Casey Anderson isn't expecting much from her Mark - but when her soulmate turns out to be Prince August, the boy next in line for the throne, everything changes.
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In a world much like our own, Casey Anderson is trying to navigate her senior...
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My father's gaze is heavy as I tug nervously at the sleeves of my sweater and run a hand through my hair, trying to neaten it. I feel as if I am under twice the amount of scrutiny than I usually am, as if he could see Casey all over me.
"She's arrived, then," he says, looking down at a pile of no doubt very important papers on his desk.
I nod, and then when I realize that he isn't looking at me, I clear my throat. "Yes."
"Mmm," he says, disinterestedly, and something about it, about all of it, makes my blood boil.
"She is my soulmate," I say. "Destined. I understand that you had your own plans, Father, that you do not approve of her, but surely you can step aside for Fate herself?"
I am breathing heavily. I never shout at my father. I hardly ever raise my voice. Those handful of sentences are far more than I would have dared to say to him even a few short months ago.
To my surprise, instead of immediately blowing up at me, he simply steeples his fingers together and narrows his gaze. For a moment, it's quiet.
"You have to understand, August," he says, "one thing. I do not believe in Fate, other than we make our own. There is no such thing as a predestined path. Soulmates," he scoffs, "have been around for a scant year. A year," he says, putting emphasis on the word. "What is to say they will be around forever? What is to say they really mean what everyone thinks they mean? No."
Here he stands, coming around the side of the desk, stopping in front of me. "You must understand that you are heir to the crown of England. You will be king," he says. "Love is always trumped by duty, August. Always. These petty, foolish, distractions are below you. You are royalty. You have no need for them. You have no need for her." He takes in a deep breath. "I will not see the crown become some mockery of all it stands for simply because some girl manages to worm her way inside of your head - that Mark! August, that Mark means only what you let it mean. I will never accept her," he says.
I feel like the walls are closing in around me.
"We do what we must for the public," my father says. "But mark my words, August. She will never be Queen. A girl like her with no training, no idea of the weight this life holds? It will break her," he says. "I have seen it happen. Love cannot conquer all, and it is only fools who think otherwise."
He claps a hand heavy on my shoulder. "I will see you at dinner," he says, polite mask firmly back in place.
I think I might be in shock. I have no chance, then - no chance of convincing my father that this path is right. That she is right.
His words run through my head.
It will break her. I have seen it happen.
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Sometimes, I think of alternate worlds. There must be, out there somewhere, a version of this where I am not the heir to a throne, where Casey and I grow up together and have the ability to fall in love slowly. Or have the ability to fall in love at all, outside of this family, outside of this life.
