Royal Imitation | Kylo Ren

Nights And Mares

Hair of midnight black and a perfect pair of eyes to match beneath the framing of graceful brows, his skin was as tan as the workers' from the orchards, but his hands of jewels were so obviously not used for plucking nor trade. He had prominent cheekbones and a well-defined chin and nose. 

"Does he know about me?" I nod my head up the hallway and to the painting of Prince Dayvis which hung along the far-side of the wall, but even in this distance, his frozen eyes haunt me with a disparity of flooding nerves that await his return to a home where his sister isn't who he remembers her to be.

Ruby follows my gaze and rolls her eyes as we walk further down the halls and closer to the painting, on our casual stroll. "Yes, he's aware."

I stop before the picture and she mimics my frame as I wrap my arms around my back and hold onto my wrists tightly; A stance I had quickly picked up from her. 

My words are hesitated as my throat feels incredibly dry beneath his pastel stare. I had been given nightmares in the form of daydreams the moment the King had spoken of the Prince's arrival.

I gaped openly as I observed his sharp jaw, chin, and cheekbones. Much like my stance now, his long hands were twined behind his back as he stood somewhat to the side, bathed in riches of expensive clothes and gloves which he had even worn thick rings of gems above to prove his worthy, despite the crown above his head. 

His smirk was pensive in creating a sharp shiver down my spine, even though it was only a painting, but that only made me wonder how unnerving the real one could be.

I let out a shaky sigh.

"... Is he?" I speak lowly, "... Okay with my presence in the meanwhile – You know, before they find his sister?" My formal language has to improve before tomorrow, when the Prince will arrive and the King will throw a banquet much like the one for Kylo Ren, to celebrate his return – But all I can focus on lately is how to avoid Kylo as much as possible and not lodge the butterknife, which I had stolen and hid in the case of my pillow, into the soft flesh of his neck as he sleeps beside me every-night. 

Bile rises in my throat when I think back to last night, when he held me close to his chest tightly, no remorse in the heartbeat which I was pressed against as I tried to cling onto the sheets to claw away.

Forget the daydreams of fears, my life was the nightmare.

Ruby hums, "Honestly, who knows." She says flatly, and in moments like this, I am reminded of how uncaring she can truely be, "Prince Dayvis is a troubled boy, with no reason to be so. He's unpredictable..."

The bile which already sat in my throat, almost turned to acid. 

I wanted to look away from his frozen stare, but instead I stepped closer. Unwrapping my hands from one another, I raised a solemn finger and ran it across the canvass. The brush strokes were tiny and controlled, as if the painter was trying to tell me in the dull paint that the sociopathic smirk was just as true as the muse. 

"Unpredictable?" I question, dropping my hand and turning to Ruby, who, unbelievably, had become the only person who I am most close to in this Kingdom, no matter how cold she is and despite how much I actually disliked her, which was as much as she hated me.

Ruby tuts and cocks her head to the side, signalling we should keep walking, which I follow shortly. "Lets just say..." She drags her words as the heels of her boots click down the halls, "– Prince Dayvis would have been a better pairing to Kylo Ren than the Princess... Or in this case, you."

I gulp down all my acid and let it swirl nervously in my stomach. 

Giving into the temptation which is now always here, I curl my fingers into my palms – A habit I used to fight when I was a child and stuck in a fearful, adults world of war; I grew out of it though, because Anwar would always tell me off, or intertwine his big, boney hand into mine to stop the blood from drawing. But without him, and with no warm hand holding my own, the habit had grown back as strong as the fear had returned also.