It had been a few days, and Myranda was still in recovery from her injury. Thanks to the silver, her wound had not healed well at all. The pain was an ever-present reminder of her iron-hot words she had lobbed at Metas.
'I deserve this,' she reflected angrily. 'I'm so foolish.'
Thus far, she had tried to leave three times, and all three times she had been caught by either Syrana, Jyriah, or Silas. She felt like a child again when they scolded her, but it didn't deter her from her next attempt.
Today would be different, though. Today she had learned from all her previous mistakes, and she had planned to make it out of the bakery no matter what.
Unable to contact Metas killed her. She hoped he secretly still wanted to be with her, so that she still had a chance - but she wasn't sure about anything anymore - which included how she felt herself.
Her plan was to wait for him until morning, and then sneak out at the dead of night to hunker down in the woods.
Myranda hyped herself up all day for her planned trip. She had resolve, determination, and best of all - courage to finally tell him how she felt.
'I'm going to walk right up to him and say, 'Metas, I'm sorry - I didn't want to reject you. I want you to be my mate'.'
As the day progressed, so did her attitude. It went from a sort of determined, to being in full-blown 'special ops' mode.
Every word was a threat or hint she had been found out - every action made her wonder if the jig was up.
"Did you get enough berries from outside last time?" Syrana called from the kitchen.
"Outside? What outside? We have an outside?" Myranda chirped with a stiff tone of fear.
"...You're being weird. Stop it," Syrana demanded with a crooked expression.
Her paranoia didn't die out as the time passed, either.
"Hey Myri - did you see where the sugar ran off to?" Jyriah shouted to her from the kitchen.
"Run?? Who said anything about running! I can't run, just a reminder. I'm crippled," Myranda replied with a worried face she hid under her covers, even though no one was there.
"Do you need some more of your medication? You're acting more off than normal," Jyriah offered with a raised brow as he peeked into the room to see his little sister under her covers.
When he entered he let out a flat, "I'm not going to ask..." and walked out of the room without another word.
Then at dinner, when Silas came with Syri, her anxiety only bloomed into more of a mess as she suspected they knew what she was up to.
"How's your leg healing, kiddo?" Silas mused as he looked over to Myranda with a concern in his face.
"Slow going. Have you guys figured out who is putting out those traps? Could it be the Windegos? I hear they never stop being hungry," Myranda asked both because she wanted revenge on whoever set that trap, but also because she wanted to make sure that Metas would be safer.
"We're sure its the Vampires, honestly. We've never been able to keep them out of our woods, and the Queen has been insufferable with her demands to hunt further into our kingdom. We're making preparations" Silas reassured her with a smile.
That wasn't what she wanted to know, and she was pretty sure everyone at the table knew it.
"Is the Prince safer out there now?" Myranda finally demanded after a moment of contemplation.
"Oh, yeah - he's got a partner to run with him now. One of our females was nice enough to accompany him when no one else wanted to. Lara is great - so no worries about our Prince. Why do you care so much?" Silas asked and looked at her accusingly.
"A running companion?" She tried not to sound hurt.
Syrana interrupted as she saw her sister's face devolve into a distorted mess of pain. "Well enough of that. How did your book go today, Myri? Are you liking the plot - or should I get another one for you?"
"I..It's...fine.." Myranda stuttered out.
Jyriah joined in and tried to help distract her, but her eyes didn't light up like he hoped they would when he questioned "what's it about?".
"It's...about an old myth about dragons..." she tried to answer steadily, but now her brain was flooded with pictures of Metas and another female as they ran together in the woods just as she herself had done with him mere days ago.
"Is Metas happy?" Myranda suddenly blurted out.
"...Yeah?" Silas began with confusion. "You hate the royals, why do you care all of the sudden?"
"I just... had a lot to think about out there. Is he happy?" She repeated after she received no real answer.
"Yeah. I've never seen him so happy. It's refreshing. Lara is really good for him, even the parents are pleased," Silas sounded like he wanted to say more, but the holes that his mate burned though his head with her eyes was a pretty big hint he needed to stop.
He cleared his throat and tried to move on, "Anyway - we're safe. Metas and Lara will keep the borders patrolled, don't worry about it."
She wasn't worried about the border. She couldn't have cared less about it even if she honestly tried to. All that burned in her ears now was 'Lara'.
"I don't feel good - the pain is getting worse. I want to go lay down now," Myranda lied sullenly.
"Myri..." Jyriah started, but blatantly changed his mind on whatever it was he was going to say and instead sounded resigned as he finished with, "let me take you. You shouldn't be walking around on that leg."
He got up and helped her escape the situation.
She felt left, rejected, or abandoned by a mate - and now she understood exactly how Metas had felt a few days ago. It was grief so heavy that she wasn't sure she would live through it.
Perhaps the Moon Goddess had deemed she was no longer worthy to be his. The problem was that now all she wanted was to be accepted by the mate she once refuted, but now longed deeply for.
Life was like that, wasn't it?
She just questioned why she had acted like such a flippant bitch earlier.
He had spilled his heart, told her some things that no royal would have ever admitted, and she returned his vulnerability with a cold heart and foolish words just to save her pride.
Karma served cold was truly a punishment to behold.