ততততত

𝐈 𝐌 𝐎 𝐆 𝐄 𝐍

It feels like time is just repeating itself.

Days ago, I stood before Adorid, a kingdom forged of iron that will cut me down with their sharpened swords. Now, I'll face Lagulon, a vast land where the oceans stretch against our coastline. It's my home, and now they will know that I am to marry Leighton to end the war.

But before the world I know collapses in on itself, I find myself alone in my father's private gardens.

White orchids bloom, and the scent of lavender seems to ease the anxiety itching beneath my skin. Aside from the hot spring, this private garden was her favourite. My mother. She designed each pathway that weaves around the space, planting whatever she could find. In the corners, there's a mixed match of wildflowers and berries.

It's why my father chose to bury her here in the place she loved, right next to the son she adored.

Thirteen years ago, a cherry sapling was planted on Ruslan's grave. Now, it's an adolescent cherry tree that remains healthier than ever. My mother lies next to him with a stone etched with her royal title: Queen Adirya Mironescu. Ruslan's stone remains under his tree next to hers.

Tears strike my eyes before I can stop them. My mother was taken by a plague of disease that swept through the lands, one that no one could ever cure. The sun never shone on those days she fell ill, and my father? His days had never been darker.

"I thought I'd find you out here, duckling," my father approaches behind me, setting his large worn palms on my shoulders. He gives them a reassuring squeeze. "Elena was looking for you."

"It's time for the announcement, isn't it?" I whisper. Not once do I lift my attention from my mother's gravestone and Ruslan's tree. "There's still time to break the marriage off... I'm not sure I can do this."

"Trust me, I want too," my father mumbles, "but I fear that will just accelerate our destruction."

"Did Lorcan tell you about what happened in Adorid?"

"He did," my father removes his hands from my shoulders, wandering over to my mother's headstone. He runs his fingers over the rock with the same fondness he used to give her long ago. "There's so much we have to protect, Imogen. With your mother and brother gone, I can't let anyone else slip through the cracks."

"But what about me?" I breathe. "The cost of saving everyone is losing your own daughter."

"I'm not going to lose you, Imogen."

"You are."

"I'm not," the determination in his voice sparks a rare flint of hope. "I wouldn't do this if I didn't believe there was still a chance for our kngdom, for us, for you."

What if he already has lost me? What if my father's precious little girl has already sold her soul to the devil and is now betrothed to him? All I long for is to reverse time and prevent this all from happening. Fate took my mother and brother from me too early. Ruslan was only twelve when he got too sick to awaken from his slumber, and that's when the gods chose him to bring to their world. My mother left this earth only a handful of years ago.

"Tell me the story of how you met mom," I ask, meeting my father's gentle gaze. "Just once more."

He chuckles. "I can't tell it like your mother used to. She loved that story, but I'll try my best to do it justice."

So my father begins—his fickle teenage years. Orion Mironescu was a helion, causing mischief wherever he wandered. Trouble awaited around every corner, but little did he know that the troublesome course of fate he chose for himself would lead him right into the arms of Adirya Navarro, my mother.

My mother used to dance around the truth of her profession, but the older I grew the truth eventually slipped. Adirya was a prostitute. She worked at the brothel in town, attempting to scam and scourge coins out of men. She never earned much until she laid eyes on my father.

According to my mother, young King Orion paid enough to feed her for an entire week. When Adirya attempted to fulfill her end of the bargain, Orion refused to let her sleep with him. So unlike him at the time, my mother would mutter under her breath when she told the story. He was a heartthrob and the man knew it. Instead, the first night brought a simple conversation. It was in their nightfall they fell in love, and it was a whirlwind.

In only a matter of weeks, Orion begged on his knees for Adirya to marry him, but she never agreed. Still, my father persisted. He returned to the brothel night after night. Orion knew that Adirya loved him, and the love he felt in return for her was maddening. Before him was the one woman he wanted to be queen—an offer that would change Adirya's entire world around.

And yet she declined.

Over and over again.

Until one day, Orion returned to Adirya to discover she no longer worked at the brothel. Enraged, Orion hunted her down until he found her in a small house in one of the poorest sectors of Summervale.

It was then my father met Ruslan—a two year old toddler of Adirya's that he never knew existed.

"He was the most beautiful boy," my father recalls. "He looked exactly like your mother with those big rare amethyst eyes, and his smile was enough to melt your heart."

