Summer Mates

Storm Clouds, Arguments, and Bad Plans

It was storming outside.

It looked like how Mira felt on the inside.

Breakfast with her family was just as hard as fighting a war. If not harder.

She sighed again as her stepmother threw an insult back at her father. Most days she could tune them out, and drink her morning tea as though nothing was wrong, but today was...particularly bad, to say the least.

The evidence was strewn about the room. Broken china (her stepmom), broken cups (stepmom again), and knife marks on the mahogany table (guess who).

Her father and stepmoms dynamic was a drastic change from her father and her real mothers. The late Queen was full of love. She brightened a room. Breakfast, and every meal, had been times filled with laughter and playful banter. She'd never seen her mother and father argue.

Her father had defiantly been a happier man too. Nothing like the tired, drawn King sitting with her mothers replacement, several seats away from where she currently sat at the table in the large dining hall. She'd learned her lesson two years ago when another one of the witches fits had sent a broken shard from a chalice directly into the side of her neck. That was also the first time she'd seen her father raise his hand at a woman. But she couldn't bring herself to feel sorry. Served the cunt right.

She partly blamed herself too. The only reason Mira's father had remarried was because she'd acted out so much as a child. He thought she needed another womanly presence in her life, to help mold her into a respectable woman. Pick up the slack he couldn't.

But that womanly presence was currently shouting with all the gusto of an angry old man. And at morning tea too.

Have some decorum.

She had zoned out before the fighting really picked up, so she'd missed what the topic was. Mira listened closely. And felt her heart drop out of her ass.

"She's at the age I was when I was first introduced to my former mate. Eldwin, surely you can see the sense."

"I will not have you trying to...to sell my daughter away! My only child. Honestly Elise, sometimes I wonder why I ever married you-"

"Oh, I know exactly why. The land. Do not forget whose family holds the sway over the southern boarders."

Her father seethed and said nothing. Elise made every argument political, because she knew my father wouldn't risk the peace of his people over things such as this. He also knew how important those boarders were. They separated the two Fae kingdoms on this half of the world, and produced the most agricultural resources, ones they desperately needed.

"Fine!" He spat, and stormed out of the room. Thunder crashed again outside, marking his departure.

"Now, Mira dearest. What have you to say?" The hag fixed her stare on Mira, awaiting a response.

Mira didn't know why she'd even asked. She wouldn't argue because it would be a losing battle. She'd learned long ago that fights with her stepmom ended with bloody lips and bruised eyes.

She decided to play dumb anyways, although the dots were not hard to connect.
"I'm sorry, I was a bit out of it during the conversation. Would you mind explaining?"

Elise sighed. "I was mentioning that I had sent out invites to the neighboring kingdoms. In time for the summer holidays. Suitors will be coming from all over, and this year, you will choose one for a mate."

Mira felt her blood run cold. She had renounced marriage, mating, and anything of the sort after her mom died and the witch had taken her place. She would never want that life for herself.

She was perfectly fine with her independence, thank you very fucking much.

"But I-"

"So, in the coming weeks, you will refresh yourself on proper etiquette, and make trips to the modiste, as you will need a new wardrobe, of course. And-" her stepmom went on and on.

Mira checked out of the conversation. She was angry, and anxious. She knew there wasn't a way to get out of this, at the moment, and arguing with her stepmom, well...

Let's just say she'd rather stabbing stay reserved for the table.

So, as her stepmom was still rambling, she got up to take her leave, as her father had just moments before. Her stepmom took no notice, still wrapped up in her own, one-sided conversation.

Mira heard the thunder rumble once more, as the heavy doors to the dining hall clicked closed behind her. She couldn't help but think it was a sign for what was sure to follow in the coming weeks.

Oh gods, what was she going to