Chapter 41

Rowena

I stood in front of the bathroom mirror, smoothing down my hair as my heart pounded in my chest. Today, I was wearing my usual: a pair of jeans, a white button-down, and a blue cardigan. I had my hair pulled back into a neat bun and wore my glasses, with my leather bag slung across my body.

But today, when I should have been busy thinking about my upcoming classes and my assignments, my mind was on other things. Or rather, one thing in particular.

My brother.

My lips still burned from where he had kissed me in the closet, my skin searing where he had touched me. What he had done that night at the party was a cruel prank, a ‘joke’ taken too far.

It had been a few days now, and we hadn’t spoken yet. In fact, he had hardly even been home—and I was glad for it, especially right after he had told me, as a part of his prank, that he was my mate. But as the days dragged on, I knew that we couldn’t put this behind us.

We needed to talk about it. I couldn’t keep going like this, trying to block it out of my mind. Eric needed to be confronted about his cruelty, and I was prepared to give him an ultimatum.

The ultimatum was simple: either he stopped with his creepy pranks, or I would no longer treat him as my brother. We’d be done; no more than unwilling relatives. We would no longer be friends, as I had viewed us our entire lives.

With another deep breath, I pushed my glasses up on my nose one last time and met my blue-eyed gaze in the mirror with a firm nod.

Outside of the bathroom, I could hear the sounds of laughter, lockers slamming, and voices; we were officially in between classes, which meant that it would be the ideal time to find Eric and confront him.

I didn’t give myself another chance to change my mind. Without a second thought, I whirled around and stormed out of the bathroom and toward the courtyard, where I knew he would be at this hour—likely chatting up girls in the sun.

As I approached the courtyard, though, I felt my resolve waver. My steadfast march quickly turned into a slow stroll, and then I stopped altogether when I saw a head of blond hair sitting in the middle of the courtyard, just as I expected.

It should have been easy. He was alone, scrolling through his phone with a bored look on his face. I could have just walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

But for some reason, I didn’t go out there and give him the ultimatum.

No—I couldn’t.

I stood there for what felt like an eternity, biting my lip as I watched him through the glass. The sun hitting his golden hair seemed to reflect the light, almost creating a halo effect around his head. He was casually reclined on one of the stone benches, with the fall leaves surrounding him.

He looked…

No, I thought to myself. The way that my heart was fluttering in my chest was just a result of the horrific things he had done to me over the weekend, and nothing more. There was no way I was finding him handsome right now. There was no way I was attracted to him right now.

After all, he was my brother!

Suddenly, as though sensing my quiet rage through the glass, Eric lifted his head. His blue eyes locked onto mine through the window, and for the longest moment in history, we just looked at each other.

But neither of us made a motion to move toward the other. He stayed seated, and I just stood there, silently fuming with my hands curled up into tight balls at my sides.

And then, without a word, I whirled around my heel and stormed off.

…

“God, I’m so stupid.”

I huffed to myself as I laid on my bed, staring up at the ceiling. Today, I had planned on talking to Eric, on calling him out for his stupid pranks and giving him the ultimatum that I had puzzled over for days.

And yet, when I had seen him sitting in the light of the sun with the golden autumn leaves falling around him, I couldn’t do it.

Why?

It was so stupid; he was my brother, and yet I had clammed up when I saw him. I kept chalking it up to our three years apart making me a bit shy, but I knew it was more than that. It was that damn kiss, and the words he had said: “You are my mate!”

I could still hear them as clear as ever, even now, days later. Those words had imprinted on my mind, and even thinking about them now filled me with fury.

Finally, I decided that I had to take my mind off of things. I rolled over, flipping on the rather large flatscreen TV that hung from the wall opposite my bed—a luxury that my parents had installed for me on my seventeenth birthday.

After flipping through the channels for a bit, I was about to settle on an old movie being played on one of the local channels before the channel landed on the news, and I found myself too intrigued to flip away.

There, on the screen, sat a sketch of what the missing princess may look like now.

And next to the TV, in the reflection of my mirror, sat a very similar-looking girl.

“This is what the family estimates the princess to look like now, at eighteen years old,” the news caster explained. “She is estimated to be about five-foot-three with curly brown hair, large blue eyes, and most notably: a small, snowflake-shaped birthmark on her earlobe.”

The news caster’s voice faded into the background as I stared back and forth between the drawing on the screen and my own reflection. The resemblance wasn’t quite the same, but it was uncanny.

And the birthmark…

Furrowing my brow, I stood and walked over to the mirror, where I pulled aside my mop of brown hair and leaned closer to take a look. There it was: my birthmark.

I hardly ever noticed it anymore, seeing as how it had been there ever since I could remember. The small pink birthmark sat right on my earlobe, its six little points stretching out in all directions. Not necessarily ‘snowflake-shaped’, but close enough.

“Huh,” I muttered.

“Rowena?”

I suddenly whirled around at the sound of my mother’s voice in the doorway, not expecting her to be there. “Mom,” I breathed, letting out a chuckle. “I didn’t know you were there.”

My mother just stood there for a moment, blinking at me, before her eyes slid over to the TV and widened a bit. Before I could say anything, she was suddenly rushing out of the room, her feet slapping on the carpeted floors as she scurried away.

“What the…” I muttered to myself, bemused by my mother’s strange behavior.

Within a few minutes, however, she had returned. And she was holding something. “Look,” she said, thrusting a piece of laminated paper out to me. “Now enough of that nonsense on the TV.”

I frowned and took the paper, looking down to see an ultrasound—from when my mom was pregnant with me.

“Mom—”

“Rowena, you’re my daughter,” she insisted. “Don’t let those fools make you think otherwise.”

I swallowed. “What’s all this about?” I asked softly. “I know I’m your daughter.”

My mother regarded me for a moment before letting out a deep sigh that caused her shoulders to sag. “I just worry, that’s all,” she said. “You do seem to resemble the missing princess, and I worry that someone might mistake you for her and try to steal you away.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “No one’s going to steal me away, Mom,” I said, handing the ultrasound back to her. “You don’t need to worry. I—”

“Rowena.”

The sound of Eric’s voice, ringing loud and clear, caused me to jump. I whipped my head around, thinking that he was standing in the doorway.

But he wasn’t.

“Honey?” My mom asked, noticing my sudden change in expression. “Are you alright?”

“I just… I thought I heard Eric call my name,” I replied, rubbing my ear. “I guess…”

My mom furrowed her brow. “Honey, Eric isn’t even home.”