The Knight's Rose

Chapter Eleven ~ The Kiss of a Rose

Chapter Eleven ~ The Kiss of a Rose

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⤝O⤞

"I can teach you."

Nikolai's words resonated inside of my head, and I could only stare at him with wonderment, not believing that he was serious. Learning how to read has been a dream of mine since forever, and for someone to willingly offer to teach me was just too much.

"You're not serious," I told him, my voice barely above a whisper, but Nikolai managed to hear me and gave me a quick smile, making my heart rattle in my ribcage.

"I'm as serious as the plague," Nikolai said, nodding to himself. "You want to learn, and I just so happen to be educated, so why not?"

I let out a surprised laugh, my pink rose colored lips stretching into a smile. With the sudden rush of excitement that surged through me came embarrassing blabbering.

"Oh! You have no idea how long I've waited to learn! I have books at home that I pretend to read sometimes but each time it's different than the first because I don't even remember how I read it the last time. I can only rely on imagination and pictures, along with a lot of guesswork," my mouth moved on its own, letting out all the hyped emotions.

"This literally means so much to me and I literally do not know how to repay you," I blubbered, my eyes pricking with tears.

"You can start by choosing a book," Nikolai said, pushing a few brown strands behind my ear. "I've never seen anyone so excited to learn. It's adorable."

My face heated at his words and my ear tingled from his searing touch. Did he think I was adorable? Goodness!

I lowered my head, my feelings were now under a tight belt, and I could feel my shyness creep back to take its original position. I began to make my way to the bookshelf and my face burned with embarrassment when Nikolai called out to me.

"I advise you not to take from that specific bookshelf as it does contain subjects that you once thought intriguing. Try the bookshelf in the back," Nikolai said, his loud baritone laughter sending chills up my back.

I stopped in front of a wooden shelf and pulled out a series of books, checking their covers. I was pleasantly delighted when I recognized one of the books from the ones I had at home. From what I remembered when I still attended school, it was about a girl named Rhodopis, and her shoe was stolen by an eagle.

Excitedly, I skipped back to Nikolai, who was leaning against the bookshelf and listlessly flipping through the pages of a book. I couldn't wait until I could do that, where I could just open any book and be able to read any sentence. Just the thought of it gave me a buzzed feeling of happiness.

Nikolai noticed my arrival, and he immediately stood up straight, putting the book back into the shelf. He walked over to me, his muscular large body towering over my small one, yet somehow I wasn't intimidated by his huge structure.

"Found something?" he asked, looking at the slim royal blue book in my hand, to which I replied with by nodding eagerly.

"I have this book at home. My friend managed to give it to me before-" I stopped myself, almost mentioning when my family and I had to leave the village because we couldn't afford to stay there anymore.

"Before I had to go...home?" my words coming out like a question, making Nikolai quirk an eyebrow.

"Anyway, I remember it's main points but not every original detail," I told him, nodding to myself, as he took the book from my hands. Nikolai smiled at the cover with recognition, as if he were looking at an old memory that brought on nostalgic feelings.