Return To Me, My Princess (Book2 in farewell my princess series)

Snow drifted past the carriage window in a steady white haze, soft and endless, like ash spiraling from a dying fire. Outside, the horses’ hooves thudded against the frozen road, each strike sending a gentle sway through the lacquered carriage as it wound its way toward the capital of Ziwengi.

Calista jolted awake.

Her breath caught—sharp, panicked—as she slammed upright, fingers flying to her throat, searching desperately for a wound that... wasn’t there.

Her heart thundered wildly. She dragged in a trembling breath, cold air biting her lungs.

“Your Highness?” Abetha whispered, leaning forward, her almond eyes wide with worry.

“You were trembling,” Elowen added softly, reaching to steady Calista’s sleeve. “Did you have a bad dream?”

A dream.

Calista blinked, disoriented, then stared at their faces—so young. Unchanged. Alive.

Alive.

Her pulse surged as she glanced around the carriage. The polished wooden panels, the woven blanket at her feet, the pale winter light spilling across her hands—hands unmarred by scars or rope marks.

Her breath hitched.

This cannot be...

She pressed her palm to her chest. Her heartbeat was steady, her skin warm. The familiar ache in her ribs—the one she carried in her last life after being struck—was gone.

Her voice came out a whisper.“I... I was dead.”

The carriage jolted over a patch of uneven ice, but she didn’t feel it. Her mind spun violently.

She remembered it too clearly. Tajoe’s cold eyes, his scathing words, the endless humiliations. She remembered the betrayals, loneliness, the despair, the dagger in her hand, the warm water around her as her life bled away.

And worst of all, she remembered the way her heart had clung to him anyway, even as he broke her.

Her stomach twisted and a shudder tore through her.

I died. I died. I remember dying.

So this wasn’t the afterlife.

This was... before.

Her gaze snapped to the window. The terrain outside...the winter forest, the icy river, the path....They were approaching Ziwengi.

She remembered this exact journey.She remembered the white trees, the crunch of snow, the dread curling in her stomach, the naive hope in her eyes.

The hope she no longer had.

Her lips parted in shock.

“I’m back,” she whispered. “I... returned.”

Abetha frowned. “Your Highness? Returned from where?”

Calista closed her eyes, letting the truth crash over her.

She was alive again.On her way to a man who would destroy her.Toward a kingdom that would eat her whole.Toward Kaylen’s betrayal.Toward Tajoe’s cruelty.Toward everything she had already endured and escaped only through death.

She opened her eyes slowly, her lashes trembling.

Not this time.

Never again.

She drew her hand back from Elowen’s, sitting straighter, her expression sharpening into steel; a resolve none of them had ever seen.

“I’m fine,” she said, her voice calm, almost cold. “Just a dream.”

It was not a dream.It was a warning.A gift.A rebirth sharpened by agony.

She turned her gaze back to the window, watching the snow swirl past like white ghosts.

If fate has given me another chance,then this time...I will not love him.

This time...I will not let anyone destroy Luwan.

And this time Tajoe and Kaylen will be the ones who break.

She continued staring outside. Snow dusted the barren trees, their black branches clawing at the pale sky. The world felt new, but her mind was full of ashes.

Elowen touched her hand gently. “Are you unwell, Your Highness?”

Calista blinked once, steadying the storm inside her.“No. I am well,” she replied, smoothing the folds of her gown as though arranging fabric could quiet the tremor in her bones.

But she did not pull her hand away.

Instead, she let her gaze linger on Elowen’s face—a soft face, round with youth, framed by strands of chestnut hair that had slipped loose from her braid. The girl’s eyes held nothing but concern. Genuine. Innocent. Loyal.

But Calista now knew better.

In her past life, Elowen had been just as gentle, just as attentive... and just as false. Every kind word, every comforting gesture, had been reported faithfully to Kaylen no doubt. She had been his eyes and ears within Calista’s chambers, the little shadow who smiled as she betrayed her.

A faint chill slid down Calista’s spine, though her expression never changed. She allowed a small, courteous smile to touch her lips, the kind that hid more than it revealed.

Calista’s voice softened, though her eyes remained cool.

“Thank you, Elowen,” she said, the words carrying a weight the girl could never understand. “I am truly fine.”

Elowen smiled, relieved. Calista returned the expression, but only with her lips. Inside, her resolve sharpened.

In this life, she would not be blind.She would not trust blindly.She would not love, be pitied, or protected into ruin.

She curled her fingers slightly, letting Elowen’s hand slip from hers. Her chest tightened as her thoughts shifted to Abetha. Abetha, unlike Elowen, had been loyal to a fault. So loyal she had given her life for her in the end. The memory stung, yet no tears came. She wished they would. She wished for the simple mercy of release but her body refused even that. The ache lingered somewhere distant, muted, as though wrapped in layers she could not peel away.

She was aware of everything, the weight of the moment and the sadness of it, but the feeling itself remained out of reach. Present, yet untouched. Hurting, yet unable to truly feel.

