"Eris Fontaine," I hear him say from a distance. "Will you marry me? If you do, I swear that the moment you say yes — for as long as the sun and the moon are in the sky — I will make you my bride and walk you down the aisle onto our new home."

I stop in my tracks as I watch his eyes tear with anticipation, my mind struggling to comprehend what the hell is going on. After a moment of silence, I muster the courage to take a few steps back as she gapes at his question, pretending to piece it all together when we both know the truth: she planned it. She fakes a cry, happily accepting as he slides the ring onto her finger.

And because I know that I will never be the one he wants to spend the rest of his life with, I get up on my horse and run away.

-

As I come back to earth upon remembering the night that my ex-fiancé, Apollo Mirren, proposed to my step-sister, Eris Fontaine, I unconsciously find myself playing with a piece of red string wrapped around my crystal ring to secure its hold on my finger. Feeling guilty for proposing to the wrong sister, I must have forgotten to tell him that the ring he acquired for me on such short notice is way too big. Oops! Then again, it doesn't matter.

He is no longer tied down to a simple woman with no remaining family. Like me.

"For your sake, I hope the wedding pushes through," I hear Eris helplessly tell him as she sheds a tear and smiles, holding onto the lapel of his waistcoat.

He frustratedly frowns at her and pulls her closer to him, gently pushing away the strands of her hair to the back of her ear. "And why on earth makes you say that? Is it Claire? Don't you know you are the lucky woman who has captured my heart? And with such swift victory, might I add? Who else am I going to marry if it is not you?"

My heart churns painfully at the mention of his words, like a dagger gradually stabbing my heart and nothing can stop it.

"Maybe, I should just crash your wedding, then." I watch her pull him closer to her with his tie. "That way, I will know if you are truly in love with me."

"For sure," He slightly chuckles, brushing his palm against her face. "I think you are the only woman I know that came up with such a crazy idea."

"It's decided, then." She purses her lips and turns around, waiting as he slowly wraps his arms around her waist. "I will ask my maids to prepare an extra pair of shoes to match the occasion. But now that you think about it, don't you think it will be harder for a lady to whisk away her lover if she runs away in heels?"

I stand still at a corner in his study, breathlessly watching as she waits for his answer and curious at just how far Apollo will get to hurt me for her sake.

"Will you really do it to Claire if the opportunity arises?"

I nearly faint at the mention of my name, doing my best to hold my breath as we wait for his response.

He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes before looking away and then returns his gaze to Eris. "It is merely an agreement between your family and mine. The best I can do is to keep that promise as the next Alpha to the Mirren line for my family and for her, but I don't think she can blame me for it if she loses her groom at the altar."

I suddenly back away from the window as the thread on my ring came undone, casually slipping from my finger as it rolls under the cabinet of my ex-groom-to-be.

As I thought, their peaceful yet harmonious laughter slowly eats away the pieces of my heart and kills me. And while I can feel both my legs shaking, I force myself to run away once more and close the door from behind me as I leave the room. Tears roll down my cheeks, begging me to let go and cry as a sudden pain fills my body, seemingly increasing every second. I muster the strength to leave the house and get onto my trusty steed, fleeing to the side of my father's most trusted friend and my mentor, Yosef.

Halfway across Lunox, I feel my legs give out when the horse suddenly stops and my body paralyzes itself, eventually causing me to fall to the cold, hard ground. Thankfully, Father Yosef sees me and helps me stand up. "Princess!"

"Father," I can only whisper to him. "I want to continue the research with you—"

Despite having temporarily lost all control of my body except for my eyes and my mouth, I can somehow feel his excitement and confusion. "Didn't you say that you were planning to settle down in Lunox with—"

"No," I refute as some of his men come to assist me, two women wrapping their arms around their necks to carry me and lead me into a tent. "I know you might think I'm only having cold feet, but—"

"No need to explain." He simply says, as the women place me down on a make-shift bed and leave me alone with him. "I know. I always know, my dear child. I watched you grow up under the care of your father!"

I slightly chuckle as he sweetly brushes his hand against my jawline before tucking a few strands of my hair behind my ear. "Get some rest. I will have the others get your things from the palace."

I am about to thank him when he shushes me and smiles. "Before your father passed away, I promised him that I would always look after you."

"Thank you, anyway." I faintly mutter to him.

He tucks me in with a blanket and lets out a heavy sigh. "I am so sorry, Claire. It seems I did not protect you well enough. Your father might've broken your fiance's face if he were still here."

I quietly laugh and close my eyes, knowing that it sounds just like my dad.

"Now, sleep tight," I hear him tell me. "I shall see you in the morning."

I remember the first time I met Eris.

