God help us it's already July. If you were reading my story since I posted the sneak peek on March, you are the real MVP.
Btw by august onward updates would be slow bc 3rd year in college so yeah.
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"You're going to break my brother's heart, you know?" Gemma speaks up just as we past the gates with almost no problem.
The only hinderance that we met was the fact that they argued that she should be guarded, but she insisted that I was enough. We would have been there longer if I didn't launch an arrow at one guard thirty feet away and almost took his eye out - which evidently proved to the guards that their princess would be safe.
"No, I won't. Harry doesn't care for me." I say, the words tasting horribly bitter on my tongue and causing my chest to almost cave in on itself. This is exactly why I should have been smarter and kept my distance from the start - I was better off hating him.
Gemma scoffs and I glanced at her, which was a horrible mistake seeing as the horse I was riding on follows the direction of my body. "Woah!" She yells just as I started cursing uncontrollably trying to steer the damn thing. "Careful! Just keep your body straight to where you want her to go." Gemma scolds as she tries to calm down her own horse who was spooked by mine suddenly stomping in their direction.
"I don't know how to ride horses." I bite my lip trying to follow her instructions and stopping myself from yanking on the ropes to take out my frustration - pretty sure that would just backfire on me.
"I could see that." Gemma replies and when I don't answer she continues, picking up the subject at hand before my horse went wild. "I could also see how my brother acts around you - who couldn't? He loves you, and running away like this would break his heart." She says, though no concern was laced in her voice.
"He doesn't." I say, my jaw tensing. I'm no one special. "And if he does, then why are you letting me do this? I thought you couldn't stand broken hearts." I question.
I see her shrug her shoulders. "I care more for broken hearts when it belongs to a girl. Men are filth to my eyes - and I don't really care much for my brother." She says. Her last statement strikes a nerve within me and I feel like trampling these horses over her body for her words against Harry, but that was before my mind slaps me with the fact that Harry wouldn't do the same for me.
He doesn't care for me.
I shouldn't be this surprised - only my family has ever given a damn about me, And everyone else wouldn't have blinked twice if I dropped dead - I should have figured Harry wouldn't be any different.
We've been decent to each for what? A couple of days? A week at most, right? How stupid was I to actually fall in love with someone in that laughably short amount of time. Have I been deprived of affection that much that I was unknowingly desperate enough to jump into the arms of the first man who looked my way twice?
"I don't love him, you know?" I say. "My heart is not broken - hell, I have no heart."
Gemma, once again, scoffs. "Even a deaf man would be able to say that those words are lies."
I could physically feel my eye twitch. "I am not lying." I insist.
"That'll be true when hell freezes over and the gods fall from the sky." She says, her tone softening at the words that follow after. "There's nothing wrong about falling love." She says, and now I could feel her gaze burning the side of my face.
I kept my head turned straight forward, not wanting to fall for her bait, but I guess even I was too prideful to let her get the last word. "I am not in love!" I snap. "How can one even fall in love in such a short amount of time? And even if I am, it just makes me weak! And I can assure you, Gemma, that that is the last thing I would ever be."
My breathing was slightly harsh now, trying to calm myself down. There was a heavy weight in my chest as I said the words, as if my own body hated the lies that it expelled. Who was I kidding? Somehow, someway, I did manage to fall in love with that man - and that just proves how weak I was to begin with.
"You could spend a lifetime with a man and only then realize that you love him, but you can also spend a day and already have the same result. Love and time don't really need each other." Gemma says, and something in her voice told me she spoke from her own experience.
Wanting the subject off of me, I decided to jump on the chance when I see it. "Anne told me about you and Liam. Is that who you're thinking about now? Did you fall for him in a day?" I question, honestly only paying half of my attention to what she was saying - more of it directed at the path we were taking.
"No - not really. Took a lot more than a day, but -" she starts and trails off.
It was only when several minutes had past in silence did I realize she actually had stopped her story. "But?" I push, I'd take even her voice over the eery silence of the journey.
