In The Woods ➳ H.S.

☙ f i f t y - n i n e

One look in her sad blue eyes and I immediately stopped myself from getting up and adjusting myself back into my previous position. "I need you to tell me what happened." I say to her, watching her eyes darken almost immediately - something no one ever wants to see on a child.

But she shakes her head, her blue eyes lighting up again and a smile comes on her lips. "You first." She says, slightly bouncing in her seat on the bed. "Tell me about you and Prince Harry."

At the sound of his name my eyes widened and my heart rose to my throat. "There's nothing to tell." I say, although I could practically vomit on how horrible the words tasted on my tongue.

"That doesn't seem to be the case if he's completely smitten by you." She grins up at me.

I shake my head. "He's not -" I freeze. My eyes narrowing at my sister in suspicion. "How would you know that?" I ask her.

Her shoulders shrug. "I just talked to him. It's pretty obvious." She says, and my hands are suddenly on her shoulders.

"You talked to him? Where is he?" I ask. Why hasn't he come to visit me yet? But I kept the last one to myself.

"He's kind of wrapped up with something at the moment." She tells me, immediately biting her lip as if stopping herself from laughing.

I had a feeling she was mocking me or laughing at the way I acted, so I retracted my hands and tried to compose myself. "Tell me what happened with the battle." I demanded again, this time trying to balance a stern yet soft look as to not scare my sister off.

She crosses her arms over her chest. "Tell me what happened in the castle." She demands, only she didn't care to seem soft like I did. Her blue eyes narrowed defiantly as she stared me down.

Eventually, I gave up and sighed. I ran my hand through my hair, not even surprised to see it tangled and have my hand stuck in knots half-way through. I struggled to remove it for a short while before speaking up. "Where do I even start?"

"From the beginning?" Lea says, and I'm confused on where she picked up this attitude of hers, or maybe it was just part of growing up.

I shook my head at her sarcastic response before frowning and telling her everything. I told her how I became a slave - about all the work they made me do, about Liam, about going around the castle and getting insulted by Harry every time we bump into each other. I told her about the ball that seemed as if it was a lifetime ago. I told her about Liam planning the war, all the drama and secrets that unfolded when his plan had worked. I told her everything that played out in the castle - everything except the things that had happened between me and Harry.

Which, of course, doesn't go unnoticed by Lea. She pokes my side with a small finger. "You're still didn't say anything about Hairy Harry."

"What?"

She shrugs her shoulders. "He's got a lot of hair, and his name is Harry." She says like it made a lot of sense. It didn't't really, but what she said did clarify it a bit.

"Oh. Hairy Harry. I get it." I smile before, biting my bottom lip to get rid of the grin and replace it with a frown. "There's nothing to tell." I stick with my original words, but my little sister was having none of it.

"You can't say that there is nothing to tell when he was basically bending over backwards just to be nice to me, so you don't hate him." She says all that in one breath, making me confused.

"Wha-?"

"He obviously likes you. He looks at you like Christian used to look at that girl by the tavern." She clarified, though a flicker of sadness appears in her eyes at the mention of our brother. Maybe she just misses the way it used to be, when none of us had to be scared of getting killed in a war. But I was happy, and I was glad she brought that girl up so I can tease Christian with something when I meet him again.

But then, what she said really sank in. "I haven't even seen him yet, how would you know how he looks at me?" I question her.

"He was here the entire time while you were asleep - held your hand and everything." She shrugs, as if her words hadn't both excited and angered me.

I shook it off, shaking my head at the thought of him holding my hand as if denying it would make it untrue. "You should have told him to fu - bug off." I correct myself, not wanting to swear in front of her.

I see one of her eyebrows raise at me before she spoke. "Well, fuck." She says, only causing my eyes to widen.

"Who the hell taught you to -"

She cuts me off. "The same guy who gave me my knife and saved me." She says, and I swear the moment I see Niall, I'm going to rip his head off from his neck.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair again as I slouched further against the headboard. "I'll tell you what's between me and Harry, after you tell me what happened when I was gone." I bargain, crossing my arms over my chest and looking my little sister in the eye. "Where is our mother? And Christian too, where is he?" I ask, but the way Lea's face falls made my stomach twist.

She adjusts herself on the bed, as if suddenly uncomfortable. Her eyes drop from mine to her hands for a second, but quickly meet mine again. "Hey, has Niall told you how much I hate the king? He was pretty useless and prideful since before, then Niall told me what he did to our father. And that story you told me on how he left like a coward - wow did that make me hate him more." She says, although anger did coat her tone as he spoke of the worthless king, it was obvious she only said that to try and steer my attention away.

I didn't take the bait, only staring at her with an expression that clearly meant I wasn't going to drop my question.

Lea's blue eyes stared right back at me, slightly hopeful that I was going to go along with it, but I wasn't - and only after a few moments of silence did she understand that.

She sighs, her eyes casted down on her lap as she finally spoke up again. "They're gone, Anna." She says, and it was like I could hear my own heart break in half for what felt like the billionth time. "They're dead."

I don't know why I expected otherwise. Seeing Lea alive didn't mean that my brother and mother were too - I just wish I hadn't let the small hope in my chest start to bloom only for it to whither away so quickly and harshly.

The idea of never seeing Christian again was definitely a stab to my already bruised heart, but maybe he was the lucky one here. His struggles are over while ours was just beginning.

"Their bodies?" I ask, hoping she wouldn't say that they were still out there in the woods or the town's floor.

"Burried. Just by the edge of the clearing." She answers with a soft voice.

I wanted to say a thousand words, let the frustration and sadness out. I wanted to comfort my little sister as she was clearly troubled by this too. "Good." Was unfortunately all I could say.

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Hope you read the author's note at the start of the bonus chapter bc I wasn't kidding :)