Inferno Royale

29 | say you remember me

[fifteen days after the betrothal ceremony]

The thunder rumbled as the rain pellets hit the glass bay, their reflection casted upon Lysandra's weary face. The window rattled as a gust of wind whooshed, making the trees sway dangerously. An impending storm had finally arrived resembling the chaos within her head.

Ever since her engagement, her days were filled with incessant training and she barely managed to tolerate the royal customs she was forced to abide by. Lysandra gradually got much better at fighting whilst using her magus without causing serious damage, much to Seraphine's relief.

Unlike the evening, the night hour of the day of Lysandra's engagement had ended well for her, given that she had finally succumbed to her feelings, bringing Laurent Cirillo close to her chest as they cuddled together whilst sitting in front of the fireplace. A cloud of silence hovered over them as they descended into a relaxed posture, taking each other in and making the best use of the little time they had left. In that moment, that was all that they needed.

Laurent had left to Istanbul that very night, claiming he had family over there. He had slipped her a small paper before left, placing a scorching kiss in the centre of her palm that had cupped his cheek, leaving her aching for more, yearning for more of the pure bond that they had developed as time passed. As her eyes trailed over the address written on the paper, he had held her neck gently, pressing a heated kiss of promise onto her forehead before dragging his arm across hers to latch onto her palm and squeeze it as if reassuring himself along with her.

The next morning she woke up, the couch they had rested on with limbs entwined until midnight was empty but a faint scent of his presence lingered around, giving her a little hope for all of the good things to come and leaving her heart aching as she felt out of place in the huge castle.

Lysandra's fingers glided in the air as a little girl made of fire scrambled around in a rose garden whilst her parents chased her. Giggles resounded within her head as the fire morphed into characters played out. Her lips curved up into a sad smile as she watched the scene she had created with her magus.

"Lysandra, what are you doing here?" Seraphine asked, coming out into the living room from her bed chamber, prepped up as always.

"I couldn't sleep," she murmured. "I got ready to see the vamp hobo. We were to go today, no?"

"Yes, absolutely. My darling brother has had no luck last week anyways. Let's see what we can do."

Gavril's magus enabled him to hide things by making them invisible and that had enabled them hide a prisoner within their chamber as putting him somewhere else in the castle would have been too risky. Seraphine couldn't demand her dad to give up the many duties he had to upload as a royal minister and raise a suspicion in the observant King's mind. Hence, they had been moving very slow with their plan, taking the least amount of action possible and refraining from any attention unless absolutely necessary.