"Crowns topple easily. Thrones crumble like dust. Hearts cease to beat. Thorns draw blood."
In a country torn into two, there should have been no room for mistakes. Especially not at the very core of the royal family. That was what she was. Yes, a...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Irina was shoved roughly into her chambers, falling to her knees at the force of the push.
She could barely turn around to see the guards close the double doors, locking them securely from the other side, not even giving her time to fight against their merciless grip.
Vasilka whimpered at the sight of her master, running to the young princess and bumping her furry head against Irina's legs as to help her stand up.
Even as the little cub tried, her master seemed insistent to stay on the ground, face frozen in shock. Vasilka let out a cry, and that broke Irina from her stupor.
She pulled the cub to her chest, her tears flowing endlessly from her eyes as she sobbed loudly. Vasilka cuddled closer to her master's chest, sensing that she needed something to hold on to as she felt her world be torn apart.
Her father. The man she had called her hero once for helping her hide her secret. The man who had lifted her upon his shoulders as a child to show her the gardens from a birds-eye view. The man who had comforted her during her worst nightmares of death and blood.
He would be the very person to lock her away in a gilded cage for fear of her secret becoming known to all. He would be the very person who lifted her up only to drop her roughly against the ground when she needed him the most. He would be the very person who left her to succumb to nightmares of loneliness and depression, locking her and the man she loved away.
She couldn't understand. Not even a little bit. She had healed him. She dedicated her whole life to taking care of him and being the perfect daughter for him to show around the court. Yet it seems, even that was not enough. He also wanted to pawn her off to the highest bidder for the mere sentiment of peace.
If peace was even a real thing. If the father she thought she knew was a mere facade, then what else doesn't she know? For all she knew, perhaps everyone has been plotting against her. Everyone, and she wouldn't even have known of it.
She had been too blind to the world she had lived in. She had thought that encasing herself in ice and isolating herself from others would ensure that she would not be trapped in the game of wars and scandals. She was wrong to think so. After all, she was born in the very middle of the game.
Irina had been manipulated all her life and she was only finding out now. The gold, the lavish foods, the engrossing parties. It may have made her feel powerful, pushing around nobles with petty threats but in reality, she was just like the rest of them. The realization of it was just painful.
Soon, not even Vasilka could calm her down as she felt her heart rate increasing unnaturally. She was breathing heavily, the air coming out of her in short pants as if she could not breathe but at the same time, as if she had too much air in her.
Irina gasped, pressing a hand to her chest and trying to steady her heartbeats with her own power. But when she called, nothing answered. That was when the panic began to truly set in. The panic and the thought that everything had abandoned her. Even her own power.
