ততততত

𝐓 𝐎 𝐁 𝐈 𝐍

I stand outside the door of the small structure in the Adoridian outskirts of Evertania. It's nothing like the lavish homestead we used to have as children. There's no oak tree brushing against my bedroom window, none like the one she used to climb like a goddamn monkey. There's a stall attached to the wooden home for a horse (mostly for Neph). It's minimal in space—but gods, this house is something, if not a ten year refresh.

This is what I receive for exposing the secret prince: a reward. Now, everything can go back to the way it was.

For once, maybe my life will be normal.

Upon further conversation with Gareth, I discovered more about what is to happen regarding Aspen and I. She will remain in service in the castle, but only as a kitchen maid rather than directly for Leighton. I, on the other hand, am forced to enroll into the Adoridian militia as a knight. We're supposed to be free, but we're now both chained to the king's decree. We'll be monitored for what my father did ten years ago, because they won't want us to get ideas and rebel against his regime.

In the end, I've done my duty. I've freed my sister.

And I'm so fucking exhausted from fighting.

My knuckles graze the door, a single soft knock. I wasn't lying to Imogen when I told her I was terrified of reuniting with Aspen. I'm scared shitless. What if I'm just a stranger to her when I walk through the door?

Gods, why am I doing this?

What if she resents me for running from her ten years ago?

I raise my hand to knock once more when the front door swings wide open.

Golden eyes meet mine, her hair a messy storm of chestnut curls. A young woman taller than I expected stands before me, her posture straight and confident. The image of her is so far from what I imagined—and yet she's everything of chaos, courage, and calamity.

She searches my face, those golden eyes wide in awe. I must be doing the same when I manage to speak one word: "Hi," I choke.

She springs from her feet, colliding into my chest. I stagger back. Her arms tighten her embrace around me, a sob of happiness escaping from her lips. I wrap my arms around her thin body, squeezing her so tight so she understands I'll never leave.

On her tiptoes, she pulls apart just enough to press her trembling lips to my ear.

"I always remembered you."

Tears sting my eyes.

Those four words... I've been waiting to hear them for so long.

Every heartache that pierced my heart has brought me to this moment, to have Aspen safe from the tyranny of Leighton. Now, my little sister has fallen straight within my arms and I'm never fucking letting go.

Like the bundle of chaos she has always been, she pulls away and tugs me into the house. A smile beams across her lips as she ushers me down in a chair near a table. The inside looks smaller than the outside—but there's still two separate rooms for Aspen and I, as well as a small common area.

Aspen takes a seat across from me, nearly exploding with a strange giddy that ignites her like a firefly. Her smile hasn't changed in the last ten years. It's still... wildly magnifying.

"You look the same," she mutters under her breath, those golden hazel eyes analyzing me as I sit before her. She reaches out and brushes her fingers under my barren chin. "Except I thought you'd maybe grow a beard."

I chuckle. "I can't say the same for you. You're all grown up now."

She grins. "Don't worry. I'm still causing trouble and giving Leighton a run for his money."

Her voice hitches a bit when she mentions Leighton, and that beloved grin that was plastered on her cheeks falters into a thin grimace. Hell knows what she had to endure within that castle, and all I've done is free her from his chains. Yet, she still has to return to that castle. She's still bound to her duties, just not bound directly to Leighton.

She clears her throat and diverts the conversation. "You know, I didn't understand why you had to leave until I was older. I always asked for you, but no one would tell me where you were."

I shake my head. "Dad told me to go. He said you and mum would be there, he said—"

"We didn't make it," she breathes. "At the time, mum told me to hide beneath the bedframe of her bed while these royal knights barged through the front door. I didn't think anything of it. You were a knight, weren't you? I thought they were good, but..." Aspen reaches out across the space between us to clasp my hand. I squeeze her delicate fingers. "All I heard was screams and yells, mostly from mum. They took mum out of our home, and then there was silence."

Rage corrodes my blood. Those knights had come to kill, to eradicate the remains of the Parias bloodline from existence. My mother knew why'd they'd come, knew that she had to save Aspen from the sword at the cost of her own life.

