All Chapters of The Prophecy Marked My Sister, but I Died Instead: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

A faint mist rose off my body. Everything in front of me spun as if the world had turned upside down, and when my sight cleared again it was drifting inside the castle.My parents were watching Aurora with aching faces. My mother stroked her cheek. My father watched it all in silence.Then a sharp pain shot through both their heads. For a moment something like a vision passed in front of their eyes, me, lying in the white snow with half my body already buried.My father's eyes flew open and he sucked in one heavy breath after another.My mother was only just coming back to herself. Both of them seemed to sense something, faintly.But one look at how weak Aurora was and they forced that strange feeling back down.Aurora wore a gown much like her mother's. Between the two of them she looked small and thin. She sat silent through all their fussing, and then her cool voice broke in, "Is she coming back?"Aurora folded her hands and lowered her head toward her. "Mom, Neve isn't going to com

Chapter 2

It went back to when I was little, as far back as I could remember.I watched my parents smile at Aurora, and I watched that smile go flat into a hard, measuring look whenever it turned on me.The guards shadowed her carefully, while asking one of them for even the smallest favor only earned me a scolding from my parents."You want the guards to do everything for you. Their job is to keep your sister safe every minute of the day, not to run your pointless little errands."My father snapped, "What if something happened to her? Why can't you ever think about your sister!"My mother stood beside him with her eyes on Aurora. She gave me one sideways glance and said angrily, "Maybe the prophecy is this jinx's fault in the first place. Without her, my daughter would live past sixteen."All I could do was lower my head and take it.Everything in that house belonged to Aurora.Once I overheard my parents talking in the study."Is there really nothing left?" My mother's voice came through, hoar

Chapter 3

Some time passed with no sound at all from outside, and my father asked one of the guards, "Has Neve come back?"The guard shook his head. "We walked the whole way around the castle. There wasn't a trace of her anywhere."He paused a moment. "She's just being stubborn. Put some food downstairs on the ground floor. Set it out for Neve."I drifted down in front of my father and looked at him.His eyes were red. The lines between his brows were packed tight together, and there was a lot of white now in hair that used to be black.I said softly, "Dad, I'm dead. Will you look at me?"I reached for his broad hand, but mine passed straight through it. I grabbed without thinking and caught nothing.I stayed where I was, watching him pace outside Aurora's room.After a long while he went downstairs, saw the food untouched, and asked the guards, who told him I still had not come back.He looked toward the doors with grief all through his face and said quietly, "Neve, still not back? Once your si

Chapter 4

My mother turned back to the window with more worry in her face."We said a few words to her and she took offense and won't come home..." My mother lowered her head and took the pendant.My grandmother said nothing. She turned her head slowly toward my father, who had just come in."What did you two do to Neve?"He went still. "Neve... she kept making a scene, demanding we sit with her. I had her put out.""What! You put Neve out?" My grandmother's eyes went dark as they moved between them."Do you understand that this was the last chance those two girls had to see each other!"My mother saw the anger in her face and said weakly, "She knew perfectly well it was her sister's last day and she still made trouble..."My grandmother rounded on her and shouted, "Neve is your daughter too. You know exactly how hard her life has been. On the last day you still treat her like that!"My mother pressed her lips together and said nothing.My grandmother's voice shook. She stared straight at my par

Chapter 5

"What is it?"My mother heard the shake in his voice and asked it as she started toward him.By the time she reached him he was kneeling in the snow with his fingers pressed to my neck, perfectly still. Then she saw the blue and purple shape buried there clearly, and both her hands went to her mouth, and the tears came down into the snow in waves."No. No... this can't be happening. Neve was supposed to be fine!"She collapsed onto the ground, unable to believe any of it, calling out again and again, "Neve... Neve... this isn't right, say something, please..."Neve, your sister is fine now. Stop scaring me. Look at me, will you?" Her whole body jerked with sobbing.I stood beside them and watched."Dad, Mom, I want to open my eyes and come back to you too. I wanted so badly for you to love me a little more..."I reached out to stroke my mother's face and wipe away the tears that would not stop. The movement caught Aurora's eye.She seemed to work something out. She stared blankly in th

Chapter 6

Around noon Aurora finally woke.My mother had not left her room. Her eyes were red and empty, fixed on the ceiling. When she saw Aurora stir she pulled her in, her mouth slightly open."It's all right, it's all right. At least you're alive..." She sounded worn to nothing.Aurora stared at her for a long moment without speaking."Mom, Neve, she..." Her voice was very small.The hand patting her back stopped in midair. My mother opened her mouth, but nothing came out.Aurora's face dimmed. "Mom, I want to go and see her.""Aurora! You need to rest. You're not well, you can't take a shock like this..." My mother caught hold of her, trying to get her lying down again.Aurora fought her, shaking from head to foot. "Where is Neve? What happens to my sister now! She never even got to see me one last time before she went!"My mother looked at her daughter's twisted face and seemed to lose whatever spirit she had left."In her room," she said quietly, sinking down onto the bed with her head lo

Chapter 7

A knock came at the door."Alpha, what has happened here?"The witch Sybil walked in, saw my parents and Aurora huddled on the floor, and said in a puzzled tone, "Has the prophecy come true already? I made a special trip back to see."There was a certainty in her voice, and something close to amusement.My father's head came up, his face twisted, and he fixed his eyes on her."Get out! Get out of here. You're not welcome!"Sybil flinched, but then pitched her voice higher and said, "You only knew ahead of time because of me. What, your Aurora is dead and now it's my fault?"She laughed twice and shook her head. "You knew she was going to die. You shouldn't be this broken up about it. Haven't you been making it up to her for years now? Such a shame she couldn't hold out...""Aurora is fine. Neve is the one who died."My grandmother's calm was frightening. She stared at Sybil without moving.Sybil's expression froze, and her voice jumped as she said, "That's impossible. My prophecies are

Chapter 8

I watched her prepare my coffin, dress me in a beautiful deep red gown, lay me down among the flowers that lined it, and arrange the way I lay.Looking at myself in that fine dress with my face at peace, I realized it had never once occurred to me that I could be dressed the way Aurora was, with a necklace of black and red stones at my collar.My mother tried to put the aquamarine she treasured into the coffin, and my grandmother stopped her."Rosalind... this aquamarine will keep Neve's body from ever decaying.""She doesn't need anything of yours. Her soul is gone. What good is the body!" My grandmother's voice was ice."Mother, let us honor Neve with the highest rites, the ones we give an Alpha." My father had been silent the whole time, and it came out of him all at once.She spared him a glance. "There's no need. You have no right to arrange anything for her."She took me to the chapel, and my parents and my sister followed the whole way with their heads down.Inside, the priest p

Chapter 9

The witch carried my grandmother and me to a quiet green hilltop. I had never seen anything so beautiful. Threads of sunlight lay across a fast-running river and broke into brilliant sparks.Beside a great waterfall she found a high rise of earth. She laid me in it and scattered flower seeds all around.She knelt at the grave for a long time. Then she looked up at the sky, at the exact spot where I was."Neve," she said softly.I did not understand."Grandma? Can you see me, Grandma?" I looked at her, and her gaze did not waver from mine.She gave a small nod."Grandma can see you."Everything I had swallowed for years found a way out at once, and the tears came pouring."Grandma! Grandma!" I threw myself at her like something wild.But my body still passed straight through hers.She opened her arms and closed them around me as if she could really hold on."Child... you carried so much... so much..." Her voice broke more with every word."If... if only Grandma had come sooner. Then you

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