, the tugging of the soul.

“How ya doin’ in there, Princess?” Merrek shouts over the torrential downpour.

“I am well.” I call out, though I’d be better if I knew my men didn’t have to traverse in this rain.

Myrrdin rides up beside the carriage on Wolfe’s gray speckled horse, his normally combed-back hair now dripping in his eyes.

“Might I trouble you for a favor, Princess?” he sputters through rain-slicked lips.

“Of course!” I eagerly nod, desperate to help lighten their burden.

Myrrdin lets on a sheepish smile as he reaches beneath his armored chest. For half a heartbeat I think he’s going to shed out of the steel plate, when he steers the horse closer and pulls out his six-legged companion instead.

“I know he’s an insect but…”

My heart squeezes at the way the proper knight gently holds the creature to his chest.

“He’s my dearest friend,” he says. “And with this weather I…well, I’m worried that?—”

“I’ve heard enough,” I cut in, sticking my hands out the window and gesturing for the knight’s stick figured friend. “Hand him here.”

Myrrdin’s blue eyes flicker from me to the road, stalling, his rigid shoulders proof of his worry.

“’Tis a scary thing to trust another with a piece of your heart, but I promise you, Myrrdin. Yours is safe with me.” My lips tug into a warm smile, despite the chilling rain coming down on our heads.

He offers one of his own in kind, his voice low as he says, “Thank you, Princess.”

“Of course.” I nod.

And then slowly, carefully, I take the six-legged creature from his hand.

Myrrdin’s shoulders drop on a heavy exhale as he reluctantly tears his eyes from my hand to catch up to where Frog is riding up ahead.

“Looks like it’s just us for a bit, boys,” I whisper to the stick thin creature hugging my finger as the carriage’s wooden wheels rattle and bounce over loose stones in the road.

Buttons, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about the violent jolts in our ride. It’s his wet feathers that have him in a tizzy. He’s spent the better half of the morning preening the soft fuzzy fur of his belly and looking woefully pathetic curled up in the center of my makeshift bed—the very same one he saw fit to push me out of too early this morning, after everyone else decided to go back to sleep for a few more hours.