Highlander Princess | Otherworld #1

C H A P T E R E I G H T E E N

• CHAPTER EIGHTEEN •
A ROYAL ENGAGEMENT
••••♛••••

"I beg you pardon."

"Marry me." I repeat.

"Ohh, now this is getting better and better..."

He walked and sat at the chair, lifting his boots on the table, laughing hard.

"I heard a lot about you around here, but it didn't do you justice." He says, his voice laced with humour.

"I'm sorry?"

"You very clever. It's almost scary. One thing? Yeah right, you get everything out of this deal."

"How so?" I ask, playing coy.

"Well, you don't trust your council, you don't have the trust and support of the people either and you have me, the one with an army, as an enemy as well."

"And?"

"And if you Marry me, you fix everything. The people will trust you, as you ended a 17 year war and bought peace hence you can control the council more. Marrying me also means my people get to be on the council- by law, this means more control for you. It also means protection since you'll now have 2 armies backing you, enough to overthrow the military and..." he picks up a sharp hand knife from the desk, pointing it at himself.

"You have me, not fighting you."

"Seems you give me too much credit, you figured it out all by yourself." I commented. I pulled off my cloak placing it on the chair before facing him. The room was a little hot right now.

"It's a great plan- Except this sounds like I'm your dog. You marry me, you control my people. So how is this deal fair." He says standing up to walk back towards me.

"What do you want then?"

"Equality. If I'm going to marry you, you can't control everything on your own. I'm going to need a partnership."

"Go on.."

"You wand to control my army? I can control yours. You want to get my people to listen to you? I want to listen to yours. Everything should be equal and fair between our little partnership, don't you think?"

"And why would you do that?"

"Because all I ever wanted was peace. Like my parents, I hate war. So, we have a common enemy that wants to disrupt that goal, we got a fighting chance- if we work together." He says before surprising me and holding my hands in his own.

"Do we have a deal?"

I looked him in his deep brown eyes, reading as much as I could. It must have looked weird to anyone who would walk in on this scene- we were just standing there, gazing at each other, daring the other to look away.

The more I looked at him, the more I liked what he was selling me, a partnership to reach a common goal for our countries, and honestly I don't think I could meet anyone who would understand me as well as Fabien could.

But something tugged at my heart.

My fathers death.

My father trusted my mother this way, and he got stabbed in the heart- literally.

I don't have a choice. I have to trust him for now.

"It's going to take awhile for me I-I can't give you that much, not yet." He smiles understanding in his eyes. It felt nice.

"But, I can promise we can try this partnership, as much as we can spare to give each other." I suggest as he slowly nods.

"That I can do..."