My face is burning hot when I walk back to my brothers. They both were done with their dances before I was done with mine so of course they saw everything. They saw Xavier and I dance, Xavier looking me up and down, and me leaning in to whisper the most stupid thing ever.

How am I such a bad flirt? And did he really look me up and down?

My face grows hotter when my brother both laugh as soon as I come back to them. Theon seems to be laughing harder than Strider. Strider seems to have composed himself a lot more and is now looking at Theon like a bird pooped on his head.

“Looks like you were having some fun out there, sister,” Theon says in between inhales.

“Shut up,” I tell him.

Strider looks like he is going to chime in with Theon but I give him a look that makes him put up both of his hands. When Theon doesn’t get the memo, Strider elbows him to shut up. That is when Strider realizes what is happening.

“Oh no,” Strider says, “No, no, no, no.”

“What?” Theon says. He clearly is not getting what is going on.

“You like him. Like, like-like him.”

I look down, clearly with the situation I have put myself in.

Theon gasps and then in the lowest voice possible he says, “You can’t. We all knew that I would be dumb to fall in love with a mortal but not you. You are the Queen of Krosla, you can’t be occupied with someone who will take up a lot of your time just to die off sooner than later.”

I glare at him the same time Strider says, “Dude, what the fuck?”

Theon looks between Strider and I confused. “What? It’s true! I have been madly in love with a mortal before, remember?”

I remember but I am surprised that he is so casual talking about it. Usually he would have hesitated the words or not want to talk about being in love with a mortal at all. He also would have used her name and not call her a mortal.

I look at him with concern for a second and then shake the thought. It could be something he didn’t think of and I am just overthinking it. I decide to look at the dance floor instead and look at all the people having a good time and celebrating the life of the King and Prince. I scan over and over again. People watching is one of my favorite things to do because I get to see all different kinds of life an different generations acting the way they were raised. You would think that people acting the way they were raised would produce similar generations but in fact it creates generations so different that one generation could be peaceful and the next one causing a riot.

I enjoy the people I scan until I see a girl in a peach colored dress with chestnut hair pinned up walking over to Xavier and the group. I don’t know why, but she bows to Xavier and he says something that makes her laugh and fan her face a little. She brings her face up to the same ear I whispered in and say something to make him smile. He grabs her hand and kisses it without breaking eye contact with her and then they head to the dance floor hand in hand.

“Looks like you might have competition, sister,” Strider whispers to me.

I feel heat rising in my chest. Different heat than what I felt when I was dancing with the very man I see dancing with another woman.

“Why does it matter? You said it yourself, I can’t be with a mortal. It wouldn’t work, so let her have him. He should be able to grow old with someone.”

The last sentence burns in my throat as I wish for it not to be true. What burns even more is my ears when I watch Xavier and the woman glide along the dance floor. He truly is a horrible dancer and that thought makes me chuckle a little.

“Brother, I think our sister has gone crazy,” Theon says to Strider.

I turn around to give Theon another glare. Theon is getting on my nerve tonight but I know he is trying to make things light hearted.

After the song ended, Xavier and the woman with the peach dress walked back to Xavier’s group together. Their hands didn’t leave each other as if they were newly weds until they were talk with Xavier’s friends.

A little bit later, two other girls joined the girl in peach and after a few minutes dragged her away from the group. I could hear here talk about how cute Xavier is to her friends when they walk past us. It makes my chest boil over to the point where I am counting down the minutes when the funeral ball ends.

Amelia comes to join us, though, and any negative thoughts leave my mind. “How are we doing?” she asks.

I look back to where Xavier and his group is and then back at Amelia. “We are doing great. I love what you have done with the ball. And also, thank you for adding us on the mural.”

Amelia looks up and gives a chuckle before a tear falls down. “It was Asher’s idea actually. He thought it was wrong that you weren’t included in the story painting and even though I told him it was because you were supposed to be a secret, he pointed out that you are in the story that everyone is taught from birth. He decided that you could be balls of light in the color of your powers. Red for Orien, blue for Theon, and purple for Strider. I think it was a brilliant way to include you without exposing you.” More tears fall from Amelia’s face. I go to hug her and she squeezes back. “I told myself I wouldn’t cry. I even told my guests in this room that they aren’t allowed to cry. My people will think I am a hypocrite.”

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I pet her hair and try to shush her in a calming way. She has every right to cry and if anyone were to think otherwise, then they are clearly heartless or have never lost a person in their life before. She cries harder in my arms and I lok to my brothers to give us cover. They immediately know what to do and block Amelia and I from anyone who might get nosy.

After the funeral ball is over, I head into my bedroom. My mind races a mile a minute so I decide to grab the nearest book I could grab and start reading about it. Of course, no story is able to take my mind off of tonight, especially the brown eyes that keep looking me up and down over and over again. The eyes from the very person I can not get my mind off of.

I decide the only thing that can take my mind off of what happened earlier today is to take a walk. I used to take walks all the time whenever there was something going on in my mind. Watching other people live their lives is a great way to get you out of your own life.

I walk out of my bedroom and inform a guard that I will want some alone time in the garden. He bows and obeys my command as I take the steps towards my destination. I walk through the hallway and towards the door that will lead me to somewhere peaceful. There should be people in the garden still from the funeral ball. Sometimes, the civilians love a Magnificent so much that they will stay for a couple days straight drinking and socializing. This is the only time they are allowed to stay at the castle days on end without a specific invitation and so some people take advantage of that. Free food and free drinks while near a castle is not a bad trade for some restless nights.

When I walk out of the door that leads to the garden, there are about a hundred people left. Most are middle aged men drunk from the special punch that is brought out only for the funeral balls. There are some women who are also middle aged but there are no children in sight. That is probably a good thing too because you never know if these drunk mortal will make a fool of themselves because they don’t have a high enough tolerance for the punch.

One of the ladies laughs hysterically and loud enough for the entire kingdom to hear her. Everyone turns their eyes towards her and the man next to her gives her a look that says whatever he just said was not that funny.

On the other side of the garden there are a group of four people, one woman and three men. They look like they’re in a heated political argument. In case it goes out of hand, I slowly walk towards the side where they are arguing. After a few minutes when I confirm that they are going to stay peaceful about this dispute, I decide to walk somewhere else. Somewhere I know no civilian has access to and its private. All these different conversations are starting to overwhelm me. As much as I love to people watch, I need some time alone.

Walking up to the gate at the end of the garden, I nod at a guard I recognize. He nods back and then opens the gate for me and asks me if anyone will be joining me. I told him that I don’t think anyone else will come and continue to walk into the gated off part of the garden.

This part of the garden is where The Magnificents are supposed to do their praying to Light. The stone path leads down a hill where there is a pond where the path ends. The tiny waterfall that trickles water into the pond glimmers from the lights in the garden where the funeral ball is taking place. The glowing yellow, orange, and pink flowers float on top of the pond where there are different sounds of night insects trying to sing civilization to sleep.

In the middle of the pond there is a beautiful white statue that is supposed to replicate my mother. Every statue I have seen that is supposed to capture my mother’s beauty is not even close to her true beauty. The statues are gorgeous but if you say my mother compared to that statue, you would no longer call the statue gorgeous.

I kneel on the little platform where you are supposed to pray. “Mother, I miss you. Please tell me what to do? Father is getting out of control and I don’t know if it is possible to destroy him once and for all. Please guide me. I need it,” I huff, “I need you.”