When the Sun Fell |✔|

41

Josiah stood outside his study, staring down the window and watching the flame. The sight sent shivers down him as he took in the lone figure who stood by the fire.

The light cast from it showed Lumi standing rigid in place. She did not move. Her appearance was something both sinister and unearthly.

She had left the study after Josiah told her. He had followed her, but any words said did not reach her.

She turned to him then, when they had both reached the bedroom. Her tears were gone. She was void and the blankness of her eyes scared Josiah.

"I need to do this. And if you stop me- I will retaliate." Her voice no longer held any warmth as she looked up at him. He felt fear and panic rush through him. He didn't know what she meant, but she had shown him in the next hour as she stripped off her clothes and covered her body in a white paint.

She put on a white dress and became something else.

Josiah watched her now. She had been standing by the fire for two days, unmoving. He wondered how long she would continue to stand there.

He could see Ramus' shadow in the distance. The male came and went, pacing uneasily whenever he showed himself. He also did not know what to do with the mourning Queen.

There was a hush over the palace. The staff hardly spoke a word.

They stared at the figure that used to be the woman who greeted them with a smile in the hallway. They took in the sight of her, feeling chills run through their spines of the paint that had been smeared onto her skin.

On the third day, as Josiah stood in the background watching the flames with her, she turned.

"Lumi..." he stepped forward, but she still did not acknowledge any who were around.

"I am going hunting. No one can come with me."

Ramus opened his mouth, his worried eyes glancing to Josiah, but Josiah held up his hand, staring down at his Queen.

"For how long?"

She finally looked up to meet his gaze. "However long it takes."

They then watched her disappear into the darkness. Her white dress had not been replaced, but knives now adorned her body.

Josiah felt a jolt run through him when she turned at the last second to meet his eyes.

He wished he could embrace her. He wished he could kiss her, and tell her anything to make that look of pain go away. But he was beginning to come to terms with the truth that had long been staring at him in the face.

"Should I follow her, My King?"

Josiah turned to the anxious Ramus. He smiled at the male and how he seemed to be on edge without Lumi in his eyesight.

"No...she needs to do this in her own way, Ramus."

"She's unguarded. She's not protected. Anything can happen."

"I know," Josiah whispered. Both men looked out into the forest, and both men felt the clench of anxiety in their hearts.

*   *   *

"I didn't see Queen Lumikki?"

Josiah sighed at Soter's question. The other council members looked at the male, their eyes trying to give an obvious signal to drop the subject.

Soter looked around in confusion before staring back at Josiah and clearing his throat, "well...I'm sure she's around here somewhere...but I have the reports of the border and the response for the villages and how the laws are being accepted for those who live closest to the Winter Kingdom."