Hadrian

The tall ornate doors open, and Jasper pushes me inside. I make a few stumbling steps and stop, trying to regain my breath. The rope binding my hands together is connected to the noose around my neck, so every sharp movement makes me choke.

Dressed in a linen gown, Aurelia sits by a small table in front of a mirror in a heavy wooden frame. Her unbraided hair streams down her shoulders, and it strikes me how much it looks like mine—same yellow waves, only longer.

Clementa is there, too. She stands behind Aurelia with a hairbrush in her hand. Her eyes widen at the sight of me; then, she pierces her lips and shakes her head.

Aurelia turns to look me over with her usual cool expression. Then, her gaze shifts to Jasper.

"My queen," he says, letting go of me and walking over to her. He sinks to one knee, bows his head, and kisses passionately the hand she offers him. She gives him a faint smile, then looks at me again, raising one eyebrow.

"He poses no danger," says Jasper. "He's going to choke himself if he tries anything. He's helpless."

"Just the way you like me, sister," I croak, the rope digging into my throat.

She smiles. "If you were the way I liked you, you would have been a little more...dead?"

Jasper jumps to his feet. "Should I?"

"No, no." She raises her hand. "You were right to keep him alive. My husband will want a public execution to avoid rumors."

"I thought so." He nods, then sinks back to his knees. "I have another present for you."

He opens the sack he's brought with him and retrieves what at a first sight looks like some dirty ball. As he moves his hand, though, I realize that it's lord Dwennon's severed head.

Clementa gasps and steps back, her hands pressed to her mouth, but Aurelia's expression doesn't change. She reaches out, sinks her fingers into the dead man's hair and takes it from Jasper, bringing it closer to her eyes to examine it.

"Old fool," she says. "He couldn't adjust. Could never tell which way the wind was blowing."

She tosses the head away, and it rolls into the corner. I remember the feasts we have attended as children, how she sat on Dwennon's knees and played with his beard. As a grown woman, she has always been cool-headed and rational, but the lack of emotions and attachments she's been displaying throughout and after the rebellion is still hard for me to grasp.

"Are you happy, sister?" I say. "Now that the lowborn rule the country, ransacking the castle you grew up in, destroying all that our father created? Was it worth it, having to warm Oliver's bed to preserve your privileges?"

"Look who's talking about warming beds." She smiles. "You did that for much less. I, on the other hand, love Oliver. I kept an eye on him long before the rebellion. That's why I chose to indirectly supply him with the map, and to help him in other ways. That's why I asked Mortimer to help his friend after the flogging. I had chosen Oliver long before he chose me."

"Bullshit," I say. "You' don't care about him."

"Watch your language, young man," Clementa snaps, pointing her hairbrush at me. "How many times did I tell you that your wicked ways would land you in trouble?" She turns to Jasper. "If you only knew what kind of child he was, sir knight! No swearing, no mischief, such a pure soul --"

"Clementa," says Aurelia. "This is really not a good time."

"All right." The old woman puts the hairbrush on the table and throws another glance at me, a little hesitant this time. "It's only...if he has to die...why make it so public and humiliating? Why not make it fast and painless, if only out of respect for the blood you share?"

"We share nothing," Aurelia says. "He's chosen to take after our useless mother, while I chose to be nothing like her. We all pay for our choices."

"Your wisdom knows no boundaries," says Jasper, eyeing her with such admiration that I feel a sting of jealousy. Not that I ever wanted him, but he used to look at me like that. I always took it for a fact that he was smitten with me. It is only now that it occurs to me that he must have seen Aurelia's traits in my face, must have adored my similarity to her and nothing else. I was only a poor substitute for the cool virgin princess he could never dream to get.

My anger rises, mixed with a fair dose of shame. How could I have been so blind, so overly confident? These two have forged a plot right under my nose, and I suspected nothing.

"All right now," Aurelia says, turning back to the mirror. "Let my husband decide if he should be executed today, or tomorrow at the square. Jasper, take him to the dungeons, and come to the great hall to join our celebration." She turns her head and gives him a little smile. "And have no doubts, your services will be justly rewarded."

* Thank you for reading! I hope you're enjoying this story! Please remember to click the star icon or leave feedback, it would really make my day :) *