You guys are going to hate me...WELL, guess what. School has begun again, for most of us like me, and my free time is going to become VERY slim. So, I am warning you now. I will try to update when I can, but looking at my schedule now it seems like it 'might' be once a week, if that. I'm sorry, but school comes first!

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Rhoswen swallowed hard and tore her gaze from Wolf. Her heart was beating like a drum and she could feel heat rise in her cheeks. She prayed that Wolf would think nothing of it or better yet not think of it at all. That was better then having him know her feelings for him. She just couldn't let him know.

"My magic is energy and as it builds up the energy moves around, creating heat." She explained, trying to change the subject as fast as she could. She looked back down at their hands and gave a small genuine smile, knowing that Wolf had forgotten to let go like the last time. But this time she wouldn't remind him. She didn't want to remind him that he was supposed to be with Virginia...and not her.

"Then what...?" Wolf asked carefully, giving a small cough and waking Rhoswen from her thoughts.

"I-It'll just keep building," She started and looked back up at him, "and trying to move around until it finds a way out."

"What do you mean?" Rhoswen took notice to the change in Wolf's eyes as he spoke. It seemed like a mixture of concern and fear, but Rhoswen knew that that was what she wanted to see. Not what was being shown. It couldn't be. He loved Virginia. He confessed it every day to everyone they came across.

"Well, really just one way." Rhoswen confirmed and pulled her hand gently from his. She re-laced her hands in her lap and looked down at the ground. She was a little tired of talking. She wanted silence, but she knew Wolf better then that and so she thought of something to say, "Do you think Tony and Virginia are alright?"

Wolf's eyebrows knitted together at the topic Rhoswen had decided to bring up. His head screamed at the thought of Virginia and several terrible images of her being hurt floated into his mind, but something stronger overpowered it.

"They're fine. I'm not worried about them." He replied and looked up at the sky, "How long have you been on your own?"

"What makes you think I've been alone? Maybe it was just some freak occurrence when I met you." Rhoswen countered and looked over at him. Wolf gave a shrug, but kept his gaze on the sky.

"You said you had no stars." Wolf replied, making all thought in Rhoswen's head halt. She had thought he was asleep when she had said that. Had he heard the entire thing? At her silence, Wolf looked over at her, "What did you mean if not that you've been alone all this time?"

"...I've been on my own for years." She stopped herself, not sure if she should say anything more or if she wanted to say anything more. This subject was sure to lead to memories she would rather leave in the depths of her mind.

Wolf stared at Rhoswen quietly. She had been on her own for years and so had he. Both of them, all alone in the world, but now sat here together some how. The gypsy elder's words ran through his head again, reminding him of their likeness.

"She understands you..."

"A lonely life comes with being a wolf...but you're not a wolf. So why would you choose this way of life?" Wolf questioned curiously. If he had the choice he most certainly would not have chosen loneliness. So, why had she? Wolf's eyes narrowed as he continued to think, "Why aren't you home? With your family? With some charmer, preparing to start your own family?"

Rhoswen gave a small laugh and looked over at him. She stared at Wolf a moment longer, the urge to divulge every dark secret she held becoming too strong.

"I didn't choose this and I would be home with my family, trying to start a family, but...everyone left me." Rhoswen explained, her tone slightly sullen. Her eyes had become hard as she stared out at nothing, "Several years ago the king and queen of the eighth kingdom were killed. Then the kingdom froze over and is now surrounded by an impenetrable wall of thorns...all the workings of a dark curse...a dark curse no one can seem to break."

Rhoswen took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. Rhoswen's thoughts drifted back to the day she had heard of her home turning into an arctic tundra.

"Surely there must be a way to break it?" Wolf's voice sounded optimistic, but all Rhoswen could do was click her teeth. She could feel the start of tears in her eyes and took to shaking her head.

"No one knows how to break the curse. We've all tried." Rhoswen swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat at the memories that flooded her mind, "My parents knew it was coming. Years before the rest of the kingdom."

"How?" Rhoswen shook her head in answer to Wolf's question. She had no idea how they could have known about the curse. How could anyone have known about something like that years in advance?

"I don't know, but they had sent me and Fawkes away when I was a little girl...to live with our aunts in the woods. Our grandmother came to watch over us when I was six and when I turned sixteen she told me where I had come from, about the curse, my parents..." Rhoswen wiped a lone tear from her cheek and tried to hide her face from Wolf. Once she had composed herself she looked back over at him, "Then everyone started disappearing on me. First my grandmother disappeared and then my aunts disappeared. Then one day I woke up and Fawkes was gone. All that was left was a note."

"What explanation did he give for leaving you all alone like that?" Wolf asked, sincerely sorry for the pain she had felt and was obviously still feeling. Rhoswen reached to the pouch that sat on her hip and pulled the small parchment from it, gently touching the ring beside it.

