I have a sister... Well, a half-sister, that is.
I stared in awe at the bubbling blonde woman, who had captivated the attention of the entire crowd. Todd finally released my hands, placing a shocked hand on his face as we all tried to wrap our minds around the absurdity that had just unfolded.
Once my hands were free, I stepped out toward where Killian and my claimed sister stood, eyeing the girl with intensity. At first glance, you would think it’s impossible for us to share any blood, but as I looked closer, I noticed the freckles that dotted her nose and cheeks were identical to mine. She had much fairer skin, and light eyes and hair, but her facial features twinned mine almost perfectly. It was uncanny. Everything about her reminded me of the Isallan features Minerva had possessed, yet it was like looking in a discolored mirror. If there was any other doubt in my mind that we shared some semblance of DNA, when I stood beside her, she was a perfect match for my height and frame. Okay... maybe she was a hair taller.
“I’m sure you have questions,” Aurelia stated obviously as I stared at her with a gaping expression. “Let me see if I can shed some light on all this.” She turned to the crowd, standing with pristine posture, projecting clearly. Her demeanor continued to remind me of Minerva, but she didn’t display the same icy authority that lingered beneath the ex-queen’s surface. This girl seemed much cheerier, like a golden sunrise. “My name is Lady Aurelia Oberon, formerly Lady Aurelia Lockly. I was born out of wedlock nearly eighteen years ago. My mother fell in love with a woodcutter who had migrated from Sybettal...” She turned to give me a smile and I felt a rush of wonder fill me. “That’s how Nixie and I are related. Unfortunately, our birth father, Quinton, was murdered in a lumbering accident to cover up the scandal behind my birth.”
A deep sorrow flooded my heart for a man I had never even met. A gentle hand touched my shoulder, and I turned to see my mother’s sweet smile console me. I placed my hand atop hers, giving her hand a soft squeeze as I basked in the comfort I had desperately missed for the last few weeks.
“I didn’t learn the truth about my father until I was sixteen,” Aurelia continued. “Since then, I decided to do a little research into my true father’s past. Most of the information came from my mother. She had withheld the truth from me for years, but after my adoptive father was imprisoned for Quinton’s murder, she finally opened up about her past. She didn’t know much about Quinton’s history, other than the fact that he had fled the kingdom during its downfall and left a wife and baby behind, who he believed to have perished in a house fire. Their meetings were often done in secret, so she carried these secrets for years before finally allowing the memories to resurface. From what I gathered from her stories, Quinton’s wife worked the palace fields while he was a royal messenger. When Sybettal fell, Quinton was away on a delivery and returned to find their home in ashes and half the town already buried. He was unable to face the pain of losing both his wife and infant, so he fled for Isalla to start a new life.”
She passed me another knowing look, and I noticed a faint squeeze on my shoulder from Mother.The barley field...“When I learned of my family’s tragic history, I decided to set off on a visit to Sybettal in order to pay my respects to my family’s graves. There’s a large cemetery on the Northern side of the kingdom, filled with the names of those who were lost the day of the siege. It didn’t take me long to find the grave of Quinton Planer’s wife, Naomi Planer, but no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t find the grave of the Planer’s baby. It wouldn’t have been terribly surprising if the baby’s remains were simply never recovered, but I wasn’t satisfied with that answer. That’s when I started hearing rumors circulating about a red-headed princess who was rescued as a baby...”
She shot me a suspicious glare, and I shrugged innocently. “I tried to tell them it wasn’t me, but the idiots wouldn’t listen,” I snorted, earning a stiff chuckle from Killian.
“That’s what your friend here told me...” She gave Killian an uneasy glare, apparently undecided in her opinion toward the Ashbourne prince. “You know our father had red hair, too.” She smiled sweetly.
A warm sensation flooded through me as I touched my vibrant curls.All this time... The hair that I had despised so deeply had come from my father?A soft laugh broke out of me as I recognized the irony of it all. Most fathers would have tried to protect their daughters from unwanted betrothals, while mine had unknowingly thrust me into a multitude of them simply by handing down his genetics.
Aurelia giggled. “So anyway, it didn’t take long for me to piece together that my darling sister was still alive, so I began hunting down the source of the rumors and ended up finding Rieta.”
Mother chuckled softly at the introduction. “You should have seen my face when this young lady and her husband came knocking on my door with their wild story. When I saw her blonde hair, I thought she was mad to claim any relation to you. It only took me a second of staring at her face to realize she was being earnest.” She gave Aurelia a humored look, and the girl giggled once more.
