Fake Princess
CHAPTER 128
“ You succeeded,” whispered vigorously. “ You managed to use magic. You throw the guards like they're just pillows!”
I wanted to laugh until I couldn't stand up, or cry until I couldn't see. “ You saved me, and the first thing you said was about my magic?” I managed to talk.
Looks like Devan barely heard me. “ I was wondering if I needed to attack them, and maybe die while doing so, then they just drifted away from you. You did it; you called him when you wanted him.”
Devan laughed happily, and I found myself laughing along. “ So we didn't save you,” Devan added. “ We just light a fire, create a distraction. You saved yourself, Amelia.”
I almost stepped over the distance that lay between us and embraced Devan. However, just before I lifted my leg, Melani's tearing in the cell seemed to echo inside my head.
You're nothing, you're nobody. The imitation, which was destined to be replaced by the original.
Even with his face blushing from running, his clothes dirty from running through the forest, Devan still looks very handsome, very noble. Melani offered me a chance to be on par with Devan, to be strong enough to allow me to have him. Not just a kiss that gets stolen once in a while, but forever. And I refused it.
“ thought you wouldn't help me,” my cerocos. Devan's shoulders ducked a little, but I kept talking. “ I thought you said I was alone.”
Even in the dark I could see Devan's face blushing. “ I know what I said. But all that was just a bluff. I want to slow you down. I hope, if you think you'll do it alone, you'll doubt it. And if you have any doubts, I can go back in a few days and persuade you not to. Stupid, actually, because I know how important this is to you. But to be honest, I didn't expect you to go alone. I just want to stop you, protect you. I never really intended to abandon you. I would have gone with you, if I had known you were really gone.
“ But it turns out, before I knew it, the king was sick, and you left. And just after I found out, one day before the king died, I overheard someone say Melani was planning a trip to Saremarch. There was an emergency on his estate, something so bad that he had to leave, even when the king was seriously ill. I thought he must know you were gone, and he was after you, and I realized how stupid I was all along. I thought I was protecting you, but I'm just putting you in greater danger. So, I slipped away before Melani— left a message for my parents on the grounds there was some important business out of town and I had to leave.
I think they're now combing the countryside in a panic to find me. So, I took the horse and rode it faster like a ghost was chasing you. I thought you were coming to this tenpat. I stopped at the March Holdings tavern, and some locals were talking about a girl they had never seen scaring another girl into running out of the village. So I'm guessing it was you. But I'm late.” Devan gripped my shoulder, his hand hot. “ I'm sorry, Amelia. I'm really sorry. I should never have left you.”
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