Aspen sighs. "Hours later, Gareth came into the house. I knew he was always so fond of you so I came out of hiding. I remember crying into his chest, begging him to bring me to you, except..." a tear falls down her cheek, "except he said you'd fled. You were gone."

"I should have gone back," I mutter under my breath.

"You didn't," she breathes, "but that's okay. I'm strong, Tobin."

"I abandoned you."

"No, because if you came back they'd have killed you too," the sternness in her voice. "I was glad you ran, because I knew my big brother was safe away from this bloody city."

She speaks now as if she's years older than sixteen. She seeps with wisdom and confidence, so unlike the woman who I thought would be crushed by Leighton's dominance. She stands like a true warrior, exhibiting more of my father's fierceness and leadership than I could ever. She's the one who should've been destined to take my father's duty as right hand to the king, not me.

Yet, serving the king is exactly where she ended up, just not in the way I would've thought it would be.

"What did Leighton do to you?" I mutter, forcing the dreaded question into the open air.

She swallows, gathering up the right answer to speak. It must be horrendous what his cruel heart is capable of, and I don't dare let my mind wander down those shadowed nightmarish alleys.

Yet, she musters up everything within her to unveil what horrors she endured for the last ten years.

"He's different behind his bedroom door," she finally speaks, her voice hardly making a sound.

"I'm gonna fucking kill him."

"Wait! It's not what you think," Aspen lowers her gaze, her attention on her dainty chipped nails. "When Leighton discovered that I was alive, he took me under his wing instead. I had to sleep in his quarters, but... he was sympathetic."

I shake my head. "Don't say that. He's a fucking ruthless asshole who's about to marry the princess of Lagulon."

"I pity her for that," Aspen raises her head high, "but underneath his thick ugly skin, Leighton holds many sorrows, most of them regarding his father's death. I think that was what plagued him with such an irreversible darkness."

I can't believe the words coming from her mouth. She's defending him. Leighton. The monster who's going to crush my Imogen to a million pieces without even a hesitation.

"After awhile, Leighton grew fond of my presence, even once called me his daughter—but it felt so wrong. He also told stories of our father..." her voice trails, but with one swallow she reshifts her attention back to me. "Enough about me. Let's just say the last ten years were complete shit." She covers her mouth. "Mum would've killed me for saying that."

I chuckle. "Dad's foul mouth ran off on me. Still does."

She sticks her tongue out of me, then giggles.

"Fucker."

The curse earns a swat on my knee. "Now your turn," she grins. "Where have you been hiding?"

So I tell her everything. I've been to every city across the Lagulonian coasts. I've plundered every estate that the dukes and duchesses roam. I tell her the story of Neph and I, how I trained her to be a watchful companion. With every word, Aspen falls under my spell, intrigued of my grey morals from the past ten years.

"Then Gareth arrived and told me to find out what King Orion is hiding in the Lagulonian castle," I confess, "and if I did just that, I would be able to clear my name and reunite with you."

Aspen sits at the edge of her seat, her hazel golden eyes like two stars, twinkling with giddy. "That's easy for you, isn't it? Gareth told me you climbed the castle and snuck around the rooftops all the time."

Do I tell her about Imogen? About the princess who stole my heart, shot it with an arrow, kissed my lips and begged me to stay, only to tell me to go?

I have to tell her.

Because when Imogen arrives in Adorid, Aspen will be the one who might still cross her path, not me. Yet, my brain can't stop curating ways in which I can visit Imogen. Falling in love with the queen of Adorid will send me to the gallows if I am discovered, but fuck it, I love her.

And I ran away from her at her command like a fucking fool.

Aspen tilts her head at me, confused as this placid expression plasters itself on my face. I must've dazed off for a moment at the thought of Imogen, my bright angelic moonbeam.

It's only been two days since I departed from her, but gods, I'm in withdrawal.

"What happened to you in that castle?" Aspen wonders, mimicking the same question I asked her moments earlier.

"The princess," I mutter. "She caught me."

The princess of Lagulon that had me on my knees, kissing the scar that blemishes her as I rebuilt her broken soul. I mended her when she needed to be repaired, and in return, she spared me from destruction.

