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“Every brutal act is born of love.”
I’ve been nothing but willing when it comes to drowning in those ocean eyes. But now, I can’t fathom drowning if she is not the anchor I’m sinking with.
And I am afraid I’ll become so much worse when I’m no longer striving to deserve her.
Omg adena reference???
I would spend the rest of my days making her flower crowns if she wanted to be a queen. My queen. Not Kitt’s. Not Ilya’s. Mine.
This king is not the same one I left a fortnight ago. This king is collected and calm and conscious of every move he makes.
Calums def controlling him
“I will be the one to ensure that the next breath you take to insult me, or my people, will be the very last one you ever taste. And it will be me, an Ordinary, that ends your Elite life.”
DAYUM
“A cockroach,” he chuckles, head shaking. “You’re a damn cockroach, Princess.”
And I regret it more than anything.
Not until I started listening to Calum’s counsel.
BRO HES SO CONTROLLI F BIM LOKE YUS CALUMN
“I’m here to talk about her.” He stands slowly to his feet, nearly leveling our gazes. “Easy, Brother.” “Marriage, Kitt?” I almost shout, shaking my head. “What the hell are you thinking?” “I’m thinking,” he says stiffly, “that I don’t have another option.”
Because what is worse than her dying is me being the one forced to kill her.
“Everything changed. I was a son mourning the man I thought I loved. I see now that it was obsession because love was not an emotion Father taught me. But I was bitter, vengeful, unsteady without him here to guide me.” He takes a shaky breath. “I grieved. I learned. I came to my senses. And you’re right. I’m not the crazed boy you left. I’m a king.”
OK BADDIEEEEEEEE
But pride swells in my chest, not for this king, but for the boy who dreamed only of approval. Now he wears Father’s crown and forsakes the infatuation tethered to it.
Paedyn is not a right or a wrong, not something as simple as a yes or a no. She is confusion itself, a feeling unplaced, a color between black and white. Hell, she is my Silver Savior. And hating her is not as simple as it may seem. But for me, it is not loving her that has proven to be difficult.
HELP HES SO EMO
I don’t even need to turn around. The mere presence of her is familiar, branded into the hollow of my neck where her head rests, tethered to my ankle and forever tugging me toward her.
Those blue eyes crash into mine like a wave, along with the sudden realization that I’ve been nearly deprived of drowning in them since our arrival to the castle. Only now do I have the privilege to drink her in. I watch her do the same, though the stoic expression she wears never slips. Pretend.
HELP AHAHAHA
Those blue eyes crash into mine like a wave, along with the sudden realization that I’ve been nearly deprived of drowning in them since our arrival to the castle. Only now do I have the privilege to drink her in. I watch her do the same, though the stoic expression she wears never slips. Pretend.
HELP AHAAHAHAH
happened to… hear it all.”
YES BADDJEEEE
Maybe I’m even jealous of the ring. Jealous of the way it clings to her skin, feels every shiver of her body. Because that should be me.
HELLO?
“I’m sorry that I killed your father. But I will never apologize for killing a tyrant.”
BADDIEEEE
“He was destroying this kingdom for a futile cause. It was greatness he craved, and instead, he accomplished mediocrity.”
YES KITTTTT EAT THAT UPPPP
“I heard you scream. And nothing… nothing has terrified me more.”
“Tonight, we pretend.”
Ew
He kisses the pad of my thumb before the war begins.
turns on me
HELP I READ THIS AS TURNS ME ON
And here I sit, unable to stop it. Unable to do anything but watch them slowly become each other’s forever. They wave. They smile. They look every bit the happy couple.
Loot is in shambles. My home is in shambles. And so is my heart.
Brb just sobbing
For every end, there is always a beginning. The king would come to realize, many years later and thousands of steps beyond the ones he currently takes, that this was the start to his impending demise.
His soul drifted peacefully from the frail body it had inhabited, which seemed entirely too gentle a death for such a harsh man.
Cruelty molded him into a king, where kindness would have only crippled him.
At least, for that dwindling bit of warmth within him.
Wait so his wife was cheating on him?
He is a weakness I am not supposed to indulge in.
“The people want to send you back into your own Trials.”
ahhhh
I know Death. There is something intimate about the ending of a life.
“And if you die?” I’d shot back, chest heaving. Her next words still plague my thoughts, more than a day later. “Then they will have been right about me. I’m a weakness.”
tucked into equally pristine green pants.
Leprechaun Coreeee
She looks equally youthful and thoroughly weathered by the world. It’s a contradiction she wears confidently.
It is bravery, benevolence, and brutality
Brutality?
“I will show you my bravery, my benevolence, my brutality. I will survive these Trials and so much more. Still, you will likely hate me.” She lifts her chin, expression deceitfully calm. “So bow at my feet with a sneer, if you must. I won’t see it with your face to the ground.”
AHHHH
Worse than the imminent danger is the constant reminder of Adena’s death. I may have survived the last set of Trials, but my light did not. My A left me to decorate the sky. And I don’t know how to live, how to survive, without her at my side.
“Take a breath, Paedyn. I’ve put it behind me.” I still my fidgeting hands. “But you don’t forgive me.” Silence swells between us.
He cracks a smile. I smile back. I feel young. Hopeful. Anew. In this moment, I see the future we could have—a glimpse of the boy who threw chocolates into my mouth and helped clean each one I missed off the floor. I see a friendship, not love. No, love is what I see when I look at his brother.
“I’m afraid so.” With a shake of my head, I lift a forkful of potatoes between us. “Fine. To my dislike for mashed potatoes. May it be our biggest problem.” This earns me a slight smile. He clinks his fork against mine and echoes, “May it be our biggest problem.”
Wait thats cuteeee
It’s as though she is whole again in my arms, reunited with the ghost of her father and held in the arms of her Enforcer. And when she kisses me, long and fierce, I realize how happily I’d live the rest of my life at the end of a blade. So long as she is the one holding it.
Today, Paedyn’s Trial will consist of retrieving her crown from the crypt she is buried in.”
Hello??!!!??!!! T0T
But to be an Ordinary is to prove myself in ways that even Elites cannot.
Now, the Enforcer is something far more devastating than a lover, yet we have never been further apart. Keeping my distance from him is a Trial of its own. It is cruel, not being able to call him mine after everything we’ve endured. Perhaps in another life, I am strong enough to never need proof of it. Perhaps in another life, I am brave enough to confess that I love him. Perhaps in another life, I learn to love him from afar. And that is the most fearless thing of them all. So I look away, letting my feet carry me even farther from him.
I became his everything. And maybe that is all you need to earn the title of “father.”
Perhaps the king really does know how tragically in love I am with his betrothed. Perhaps he is as well.
DANG LWK KITT HAS PERMISSION TO CRASH OUT
it’s comforting to know that she doesn’t need my help—the Silver Savior has made that abundantly clear since the day she earned the title. And yet, one day I hope she does. Just to show her the extent of what I’m willing to do if only she asks.
