21

Twenty One

I sat curled up on the window seat in my chambers, gazing outside but not really seeing anything. I had told Aramatha I needed to prepare myself to meet my parents since she said announced that they were here at the castle. I didn't want to face them even though I knew it was inevitable. So I waited in my room while the other ladies spoke to their parents one by one, hoping I'll be the last one.

As I stared at the backyard, My mind was lost in painful memories of my step mother treating me like the worst thing to ever exist. How she had turned my father who had loved me so much against me. I smiled bitterly, my mind flashing back to that awful day when I was fourteen.

I had been sitting on the front steps, chatting with the neighbor boy Jake about a school project we were partnering on. It was all perfectly innocent. But then my stepmother had stormed outside.

"Freya! What do you think you're doing?" she screeched, grabbing my arm and wrenching me to my feet. "Throwing yo