Ruslan Navarro was the reason my mother refused. How could Adirya marry a prestigious king when she had a child with another man, a man that fled the moment he discovered she was pregnant? The entire royal courts would frown upon the marriage. To make matters worse, Adirya's son would have his own challenges to face. Ruslan was susceptible to illness, so sickness came his way often in his childhood. Even then, Ruslan was born with legs that would never walk.

Orion fell in love with Ruslan in a split second, and vowed to give him the world and more. Ruslan would be valiant in so many ways that we never suspected. When Adirya noticed that Orion's love for her had overflowed to her son, she agreed to marry him.

Two years after the wedding, they had me.

My father kisses my temple when he finishes the story. "I promise, duckling, that this is not how it ends for you."

"It feels like the end," I mutter. "You have no idea what it's like in that castle. It's a nightmare come to life, and yet everyone waits at Leighton's heels for orders."

"Everyone but you."

"He cornered me and scarred me with his knife, and he'll do it again if I disobey."

My father cracks a smile. "And you spit in his face and threw a goblet of wine on him. Lorcan informed me."

"Yes, but that only led to my punishment."

"And yet here you are," he flashes one of those fatherly smiles that has my heart warm up from head to toe. I always felt safe in his presence, even now when he still prepares me to marry an evil oxen. I think that it's his safe trustworthy presence that allowed my mother to fall in love with him so easily. "You know, there's a reason that Leighton's underwear still hangs in the throne room."

"You said the ladder wouldn't reach it."

"It does," my father chuckles at this. "But Leighton doesn't know that. I just need it up there for a little while longer so Leighton will know we are not some weak submissive kingdom. We still have a fight left in us. When you stand up there this evening, remember that you're doing this for your mother," he gazes up at the tree. "Do it for Ruslan."

The magnificent cherry tree towers above us both. Since Ruslan was not my father's true child, he could never become heir to the kingdom. Yet, my father treated him as if he were his son. Although he could not walk, my father trained him with a bow and arrow, just like he did myself. From Ruslan's bedroom windows, him and I would shoot the pesky fat crows before they swarmed the fields. My father had devices and contraptions constructed to allow Ruslan to move freely throughout the castle. It was like nothing was ever wrong. He was like the rest of us—young, free, and humorous. His sense of humour was unmatched.

Ruslan deserved to be the next king—and my father and mother both attempted to make that a permanent change in our lineage. Instead, Ruslan fell ill the older he grew, and they decided to keep his existence one of Lagulon's greatest secrets.

My father pats my shoulder. "We should go. The kingdom awaits us."

Tobin may have started rebuilding me the first night of my return, but my father finished placing the bricks. I'll do this fight for my mother. For Ruslan.

With every ounce of courage that writhes in my veins, I return to the throne room. I stand beside Leighton as word spreads to the people that we are betrothed, that our kingdoms will unify through our marriage. Although most of the crowd remain silent at the announcement, the joyous instruments reset the mood from devastation to deliverance.

I stand beside Leighton the entire evening, but not once does he try to cross the threshold and drag me into his darkness. Instead, his icy eyes seem to be fixated on the underpants threaded with a single arrow, shot right above the archway for all to see. It's a reminder that this is not his grounds, and it never will be.

Like Ruslan's cherry tree, our kingdom will overcome, conquer, and grow.

When all is said and done, my father is the one to escort me back to my bedroom. He too, wants to get away from the crowds that question him about the marriage. He never got to see me stand in front of Adorid, but he had to see it all today. He's giving his daughter away before the wedding day, and even I caught him shedding a tear in private.

We turn into our family corridor. It remains empty, all except for a few guards.

My father stops in front of my bedroom door. "Will you be alright, duckling?"

I open my mouth to speak when a figure rushing down the hallway catches our attention. Both my father and I swing our heads to Lorcan, his face paled yet rosy from the rush. His blazing hazel eyes meet the gaze of my father. Fear writes itself in the crevasses of his face.

"My liege, we have a problem."

My father scowls. "What is it?"

"The guards conducted their daily search in the deceased prince's bedroom chamber," Lorcan pants. The search is mandatory to ensure that his belongings remain there, so that the secret of him won't run rampant through the kingdom. "And..."

My father's posture tenses. "And what?"

"Someone found a way inside," Lorcan clarifies. "Everything is gone."

"Everything?"

"Ruslan's crown," Lorcan looks between his king and princess, the beloved family to the young boy. "It's been stolen."

── •✧• ──

*dramatic music* Wondering what on earth is going on? We'll see what's happening in Tobin's POV in the next chapter! For now, enjoy some back story about Imogen's parents and Ruslan. Our thief and princess will return soon.

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