Chapter Two

'I'm going to win Az' DG yelled over her shoulder to her sister and Azkadellia increased her horse's pace to a gallop in order to beat her sister to Finaqua.

Azkadellia managed to reach the palace before her sister and dismounted, handing the reins to a servant, who flinched as their hands made the smallest of contact. Az quickly drew back her hand and looked up to see that DG had made it to the palace.

'It's not fair, you've had more practice then me' DG said to justify her losing, handing over the reins to a servant just as Az had.

'Well you shouldn't have bet me you'd win in a race then' Az replied teasingly as they walked up the steps to the door. Since the Evil Witch had left Azkadellia, she and DG had spent most of their time together and were, once again, the best of friends.

DG jumped through the door before Az to prove what, only she knew. Az smiled as they went to wait in a small room for their parents to arrive. I've missed this place, she thought to herself, remembering how crushed she had been when the witch had destroyed Finaqua.

A couple of hours later, Azkadellia had finished unpacking and was settling on her bed to start reading a book she had found about the history of the Oz, when DG bounced and jumped onto the bed beside her.

'Hi!' she said snatching the book from her sister's hands.

'Hey, give it back' Az said reaching over DG to try and grab the book from her outstretched hand.

'Nope, not until you promise to stop reading' DG said, while Az fought against a smile, and lost. Then she held out her hand and the book shot out of DG's hand and into hers.

'Hey, that's cheating' DG said, outraged. 'Besides, I thought you couldn't use any magic'

'Tutor and Raw said I shouldn't try to, they didn't say I couldn't' Az said as she put the book away.

Earlier that week, Azkadellia had been examined by Raw, and complained most of the way through, having someone in her head bought back bad memories.

He had said that she was weak, scared, and confused so the queen had said that she would spend weekly sessions with him in order to recover better.

She had claimed that sleep would help her and proved that by sleeping at all hours, feeling better after as long as she hadn't had a nightmare, which she found she didn't if DG slept with her, which Tutor had said was because of their connection.

'That's great' DG said, excited and happy for her sister. At that moment there was a knock on the door and DG went to see what it was.

'Mother wants us in the dining room, apparently someone sent cooks with a list of all our favourites.'

That wasn't exactly true, DG had just bullied them earlier into making all the meals she knew her sister liked, and more.

But Akadee was grateful because she knew that all the servants were nervous around her and avoided her as much as possible so she didn't bother them often, but her family had all made comments at some time or another about all the weight Azkadellia had lost since her possession.

'Ok then, lets go' and Az got up, dragging her sister along the bed until she managed to get up and then was pulled down by her, screaming all the time in protest.

Their fun was short-lived when both their guards ran in, guns drawn, searching for the reason of all the yelling but withdrew when they saw it was the sisters who were the source of the screaming and the hysterical laughter.

Somehow they managed to get up and settle themselves enough to leave for the dining rooms, guards following, still not completely used to the sister's play.

* * *

After having lunch with her family, and avoiding stares from the servants, Azkadellia changed, grabbed her book and went for a walk in the gardens, her guards trailing from at a distance.

She had just finished the last page when a group of men on horseback rode up to the palace. Looking up she saw that the man at the front was the newly promoted Captain Wyatt Cain.

She got up and walked back to the palace to inform her mother that Cain had arrived, DG will probably be very happy, she thought, thinking back to how she had missed him once he left.

Over the next hour or so, the queen held conference with Cain, Ahamo and Ambrose while DG introduced Jeb to Azkadellia.

'Jeb, this is Az' DG started, face falling as Jeb interrupted her. 'I know.'

While he had forgiven her, knowing that she had no control over her actions he still wasn't overly friendly with her.

'Oh come on Jeb' DG said, slightly frustrated. Jeb looked at her and smiled slightly. There is definitely something going on between them, Az thought looking from one to the other.

'It's ok' Az said used to the treatment, in fact it was more than what she had got out of most other people, they usually ignored her, glared and shouted insults or turned around and walked a different way that didn't involve seeing Azkadellia.