She and I were once sworn enemies, competing in household chores and in the battle of our wits. I used to admire her, eventually warming up to her. She was a good friend who humbled me until my father, the great Mikael de Lune married her mother, Daphne Fontaine, an outcast in their own clan. Soon, every competition I had against her only proved her worth as my father's new daughter. Together, they even pitted me against my father! I grew mad... delirious until his death. None of them showed at his funeral, the Lunox tradition of letting go.

Growing up with her not only placed me under her shadow. It is as if they planned it.

-

Years later, here I am, battling an incurable disease that they placed in me so that Eris can inherit the key to the throne—the moonstone.

"Claire," I hear Apollo mind-linking me. "Did you forget? I am waiting for you at the carnival."

I stay silent, savoring every moment that this warm bath eases the pain in my body.

"Please, Claire..." He persists. "Please tell me if you are on your way. I have a suprise for you."

"Let me guess," I respond. "Purple flowers shaped like a butterfly?"

"H-How did you know?!" He exclaims, amazed at my prediction. "I personally picked them for you—"

"Those are wolfsbane flowers, you fool." I carelessly tell him, cutting him off before he has any chance to reply.

If you truly loved me, you would know that my favorite flowers are hydrangeas... I tell myself, forgetting that he is in my head. "Wait. What? You like hydrangeas? Claire, you never told me..."

"You never asked." I hiss at him, furious that he is ruining the bath for me. "By the way, if you see some of Father Yosef's men at the palace, let them in. He asked them to grab some of my things for a trip to the mountains tomorrow."

"Wait, why?" I can hear him worry. "Where are you, Claire? Shall I pick you up—"

"I'm not at Lunox." I cut him off, to stop him asking more questions. "Look, I'm sorry if I'm not at the carnival tonight. But tomorrow, I'm taking a trip with Father Yosef to the mountains. I'm going to continue my research. Indefinitely."

I hear him breath heavily as he refrains from saying anything else. "All right. Just, stay safe. Do you want me to come with you?"

I don't believe it. He's not even wondering why I decided to continue with the research in the mountains! Unbelievable...

But I know why. And it isn't because his love for me is so profound that he would rather overlook my every whim than lose me. It is because he has successfully proposed to my step-sister, Eris, with one of the most romantic proposals ever. I am nothing but his back-up plan for when it does not go as he expected. But it did.

I can hear Eris walk behind him. "She is with you at the carnival? Are you serious?"

"Claire..." He holds his breath. "It's just that I ran into her earlier at the carnival tonight. And when I explained that we were supposed to meet here, she asked if it was all right for her to tag along so that she could give you a proper apology."

His explanation is so long that I almost did not recognize how different it was when he and I were together! I shake my head with the urge to drown myself in disgust.

"Claire, I know now what my mother and I did wrong back then." She also mind-links me. "So, I hope you will accept our apology when I say sorry on her behalf. Will you ever find it in your heart to forgive us?"

"So... you think I should really forgive them, Apollo?" I frown. "Both of them? Mother and daughter?"

My body remembers the trembling of my ruptured eardrum, the chills of the numbness I felt from bamboo whips, and the pain of seeing all my mother's belongings burning as it turns into ash. I silently cry as I hear them screaming inside, all at once.

"Claire. Eris was just a kid then! She couldn't tell right from wrong. And she has been regretting it for many years, now, asking you to forgive her. Why is it so important for you to hold onto the past this much?" I hear him trying to reason with me. "Don't you want to move on at least, Claire?"

I can feel the strong tension in his words. What is comforting long ago is now just a forced and yet futile attempt to quicken the pace of the conversation to a treaty. His impatience is finally showing through the facade of what tries to make a relaxed composure on his face, further letting go of the tenderness and care in his voice.

I can feel my heart breaking into pieces, battered and now broken, shattering into dust as the pain only grows more intensely and leaves me speechless.

Eris, merely adding fuel to my fire, sneaks in a smirk, which anyone as naive as Apollo, might mistake for sorrow. It is the same smug look and provoking spirit she had once before, but I will not fall for it again. Eris, Apollo, and anyone can do whatever they want, but no one is going to claim that moonstone except for me.

I will not allow any evil lurking among my people to tarnish the name and legacy of my parents.

"I understand if you find it hard to forgive me, Claire." She bows her head, appearing as if she feels remorse. "I am not going to give up. I won't stop until I have paid my debt on the day you consider me as one of your own."

As the anger in me boils with a secret desire to grit my teeth in disgust, I hold my head and close my eyes to yell as loud as I can in my head, only to let out a small grunt. "Get out!"

A part of me is hoping that my call to Apollo using the moonstone is over when I suddenly hear his voice saying so otherwise.

