She was to look for a husband. Instead, she found a King.
-♞-
Princess Mikayla is the only heir in Aurelian who had survived the War of the Four Kingdoms.
After her family was brutally murdered by the other creatures in the realm in the struggle fo...
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Chapter Twelve
WHEN I WAS FOUR, MY ELDEST SISTER, Sage, was betrothed to Alinac, a high-ranking fae who climbed quickly up the ladder after his successes in battle. She hated him. Instantly. I could remember her complaints to Marigold, who braided my hair, whilst Sage paced up and down my room.
Arrogant, charming, a rake, she stated as she threw her hands up in frustration.
She then declared that she would never marry a man like him. But life was not that simple.
Marriage was a transaction between family, a sign of goodwill and prosperity for the kingdom. It was Sage's duty to marry whomever my parents saw fit.
Though a rake, Alinac was brave and intelligent, and his family was well-known and loved in Aurelian. Sage had no choice. And so came the months of courtship.
Alinac knew my sister wasn't easily charmed, yet he never faltered when she would respond curtly or blatantly ignore him. Then, came the Summer Solstice, a celebration of the sun's rebirth as it was the longest day of the year. It was incredibly important for Aurelian and Venilia. It was when our powers were at their strongest.
Many thought it was the only time the Goddess of Life, Sollas, came to Elysium.
It was during this event that Alinac broke through my sister's icy fortress.
As the sun finally set, the night sky beginning to stream colours of purple and pink until it morphed into black, he took her to the Halcyon Mountains. Not many people have the ability to go to those mountains without feeling the urge to return home.
But Alinac's love seemed to overwhelm that urge. Thus, under the sky's brush strokes of beautiful vibrant colours, he proposed to my sister and promised to honour her for the rest of his life.
That same night, my sister came home and gushed about how Alinac truly exceeded all her expectations. I suppose it was from there my expectations of a man heightened.
But when was sister was killed, Alinac couldn't bare to live without her.
Grandclain believed that when one soul died, so did the other.
Alinac swallowed a nightshade, a deadly fruit, and died four days later.
That's when I vowed to never fall in love.
I just did not expect Christian and the danger of this attraction growing between us to feel too close to love.
Shoving all thoughts of this nonsense, I focused on the mountain of paperwork left on my desk. It had piled up over the week whilst I was away and I knew it would take another week to get through it.
My office was quiet and all I could hear was the candle crackle as it vibrantly lit the room up. Though, a snap of my finger and I could burn the entire kingdom down. That violent thought had me flinch and I suppressed the power until it distinguished somewhere deep in my gut.
