The crown is a rather cruel concept. Where it inspires, it invokes tyranny; Where it threatens the faint-hearted, it empowers the conniving. Perhaps, that is why to Sophie Ruewen, it is deserving of being all the more condescending...
______________...
She refused to turn around, because that would mean acknowledging that she heard the devil himself call out to her. But then, she had already stopped in her tracks at the sound of his voice, so not turning around wasn't actually an option anymore.
Besides, judging from the approaching of footsteps, he was already coming her way.
Learn to face your fears... that's what mother taught her. Too bad she had not dropped a tip or two on warding off evil spirits– or rather, prying princes (which were honestly the same thing).
She took a long and deep breath.
"Ahh, what a pleasant surprise – one that really caught me off guard...," she spat, training her face into a mask of utter astonishment (with not so much of an effort on the tone, though), as she slowly spun on her heels to face him.
As anticipated, his lips pulled into that obnoxious thing he thought was a smirk, as he neared her.
"Yes, yes, lovely meeting you too, Your Majesty! Though, I believe we can dial the excitement down a little," he spoke with a wicked sort of grin, accompanied by an arched eyebrow.
A scoff was rampaging up her throat, but she suppressed it real well when she said, "I wasn't the one chasing a busy lady, all huffing and puffing behind her...,"
His mouth twitched imperceptibly, "I am not that desperate of a guy, my queen," but a sudden wave of mischief rolled on in his ice blue orbs when he went on to add, "however, if that is your type, then I don't mind making a few adjustments..."
If those words weren't laced with enough voodoo to ward her off already, he winked.
Did he have something in his eye? She screamed inwardly at herself for not taking the other route to her office.
This time she let the scoff clamber free because his audacity really did manage to get on her nerves more than anything else.
"The only thing you need adjustments to, is your attention span by the sound of it all, or maybe it was my fault for not emphasising hard enough on the 'busy lady' part, my apologies!"
She watched as he trained his face into a mock-pained expression, probably trying to look like a hurt puppy. She didn't know, honestly – to her, his face was bound to like a demonic fox, no matter what.
"I know it isn't my fault that company is hard to get by in these long and lonely corridors," Keefe explained with an exaggerated sigh, ensuring that the 'long' and 'lonely' were stretched to a strange degree.
"Sorry, your highness, I will tell them to send some toys over to keep you occupied, as you can see, I was kind of busy when you intercepted me," she glared stonily down at him.
Speaking of busy... before this stray hound caught up to her, she remembered her and Marella aiming for her office.
Her lungs constricted at the thought.
Sophie looked back and forth, her gaze sweeping the hallway which was now only occupied by Prince Keefe and Sophie.
No trace of Marella.
Sophie sighed with relief.
Thank goodness Marella was apt enough to run out of the prince's sight on instinct. She'll know to wait for her outside Sophie's office. Good thing she shared the directions with Marella from beforehand. For now, it was better to keep Black Swan matters out of Cressidan sight. They were a myth to the Cressidans and she wanted to keep it that way. The prince, included. Because whether Sophie wanted to believe it or not, beneath the prince's mask of playfulness and sanguine humour, laid cryptic motives. He was a Cressidan, after all. Gisela's blood, no less. She'll take no chances this time. No distractions, whatsoever.
"Distracted much?" a voice pulled her back from that morbid thought.
Mind your own business and go get a life, she wanted to scream but decided against it due to many inter-kingdom boundaries.
With forced alacrity she let her gaze flit to his face. And just like that, all perfectly-formed insults evaporated off the tip of her tongue. Because his eyes stared at her in an unnecessarily concerned manner (which he tried to blanket with a layer of light humour), the distinct midnight rim on them flashing like crushed sapphire wreathing a sea of calming ice blue. All hues of gorgeous blue crashing into waves of more blue.
Lovely colour it was.
The kind of blue worth drowning in.
Pretty.
She blinked hard.
And blinked harder.
No way did she just-
Nope...
"I said, distract-" his voice started.
"I heard you the first time!" she snapped and cleared her throat lightly when she realised that there might have been a residue of a squeak in there.
His lips pulled into a crooked grin, which Sophie prayed, was him being unaware to the effect he just had on her a minute ago.
Wait, scratch that- he had no effect on her. How could he possibly?
"Do you always do that?" he asked, biting his lip as if to suppress a delirious urge of laughter.
No, I don't usually get entranced by a fancy pair of eyes.
"Do what?"
He smirked as if she was being oblivious to his face.
"Zone out in the middle of a conversation, stare at the stars in thin air when you're supposed to partake in a talk?"
"I don't-"
"Yes you do, last time as well, during the tea with Lady Biana. Don't think I didn't notice!" He tsked, his finger pointing at her in mock-accusation.
Oh.
She couldn't exactly tell him that she was psychoanalysing his mother and him in that time. Planning the best way to suck happiness from their lives. Pay them back in blood and ashes. No, that would be rude.
"It's a reflex," she smirked.
"To what?"
"To being in the vicinity of people who bore the living daylights out of me."
He snorted, "I'm sorry I wasn't trying hard enough to entertain already," and added, "Forgive me, Your Majesty..."
"It's alright, not just you. It's the world, itself- so lacklustre, so slow...," Sophie wasn't sure what she was talking about anymore. She also hadn't realised that her feet started carrying her, walking away from him for a reason she could not think of.
"I'll try to keep up," he said, a smile seeping into his suddenly-solemn tone, as his strides now matched her own.
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So here goes...
Thank you for sticking by! And not running out of patience as you ought to with an insufferable person such as myself- 😭❤️
Oh well, let me know how you thought this chapter was in the comments!
