Alexandria: The Rebel Princess

Chapter 10 - Part 2

The stars twinkled down from the open sky above me. An open sky full of possibilities, symbolizing my future. It had been months since I was last in a dress. It felt uncomfortable. The scratchy wool all too familiar to my past life within our hidden forest. Back then the Cruel King was just a bedtime story.

Swirling in the open space of grass, my dress fluttering up as I watch the stars spin into rotating lines. My skirt falls at my halt and I giggle gleefully. Freedom pumped my heart full of joy. A delightful sigh blows a puff of steam from my lips. A hand touches mine, snapping me into another uplifting spin, I gasp trying to catch the figure in my swirling gaze. An arm encircles my waist, and I look up into mischievous blue eyes. "Jeremy," I breathe in relief, shoving out of his embrace playfully.

He chuckles, snagging my wrist and spinning me around. Slamming me against his chest, he places his chin on my shoulder. Pointing across the gigantic firepit raging with life, and passed the crowds of partying servants and residents is Tristan sitting on a log. His serious expression was ignored by all of those dancing before him. Not one person paid him any mind.

"I think you're the only one able to cheer him up," Jeremy whispers.

With a shove, I stumble forward. Across the field, I wander towards Tristan, his slumped figure looks distant and in thought. The crowd roars with laughter and delight, their cares disappearing with the flames. My shadow falls over him and he looks up, his hazel eyes shining in curiousity. My hand is offered out to him, but he doesn't take it. "Dance with me, Tristan," I beg.

He shakes his head, "Chloe, now is not the time."

"When will be the time?" I stomp in front of him, my arms stretched wide to our surroundings, "Look at all this. We succeed!"

The crowds around us screech with chants and joy, my laughter mixes with theirs. It feels like a dream, like I'm floating.

"One small victory doesn't make a war won," he growls, standing up and towering over me.

I shake my head and grab his hand, pulling him into the crowd of dancers. "But one small victory brings hope, and hope helps all of us strive to achieve our goal." Wrapping my arms around him, I lean into his ear and whisper, "Don't drag any of us down, we have been through so much already."

He nods with a tight lip. "You're right, I'm sorry."

Locking my fingers together, I hang from his neck and smile excitedly up at him. "Dance," I whisper mischievously.

With a quick spin my world twirls into chaos. Forcing a smile to his face, he returns to the man I once knew. The strong hardened man who returned home from battle. This man is weighed down by his duty to protect me, but his failure haunts him.

"How you do things amazes me," he states numbly. Tipping his head down he presses it into mine and slowly we rotate the sound of the music not moving us, but rather a force holding us together. "It's hard to imagine you as anything other than the girl in the forest. Letting you near a battlefield is unimaginable."

The girl in the forest died in that forest, she was happy and safe, I envy her for that. Would this have been my life if I married Tristan? Would I perhaps have led a war? Why would I have wanted to? I never saw their suffering. I didn't understand their suffering back then.

I sigh, "I've changed, and so have you." No matter how much he changed, those hazel eyes always shined with a hidden innocence.

"That we have," he sighs, squeezing me tightly to his chest, "regardless, we belong to each other."

A lie. It was all a lie, and I couldn't look him in the eyes. Staring off into the crowds, I tried to drown my guilt with their joy.

Across the field, Xavier staring at the fire in a lost memory. Could he have been thinking about the woman he belonged with? My chest squeezes with betrayal, I'm a liar. We can never be together unless like Albert said, we execute my husband. My crystal feels irritating at this very minute. The sharp edges scraping against my chest, reminding me it is there hanging from my neck. Kalen doesn't even want the throne, he has to let me go. He will let me go, won't he? My heart drops into my stomach and I want to whimper at the cold feeling overcoming me. His hurt eyes staring at me when I had kissed Tristan in front of him. A betrayal in itself.