When vengeance strikes in the form of a bullet out for the princess's blood, Princess Aleia VonAuclair must flee the heart of her country in order to protect the people she loves and take back the pieces of her soul she'd lost to the girl she once l...
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I bounced on the tips of my toes, fidgeting with the hems of my dress as I shifted on my feet in the foyer. I checked my phone for the hundredth time within a span of a minute; 5.57 pm.
The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon, the sky a canvas of melting purples, pinks and yellows, and the streets oozed into the misty shadows of a twinkling night sky.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
My heart leaped in my chest, and I swung the door open even before the echoes of the last knock could bounce off the walls. Edrian chuckled and unlike the story he'd told on the phone all those days ago, there was one part he'd failed to mention.
He'd said he would be starstruck, but never could I have ever prepared myself in the case that I was.
In a plain black sweater and dress pants, the word gorgeous didn't even begin to scratch the surface. In fact, I thought it might've even diminished it; diminished the sheer art that was the man I got to call my boyfriend.
I fought off the urge to check whether I was drooling.
My head angled up to meet his eyes, and the liquid fire that smouldered within, like jade emeralds from the trenches of a magical forest, threaded a knot into my throat. I forced down a swallow and his eyes shot the movement.
"You look beautiful, baby." Gravel transformed his words into something promising, something forbidden.
Heat travelled up my cheeks. It was just like he'd said.
I glanced down at my long-sleeved, sage green silk dress, the bodice fitted to my torso and the skirt loosened off at the hips to end just above my knees.
"Thank you. It's a new dress. I thought of you when I saw it."
"Yeah?"
I nodded.
He took a step forward and placed the palm of his hand on my waist. The touch seared through the material, incinerating it into ashes and all that was left to separate my skin from his, was the phantom river of honey flowing over my body at his gaze.
"What else reminds you of me?"
I breathed a shallow breath and twiddled with the strap of my bag.
"A lot of things."
A tiny edge inched up his lips. "Like what?"
I pursed my lips in thought.
"The rain. Anytime it rains, I think of you because of how much you like the background noise when you do work."
A curve of his mouth.
"Anything else?"
I gave him a look.
"More? What are you trying to do? Make me flatter you?"
He nodded with a gleam in his eyes. I pinched his arm and he chuckled.
