Iᴍᴘᴇʀɪᴜᴍ (Bᴏᴏᴋ 1) (editing)

Chapter 15- Won't Give Up (Part 2)

Queen
Ella Imperium
Mother, Wife, and Sister

Rayna felt her anger rise in her chest that, that was all they wrote on her mother's tombstone next to her father. She understood that the people thought her mother was a traitor, but the little that was put into writing on there bothered her to no end. She prayed to the Gods that her mother wasn't really dead, for she did not deserve this in the afterlife. Rayna sighed shaking her head, knowing if it weren't for her uncle and aunt, her mother would not have been buried beside her father at all, let alone had a tombstone to commemorate her.

Finally, she stood in front of the blanket and contemplated where to sit. She decided to play it safe and sat beside the grave he was near. Before she sat though, she paused, looking at her own grave. It sent chills up and down her spine that this was here. It frightened her to see her name graved into the stone, so cold looking. She decided to completely ignore it and turn her attention to him.

Theo.

For right now he was just reading, not saying a word. She didn't care though; she felt nothing but joy just being able to sit in his presence at that moment. Every day that she was away she would remember this moment. This spectacular moment of just being there beside him.

Moments passed till he finally looked up from his book and looked at her tombstone and sighed. "Ray... I wish you were here." He closed his eyes and smiled as the breeze filled the air. She had to chuckle at his next words. "It feels like you are." Theo shook his head, then looked down at his book. "Rayna, I am still so angry. Father will not budge on his command. He insists that I must marry that, that vile, vapid girl. She may be your age, but Ray, arrggghhh. She angers me. All she cares about is how she looks and having the best dresses I swear it's as if she has no other thoughts other than about herself."

Rayna scrunched up her nose listening to him talk of his future bride, she sounded just terrible. "She sounds awful," Rayna whispered out. She knew he couldn't hear her, but she wanted to pretend she was apart of the conversation. Even if only she could hear her end.

Theo chuckled and looked up at the stone, "Oh you would have hated her, Ray. You probably would have played pranks on her. Pouring flour in her hair while she slept like you did that nasty tutor you once had."

Rayna laughed as the memory filled her mind. "Miss Splat. Yes! It was completely worth being punished for a week. She deserved it." Rayna smirked to herself thinking of the mischief she could have continued to get into if she were still in the palace. "I probably would have done worse."

Theo continued laughing, living in the memory of the woman's scream so early in the morning when he was just seven years old. "You probably would have come up with something more clever as you got older." He sighed, "You definitely were the smart one out of the two of us."

Rayna scoffed at his remark, knowing very well where it steamed from. They had many arguments about it back then. "You are just as smart as I am, Theo, don't let your father put you down. Don't ever let him tell you differently." She so badly wished he could hear her now.

Theo looked as though he were listening to her words and smiled looking down at the book in his hands. "If you were here, I would not have to worry about her at all. You and I would be getting married." He smiled sadly up at the stone. "I would have courted you properly too. You would have teased and made fun of me, saying we have known each other forever! And that none of it was necessary. But I wouldn't have listened. This would have been something new. I would have gotten to know you in an entirely different way. I would have tried to get you to fall in love with me." He shook his head as if thinking how impossible that task would have been. "I loved you when I was just a boy, but I still love you to this day." His voice shook a little, little he was fighting back tears. "And I don't know how to stop loving you. You aren't here anymore. I cannot be with you anymore." He shook his head looking off in the distance. "It isn't fair."