"And I, being the stupid fucking idiot that I am..." I look away, refusing to meet my sister's eyes as a bashful heat burns in my cheeks. "I fell in love with her."

"Princess Imogen?"

"The one and only."

When I trail my attention back to Aspen, I notice her agape mouth curving in a little grin. "I like her. She's very sweet."

"I'm told you two have met."

Aspen leans in, that once ghost of a grin now a full out beam. "She remembers me?"

"I guess so."

Aspen rises to her feet, her mind in utter awe that I am in love with the princess. She paces around the room, attempting to comprehend this new information. I know that Imogen loves me. She said those three fucking words: I love you, and I melted into oblivion. This love we share is mutual, and yet it will be my fatal flaw that will kill me in the end.

For Imogen, I run to that death sentence willingly.

Aspen stops pacing and smacks my arm. "You're an idiot."

"Pardon me?"

"YOU LOVE HER?" she shrieks. "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HERE? GO BACK TO HER."

The storm of Aspen has reached its full intensity, and it's about to unleash hell upon me. Pray for me.

"Tobin," she pinches the bridge of her nose, trying to recollect her thoughts. "You light up at the mere thought of her. You should've seen your face. I've never seen you look so... stupidly content, not even in the glimpses I remember when we were kids."

I shake my head. "I didn't do this for Imogen. I did it for you."

"I told you that I'm strong! I can handle myself in this castle!"

"For fuck's sakes," I pull at my hair. Aspen can't be telling me to go back and choose Imogen. I chose to retrieve Aspen from Leighton's hell. I pulled her from the abyss and now we're supposed to be celebrating our reunion. "I can't go back to her now. We ended it. It's fucking done."

She sets her hands on her hips. "Why? Because she's marrying Leighton? I bet you all my coins that she doesn't want to marry that asshole."

"She doesn't."

"So instead you broke her heart even more to come back to me?" Aspen continues to pace again, obviously distraught that I chose to spare her over Imogen. "If I've learned anything these past ten years, it's that I can fight these battles on my own. I know I don't have too, but I can, and I will. You coming back here... it's a blessing, but it won't win the war."

"Going back to Lagulon won't fix anything either," I mumble. "Falling in love with Imogen could've gotten me killed, and in order to get you out of that motherfucker's castle, I had to come back."

She sets her hands on her hips, her hazel eyes fiercely narrowed on me. "Go back to Imogen."

And I give her one response. "No."

"Go back."

"Fuck no. I'm here with you now."

"To be a guard in the castle? Is that what you want?"

"No, but—"

"YOU DUNCE."

"I'M NOT GOING BACK TO IMOGEN."

Those hazel eyes demand me to go back to the princess, but I had to choose Aspen. She knows she's my priority, not Imogen. Yet, there's this sixteen year old girl—no, sixteen year old woman—ordering me with such authority that I almost want to turn my back and ride back to Lagulon.

But I've made my choice. We're both going to do our stupid little jobs, and I'm going to be a fucking guard in the Adoridian castle, and we're going to live our mundane normal lives, just like we're supposed to.

I'm tired of being wrapped up in this war, and now we're both finally free. Only now, this isn't how I pictured our first encounter in ten years to be like. It's a messy argument built on my stupid decisions.

Aspen's deadly gaze reaches mine once more. "You'll find your way back to her, Tobin. You have a soft heart."

My fucking soft heart pulls at me, but coming back to Adorid was the right decision. It has to be. Weeks from now, Aspen and I will act like nothing ever separated us apart.

I just need time to heal the wounds of Imogen.

"I'm staying," I grumble, forcing the dreaded words from my lips, "and that's final."

It's all fucking over between Imogen and I.

And I'll never go back.

── •✧• ──

I will be the first to tell Tobin that he is spitting out LIES. I KNOW YOUR FUTURE, TOBIN. I CAN READ YOUR MIND.

Anyways, I always wanted Aspen to always have a strong head over her shoulders, so when Tobin admits that he fell in love with the princess, I KNOW her first reaction will be to tell him to go back and be happy, because secretly she knows he won't be happy here in Adorid, even if she's there. Geez, that is a long sentence.

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