Last Hope [VERSION I]

|25|

I held my hand against my mouth, trying to hold back a laugh.

A cold breeze suddenly blew towards me, blowing my hair in the opposite direction. Sighing, I pulled my knees close to my chest and lay on my side, shivering from the cold air. A green leaf flew pasted me, making its way to Ace's forehead. It landed ever so gracefully, yet his eyelids jolted up. My dark eyes met his golden ones.

He picked the leaf off his forehead after noticing it. "Wonder how that got there."

"The cold air must have blown it."

"I see." His tired voice said. "Hey, Thana, are you cold?"

I looked down at my arms, noticing goosebumps. Hopefully he hadn't noticed them, the darkness of the night surely would have made it difficult to notice. "Not in the slightest."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

His lips thinned. "Well, I'm freezing."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." He said, looking at me. "It's amazing how cold I am, actually. I'm shivering."

"It doesn't look like you are."

"You probably can't see to well, it is quite dark out."

"I can see enough, you know. The fire light may be dimming but you're close."

"Speaking of fire, am I the only one who notices those two over there?" Ace pointed to Ruby and Nico, who were sleeping soundly next to each other.

I laughed. "No. I noticed too."

"Hahaha, good. But I swear, if Nico-"

"I've known him for a short amount of time, but I think I know that Nico would never."

"I know, I know." Ace paused. "Anyway, back to me being cold."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think if you lay next to me in my arms, I won't be cold anymore?"

I smiled. "I think so."

||Beth||

For the past few days, I've been making short visits to Arthur's study. I learned secrets the royal family never told its people- like the story of Elire and Ivan's disappearance, and the fact that they weren't biologically the king's children. I learned the story behind Ultipotence- how the royal family's ancestor who took the crown, Lamia Verne, was secretly an Ultipotence wielder.

As I slipped on my shoes, I decided to go up to Arthur's study tonight. It was always fun, Arthur taught me to read better, and reading the books was more fun then I could ever imagine.

"Where do you think you're going?" Owen hovered over me. His messy hair and outfit suggested he was getting ready to go to sleep, only thing was, I wouldn't be joining him.

"Sorry, your grace. I have things to attend to."

His malicious laugh echoed in the room. "What things? You're a useless assistant, what could people possibly want from you?"