𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐱𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐣𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬....
"If I cannot have them both, I will not have either."
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐱 𝐎𝐂𝐱 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐨𝐯
𝐏𝐨...
(A long chapter again. So please forgive my mistakes. I tried to catch as many as I could but Grammarly and my eyes don't catch everything. Please don't mind pointing them out, especially in the letters.)
(THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN COMPLETELY REWRITTEN. ITS EVEN LONGER THAN THE LAST ONE LOL. )
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꧁꧂
𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐊𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐘𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐁𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐊𝐀 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐋𝐊. He should have known that she would not play by the rules laid before her with any such grace. Submission was not in her nature and he should have known that very thing would rub many of the aristocracy the wrong way. He should have prepared for the way she swaggered about like a king within his kingdom. He should have prepared for the way her eyes narrowed into razor sharp slits the moment the veil covering her beautiful face was removed. He should have accounted for the annoyed curl of her lip, the upturn of her nose and the bristle that swept through the crowd eager to meet their saviours.
He should have accounted for the iron rod in her back and the regal set of her shoulders. He should have known that she would look upon the monarchy with such contempt. He should've stopped her from staring at the pigheaded Vasily in distaste, instead, he watched how her face softened in satisfaction when the crown Prince shifted and paled beneath the weight of her glacier-coloured gaze. In his shock he didn't stop her from dismissing him, and taking in the pudgy king on his throne and then the unnatural woman beside her with such disrespect.
He should have, but he didn't. And in his lack of preparedness Cyzarine had pissed off half the room without so much as opening her mouth and when she finally looked at him her lips curled in silent satisfaction as if she had won a prize he was unaware of. A cat that caught the canary, it's blood and bones stuck between her pretty white teeth. A small warning for the carnage to come when she opened her mouth.
A small part of him looked forward to it.
He took a moment to note that if she had been dressed differently, done up to the styles of the court she would look like she lived among them all her life. As if she were royalty.
Isn't that what her name meant? Royalty?
From his left, Alina—sweet, naive Alina, shifted nervously on her feet at the prolonged silence, hands unconsciously smoothing out her army uniform. From upon his throne the king seemed to smirk at her uncomfortable display—a completely different reaction to her counterpart who stood to Kirigan's right. "I thought she would be taller," the pudgy man observed with his buggy little eyes. Eyes that craved too much.
