Madalin is a member of a royal family that rules over a country named Lysteria. She's brave, bold, smart, yet gentle and caring all the same. The princess dreams of running away from the shackles of a royal life, while her parents try to keep her ca...
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Edmund's Point Of View
It was unusual to be able to lie down and not get haunted by Mum. I could remember barely anything from around the time she was alive, it was just the scene of her death that had stuck with me. Similar to last night, I didn't struggle with the memory, because my mind was distracted.
But is it worth it?
No. Never in a million years. If it wasn't her death, then it was my brother's that staked a claim over my sleep. That bit hadn't changed, I was still an insomniac.
Sometimes I'd wish that I had died in their places. Had it been so, I wouldn't have lived to see my family wither away.
Had it been so, I wouldn't have met Madalin.
As if on cue, the door to our pitch-black bedroom opened and in strolled my wife. The soft pitter patter of her steps grew louder as she approached the bed, and I could tell that she was trying her best not to wake me up.
If only I was in a slumber like she had anticipated.
My eyelids drooped over so I could keep up the facade. The bed dipped from my left, then the shuffling of fabric carried on until the mattress stilled again, implying that she had lied down. Shortly after, a soft click emanated- one that I was all too familiar with. Madalin had switched her lamp on.
Sharing a chamber with her helped me pick up on a habit of hers; she hated sleeping in the dark. For the first few days she had tried to adjust, but her body would tremble, and when the lamp was turned on, her unease would just... disappear. As if it wasn't even there in the first place.
Contrarily, I loved darkness. But I'd give that up if it meant that her anxiousness would tone down.
I found it quite endearing that a woman as strong and fearless as Madalin was afraid of the dark. Despite it all, who was I to judge? I was a grown man dealing with sleep deprivation because of nightmares.
"I'll have you know... if you're not the culprit, I'll love you with every dying breath of mine."
Foreign warmth bloomed in my chest and I was compelled to turn my head towards her. My eyes cracked open so I could glance at her, and a distant grin graced my lips when I saw her staring back. She appeared to be zoned out, and the tension between her eyebrows gave me an inclination about what she thought about.
Love.
I never thought I'd fall for the hot-headed princess that gave me quite the hell of a chase. Never could I have imagined, that I'd be ready to risk it all for a woman I used to find annoying, one who was also a huge nuisance.
My weight shifted so I could lie on my side, with my front facing her just as she faced me. On its own accord, my hand had stretched out towards her face. I massaged her forehead with a finger to smoothen the skin wrinkled due to her worries, and when she snapped out of her trance, my hand had pulled away.
