A Royal Ruse

The End

The End Is Really Just The Beginning

"You are a witch and a liar!" Anger clawed out from the depths of Zita's bowels and lunged for Queen Tatiana.

Servants launched to shield the queen and Adair held out his arm to prevent his wife from throttling his mother.

The princess' wedding day had gone smoothly thus far, considering the rocky path it took to get there.

She woke up that morning serenely bridal and exquisitely beautiful. There was a strange calmness that came with marrying someone you were under no obligation to truly love. The spasming stomachache that plagued her on her first attempt at a wedding was nowhere to be found. And she knew that soon she would be on a carriage chugging back to her homeland.

However, as soon as the doors closed on their wedding ceremony, the queen decided to deliver an important morsel of news to the princess.

"Your Highness, I know you're upset but I need you to calm down." Queen Tatiana smoothed her dress down as if the princess' outburst had soiled it.

Zita was going to be sick. Nausea began to fill her up the moment her parents' names were mentioned. The queen had just stood before her and her newly-minted husband and tore Zita's reality apart.

"No," was all Zita could say with a shaking head. "I will not calm down. You are truly sick."

The queen looked regretful but serious. "Zita —"

"STOP TOYING WITH ME."

"Please sit down." Adair gently guided her towards the nearest seat in the antechamber outside the palace ballroom. Zita had always wondered what lay behind the large bronze doors the royals always disappeared into and emerged from. But now, as she exited the ballroom where her marriage ceremony had taken place, she wished she had never stepped foot past those bronze doors. The moment they closed shut, she had been swallowed whole.

With hot tears and venom in her throat, Zita pushed Adair's hands off of her. Her fingers stabbed toward the queen, accusing and vengeful.

"You, "The princess roared, "had better start telling me the truth or I swear I will boil every single one of your birds in sheep's bile!"

"Zita, I am trying to tell you the truth." The queen inhaled deeply. "But it's very hard to talk to you when you're acting like this."

"What do you mean my parents' are alive?" The princess couldn't see straight. Her anger and confusion made everything in the room swim.

Adair, seeing how his wife's body had been possessed by flames, stepped in with his calm crisis-averting tone of voice. "This news is upsetting but if you could listen we could figure out a way to move forward."

"And you!" Zita turned her accusing finger toward Adair. "You were in on it too."

Adair clutched his hair. "Zita you have to believe me. I had no idea."

"You will pay. Both of you."

Zita crumpled down onto the nearest couch. Anger had rattled her body and then left her a pile of ash on the floor.

"Do you have any idea.." the princess cried, raggedly between gasps. "I'll kill you both, I swear. I'll...I'll..." The words could no longer fight against the tears.

Both the queen and her son came to flank either side of the distraught princess, shaking and huddled in her bridal gown.

Adair's hand stretched out fearfully until it made contact with his wife's back. She was still heaving like she was trying to give birth to her heart.