"But I have fallen for a man in just a day." She says, and I'm actually a bit taken aback by her words.
I had thought when she said her little speech that she meant that it doesn't matter how long you've been together and all that garbage - I didn't think she meant that one could fall in love in literally a day.
"With who?" I ask.
I look at her from the side of my eyes and I see her huff, her eyes seem to harden at my question before she shook her head. "No one you need to worry about." She says.
I kept my stare at her for a little while more, hoping she'd tell me who it was. I mean, can you blame me? A man who managed to get a princess to fall for him in a day? Seems like some sort of sorcery to me.
In the end, I just placed my eyes straight again, deeming the information unimportant. I was about to see a village full of corpses, with my family possibly among them, I had to prepare myself for the worst.
Oddly enough, I find myself wishing that I do find my mother's, Lea's, and Christian's bodies in the mix when we get there. Once I see them I would be able to pick them out and bury them with the respect they deserve - and it'd be over. No more questions, no more what if's.
If I don't find their bodies there it would probably drive me into madness. I would wonder where their bodies where, or if they were alive. And I couldn't afford that - thinking they were alive, I mean.
Hope could be a good thing, but in this case it would be a curse. The small hope that would give me would burn in my mind and drive me into insanity as I knew that there would be only the smallest of chances that I would learn the truth.
"You need to stop that, zoning out I mean." Gemma's voice cuts through my thoughts, pulling me back to the real world. "You're the only protection I have and if a bunch of robbers come out of the darkness, I'm going to need you to shoot them down." She says.
"I highly doubt there would be robbers when we are barely to the first city." I say, slightly rolling my eyes. "Besides, I only have a bow and arrow, a containers filled with water - what can they rob me of?"
Gemma gasps, as if offended by my words. "You are traveling with the princess of this damn kingdom! They can take me!" She basically shouts.
"Good idea shouting it out to the sky then. I'm sure the robbers hiding in the streets heard your invitation loud and clear." I say, sarcasm heavy on my tone.
Gemma's eyes widen as her body stiffens. She flicks her eyes from side to side now, frightened that she actually did call on trouble. "You don't think there are actually muggers here, do you?" She asks, whispering now.
I shrug. "Don't really care. You got me past the guards already - I have no more use for you." I say.
"Fuck you, Annalyn." Gemma swears at me from under her breath - still scared to attract the attention of non-existent robbers.
The entirety of our trip was spent in silence, and it wasn't as bad as I thought. I had managed to stay on my horse as well, surprised that I hadn't made it crash against a boulder by now.
Gemma and I had our hoods raised, in fear of attracting more attention to ourselves than necessary. Well, that was her reason - I just thought it was better that no one sees us in case Harry sends out people to look for us.
I highly doubt it, but if he didn't want me out and about in the cities in daylight, I knew he'd be outraged by the idea of me be doing just that in the dark.
We make it to the second city when Gemma had started to demand that we spend the night in an inn. "That would counter the purpose of having our hoods up now, wouldn't it Gemma?" I hiss at her, frightening a drunken man who looked our way just as we past.
I shrugged his shocked expression off when Gemma starts whining. "Then where do we sleep?"
I knew we couldn't move forward without rest. I would need to be in top condition when we head in the woods - which in my plan we should do just before we enter the sixth town. I also knew there was no way Gemma could survive a day with no sleep, and I figured she'd collapse some time in the night if I force her to go onwards with me.
"Outskirts of this town maybe. Little bit far off the road." I say, and even though I couldn't see her expression I knew she was appaled.
"I am a noble woman, a princess no less. I refuse to sleep on the streets." She says.
"Then sleep on your damn horse if you have to, we are not sleeping in an inn." I say, just as stubbornly - if not more.
She huffs, but I'm relieved when she doesn't argue.
We're out of the second town in no time. And when the lights from the village seemed distant and small, I decided it was safe time to rest.