"Why are you being so unreasonable, Claire?!" He almost yells, suddenly raising his voice at me. "Can't you see? Nobody is perfect! And yet, here you are, acting all mighty. When have you become so bitter?!"

Apollo knows how Daphne and Eris almost convinced me to take up my life. (It was on that day that I got infected and caught the same disease that killed my mother, Lupus Absolutus.) I cannot count all the times that he would argue with them on my behalf just to get them to apologize through various means, even if it meant bursting into flames when he needed to! But now, I don't recognize the man he is at all. I don't know when and why he changed his mind or what made him want to defend Eris now.

"Mark my words," I weep bitterly. "Unless she dies before my eyes, I will never forgive her!"

I can feel Apollo going mad at my words, obviously about to lose his cool with me for the first time.

"I don't understand how you can change so quickly, Claire! Since when did you become so resentful toward Eris, your own sister?!" I can hear him screaming just as he did once before. "If you cannot find it in your heart to forgive Daphne and Eris, then at least apologize! It pains me to think

"I don't understand how quickly you can change after spending two years with Yosef, Claire!" I can hear him screaming just as he did once before to Eris. "I understand you were researching for your mother's cure, but if you cannot find it in your heart to forgive Daphne and Eris, then at least apologize! I just cannot stand the thought of—"

'—of losing you—' I hope to hear his gentle voice from the past as it echoes in my mind, but I don't.

"—people talking about how vile and spiteful my fiancé has become!" He continues. "Your mother ending her life was her own weakness! I bet she couldn't stand the thought of you losing her if she even loved you! If not, maybe, your father wouldn't have to remarry. Maybe, it's not Daphne and Eris. Maybe, Daphne didn't deserve to die despite her mistakes. Maybe, it's you following the footsteps of your mother who would rather wallow in her misery than face her own nightmares!"

Nightmares. The man who once promised to end the world just to protect me until the day we died now sides with the woman who caused it.

It is as if, no matter what I do to, he is turning all of my misfortunes into a sword to wound me. Now, it is clear. He no longer loves me.

'Claire, I swear... as long as I live and breathe, no nightmare or monster can ever hurt you.'

'What a dream, Apollo.' I think to myself.

"Claire?" He cools down, seemingly sensing something different about me. "I'm sorry. It's just... I don't understand how your research has changed—"

"Claire?"

I keep silent, hoping that he won't bother me anymore so that I can finally sulk in this warm bath that eased the pain in my body—

"Are you... sick?!" He worriedly asks me, further annoying me. "Did you leave because you were sick? Is this what I think it is—"

I am not sure what exactly triggered me, but I can feel a part of me dying to laugh as if I have just lost my sanity. "Are you seriously growing a conscience now, Apollo? Only now, just when you discovered that I'm about to die?"

"Claire..." His voice softens. "It's not like that."

"No." I oppose him. "No. You don't get to change whenever you want! In fact, nothing is going to change, Apollo. I decided that you shall still have your wedding."

"A wedding." I quickly correct myself before he can say anything. "Yes, Apollo! Not with me. No. Our wedding is off. But you don't need to tell your family because nothing is going to change! You are still going to wed a de Lune member of the family! Your marriage will unite our kingdoms without having to play pretend with me or Eris. You can make it official! Have your way, like you always wanted!"

"No, Claire." I can hear him disagree. "No. I won't allow it. I will not allow it, Claire. No matter what you say. I know—"

"Say what you want, Apollo, but we both know the truth now." I respond. "You don't have to lie to my face anymore! It is okay to admit it now. You are in love with someone else. And all those ten years we spent together are fake. They're not real!"

"Oh, don't do me like that, Apollo!" I find myself screaming again, my body trembling at my own words.

It's the illness.

"So," I calmly try to explain to him, "don't deny it, Apollo or I will really get mad. I mean, really—"

At that exact moment, I feel my body acting up as if it is tired, making me cough a little. I dismiss both of them, blocking my mind to keep them from contacting me by mind-linking me with the help of the moonstone.

"Forget it."

I can't believe that, just because of one exchange, the only moment I get to enjoy a warm bath without any distractions is ruined. After ten years of getting to know each other and falling in love, one would think that Apollo has had me memorized. But no! It is only impeccable timing, I tell myself.

With only seven days left until what should have been our wedding day, I decide to take Apollo's advice: look forward. From now on, I will sever all ties to the past and continue our research on the cure for the Lupus Absolutus!

-

"Ah, it is a good thing you are awake, Luna." Yosef greets me as I pack up the only clothes I have from the tent I stayed in. "We have a lot to discuss. If and when you are ready, the team and I have something to tell you downstairs."

"What is it, Father?" I ask him with utmost curiosity, taking my attention away from packing up.

"We finally found the Solis Lacrima," he excitedly tells me. "So, pack up, well."