All afternoon, I sat on the edge of my bed, my knee bouncing restlessly. I needed to do something. The thought of Aleah being so utterly powerless gnawed at me. How could someone like her, born into a family of power, have none of it herself? Was she even truly royal?
Her confession left me more confused than anything, and it raised more questions than it answered.
For a long time, I suspected she was simply hiding her powers from me. I never truly believed she was powerless. I've overheard too many conversations between her and Brock through these thin castle walls—talks of control, restraint, and responsibility. It always sounded like someone grappling with something dangerous beneath the surface, not someone with nothing at all.
It shouldn't matter. Maybe it wasn't my place to question it. But she's my future wife, and I'm supposed to keep her safe.
Yet lately, it wasn't just my duty that pulled me toward her. As the days slipped by, I couldn't deny what I felt for Aleah. The instinct to protect her went deeper than obligation. It felt personal. It felt real.
The memory of the hooded woman haunted me. I tried to forget. I tried to bury that moment deep, somewhere unreachable. But no matter how hard I pushed it down, it kept clawing its way back. I had vowed to marry the hooded woman... in exchange for my brother's life. It was the secret I couldn't shake, and I had only promised it a few nights ago.
Every time I felt myself drifting closer to Aleah, I thought of my brother and of how this growing love was starting to cloud my mission.
But there's no way Aleah could ever feel the same, not after everything between us. Not after the way she's looked at me.
Still... what if she did? What if she felt something too? What if she loved me the way I loved her?
Would she hate me more for saying it aloud?
The harder I tried to forget about my current situations, the more they seemed to plague my mind. I needed to do something rather than just wait around for something to happen. I'm betting my relationship with not only Aleah but with Atalar as a whole on the sincerity of a hooded woman I met only a few nights ago.
I had made a deal with her rashly and didn't think about the consequences. All I could think about in the moment was my brother, beaten and bruised, sitting in a dirty cell, chained to the wall by his bloody wrists.
I needed more than just that woman's word. I was going to investigate myself. All of these rooms must have secret passages, and all of them must connect. If I can find one around my room or perhaps one even inside of it, then maybe I can find the dungeons and hopefully my brother.
YOU ARE READING
Crowned in Crimson Cinders
FantasyAleah has been told all her life that she is worthless and weak by her older sister, Amora. But, when Aleah finds out that she is going to be betrothed to the enemy prince, Darian, she finds out that she has ancient powers dating back hundreds of ye...
