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April 24 - April 26, 2024
“I’ve lived through some injustices in the last couple of centuries. Seen some fucking travesties. But one of the biggest, Oraya, is that anyone taught you that you should become anything other than exactly what you are.”
He smelled like the sky.
“You might destroy me anyway.”
“That wasn’t how I’d imagined making you come for the first time,” he remarked.
I scowled, and he chuckled. “Oh, never mind. There she is.”
“I figured your stomach is probably as strong as your will.” I craned my neck to eye him. “And how strong is that?” He grinned and leaned close as he said into my ear, “Pure fucking steel. Obviously.”
“You are in control of this,” he murmured. “Alright?” Now I understood. He wanted me here, in this position, because I could pull away if I wanted to.
He let out a weak laugh. “There she is.”
“You’re safe,” he whispered against my skin.
He chuckled. “That face. There she is.”
“You are the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen, Oraya.”
“Don’t fucking touch her,” he growled
Strange, that girls are so often told that the loss of their virginity marks a threshold between girlhood and womanhood, as if it fundamentally alters them in some way. It was not the sex that changed the girl forever. Not the blood that spilled between her thighs that shaped her. The blood that spilled over that marble floor, though… Those are the stains on one’s innocence that never fade.
He took a step closer, unblinking. “Why do I care?” he rasped, again. “Are you a fucking fool, Oraya?” I wasn’t expecting the desperation in his voice. Like he was pleading for help. He scoffed. “Or maybe I am.”
“Careful, princess.” I kissed him—kissed that smile—because the idea of not doing so seemed sacrilegious. “Why?” “Because I don’t want to fuck you for the first time in an alleyway three feet from a pile of entrails.”
“Oraya, look at me.”
“Give me one honest thing,” he murmured.
“We’ll probably die tomorrow,” I said. “Show me something worth living for.”
“What’s that face for, princess?”
“You’re safe, Oraya. I need you to know that.”
“Fucking incredible.”
“I would beg,” he murmured. “For you, I would. You have fucking destroyed me, Oraya. Do you know that?”
As if he could hear my thoughts, he grabbed my hand, tight. “Look at me, Oraya.”
“You are more than what he made you,” he said. “Do you understand? That isn’t the strength. The shit he tried to carve out of you is. You have every reason to keep going. Now more than ever. And I say this knowing—knowing how stupid it is for me, of all people, to say it.”
“So don’t you fucking dare stop fighting, princess. It would break my damned heart.”
He laughed. “There she is,”
“I’m glad it was you,” he said, quietly.
“I wish that Raihn had won.”
“Breathe, Oraya. Come back to me. Please.”
“I was ready to let it all go for you,” he murmured. “Do you know that, Oraya? I was ready to let my kingdom fall for you. You should have let me stay dead.”
you will marry me. You will do it because I can’t kill you. I tried. I can’t. A world without you would be a dark, depressing place. And I’ve already inflicted enough pain without committing that fucking injustice, too. So let me save you.”
“Oraya of the Nightborn,” he murmured. “I give you my body. I give you my blood. I give you my soul. I give you my heart. From this night until the end of nights. From daybreak until our days are broken. Your soul is my soul. Your heart is my heart. Your pain is my pain. I bind myself to you.”
In this moment I recognized, with unmistakable clarity, that Raihn was in love with me.