“Wait a moment, you’re married?” I asked in surprise. This girl was at least two years younger than me. How did she manage to get married before I did? Well, I could have remedied that weeks ago, but that wasn’t the point.
“Yep! Come on over Elias.” Aurelia signaled for a kind-eyed man to step out from the crowd, and he took his wife’s side with a proud smile.
“Pleasure to meet you, Nixie,” the man greeted me warmly. “I suppose this makes us in-laws?” He let out a soft chuckle, running a hand through his brown locks.
Aurelia placed an affectionate hand on her husband’s arm, then turned her attention back to me. “Your mother and I have been trying to find you for a little over a week now... If it wasn’t for... him,” she gestured awkwardly toward Killian, “we probably would have never found you at all. I certainly wasn’t planning on looking through any caves.”
I turned my attention toward the silent prince, his gray eyes were alight with such joy that I was amazed he had been quiet for so long. “You really did it, Killian.” I smiled gratefully. “You found my family.” My eyes switched between my adoptive mother and my half-blood sister. “All of my family.” I pecked a quick kiss on his cheek, earning a steamy gasp from Aurelia and Mother.
“I didn’t do much, Nix.” Killian scratched his neck, turning his blush away from me. “Aurelia and Elias were already with your mother when I found her. It’s a good thing you gave me that dagger though. As soon as I told them my name was Killian, your mom came at me with that club.” He leaned down to whisper in my ear, keeping a cautious eye trained on Mother. “I see where you get your scary side from.”
I snickered, then ran through the entire story once more in my head, cleaning up the questions I still had remaining. “So let me get this straight,” I projected for the entire crowd to hear, “you’re telling me that my parents were married and gave birth to me right before the downfall of the kingdom? During the destruction, my father presumed both me and my birth mother died, so he fled the kingdom, while my mother hid me in a barley field before dying in the siege. My father then started a new life in Isalla, met another woman, had Aurelia, gotmurdered, and we’ve been living blissfully unaware of each other’s existence until this very moment?”
Aurelia tapped a finger thoughtfully to her chin, then pointed it energetically in the air. “Almost! I was bornafterour father was murdered. Everything else you got spot on!” She gave me a pleased grin, and I wondered how we could be related with how much optimism ran through her Isallan blood.
I looked at Killian. “And you just happened to stumble across this circus when looking for my mother?”
He flashed me a cocky smile, “What can I say, your mother couldn’t resist my princely charms.” He nudged Mother in the shoulder, and she only gave him a silent eye roll in return.
I laughed, wrapping them both in a hug. “Thank you both. You really came through for me when I needed you. If it wasn’t for your help, I would be Mrs. Baggio right now.” I turned my head away from the embrace and locked eyes with Aurelia. “You too, get in here.” I motioned for the couple to join, and they did so gladly.
Once we pulled apart, I grabbed Aurelia by the arm and yanked her aside. “I still have a lot of questions for you, so don’t think you’re getting off so easily,” I said with a teasing grin. “Do you have any other siblings? Where are you from? How long have you been married? And where did you two meet?” The questions poured out of me as I grasped my newfound sister’s hand with excitement.
She looked upward in thought for a moment, processing my questions. “No, Isalla, almost a year, and we met in a closet,” she replied brightly. Elias snorted humorously behind her, but didn’t attempt to correct anything she said.
I stared at her in confusion, opening my mouth to question her further, but then thinking better of it. Before I could consider any more conversational topics with my new half-sister, a frustrated voice broke out through the crowd.
“This is ridiculous!” Todd shouted frantically, effectively silencing the entire room. “You can’t come in here with a random Isallan and some fabricated story expecting us to believe that Nixie is a commoner! I mean, look at her! She’s a perfect match for Princess Estelle. She has bright red hair, she was born twenty years ago, and her real birth parents are all mysteriously dead. Do you honestly expect us to believe that this was all just a coincidence and that this fair-skinned Isallan has any relation to her?”
Eyes fell back on me, and I gave a slight smirk toward Aurelia, who smiled back and offered her hand to me. I took it, and we walked hand in hand to the front of the crowd where Todd and his father stood. When we reached the two men we dropped our hands and stood side by side for the men to view.
“You tell us,” I said with a confident smile. “Do you see any resemblance?”
Todd’s eyes narrowed in on Aurelia and then on me. The more his gaze passed between our two faces, the wider his eyes grew. Sir Baggio’s expression matched his son’s, and before long, he placed a fatherly hand upon his son’s shoulder. “Todd, they’re telling the truth. The resemblance is undeniable,” he said breathlessly, still in awe from our fascinating genes.