Page 71 of Ruined Kingdom

But now that I had, I was heartbroken.

“No.” The pathetic word escaped my lips and echoed into the increasing emptiness around me.

There was no one around to hear. There was no one around to know.

The only one mourning at this moment was me.

“Garmilen?” My shaking voice still called out to him, half-expecting him to turn around and greet me curtly the way he often did.

Garmilen and I had gotten off on the wrong foot when we first met, but over time, I'd grown incredibly fond of him.

He’d been the one that brought me back to the castle when I couldn’t do it on my own. He had protected me and cared for me even when I didn’t know it.

I stepped around to see his face. My eyes gazed into the cold, dead orbs of faded green that had often comforted me in times of distress.

Burning hot tears began pouring down my cheeks. My throat felt like it was being squeezed by a vicious hand as I tried to swallow the sadness that threatened to take over.

“I’m going to fix this,” I promised, lightly touching his cheek. “I’m going to free you all, believe me.”

I dashed down the staircase, clutching fistfuls of my dress as I did. As soon as I reached the foyer, I was greeted by one small movement that made me stop in my tracks.

My heart skipped a beat and the air in my lungs was suspended once I recognized that it was the Golden Deer from the forest.

It looked at me with warm understanding.

I approached it carefully still. “Which is it? Are you here to help me or betray me today?”

I stood a few feet from her, waiting to see what she was going to do.

She lowered her head in a bow like so many times before. What did it mean, though?

Either way, finding out wasn’t my top priority right now. “I need to go to the Alpha King. He’s been taken. Can you help me?”

The deer lifted its head quickly, panic in her big eyes.

“Please… I need to save him. I love him.” I pressed my hand into my chest, feeling the way my heart ached just saying it aloud.

Tears rushed to my eyes again, but this time, I tried to hold them back.

Just when the cold loneliness began to spread, an aura or warm light emitted from the deer the way it had done once before… the way I had once before, too.

“That’s just like the light I make…” I whispered in wonder.

The light then approached me slowly.

I felt compelled to reach out to it, wanting nothing more than to touch the warm light all of a sudden.

It was as if this was the thing I had been searching for my whole life.

My fingers reached out to the light with trembling love and desperation. As soon as they touched the deer’s nose, the glowing aura of warmth became bright and hot like the sun in the middle of a summer’s day.

My forearms flung over my eyes to protect them from this great power.

Once the heat had subsided, I slowly moved my arm away.

There was no longer a deer standing in front of me…

At first, I thought it had to be my imagination. My father had always kept a portrait of her next to his bed, so maybe this was just my deepest wish being conjured up by my mind.

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