Throne of Hearts (girlxgirl)

Chapter 2

**Rhys is pronounced like "Reese"**

The Hart Home. Wildvale, Ahigarth - 2106

Rhys Hart

I lay in bed, staring up at the tattered paper in front of me, reading the lines over and over, even though I had already memorized them. It was the announcement notice for the Queen's tourney. The paper was creased and smudged, but each word was as clear as day in my mind. I still remember when I had first heard the news being shouted from the town's crier, announcing the tournament just before the Winter Solstice. We didn't often get news that applied to us from Wishborne Castle, other than tax notices, which thankfully weren't too often right now.

The crier was a lanky man in his thirties with a booming voice, who had waved around the notice while telling us what it said. Many of the townsfolk couldn't read, but I could, and as soon as the man dropped the paper, I scooped it up and ran home. I swear my heart was drumming in my chest when I saw that it wasn't just for Knights and Nobles to compete but also for the common folk who could fight. I still remember the look on my mother's face when I told her about it. She didn't believe me until I showed her the paper, and she read it herself.

"I'm going to go, Mother," I told her.

Adeline Hart stared at me for a long tense moment, her blue eyes not giving away her emotions. I was scared of what she was going to say. I thought she would tell me no, that I was needed at home. When she finally agreed, saying, "I think you should." I was shocked by her approval.

"Are you serious?"

She nodded, handing me back the paper. "Yes. You're an excellent fighter and...I think it's time for you to go out on your own. Besides, if you don't win, you'll just return home. Right?" I nodded, still in disbelief. Later that evening, we told my father, Rowan Hart, a big husky man with pale gray eyes. And he agreed also, wholeheartedly.

"Are you reading that again, Rhys?" My younger sister's voice broke my train of thought. I sat up in bed, glancing at her from across the room. Anaya is beautiful with strawberry blonde hair like my own and hazel eyes like our mother. She wasn't the most outgoing girl, but when she was your friend, you could barely get a word in sometimes because she turned into a little chatterbox.

"When is she not reading that?" Rory said, walking into the room without knocking.

He's Anaya's twin, though they didn't look identical. Rory had a curly mop of sandy red hair, contrasting with his twin's longer, straighter hair. He did have the same colored eyes, and they were practically the same height, so you still knew they were related in the end.

I grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. "Oh hush, what are you even doing in here anyways?" I asked, folding the paper up carefully and placing it on a shelf above my bed. I may have been five years older than these two, but that didn't stop me from fighting with them over trivial stuff as siblings do.

Rory plopped down on the corner of Anaya's bed, holding the pillow I had just thrown against his stomach. "I wanted to make sure you two sleepy heads were up. It's time for work."

I groaned. "Of course, we're up. When are we ever not up before you?" He started to say something when I cut him off. "We don't count when someone is sick or injured, idiot," I grumbled, but I was smiling, easing any sting from my insult. Thankfully, we all knew when to tease and when to be serious with each other, and we never meant any harm with our teasing. I loved them dearly. That love was part of the reason I wanted to win a spot on the Queen's Royal Kett guard. I wanted to make sure that they had a better life, a chance to get outside of this shit little town and be something.