Page 158 of Her Dark Promise

Callum stopped in front of my dresser and stared at all the trinkets, using his finger to wipe a smudge of the thick dust off. He picked up a small stuffed animal as I walked beside him. I watched him as he was turning it over in his hands.

“It’s still soft after all this time.”

“My father gave it to me when I was a little girl. I wanted to play outside with all the other children, but when he finally let me, I got hurt. So he gave me this doll to make everything better. He said that I should hold her tight whenever I felt sad and everything would be better.”

He gave me a small smile.

He held it for another moment before setting it back on the dresser. “This was Belle’s favorite toy of mine when she was a small child. I would often find her sleeping with it at night, holding it close.”

I felt hands caressing my arms, sliding up and down as Bastian whispered in my ear, “Can you show us any good memories of Annabelle?”

I nodded, but before I could play the scene in the ball of light, Belle and I materialized before our eyes. Soren stood next to us, lacing his fingers through mine and brought them to his lips as we watched the scene play out before us.

“Belle, please! Stop it!”

“You may stop me anytime, Sister. You are stronger than I.”

We were both on my bed with Annabelle on top of me, tickling my stomach. She was right; I was far stronger than she was, but I never wanted this to end. I loved her with all of my heart. Her laughter was my favorite melody.

“You are, dare I say, evil, little sister! What crime have I committed that you would torture me so?”

She stopped for a moment and pondered the question, before accusing, “You ate the very last piece of my blackberry pie.”

“I did not!”

“Did so!”

We stared at each other, willing the other to break eye contact and admit defeat. I never would—well, that was a lie. I always would for my Belle.

My beautiful little sister.

I broke eye contact first, and she raised her arms in victory. I took the distraction and launched my assault, throwing her back on the bed and started tickling her.

Her hands and feet were clawing at me to stop, screaming at the top of her lungs as I didn’t let up. Tears started stinging her eyes when our parents burst through my doors with a few guards in tow, nightgowns and all.

We all stopped and looked at each other. Time paused until both my parents were sighing with relief at the sight.

My mother put her hand to her heaving chest and my father laid his hand upon Thesius, our head guard, as if to catch his breath, chest moving just as fast as mother’s.

“My girls, why are you still up?” Mother chided.

We both looked at each other, waiting for our punishment when Father said, “Move over, my darlings.” He took Mother’s hand and strolled over to the bed, getting in.

“Thank you, Thesius. You may leave.” Thesius nodded and exited swiftly with a smile.

We all snuggled under the covers when Annabelle asked, “Tell us a story, Father.”

He groaned and we all laughed and started begging—even Mother had joined in. He could never say no to her.

“Alright. But then bed.” We both nodded our heads enthusiastically, getting comfortable.

“I was twenty-three years of age. I had been a soldier in my very first war, which went on for nearly six years. But we had won because I had gone out in the middle of the night to scope out where our enemy slept, seeing if I could overhear any of theirplans. I had been lucky that night because where I was perched in a tree, a couple of their generals had come over to the base of my tree to pis—” Mother gave him a look, and he corrected himself, “--to use nature's bathroom, and I heard the plans for their attack the next day.”

We were all on the edge of our seats, not knowing how it ended even though it ended with him alive as the king with us.

Father continued, “After they left, I hopped down and went directly to our generals and told them everything I had heard. I was reprimanded by my father, who was angry at my violation of his direct order to not engage, but I knew he was proud of me. So we won the war on my intel, and my father knew I was ready to become king. This is when I had my very own coronation ball and met the love of my life…your mother.”

They leaned toward each other, effectively smooshing us in between their bodies as they kissed and we protested, squirming.

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