ARIELLE

The gardens were glittering. I walked between the trees tucked away in small courtyards and crevices in the golden palace.

I never stumbled across this garden before, though that wasn't very surprising. There were dozens of rooms in the labyrinth of the golden palace that I never knew of. A good thing too. Father always said a house in which every room was familiar wasn't worth living in. I agreed, only because it meant there were plenty of places to sneak off to when one didn't wish to be found.

Branches stretched across the pathways, providing cool shade, a relief from the beating afternoon sun. Leaves stooped low, brushing the top of my hair gently as I walked by. Their golden brown hues reminded me of the coming winter and the quickly approaching November deadline. The wind blew through the trees and the leaves shook from their branches and fluttered to the ground. A few landed on my shoulders. I didn't bother brushing them off.

My mind drifted back to the bombing which took place only two days ago.

The Kingston Queen, probably one of the most widely loved out of us all, was dead. My mother was in critical condition and fighting for her life in the infirmary. Assassins piled in and out from all over the nation to pay her a visit. They would be staying the next few days to attend the Kingston Queen's funeral.

Many were staying in friends' homes in the main city or the City of Silver's estates. But still, there were many residing in the guest apartments of the golden palace. The palace was large enough to safely avoid these people of course, but the main gathering spots were occupied by too many prying eyes. So, I wandered through parts of the palace that were left untouched until I started exploring at a young age.

Eventually, I stumbled on this courtyard, small and eerie but somehow growing all the same. The new discovery wasn't surprising, but annoying. Damien's specialty was his inventions and Xavier's hidden knowledge. But mine was direction. I knew every nook and cranny of this palace better than anyone else. Even the secret passages were mine. When Arielle escaped, she had to manipulate me for an answer on how to leave. Whenever the Kingstons wanted to spy on someone or hide something, they came to me for help. And I discovered the furthest reaches of the palace by the time I was eight years old.

All without a map. I never needed one. I never got lost.

But here this courtyard is, tucked away behind a small door and down a secret passage which I never noticed. Still, it was hard to be infuriated for long. The courtyard was simply too pretty for my anger. And, most importantly, quiet and secluded.

I wondered if the original Crowns built it as a quiet getaway from the guests. Now it was used as a hiding place for fake Crowns to escape the death on their hands.

A golden branch hung down at eye level. I brushed the leaf with a finger and thought of how I should show the Kingston Queen these gardens. She would love the beauty of it all and the way it seemed to pop up in the middle of nowhere, a hidden alcove to be explored and kept to oneself. It took a few moments before I realized I would never get the chance to show her. All because of me.

And just like that, the thoughts I was trying to escape came flooding back. Finding my mother unconscious at the bottom of the stairs, holding her hand, begging her to wake up, hoping the faint pulse in her wrist was real. I could remember shouting as the authorities finally rushed in and tended to my unwaking mother, others running past me when I pointed up the stairs where the brothers disappeared to.

A knife pierced the bottom of my heart and I could feel my throat slowly closing up as I recalled the way the authorities carried their mother's mangled body on a stretcher. They were shouting orders to each other, trying to revive. But then the Kingston brothers followed them down the stairs, the two leaning on each other. Damien had tears streaming down his cheeks, his hands wringing together so violently that I thought he would tear his own fingers apart if someone didn't give him something to fiddle with. Xavier's eyes were red and swollen but dry. He stopped crying and was instead staring through the dust after the silhouettes carrying his mother, jaw locked. One look into their eyes and I knew nothing the authorities did would fix anything. She's gone.

I vehemently cursed myself and kicked a nearby tree and then cursed myself some more. The kick didn't expel any of the guilt pent up, nor did it change the outcome of my decisions. If I hadn't been so unwilling to listen to everyone else, if I hadn't loped her into my own stupid plans, we never would've gone to the wretched city and she wouldn't be dead. The kindest voice of reason in my life was gone. And it was all my fault.

I pushed back the tears pricking my eyes, swallowed until my throat unclenched itself, and sighed, trying to clear my mind again. I couldn't think about all of that right now. After the nights spent staring at the ceiling and the days spent in the infirmary, I needed a break. Just a moment to breathe. A moment to enjoy what I had.

The small trail I was following meandered onto the main path—a wide path almost the size of a road with trees lined against the sides, sunlight reflecting against the branches and making the leaves glitter as if it were a fairytale. In the distance, the path dropped away to reveal the blue and gold hues of the sky. A single silhouette stood in the center of the walkway, inspecting the view, the gold and blue strokes of color forming around him. It only took a second to realize who it was even though I couldn't see his face or any details.

Xavier.

I hesitated, wondering if I should leave him alone, but then decided that I wouldn't find a better opportunity to speak to him alone. Taking slow steps, I carefully made my way to him, reaching him after what must've been ten minutes.

I found my place next to him and looked forward. The path opened up to a glass wall large enough to look like the sky itself from a distance. Below us spread out a courtyard with tables and chairs. A servant scrambled around, cleaning up a few plates after visitors must've eaten their breakfast. I deducted that the glass was reflective on the other side and acted as one giant mirror to block itself from the courtyard. Just beyond them was the sprawling city and above them the sky. A few clouds were starting to gather.

