Celeste's life is far from the enchanting fairy tale one might expect from a princess. Her father, a ruthless and self-absorbed king, leaves a trail of death and destruction in his wake. To seal alliances and maintain his power, he arranges for Cele...
'How are you going to get that dagger into the room?' asks Alisha as her eyes slide over the papers in front of us. The wooden kitchen table is full of lists of supplies, stolen letters, a map and the 100 list. Her head seems unable to grasp the information and I don't blame her. This bizarre plan is one of the most complex so far.
Nalu's death brought not only grief, but also a tremendous rush. With the queen's fall, mine and Walmoet's wedding was brought forward by four days. My wedding dress is already hanging, the first decorations are hanging and the cooks are already preparing. Tomorrow I marry a new fool.
Walmoet has assigned me a room in the temple. I don't have the choice to spend the night there but it has its advantages. The temple corridors talk like a group of drunken men in a tavern and the bed is perhaps the best bed since my old room in the castle.
Elenor was totally untraceable yesterday until late in the evening. Where she has been is still unclear to me. I haven't had many chances to talk to her because of my supervisors. Alisha has taken her in and told me she likes to help out around the household. She appears to have a nice plant knowledge. The whole plan and purpose of our visit is still unclear to her. There is something about the lady that I don't trust and even if there was, I haven't had a chance to talk to her.
That I was given a moment to speak to Novak and Alisha unsupervised is a miracle. Security has been ramped up to the highest level. Every moment of the day, two men are breathing down my neck. Nika and Lio are nice guys but their presence is starting to irritate me more and more. They are barely in front of me when I visit the toilet. They don't lose sight of me for a second except now. Alisha's knowledge of plants came in handy. The thorn apple tea has been keeping them in another world for numbers of hours. The two boys have been sitting murmuring on the sofa staring at the wall for hours and will continue to do so for some time. Elenor has been sent out the door with a list of herbs, half of which are untraceable in this area. It keeps her busy.
'That depends on what the wedding night will look like,' I sigh as my eyes go over the stolen map of the temple. Novak, standing next to me, removes his hands from the table and straightens his back.
'What are you going to do when they take over that idiotic tradition of royalty? You're not going to have sex with that idiot.' It's a subject we've been avoiding for the past few days. Novak is not happy about it and neither am I. Yet this is not a matter of wanting but one of having to.
'I will have to,' I reply. With my hand, I grab the glass of wine from the table and take a sip. The red liquid makes this endless deliberation manageable.
'No Cell, absolutely not,' Novak contradicts me irritably. I turn my head in his direction, gripping his red eyes in my gaze.
'What are you thinking? I can't stick that knife into his body with an audience there, otherwise I would have done it a long time ago. I will be caught and this time they really won't spare me for my title and magic. If I have to, I will sleep with him.' Novak seems anything but content with my answer. He slaps his hand on the table, turns and walks out the door without saying anything. I sigh deeply and take another sip of my wine.
'He's struggling,' says Alisha as if I hadn't already realised it myself. I can wrap my head around the fact that Novak does not like this plan. However, there is no turning back.
'Really,' I reply as I knock back the rest of the wine and grab the folder from the table. As plain and boring as the temple may seem at first glance, it has plenty of secrets. Dozens of secrets corridors, stairs between the walls and underground tunnels.
'How would you feel about him marrying another woman and maybe going to bed?' asks Alisha. Since our arrival here, the bond between me and Novak has not improved. Slowly, I put the folder back on the table.
'I understand that he doesn't like it and that it is not his choice. However, there is no other way or way back. This is how we are going to do it, whether he wants it or not,' I reply as I grab the bottle of wine from the table. Alisha grabs the top of the bottle and pulls it out of my hand.
'It doesn't look like you understand his situation. That boy does everything for you and what do you give him in return? You decide without consultation to propose marriage to another man who almost killed you. You hardly seem to have a problem with the idea of sharing the bed with Walmoet and when Novak says something about it you cut him off as if he is unjustified. The fact that Novak is still helping you says more about him than you. Besides, when was the last day you were completely sober?' Although I know Alisha is more in her right than me something snaps inside me. I pull the bottle of wine out of her hand and take a step back.
'Why do you care so much? This is exactly what you want, isn't it? The worse things get between me and Novak, the better chance you have,' I say angrily as I put the bottle of wine to my lips and let the red liquid slide down my throat.
'What are you talking about?' she asks in surprise, however, I don't believe that surprise.
'You are the blue moon and he is the red one. You have a connection with him. That apart from the fact that you have regularly shared the bed.' This is information I have had for a while. I didn't write back to Alisha at first out of embarrassment, until her letters were directed at Novak. What she wrote in those letters was not a direct invitation back into her bed, but it was enough to draw this conclusion. I know Novak was not a saintly person and that is not an expectation I had. However, this is an important detail that was expertly hidden from me.
'That was... years ago,' she says softly as she looks towards the table. I take another sip of the wine, set the bottle back with a slap on the table.
'True and yet apparently it wasn't long ago enough for you to tell me about it, but still raise the memories at Novak.' With those words, I grab the folder and list from the table and walk out of the room.
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