Читать книгу The Falling of the Stars - Lina Fischer - Страница 6

Prologue

I was always the girl who stole the spotlight; no matter who they were, people would always look up to me. I’m not going to lie, it’s an exhausting job to do, especially when everybody has such high expectations.

After I was orphaned, the king and queen adopted me because the queen wasn’t able to have children of her own. They are the best parents I could have asked for, and I’m so grateful for them. There are downsides to it, though; I don’t have many friends, because my parents are scared that someone would hurt me. I don’t know why they are so afraid; why would anybody want to hurt me? At least I have my best friend, Eden; he came to us after both his parents died in the war against Aaron, whoever that is.

We were babies when my parents took him in, it was a big scandal when Eden’s father was killed in the war and I feel connected to him because of everything we’ve had to go through together. We share the spotlight; after all, we’re the future of our people, since everybody expects us to marry each other.

I woke up to three gentle knocks on my door, as always. I opened the door for Eden.

He looked especially beautiful this morning. His soft brown hair looked almost gold as the sunlight consumed the room. “Hey you,” he said.

“You know, you knocking at my door every morning gets annoying,” I said, still half asleep.

“And you know that I like to annoy you.”

I chuckled. Typical Eden. “What’s on the agenda for today, my knight?” I asked him.

“Don’t tell me you forgot? Everybody is preparing for your birthday ball!” he exclaimed hastily.

“I knew I forgot something! Well, let me get dressed and I’ll meet you downstairs in a second,” I told him before closing the door.

I dressed myself in a skirt, a lace top, and a white cardigan. As I walked downstairs, I saw some of the staff busy preparing for the ball. I couldn’t help but feel bad that they had so much to do because of me.

In the large, high-ceilinged dining room, the table was ready, and I noticed that I was the last to arrive for breakfast. I took my place next to Eden and saw that Dad looked more tense than usual.

“Hey Dad, everything alright?” I asked.

“Good morning sweetheart – everything’s fine, I’m just a little bit stressed about the preparations for the ball,” he said, continuing to read the national newspaper.

“Dad, please stop worrying about it, you know that I’ll love whatever you do!”

“Of course, honey, I know that, but after all it is your eighteenth birthday, and that is something that only happens once in a lifetime.”

“I know, but I also know that I’ll never be able to forget the night either way.”

Mom was taken aback for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, I just have the feeling that this night will change everything,” I said excitedly.

“I, for one, think that it’ll be great, and I can’t wait to see what you’ve got planned.” Eden had a spark in his eyes.

I didn’t really feel like celebrating my birthday. It shouldn’t be such a big deal, I don’t even like birthdays. Everybody knows that whenever we celebrate my birthday, something unfortunate happens. Last year, Eden got food poisoning along with everyone else. The year before we had a huge storm come over Ilimara. However, if I keep being optimistic, it might just be the best birthday I will ever have. I spent the rest of the day helping with the preparations and it lifted my spirits. I couldn’t wait to see the end product. The days went by in a flurry of activity, and all of a sudden the day was here.