When vengeance strikes in the form of a bullet out for the princess's blood, Princess Aleia VonAuclair must flee the heart of her country in order to protect the people she loves and take back the pieces of her soul she'd lost to the girl she once l...
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Happy Ever Afters don't exist, and I'll make sure yours won't too.
Twelve words. Only twelve words and yet, it managed to puncture a hole into my heart. It took up every inch of my mind, dominating every waking moment of my day and the sleepless moments of my nights.
Happily Ever Afters were a myth; a magical fairytale meant to bring hope to those who yearned for the kind of unconditional, beautiful love where two souls had been tied to each other from the very start.
They only ever existed between the pages of a book because those pages always came to an end. There would be a last page and there would be a last full stop. The rest of the story would go untold - unwritten- and it was up to the imagination of those who dared to dream big to write a happily ever after.
But that was the problem with fairytales. They blurred the lines between fantasy and reality until the two worlds collided, because despite knowing happily ever afters didn't exist, that life entangles far beyond a single full stop, you couldn't help but hope that the magic of it, of a fairytale ending, will come to find you one day. And that one day, your happily ever after will last forever.
So, as I stood in front of the gleaming ballroom doors of Arina's charity event, my heart broke with the reminder that a fairytale ending - a happily ever after - would never be the full stop written in my book.
Mine would be a cliff hanger - a dead end. Because the ending of my own story would always be left unfinished. Untold.
With that note ringing through my mind, I flattened a hand over my dress and braced myself for the evening ahead. The richly blue gown I'd chosen was fairly simple, with a classy slit running to just above my right knee, before it cinched at the waist and trickled into elegant long sleeves, the skirt swooshing with every step I took into the ballroom.
I hadn't spoken to Edrian since I'd left his house two days ago. I wished I was strong enough to fight it, but the letter had festered doubts about the kind of relationship that awaited us in the future and I couldn't help listening to them – if I, as Asrea's princess, could have a future with a man who didn't even know I was a princess.
It wasn't in the cards for me to tell him the truth, but I still felt like I was lying to him. A hidden truth was still a lie, and a half lie was still a lie.
What kind of relationship would we have if our foundation wasn't built on the truth? If the core of my being, the very center of my existence, my world and my universe, was a secret to him?
The foundation of any relationship was built on truth, communication and trust. Those were the largest pillars that solidified the bonds between two people. So, what would happen if the basis of our foundation was built on half-truths and white lies? Would the house still stand? Or would it crumble along with the fragments of my heart?
So, when Arina spotted me from across the room, her face brightening with a thousand watts, I made it a mission to steer clear of Edrian tonight. Just for tonight. I needed to get ahold of my bearings and think things through and I couldn't do that if his presence, if everything about him, made me melt into an incoherent puddle.
