Part 10

“Just a bit or two. You’ve become almost bones.” Even if he was right next to me I could hardly hear him. I know I haven't been eating, I didn't want to eat. I didn't want to live so why would I eat? I don't even know if I felt hungry anymore, I didn't feel anything. I was just tired, I just wanted to sleep. Forever if I was able to.

Still, I ate. If he gently forced me to or if I just started without knowing I don't remember even moments after I finished. Lionel was smiling triumphantly, he had gotten me to eat the whole sandwich and had managed to convince me to have a few sips of water with it. A big accomplishment for them all, I'm sure he would insist the chef make the same thing tomorrow for me, even if the old cook hates making anything more than once a month.

“Would you like to read the letter that came for you?” Lionel had handed off the tray to someone behind the door, smiling and nodding happily at their exclamations over what I had managed to eat. He was next to me again, the envelope opened to make it easier for me. “It's from Prince Cyrus, your uncle.”

My soon-to-be caretaker, soon-to-be father. No, I don't want to hear from him. I didn't want to read his letters or know that he existed. I didn't want to go with him, I wanted to stay here, I wanted to stay with my family.

“It's alright if you are ready.” his hand was careful as it brushed my hair out of my eyes. “His Majesty is a bit over-eager to have you safe with him, he doesn't fully understand your condition right now. You don't have to read or reply to them yet.”

I must have started crying again, he had that look of shock and panic he always did when I started crying out of nowhere again.

“Oh poor dear… It's alright, you needn't worry about it right now, it's alright.” he was quick to start wiping my tears away, pulling me into his arms and stroking my hair gently. “Why don't you rest for now princess? I’ll handle the letters from now on.”

He laid me back down, pulling the blankets tight around me and bringing the furs up to my chin. He was quick to draw the lighter curtains shut, darkening the room but leaving some light still in it.

“Rest now. I’ll wake you again for dinner.”

My sleep was fitful, as it had been since it all had happened. The haunting sight of my brother’s golden eyes rolling back into his head that lay away from his fallen body followed me whenever I closed my matching set.

That is what Mother used to call us two, his matching set. We weren't his children, father had had us with his first wife before the two of them had met and married. My brother and I were still barely babies then, so all we knew was he was our mother. We were identical twins, my brother and I. The same silky brown hair, the same porcelain skin, the same sloped nose, and a sharp chin.

We had some differences between us. He had a dimple on his left cheek and I on my right. He wrote with his right hand and I with my left. He was the bravest thing I had ever known, while I sat complacent in my room.

Our most identical trait was our eyes, they matched our fathers. Golden hues so bright and clear that people swore we had actual gold in them.