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June 12 - June 16, 2023
“Say what you must.” Almira sighed. Her friend slowly smiled. “I think it’s about time.” “For me to challenge my husband? Your cousin?” Almira shook her head. “You, above everyone, know that I love Edgar. I miss him desperately. I pray for his well-being each night.” “However?” Sanaa asked. “However, I love my country more.”
They all watched her. They expected her to crumble, but she knew the implications of this death. Now she was the head of state despite her sorrow. War did not allot time for broken hearts.
“I’ll bow to no king, father.”
“You forget I am a woman; courage doesn’t define our character.”
She almost laughed to think she would hide in her homeland with her tail between her legs. Men really understood very little of women.
Cuzo, cousin by law and dearest friend.
“Men will never be ready for women like us, and it is not our job to ready them.”
Blades that protect a queen cannot injure her.
“From here on out you shall be known as the Queen’s Red Guard, carriers of the ruby blades,” Almira said.
“A ruler that doesn’t have people to question them quickly becomes a tyrant. That is not your path,” Sanaa said.
“I wish my counselors had half the guts you do. I’m almost afraid to see you in power. You’d run half the nobles back to their castles and have ladies fainting at court.”
I’d never been more afraid for you, of you, and proud of you all at once.”
Not that he blamed them, a beauty she was not, but she was something entirely different. She knew who she was and what her cunt was worth. That was something no pretty face could replicate.
Perhaps she sought to conquer him along with the rest of the world. Well, she wouldn’t succeed. He’d rather let her kill him first. He’d never let anyone conquer him again.
“You like it,” he said with surprise. “Maneuvering them, outsmarting them, and allowing them to underestimate you as you go for the killing blow.”
The drink was making her a beauty this night. It had to be the drink.
Couldn’t she see how spectacular she was when she did so? Likely not. Likely she’d been trained to dominate the dragon rather than embrace it.
“Maybe I like you angry because that’s when you stop controlling yourself. Outside of that you’re quite measured. A picture of calculated diplomacy, as your father likes,” he said darkly.
She stood abruptly. She seemed twenty feet tall, and her eyes bore down into him so much that he almost lost his breath. She was magnificent. He managed to anger her enough to show her true self. She was a roaring dragon, and she would burn him alive. Burn down all of Easima, burn down the whole world. Good. Put him out of his damn misery, that would be wonderful.
Let her be the sun to the kingdom; he would be waiting for her by moonlight. He would live each day knowing that while she played her little royal game, come nightfall she would be mad with wanton desire.
*faints in spanish*
Many scars marred his pale flesh. How often did he bleed for a cause he did not believe in?
“When I’m in you, I want you to say my name. Dream my name and want my name. Want it so bad that you lose all sense. I want you senseless.”
“You are lionhearted with your armed guards behind you.” “Yes, I am. That’s why I have them. Men like to threaten with violence because they believe it is the only way things are solved and so women must take precautions.”
She made him hate her. Good, she thought. But she didn’t like herself cruel. She met his glare because if she drew blood then she should look the pitiful creature in the eye. She wounded him deeply and he seemed younger, unwanted and cast aside. Her stomach recoiled.
“I goaded you, I admit it. You’re constantly composed, I’ve never felt so inadequate to be a king than when I'm around you.”
“And now you refuse to bed one who isn’t beautiful but can carry a conversation. I’m beginning to think that the women are not the problem, majesty.” She smiled.
“You faced murderers to protect me, you defied your mother and my father to be a member of the Red Guard. You cut your hair, you left home, and you traveled to another country by yourself to be what you wanted to be.” Hira looked up at Almira as she spoke, as if deeply drinking her words. “You cannot see your greatness, but it’s there.” Almira touched Hira’s temple. “You were not born to this family by coincidence, and the gods don’t make mistakes. You’re a dragon, and one day you will see it.” “We are the dragons,” Hira whispered. “Indeed, we are. May the Favia have mercy on those who
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“Don’t you dare speak to her like you speak to me. You’re so worried of her thinking you’re weak. All you’ll do is alienate her. She doesn’t need you to be strong, she’s strong enough on her own. She simply wants you to be kind and I know you to be kind. Even as a boy you were thoughtful, when Sabian was the opposite—”
M pointed to the food. “Your smart words are all well and good, but at the end of the day, men understand one thing: blood and violence.” She pushed bread at Almira.
“But we’re human. We’re made of blood, and we create violence.”
“Death is not a pretty thing,” Almira said. M nodded. “No, it’s not, but neither is life.”
“Your iron will shall save us all, my wife.” His voice was kind and she turned to him.
“I don’t understand you,” she whispered. He smiled. “Something more than duty, my wife.”
“And, for what it’s worth… I think you’re a wonderful queen.”
"Alton. My name is Alton.” Like a young girl, she looked away, because it came to her that she liked him. She liked him quite a lot.
Slowly, she was softening around the edges, like a well-worn stone that yields to the pounding sea.
He knew she belonged to the kingdom, but a part of him wanted a piece of her to belong to him.
“Yes, a kind man, I know. But you held yourself back. You knew your place and you acted on it, which makes you smart. But his death gave you autonomy and permission to act as you wished.”
“Don’t you realize how brave you are? You could’ve died, you could’ve let him kill you, but you escaped, you hid, and you survived. That is bravery.” Almira held her gaze one final time and then walked to the door. “Come in.”
“The curse of nobility. All the power in the world and no human connections.”
“No, you’re not what I expected. You’re a lot more. The reality of you is far better than any artistic rendition.”
“There’s days I must hold myself in a tight fist to not fall to my knees and beg you to care for me in the manner that I have desperately and uncontrollably grown to care for you. Everything I do is to get a reaction from you, to watch you smile or anger, I want to see the spectrum of your emotions, even the bad ones. I want to bask in them.”
“Intimacy is not just sex, darling. Intimacy can just be this.”
“I know what you are, I’m aware of it when you’re in the room, when you’re on the other side of the castle. I’m constantly aware of what you are.”
He’d not pegged her for such a wanton little minx in bed. What a delight!
She was senseless.
Alton laughed and she turned to him in surprise. “The machinations of your mind, my dragon.”
“The day comes fast, but not as fast as you,” Alton murmured, and Almira startled.
I feel senseless… 💀😭
He took her hand and kissed it tenderly. “For my queen I live and for my queen I die.”
“Fuck the damned border, if Dag wants the land, let him have it. I’ll stay here with you.”
