BONUS EPILOGUE
Helena
Helena slowly backed away from her brother’s study door, hoping to remain unnoticed. She had planned to ask him for help with one of her classes, but he and his wife were snuggling. In his study.
She wouldn’t mind it so much, except that it was her brother – gross – and that she felt surrounded by happy couples.
Katy’s cousin, the new Graf Otto von Flussendorf, was sickeningly happy with his wife and their two adorable little girls.
Katy and Axel were deliriously in love, made somehow greater by the arrival of their son.
If Tobias would stop pretending that he was adhering to his father’s instructions, Helena was sure he and Liesl would be perfectly happy as well.
Even Michael and his wife were getting along well. She hadn’t heard from either of them, of course, but according to Axel and Katy, the Daric couple had finally worked out how to be happy together again.
And that left Helena, a girl outside of time, so very, very alone.
Striding quickly down the hall, she stopped by her room to grab her bow and archery gauntlets before slipping down to the practice field.
She didn’t know why it grated on her so much; she’d always been alone.
Alone at Reineggburg except for a few servant children until her brother and parents came to visit.
Only allowed to visit Flussendorf once she turned ten, and even then only when her brother or Michael was there to ride with her.
Then alone in the tower for twelve years, sleeping but aware.
Taking a position at the farthest archery target, she took a deep breath, released it slowly, and then drew an arrow, nocked it, and sent it toward the target in one swift motion. It embedded itself in the center of the bullseye like always.
Why should she care that she was alone? She had her bow. It was what she was good at.
The noblewomen were scandalized by it. The noblemen felt threatened by it.
A tear pushed against the corner of her eye, but she blinked it away as she spun, switching her bow to her right hand and whipping off the next shot. It landed right beside the first one.
If her brother could be the heir and sing, then she could be the spare and shoot.
And if that meant she had no friends, that was fine.
She was used to being alone.
THE END