Chapter Twenty-eight

♦September's POV♦

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"No Selena!" I refuse vehemently, shaking my head, my tiny hands clenched into fist by my side.

It's late in the night and my twin is suggesting that we sneak into the woods that surround our castle, I'm not allowed off the castle grounds but Selena has been outside before and she insists on showing me.

"Mother will punish us." I add with a face too serious for my five year old, baby face.

Selena doesn't let go off my hand, still dragging me off the bed. "That's why we're going at night Ember, she won't know." She says with conviction.

I trust Selena but I fear our mom even more. "You don't know that Elena." I resist, refusing to let myself be pulled off the bed.

She lets go of my hand and grabs my face in her slender hands, she has always had pretty hands while mine were pudgy. "I promise I'll protect you okay." She says heavily and I know she means it, if mother finds me out of the castle spending days in the dungeon would be the least of my fears because Selena would get in trouble too.

I gulp and nod, my wild hair flying in my eyes, taking her hand again. "Okay." I whisper, following her.

She quietly pulls me to a window in my room, I gasp as I realize where she's heading, my room is at the top floor of the castle, jumping down would be dangerous.

"We're gonna get hurt Elena." I say seriously, starting to resist again.

"No we're not, I'll go first then I'll catch you." She says with conviction.

I'm very skeptical about this rickety and hole filled plan but one look at her vulnerable face has me nodding.

"Alright, I'll do it, let's go before mother comes to check on me."

Selena looks at me one last time before fluidly hopping off the window pane that she had settled on, the flowery pattern curtain was pushed to the side.

I look out the window in time to see her effortlessly hop on the ground like she was just taking a really long step, I look down again and see her stretch up her hands in preparation to catch me.

My heartbeat spikes, I know I'm a vampire but I've always been ridiculously fragile which means if Selena misses I'm going to turn up with broken bones which are going to be really hard to explain to mother.

I look behind me then look outside one more time, the moon was full and it hung low on the sky like an overripe fruit. It gave off a luminous, soothing light that was bright enough to illuminate the night.

There was a huge and thick wall all around the castle, beyond the wall, to the north was the forest. Selena had said she had seen a Unicorn there and the only reason she could even persuade me to tag along was because of that.

"Alright? I'm coming down now." I say weakly, climbing up the window pane as well. I'm grateful that I had decided to wear pyjamas today instead of a ridiculously, prissy nightgown.

I sit on the edge and I start to feel woozy at the distance, Selena just stands there patiently with her arms outstretched, waiting for me to fall into them.

Without thinking about it, I take the plunge, pushing myself off the polished wooden pane. Immediately going into free fall, my first instinct is to scream but I cover up my open mouth with a hand quickly before I ruin everything.

It feels like I've been falling forever when in reality it has only been like a couple seconds but I don't stop, I'm still falling and my hair gets in my eyes but I don't scream, I can't scream or my twin would pay.

I close my eyes as the ground rushes towards me, wind whipping.

"I caught you." Selena whispers giddly in my ear as she easily catches me, hugging me close.

I let loose a wide grin, my eyes still closed. "You always do."

"Okay, we don't have much time." She says, dropping me and grabbing my wrist again to pull me along.

I let her do as she wish because honestly it's much faster this way.

The castle is smack dab in the middle of the compound, it had high towers, turrets and everything, apparently it also had a moat around it that ran through the forest.

She runs in a straight line, to the wall. We pass through the gardens and I don't question it, there were guards at the gate and servants were all around even though it's midnight. We had to hide quickly a couple of times or we would have gotten caught.

Selena is quick and strong even though she is just a five year old vampire, she is awesome like that but I'm the soft baby that Cyril has to piggyback to be able to go out in the snow because if my feet got cold I'd go down hypothermia.

I'm clumsy and still unable to attain vampire speed, dematerializing was an impossible thing for me, while Selena couldn't dematerialize yet, her speed rivaled an adult's.

We safely get to the high wall that is also really thick and looks impossible to climb so I finally ask my twin sister the question that has been on my mind ever since we started this journey.

"How are we going to get past this wall?" I whisper to her.

She gives me a wide grin, the moonlight shining on her wavy white gold hair making it look pure white - I still think Selena is prettier with her pale flawless skin and slanted eyes. I still have freckles from that one time I went to pluck flowers and my eyes are too big for my small face.

"I have a secret door." She says proudly, walking closer to the wall.

She lets go of my hand and starts to rub and feel around a spot on the wall, I just watch her intently, wanting to know it myself so that another time I can sneak out all alone and surprise her the next day.

"There!" She exclaimes giddly, pressing down on a spot. A cube shaped piece of the wall slowly depresses and a cut out door slides open.

"Come on, go in quickly." She says to me, voices are coming closer to where we are and terror flashes in my eyes.

The opening is in utter darkness but I don't hesitate before running through, Selena following close behind me.

Filters of what some servants were saying came through before the door silently closes as fast and indiscernible as it opened.

"Did you see something?"

"No, I..."

"I think so.."

Selena and I are on the other side of the wall trying to remain quiet until all the voices recede again.

"Do you think they'll tell mother?" I can't help asking, my heart is beating so loud it's a wonder the servants didn't hear it.

"Not until they find proof unless they want to risk her eating their hearts or drinking them dry." She says bluntly and I make a face.

She laughs at this and takes my hand. "Let's go find the Unicorn!"

I grin, totally forgetting about the faint possibility of getting in trouble when I look around, taking in the forest.

It doesn't look scary like I thought it would or maybe it's just because I'm with Selena, she would always keep me safe.

The trees here are normal like the one in the castle but Selena says that the Unicorns stay in the part of the forest where the leaves are pure white like the moon, so we hurriedly make our way deeper into the forest, wearing nothing but silk pajamas and soft soled shoes.