Closing her eyes, she let the numbness settle, wondering when even a single tear would return.

“Your Highness?” Abetha asked softly, worry warming her voice. “Are you certain you’re all right?”

Calista forced a gentle smile.

“I’m just... grateful,” she whispered. “For both of you.”

Abetha blushed with pride. Elowen lowered her head with perfect obedience.

Neither noticed the subtle shift in Calista’s gaze;the sharpened knowledge behind her eyes.

Snow kept falling silent and relentless as the carriage carried her toward the life she refused to repeat.“Ziwengi must be close now,” she murmured, more to herself than to the others.

Abetha leaned forward with a bright grin, her eyes sparkling despite the cold. “When His Highness sees you, he’ll be struck speechless, Princess. No man could resist you. Why, he will surely treat you as the love of his life.”

Elowen chuckled, her tone warm and teasing. “Indeed. Men like him may be proud, but once he looks upon you, his heart will soften. He will cherish you. I am certain.”

Their words should have brought comfort. Hope. Excitement. Instead, they felt like knives carving into an old wound.

Calista’s grip tightened around the fabric of her gown until her knuckles whitened.She remembered too clearly her past life—the coldness in his eyes when they first met,the disdain in his tone,the humiliation he allowed,the suffocating disappointment that followed every stolen hope.

And yes... at the very end, he had loved her.Or something like love.But love discovered too late was as useless as ashes.His love had not saved her. It had not saved her family. It had not saved anyone.Her devotion had been trampled until she chose death over another breath beside the men who claimed to love her.

“Enough,” she whispered, sharper than intended.

Both maids looked up.

She forced a small smile, smoothing the sharp edge of her voice. “Do not speak of him any longer.”

Abetha blinked, startled for a moment before laughing softly, mistaking her tone for shyness. “As you wish, Your Highness. But we are only speaking the truth.”

Calista turned her face back to the window, letting the icy landscape blur before her eyes.

For a heartbeat, she considered telling them everything.The nightmare she had lived.The life she had lost.The betrayal.The man she had loved too fiercely and the man who had destroyed her.

But what would she say?That she had died once already?That her groom-to-be had crushed her heart in another lifetime?That she was returning to Ziwengi not with hopeful innocence... but with a resolve carved from pain; not seeking love... but determined never to be broken again; not with excitement... but with a promise to herself never to repeat her past.

She inhaled slowly, letting the breath steady her.

No.This rebirth was hers alone to carry.

She swallowed the truth like bitter medicine and watched the snow fall harder against the glass.

Some things were too heavy to share. Some wounds, too unbelievable.And some secrets, too dangerous to speak aloud.

This is mine to carry. Mine to change.

There was a sudden knock on the carriage window.

“Your Highness, we will be arriving shortly,” a guard riding alongside them informed.

Abetha peeked outside eagerly. “Oh! I see the banners of Ziwengi in the distance!”

Elowen grasped Calista’s hand, her excitement radiating through her grip. “That means we’ll be at the capital soon! Oh, Your Highness, can you believe it? By this time tomorrow, you’ll be married!”

A small tremor ran through Calista’s fingers as she tightened her hold on Abetha’s hand.

Tomorrow she will be Tajoe’s concubine. The event that started it all. She had been given a second chance though not knowing how or why but this was a chance to change everything.

One thought circled her mind with unwelcome persistence. Should she tell Tajoe she was Naya?

In her past life, she had intended to reveal it on their wedding night. But there had been no wedding night. And afterward, it had become irrelevant. Nothing she said had ever softened him.

A part of her considered it now. If he knew she was the girl from his childhood, the one he once protected, perhaps it would stay his hand.Perhaps he would hesitate before showing the cruelty she remembered all too well.

But the moment the idea formed, she dismissed it.

Tajoe’s hatred of her and of Luwan had not been born from mere misunderstanding but rather one that had been fed for years by lies about her mother.He had nurtured that hatred until it defined him, until it became the lens through which he saw her.A forgotten childhood encounter would do nothing to counter the poison soaked into his bones.

If she told him now he would not see a familiar face but rather the daughter of the woman he believed murdered his mother. He would assume she had manipulated him then and was manipulating him now.

He would not soften. Calista’s chest tightened. Not with sorrow, but with the cold clarity of strategy.

Revealing herself too early would be a mistake. Perhaps even fatal.

Not yet.One day, when she uncovered the woman who could expose the real murderer, when the evidence was undeniable then she would tell him.

Then the truth would destroy his hatred instead of deepening it.

Until that moment, her identity remained hers alone. A secret, a shield, and a weapon she would wield only when she chose.

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Happy New Year, my lovely readers!

I hope the holidays treated you kindly and filled your days with warmth and rest.

Welcome to Book 2 of the Farewell, My Princess series. This part of the story is of Calista's rebirth and I’m so excited to finally share it with you.

Thank you for your patience, your support, and for walking this journey with me. I truly hope you fall in love with this second part even more than the first.

Enjoy and welcome back. 💙