Suddenly, her cruel smile turned into a sincere one. "Muahahaha!" she shouted, not quite with the same cruelty as before. Rather, more like a child playing with her dolls. The fake evil laugh soon merged into and actual humorous one.

"Ooh, it hurts! Oh, the PAIN!" said Jaron's voice, also cracking into a laugh. Asher rolled her eyes and walked casually over to his hand. She held out her hand and he grabbed her wrist.

"Alright, drama king, get up." She hoisted him up from the floor and we all watched, frozen and utterly confused. Jaron's hand and some of his clothes were stained with a deep red, but there was no wound at all. They looked at each other, identical mischievous smiles on each of their faces.

"Older, huh?" said Jaron. "I may have to look into that."

"Believe it," said Asher.

"But… but you… you were evil!" sputtered Amarinda, absolutely shocked.

"You were dead!" Said Tobias at the same time.

"Ah, so my acting skills are still good," Asher smiled. Everyone looked at me, but now was not the time for I-told-you-so. I had other things to set my mind on.

Jaron began to explain thing from his own perspective. "I didn't know much myself, but I somewhat caught on as we went. It's true, the note did have a secret message in it. The first letter of every sentence of the first paragraph did spell Asher (did you readers figure it out?) but I didn't say anything to you. I figured Asher had a plan, if it was her, or whoever had sent it was doing this for the best. When the thieves showed up, I was kind of expecting them, but it was especially peculiar when they attacked all of you but let me go. When Asher revealed herself, I guess this is going to sound sort of weird, but she looked at me, then at the throne. I felt like she was telling me something, and understood. Maybe twin stuff? Anyway, she pretended to murder me behind the throne so that you couldn't see she hadn't actually stabbed me. When she made the stabbing motion, she got close enough to slip a small tube of red ink and whispered in my ear, 'pretend'. So that's what I did." He beamed, clearly proud of how well everything had gone.

Tobias jabbed an accusing finger at Asher. "But she went to get the rest of her minions. Dryliad will be massacred."

"Not if we're waiting for them," she winked. "It was a lazy command. The only reason they obeyed it without hesitation is 1) I'd kill them if they didn't, and 2) if I'd really declared myself queen, I wouldn't have been awaiting their ambush. However," she removed the crown eagerly and held it out. "I don't understand how you can possibly walk around with this boulder on your head. It can't be more uncomfortable. I think you can keep it." With that, she dropped it.

Out of nowhere, Jaron dived forward, and caught it, inches from the floor. Asher looked surprised. I didn't know what to think. "Since when do you care for-?"

Imogen spoke, unimpressed. "He has attachment issues."

"I do not!" protested Jaron awkwardly, getting off the floor, gripping the crown tightly in his hands. He began to blush.

"The point is you're back," said Amarinda, smiling at Asher. The girls embraced her lovingly, and Asher smiled, relieved. Suddenly, a thought came to me, and anger began to boil once again.

"No, it's not," I said, stepping forward to face Asher. Imogen and Amarinda stepped back to give us room. Asher wouldn't look at me. Instead, she glued her eyes to the floor, and hung her head in shame.

"I know you're angry," she said. "But I had no choice. I first came to Dryliad with the objective of killing Jaron and reclaiming the throne. But when you all began to be so kind to me, and Imogen was almost killed, instinctively I felt I couldn't abandon her after what she'd done to me. That's the real reason why I took the arrow. Then when you offered a better position and you all welcomed me like another member of the family, I decided there was no way I could ever do such an awful thing. But the thieves had heard about an important wedding in Dryliad, and decided to strike then. I had a feeling something would happen that day. I had no arrow in my skirts, and wasn't planning on killing you. I escaped the fire with their help and left with them. They thought I was pretending everything to be able to get closer to all of you, and thought I was a genius. It was so hard to keep pretending. Hurting innocents and planning the murder of someone so close to me. I really am sorry."

"But what about when you said you loved me?" I felt tears begin to form at the corners of my eyes, but was determined to keep them back. "Was that a lie too?"

She thought for a moment, but finally looked me in the eyes. "It's true I've told more lies than I can count while I was here. But Roden, if there was one thing I said that was true, it was that I love you more than anything in the world." Her voice cracked. "You don't have to forgive me. I wouldn't forgive myself. But Roden, I promise you that I'm sorry. I know that sounds stupid and it is, but I-"

I couldn't hold back any longer. I wrapped her in an embrace and she began to cry into my shoulder. It was one of the few miraculous times anyone had heard her so much as shed a tear, but she sound of it was heartbreaking. All anger was washed away in the river of her tears, and I held her tighter. Amarinda was right. The only thing that mattered now was that she was back.