Emilie of the Royal Heart

BONUS: Dream in Silver

Hey there, have you finished the book yet? 

Don't read this until you have!

I made a playlist for this pairing on Spotify!

It's called Emilie and the Emperor and it starts off with Natural by Sabrina Claudio

Setting the stage (this is so important before you read this chapter):

Let's rewind back to Chapter 49: The Prince is a Little Tied Up at the Moment. Imagine that Emilie has never been in love with Aurora. Maybe she has complicated feelings for him, but it's not love. No, in fact, she has been bathing in Elias' scent every night and pacing about her room holding onto the hydrangea clipping like she held onto a wish. When she practices her dances for the Unification Ball, she closes her eyes and hopes Elias may spontaneously materialize next to her.

After the trial, when her engagement is broken, Emilie realizes how much her thoughts have lended to the Emperor and his promise rather than the spot she lost next to the Prince. When Minnie drew her bath, she apologized because Elias' blend was empty. Emilie had to bathe without the scent wrapping her. She bit on her lip.

"His imperial majesty's room is in the same palace as yours, my lady," Minnie pointed out, suggesting furtively, "I could request his attendants to ask him if he might spare some more of his blend."

"N-no I..." she swallowed. Her eyes drifted across the room to the box where she kept Elias' keys. Emilie smoothed her hands over her skirts and she crept up to them as though they might bite her even before she lifted the lid of the box.

"Will you not bathe tonight?" Minnie wondered as the keys jingled in Emilie's hands.

"Perhaps, but not... yet... I shall return. You are dismissed. When I come back, I can handle my own bathing, thank you," she nodded.

With that, she strode out into the hall like a phantom. She shouldn't be so nervous. Elias had proclaimed his true affections for her in writing. She wanted to see him. If she was being honest, she wanted to stay with him. She wanted him to take her away. Sweep her off her feet to the Western Palace or the Eastern Palace or whatever palace he wanted. It was permitted now. Aurora was out of the way. There was no more fight. The path was clear and it lead to Elias.

Still, as she fiddled with the keys, squinting her eyes in the dim hallway light to find the one marked for Tilzen, her hands trembled at the thought of meeting him in the dark. Telling him that she could be his, if he was ready to have her.

When she stepped into his room and silently shut the door behind her, she was scared Elias may have dreamed her up to be something she was not in his mind. She couldn't bear his disappointment. She could bear even less to see his enthusiasm for her die.

She was paralyzed at the entry of his bedroom. Her body was speckled with patches of rapture and terror. Emilie couldn't seem to pick one. Her mind begged her to wake him, to offer him her hand and their lives together as long as he wanted. But her feet were rather insistent that she could never be enough or as perfect as Elias deserved. Or perhaps even expected her to be.

"Am I dreaming or is that heaven in my doorway?" came a soft murmur from the sheets of the bed. The windows were open and the moonlight streamed in, though the four-post bed and its canopy made sure half the bed was in shadow.

"E-E-Elias..." Emilie gulped. Her fingers gripped the metal ring of keys hard enough that they began to slide together with sweat.

"Emilie?" he bolted upright. Evidently, he hadn't believed she was actually in the doorway when he made his sleepy comment earlier.