A Fragile Enchantment

by Allison Saft

His Royal Highness the Prince Christopher, Duke of Clearwater,

FLORIDA?

His features were narrow, as sharp and steely as a blade, almost … Well, she’d call him dangerous, but in truth, he was built like a sewing needle. She could break him in half if she really set her mind to it.

skinny!!

Oh, how she hated that she cried whenever she was stressed or angry.

Just like me forreal

Rest assured, your friends (most likely) do not hate you.

Real

She’d hoped for a better life here. But a better life, she realized now, came with a thousand smaller hardships.

It unsettled her, for an apology to be so summarily refused. Niamh had spent all of her life sorry for taking up space, guilty for inconveniencing anyone with her emotions or needs. She supposed she had often felt tempted to apologize for breathing, but no one had ever made her feel so absurd for it. It stung as much as it relieved her, but she should have expected no different from a man so disagreeable to all polite society. Kit, she imagined, had never once apologized for existing exactly as he was.

Why are we the same

Beneath her palm, she felt the wild thrum of someone’s heart. The whisper of breath stirred the loose strands of hair around her temples, and the earthy scents of tobacco and nettle enveloped her. Whoever they were said nothing. But Niamh did not need them to speak to know. “Your Highness?” She lifted the corner of the blindfold. Kit stood before her. “Are you all right?”

the hand flex equivalent methinks

the last thing she saw were his wide, panicked eyes, and in them, the look of a man who had finally realized the worst of his weaknesses lived outside himself.

Accusatorily, she said, “Then why are you fussing over me?” He reeled back, insulted. “I am not fussing. I just said I don’t care.” “You can’t do that!” she cried. “You can’t carry me through a rainstorm and then say you don’t care. It doesn’t work like that!” “Well, I did.”

KICKING AND SCREAMING RN

It is not enough to exist. It is my duty to be perfect. I have not been perfect—not at all.”

Me

“I am so afraid, Kit. I am afraid that I will fail, despite all the pains I have taken. I am afraid I will let everyone down. And deep down, I am afraid that I am horribly, irredeemably selfish because I am so afraid that I will die without having let myself live at all.”

Girl :(

You don’t need to work yourself to the bone. You don’t need to do things for people before you ever think to do a thing for yourself. Whatever you think you have to prove or earn, it’s all in your head. Your existence alone is enough. And if you believe you’ve made no difference at all to anyone, you’re even more clueless than I thought.”

Im crying at work rn

“Is this a dream?” “I don’t know,” he said huskily, his eyes aglow. “Let me kiss you until dawn, and I suppose we’ll find out.”

OMFG

“You may be the only good thing I’ve ever wanted.”

She had always believed life was what slipped through her fingers while she was idle. That life was something she wasted, not something she had. But now, she understood how wrong she’d been. Her heart beat. Her lungs swelled with air. Life was here, right in front of her. She would not move for anything.

GODDDD WTF

I love him. It had happened. Niamh had always imagined love as something sparkling, something all-encompassing and glorious as daybreak, as sudden as a knife to the heart. But love was somehow more magical and more banal than she’d dreamed it. It crept up on her, out of sight, until it was completely undeniable—until it was already out of her mouth and solid as a stone to strike her down with.

“I can’t be your mistress, Kit.” “Then be my wife.”

OH

“Stop criticizing yourself and undercutting your own achievements. Stop cutting off pieces of yourself, when you’re already more than good enough.”

don’t call me out

When she thought of what made her happy, truly happy … It looked like this: brandy in a cozy room with someone who might be her friend again. It looked like playing lawn games in the summer, or curling up beside Kit in the rain, or embroidering absentmindedly while he tended to his greenhouse. It looked like a thousand quiet moments, each of them as small as a candle flame. But together, they were luminous—as expansive and bright as a galaxy. How could such beautiful, tender things be selfish?

love love love love

“Nothing is guaranteed, Niamh. We all die. You and I are dying right now, but we’re also alive. Love is what makes life worth living. Love is what makes us act when we most need to. That’s what your legacy is. It’s how you love the people around you, not how much you’ve sacrificed for them.”

Falling in love with Kit Carmine had been the most painful, most worthwhile thing she had ever done. She would do it a hundred times over.

yeah you would girl!

“You are so full of life, Niamh. The wide-open way you smile. The way you dance through empty rooms. How you put all of yourself into everything you do. I feel like I’ve lived a thousand years in the time I’ve known you. I feel like I’m awake for the very first time. Even if you were gone tomorrow, even if you took my heart with you when you went, I wouldn’t regret a single moment I’ve spent with you. How could I? You’ve changed me. I will carry you with me forever.”

GODDDDD WTF

“All rise,” a herald called, “for the Prince Christopher Carmine, Duke of Clearwater, and Niamh Ó Conchobhair, the Duchess of Clearwater.”

i wonder if they got married in the church of scientology