I lead as off road - again shocked that I was able to lead the horse smoothly. We stop a fair distance from the main road before I jumped off from the horse.
I look down, squinting in darkness to make sure there weren't any obvious dangers on the ground before carelessly throwing myself down on it.
The bed I was given was immediately missed as I laid down on the hard ground, but I was still used to it I guess.
Gemma complains about it, swearing the she could practically hear the bugs crawling on her, but I ignored her voice trying to fall asleep.
Weirdly enough, her complaining stops before I manage to rest my eyes. I look to my side, finding her already sleeping by her horse.
It was strange how she actually fell asleep before I did - but I forced my eyes closed anyway, letting the nightmare-plagued sleep to take me.
It felt like only a few minutes before my eyes snap open again. I'm shocked when I'm blinded by the sun that's already high up in the sky, its heat not as harsh as I expected seeing as it was almost winter.
But the light wasn't what woke me up. It was the sound of a heard of horses stomping around.
I look at the two animals we were with, but I see them completely asleep. I panic, narrowing my eyes at the distance and seeing a bunch of men in uniform marching on the main road.
But that wasn't what caught my attention, rather the boy in the front of the group did. It didn't matter how far away he was, I knew it was him.
Harry.
A small part of me cheered at the fact that he was probably looking for me. The same part that wanted to scream on the top of my lungs and wave my arms for him to see me, and that's exactly why I knew that part of me needed to shut up.
I kneel over Gemma, it was only a matter of time before they notice the two horses off road, and of course they would check who the riders were. "Wake up! Come on, wake up!" I whispered in her ear, roughly shaking her.
"Wha-"
"No time for questions! Harry's here. Grab your things and lets go, we have to run." I hiss at her. Her eyes went wide and she gets up immediately, surprisingly cooperative.
We weren't that far from the forest, an easy run actually. I was planning on a few more miles of safe riding through cities but I guess we have no choice for now.
We couldn't bring the horses. They'd surely think weird of seeing two of them going into the woods, and Harry would easily put two and two together and go after me.
Besides, the forest floor was not one a horse could balance and run through.
Gemma begins to wake her horse up but I pull her away. "No. No, we go on foot. To the woods." I nod to my side.
"I can't leave he-" She starts but I grab her hand and pull her.
"Don't have time to explain." I say and before I know it we're running, and in no time we reach the first line of trees.
We run a bit further in before stopping to breathe and hiding behind a couple of trees, looking back at our horses a fair distance away.
I was right. Harry and his guards spotted the two horses and were heading towards them.
I gulped down my nerves before readjusting the arrows on my shoulder and gripping my bow tighter. "Let's go, we don't have much tome before they search the woods a little." I say, but Gemma seemed hesitant.
"But, Angela, she-" She looked distraught about leaving her horse, but when I look back, Harry and the guards were closer than ever.
"They'll recognize her and take care of her don't worry." I say, pulling at her again. I would leave her here if I could - it would make things a lot easier.
But if I did then she'd surely tell Harry that I'm using the woods to get to my old town, and clearly he would know more about these parts of the woods than I would.
I mean he must have taken a route through here every time he would go to his cabin, right? How else had he gotten there without passing my village every time?
I manage to pull Gemma away just as Harry was close to the horses, the pair waking up from the noise.
We start running again, dodging branches and avoiding tree roots on the forest floor. It didn't take long before I was already filthy, but somehow I didn't feel wrong about it.
I'm no safer in these woods than I am out there in the open - but at least here I know how to survive.
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So close Harry, so close.
This chapter was supposed to be longer but I wanted to update today so yeah.
My q's 4 u!
1. I sorta have these ideas in my head for new fanfics but I can't pick which one would be my new project so yeah, which one do you prefer, super hero harry (no not the cliche type with capes and secret identities shit) or demon-hunter harry?
(Idk the super hero one has a more concrete plot line)
2. I'm curious what do you guys think I look like?