She handed the letter to Wolf so easily, so comfortable with him knowing everything. She watched closely as he read the note:

Rhoswen,

All your life people have been deserting you and I promised I would never do the same. This is a promise I will keep. We will see each other again, either in this life or the next. I will not be returning back to the cottage though. Please do not coming looking for me, do not ask about me; simply forget I was ever your brother. Simply forget I ever existed. I value your safety above my own and this is why I have left you in the first place.

I explained to you about the curse on the Kingdom and I pray you keep it in mind always. If I can keep the darkness away from you and keep myself alive, then we have a chance at saving the Kingdom. Then we have a chance at saving our home.

I am sorry that I cannot do what you so desperately want me to do. I am sorry that I cannot achieve what you think I am capable of achieving. I am so very sorry that I cannot be what you so desperately need me to be. For everything I am not, you are and must always be. We have been all each others had since we were children. We felt each other's pain, shared each others joy so because of that I vow to you so long as I draw breath I will make sure you are safe.

Remember to forget me, little white rose, and one day soon it will be your time.

- F.

Wolf looked up from the letter and looked to Rhoswen, who had tears running down her cheeks slowly. She stared off at the ground with sad eyes and all Wolf wanted to do was comfort her, but he didn't know how.

"You've been looking for him all this time?" Wolf asked as he folded the letter back up. Rhoswen nodded her head slowly as she took a deep, unsteady breath.

"He's all I've ever had and then he just suddenly disappeared. Like everyone else in my life. I want to know why. The real reason." She wiped the tears from her cheeks and sat up, taking a deep breath, "We took care of each other, watched out for each other because we were all the other had. It was like having a piece of me ripped away and replaced with a hole."

"You two were very close." Wolf looked down at his hands and to the letter. Something seemed a little off about it. Why would he leave if he thought Rhoswen needed to be safe? What was Rhoswen's 'time'? Wolf looked back over at the woman he knew so little about and put, at least a little bit, together, "You're twins."

"Yes." Rhoswen nodded her head and then gave a small grim laugh as more tears fell from her eyes. She grit her teeth tightly and shook her head, trying to stop her tears, "I should have known."

"Known what?" Wolf asked softly, unsure of what she was now talking about.

"That he was going to leave. I felt it in my bones, but I just...I waved it off." Rhoswen shook her head and then rubbed her eyes, wiping her cheeks of her tears. She took a deep breath and let it out in a short sigh, "All the hurt and guilt he was feeling the day before he left. I should have known that he was leaving."

Wolf wanted to say something, but he knew not what to say. He kept quiet and handed her the letter back. His hands sat restlessly in his lap as he stared down at hers, which sat peacefully laced together with the letter between.

His eyes returned to her face where he saw more silent tears fall from the eyes he had dreams about at night. Slowly he reached a hand over and took one of hers, holding it tightly within his own. His thumb rubbed gently over the back of her smooth hand, the warmth seeming to crawl up his arm and into his chest.

Rhoswen gave a small hiccup and raised her free hand to her face, wiping another tear away. Wolf, not listening to the little voice in his head that screamed at him to get away from her now before it was too late, moved closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"...I don't feel him anymore, Wolf." Rhoswen cried, allowing him to pull her to him. Wolf pulled her close to him and tucked her head beneath his chin. Rhoswen gave a sharp sniff, trying to keep herself under control, but failing, "Wolf, what if he's hurt? What if he's somewhere out there dying and scared? I should be there and I'm not. I'm here and I should be there."

"Shhh." Wolf whispered softly and took his hand from hers, wrapping it around her tightly. Rhoswen slowly began to crack and started to softly cry into his chest. Wolf continued to shush her and started to smooth her hair soothingly, "It's okay...shhh...everything will be okay..."

It broke his heart to know she was in this kind of pain and distress and all he could do was hold her. He wanted to do so much more. He wanted to take away her sorrows and make her smile, make her happy, but all he could do was hold her and tell her everything would be alright.

In this moment, Wolf understood it was too late to get away from her. He realized that he was already in too deep. In this moment, Wolf realized the gypsy elder's words were true. He had feelings for both Virginia and Rhoswen, but he knew he couldn't have both.

He was so confused. He didn't understand how it had happened, but that it had just happened. He had had all these plans for him and Virginia. Then this strange golden haired, moonlight eyed, girl had appeared out of nowhere like a gleaming star and stole a piece of heart.

Wolf looked out into the dark forest as Rhoswen cried softly in his arms. His head screamed that this was wrong. That it should be Virginia, not Rhoswen, in his arms under the stars. As loud as his mind was screaming it was somehow drowned out by the soft whispers of his heart as they told him, reassured him that it was always to be her; his radiant moon that called out to him in the darkest parts of the night.

Wolf closed his eyes tightly and held onto Rhoswen as if he were to let her go now she would disappear like one of the stars in the night sky. He rested his cheek against the top of her head and breathed in her sweet scent of cinnamon, vanilla, and brown sugar, embedding it in his brain just as it had been embedded in his heart on the boat the night they had laid beneath the stars.