There was a moment of silence between the two of us until I gathered my breath.

"I'm sorry," I told him. My voice was strong, interrupting the gentle breeze and cutting through the serenity. Clouds blocked the sun's path.

Silence.

"I'm sorry," I repeated. "So sorry for dragging your mother out of the palace and leading her into the Ravens' trap."

There was another moment of silence before he replied, "You shouldn't be."

I looked up at him. There weren't any cracks in his mask—no circles beneath his eyes, no unruly hair. But I knew it was a show, a display for the rest of the world to not see how sleepless and tired he was. I knew he walked into the library when I went to sleep and walked out when I woke. The only sign of any other emotion was in his eyes which were softer, the icy edge taken off their glare, though I had no doubt they would harden again once he stepped out of the garden.

"Why not?" I asked. "Neither of them were supposed to leave the palace that day. I was the one who made them leave. I convinced her to walk straight into a trap so that I could chase my sister to the end of the goddamned Earth."

"The Ravens were planning this for a while," Xavier answered. "They set up the bombing just in time. They were prepared. They'd been watching us for a while, most likely living within the palace. Our parents wouldn't have stayed in the palace forever. The Ravens would've gotten to them eventually."

"Maybe," I argued. "But I sped up the process. And if a Raven mole is in the palace then maybe in your search for the Ravens you or Damien or your parents would've found them. All of it could've been prevented."

Xavier locked his jaw and said nothing. I waited for a response but was only met with silence. I sighed.

"I'm sorry," I repeated and turned away, ready to leave.

"My mom found this garden," he said. His voice was hoarse as always but soft and quiet. I turned back around.

"It was when we were younger," he continued. "Much younger. She noticed that the windows were mirrors almost as soon as she stepped foot in the palace. She used to bring me up here often. I don't even remember the first time I came here. It was just something we did. She would use the garden to lay some riddle and I would use the clues spread out to find an answer. And afterward, I would run through the trees with her on my tail, the two of us singing at the top of our lungs."

He paused. "We never came back after..."

He trailed off though it wasn't hard to deduct what was meant to follow.

After the world snatched away the one thing he wanted forever, the one gift he was born with and not forced upon him: his voice.

"I'm pretty sure she was the only to have found this place in years."

It was a sort of bittersweet revelation. I wasn't the one who got to show her such a beautiful safe haven, but at least she died knowing it was here and contained cherished little memories of her son.

"She did know quite a bit about the palace," I mumbled. "There was one time that I was trying to spy on the adults, and she looked straight up at me. I thought she would tell father and mother about me, but she only smiled and placed a finger to her lips when they weren't looking. She let me stay the entire time and the next day she said hiding on the other side of the hall would cover me better."

I gave a small laugh. "She was ridiculous sometimes, and wonderful all the same."

"She was manipulative," Xavier argued. "But she was mom."

There was another pause, a comfortable silence. The clouds were filling the sky now, forcing the sun and the blue away. I placed a hand on his arm.

"We'll get revenge for her. We'll get justice."

He looked down, cold green eyes bearing into mine. I sucked in a breath.

"I know," he whispered but didn't look away.

Those stunning eyes, the only ones who ever dared to challenge me, stayed focused on me. My heart was racing. There was a moment when I thought I should leave, but in the next, I found that I couldn't. So instead, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his.

Xavier let out a familiar gasp as if even after all this time he wasn't expecting this, a gasp which I had become accustomed to. But then he pressed back with more ferocity than me.

Before Xavier, there were a few. But no matter how passionate they were, they were always a calm, predictable breeze. Xavier's was different. It was a thunderclap, a lightning strike marking the storm about to tear the landscape to pieces, but it was also the petals of a flower descending into the fertile grass below. It was a torrent of waves crashing into each other, raising violent walls meant to drown me hole but the cool breeze whipping my hair as the sand shifted beneath my feet.

I sighed, letting the shifting currents wash over me. But there was something else too, something unfamiliar and daunting. Tension was building up in my chest, one that arrived whenever the woods fell too silent and we were about to be ambushed, the rush when I heard the slice of a knife or the click of a gun. It was the fight or flight instinct I was trained to squash but always came running back. It was a gentle tug just nudging me, not forward, but away.

I pulled away, almost suddenly. I took heavy breaths, calming my pounding heart. I looked up at Xavier.

"I'm sorry," I murmured one last time, though I wasn't sure if it was for his mother or the kiss.

I turned and walked back down the path, my steps quick. With the clouds blocking the light, the trees no longer looked like a fairy tale, but rather the dark groves that lined cemeteries and were the kind attendants of funerals. I marched through the funeral procession and back into the confines of a palace and almost immediately the weight climbed back onto my shoulders.

I steeled myself up. My break was over. It's time for revenge.

So, after all that I've written, that was the first time I ever wrote a kissing scene in detail. The first time was when Indigo found out that Xavier and Arielle were dating, but that doesn't count.

So yeah. I can finally consider myself a true Wattpad writer XD.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed it and see you in the next chapter. Don't die before then!