"Hey! Let's hurry up!"
A child's high voice rang through the courtyard.
The boy leading the group looked about five. Golden hair, with a few pale strands of white, and bright golden eyes. The royal crest of the Celesta family was stitched into the chest of his small tunic.
He was clearly a prince.
Several kids trailed behind him, laughing and scrambling to keep up. Others stayed back, too shy to follow the royal one so impetuously.
"Ouch!"
A girl's yelp cut through the noise.
A little girl, around seven, dropped to her knees. Tangerine-colored eyes filled with tears as blood seeped slowly from the scrape on her knee.
"Are you okay, Myra?"
A worried voice stopped her short of full-blown crying.
She looked up and saw a familiar face.
Grey hair. Amber eyes fixed on her knee with gentle concern.
"Edward!"
Miranda flung her arms around him, hugging the boy who'd dropped to one knee beside her.
"Hey!" Edward caught her, staggering slightly but holding himself upright.
"It hurts!" Miranda sniffled.
Edward smiled and patted her head.
"Let me see."
He gently pulled her hands away and inspected the cut.
"Hmm."
Without hesitation, he tore off a strip from the edge of his expensive tunic and wrapped it around her knee as a makeshift bandage.
"I'll take you to aunty. She'll fix you up."
"Mommy?" Miranda whispered, lip trembling.
"Yeah. Come. Climb."
Edward turned, kneeling again and offering his back.
"Yeah!"
Miranda scrambled onto his shoulders, locking her tiny arms around his neck with surprising strength.
"You're choking me, Myra…" Edward laughed, staggering playfully.
"My prince is invincible…" Miranda whispered, her voice already growing soft and drowsy from the pain.
"Myra?"
Edward glanced behind him and saw her eyes closed, her breath even.
He smiled and slowed his pace, making sure every step was smooth, so he wouldn't wake her.
***
"…"
In the present, the great hall was silent.
It should have been normal, no one was supposed to talk during the Headmaster's speech but that wasn't the only reason for Miranda's silence.
She sat in the right front row, near the royal section.
The Headmaster cleared his throat, ready to continue—
Then the main doors opened.
A few students walked in late, through the front entrance, not the side doors.
The sheer arrogance of it made some students stiffen, but most of them didn't even think about it.
Miranda's eyes had already locked onto one person.
Grey, messy hair.
Sharp amber eyes.
A foreign yet elegant face, framed by an untucked, disheveled uniform. The tie hung loose around his neck, the blazer less than buttoned, the whole look slouching toward delinquent nobility.
Nostalgia washed over Miranda like a wave.
This was the same boy she'd known years ago.
But different.
He was lean, muscular, not the soft, rounded boy he'd been as a child. He still walked with the easy, almost arrogant stride of a noble, but there was a sharper edge to him now. The twisted smile was gone. The hollow, broken Edward she'd seen after his mother's death was gone too.
He moved through the hall like he owned it, confident, unbothered.
The Edward from her childhood had been gentle, warm, painfully humble. The one Miranda had liked had been kind, almost fragile. This one had a colder, sharper face, an expression she'd never seen on him before.
He was closer, physically.
But emotionally, he felt farther away than ever.
He'd lost some of the boy she'd known, but he'd also gained something rough, dangerous, and pulling. That same odd overconfidence he shouldn't have after everything he'd been through.
'It's him,' she thought. 'It's definitely Edward.'
But this Edward felt like a stranger who had once been her prince.
It made the air heavy around her.
'Edward…'
Miranda narrowed her eyes, watching him pass.