?Chapter 0434


    The next morning, Enzo and I woke early to go to my sister''s funeral.


    The Luna had no funeral. I couldn''t decide if that made me feel good or bad, though. It seemed as though she had no real family, no one who cared that she had died. Even my father seemedpletely unfazed by her death, and seemed more relieved than anything. I guessed that it was the mark of a truly bad person, for someone to only have people be relieved by their passing.


    Selena''s funeral was small, too. As we arrived at the burial site, which was just a little ways behind the mansion down a path in the woods, it was only the three of us: my father, Enzo, and myself. Aside from us, there were only a few of my father''s guards and an older man in green overalls with a shovel in his hand and dirt on his face. My father introduced him quietly as the groundskeeper for the mansion, but didn''t say his name. The groundskeeper said nothing.


    My father had picked out a beautiful coffin for Selena. It was almost a cherry red color, with ornate edges and a delicate wreath of flowers on the top. I had only been to a couple of funerals in my life, but it was always shocking how small the coffins could be. Selena''s was especially small, seeing as how petite she was. If I had died alone with her, there would have been two small coffins.


    As we paid our respects to my sister, the wind blew uncontrobly overhead and rustled the treetops. The pointed peaks of the pine trees swayed in the violent wind, and even where we stood in the forest below, my hair whipped around in my face. The sky was gray and overcast, and it was darkening by the minute. It was certainly going to rain soon. I couldn''t help but think that it was my sister''s farewell; a raging tempest, coarse winds and cold fingers. It was fitting for her, I thought.This content ? N?v/elDr(a)m/a.Org.


    My father, after a long time of silence, finally walked forward to stop beside her coffin. Heid his hand on the wood and held it there for a while with his eyes closed. No one said anything, and neither did he. There were no words of farewell, no grandiose speeches or anything of the sort.


    A whileter, my father finally stepped away from the coffin. He turned his back to us and turned his face up to the sky; I could tell that he was hiding his tears. After all, he had lost not only his first wife, but now one of his daughters. Now, it was just the two of us. No one was left in our family.


    While my father stood stoically with his back turned, I walked up to Selena''s coffin and ced my hand on it. I adjusted the flowers, which had fallen crooked from the wind, and blinked back my own tears.


    "I''m sorry that we never got to be friends," I whispered, knowing that my words wouldn''t be heard by anyone except for myself over the wind. "But... Thank you. Your sacrifice won''t be forgotten."


    As I finished speaking, a particrly strong gust of wind suddenly blew through the trees and sent the flowers scattering to the ground. I had to stifle augh; of course she hated the flowers. I didn''t bother picking them up, and instead returned to Enzo, who just stared ahead silently at Selena''s coffin. I was sure that he had a million things floating through his head; he had, after all, known Selena for weeks and had spent a lot of time with her, despite the fact that it wasn''t of his own ord. But he didn''t say anything. He just put his arm around my shoulders as I stopped beside him.


    After that, the groundskeeper sullenly walked over to the coffin. One of the guards helped him lower it into the ground with ropes, and then the groundskeeper began to shovel dirt into the grave. That was that; it was over. It was a short funeral, but I liked to imagine that Selena wouldn''t have minded that. But, at the end of the day, I didn''t really know her. I only knew the version of my twin that the Luna created.


    My father didn''t turn around until the coffin was already covered in a thinyer of moist dirt. By then, a freezing rain had begun to fall and little crystals of ice were forming in my hair and in my eyshes. He walked over to me with his hands in his pockets, and lowered his gaze to meet mine. His eyes were red.


    "Y-You said you have another question," I said quietly.


    He nodded, swallowed, licked his lips, and then nodded again. "Yes. Are you going to stay, now?"


    I nced up at Enzo, who just stared back at me silently. "Um.... I think so," I replied. "For now, at least..."


    My father shook his head. "I meant permanently," he rified, his voice low and gravelly and barely audible over the howling wind. "I have this big mansion all to myself, and believe it or not, I won''t be remarrying," he said with a sardonic chuckle. "It''s going to be awfully lonely. You two can stay, if you want. I''d like to have you here. Both of you."


    As my father presented me with this proposition, my eyes widened in surprise. I looked up at Enzo again, who seemed almost as shocked as I felt. I had intended on staying for a few days or so, but not permanently... I had a home, a school, friends, a job to get back to. Living in the Alpha King''s mansion had never evene close to crossing my mind. But at the same time, it felt safe here. It wasforting to be near my father, and I wanted to get to know him.


    *Um... I need to think about it," I said, lowering my gaze to the ground. "Is that alright?"


    "Of course." My father nodded. "Take all of the time you need to decide."


    I looked up at Enzo then. His grip tightened around my shoulders, and there was a new sadness behind his soft brown eyes. I realized at that very moment that this decision wasn''t entirely my own to make. Enzo was my mate, and we would need to make this decision together. And already, part of me knew that Enzo wouldn''t want to leave Mountainview; we still had too much to do there, and already I had created an image in my head of the two of us living by the ocean together once everything was really over, maybe even in his father''s home.


    My father, without a word, patted me on the shoulder and began to walk back to the mansion. I looked after him for a moment, watching as the guards filed out behind hisrge, hulking form. When I looked back at my twin sister''s grave, the groundskeeper was still shoveling dirt onto her coffin with beads of sweat already forming on his wrinkled face. And I looked up at Enzo then, whose gaze hadn''t wavered from me for even a single moment. "Let''s go for a walk," I said.