We part at Death (A Novelette)

10. We part at Death

I closed my eyes as Anna and many other palace maids ushered around me. Today was the big day, the day I would be getting married to his majesty. They moved faster than when It was just Anna getting me ready for an event. In a blink of an eye I was stuffed into my wedding dress. The dress itself was a beautiful white and cascaded down to the floor. It was decorated with white roses and fabric that glittered in the sunlight. The maids had pulled my hair up into the low bun, so that the queen crown could fit on the top of my head.

Madam Earnst appeared out of nowhere and barked orders at everyone to usher me out of the room. I caught eyes with her and glared at her. She glared back, but continued to bark orders. Her orders and the maids' fast movements made me find myself standing at the end of a long aisle. The room was decorated with white and it blended in greatly to the church. Nobles all stood from their seats on either side of the aisle. My parents stood at the end of the aisle nearest to the altar. At the altar stood his majesty adorned in his white royal military uniform and the priest behind him.

I took a hesitant step onto the white carpet that lined its way towards the altar. Every ounce of fiber in my being yelled at me to turn and run, but I wasn't a coward and I wasn't going to back down. I ignored the voice in the back of my mind screaming at me to run and delicately walked towards the altar.

Whispers filled the air as nobles took in sight of me. Their words were nice, but did not comfort me as I faced down the bastard that I would be stuck with until we part at death. Many times coming to this moment, I wondered greatly what the hell I was doing with my life. Why did I decide to do this?

I handed my bouquet off towards my bridesmaids. Mia took the bouquet and smiled sadly at me- all of my friends did. When they had come to visit me before the wedding, I had uttered to them all that happened to me without thinking and they were appalled and tried to convince me to leave. I turned back towards his majesty and took his gloved hands in mine. I stared at him emotionlessly as the priest spoke. I followed through the entirety of the motions of the wedding like a hollow shell.

Before I knew it his majesty leaned down to kiss me at the orders of the priest. His lips touched mine and I stared at him as he closed his eyes. His mouth pushed against mine in an effort to get me to kiss him back. He was rough and disgusting. He pulled away and smiled at me, but anger lingered in his eyes.

We turned back to face the priest as he placed the queen's crown down on my head. The priest shouted loudly to the people to claim me the new queen of the empire. His majesty took my hand as we turned to face the crowd. They erupted in applause and cheers, I stared at them blankly.

My eyes fell on one person I was not expecting to see. Victor. Victor stood there near the back of the church in his dark military uniform and a sword at his side. His eyes met mine as we stared at each other. Tears burned in my eyes as I stared at him. I closed my eyes and breathed in a deep breath before letting the breath back out. His majesty tugged on me to follow him down the aisle and I did so.

We were ushered into an open topped carriage to be paraded throughout the capital and back to the palace. I waved towards the people as we passed them on the way towards the capital. They screamed and applauded. As I stared at them, I couldn't help but be taken back to the screaming and pleading of the people of the fallen kingdom. My heart twinged in sadness.

I kept my composure and continued to wave at the people until it felt as if my hand would fall off. The carriage approached the palace faster than I would have expected. His majesty hopped out of the carriage the moment it came to a halt and rushed himself into the palace. I stared after him in utter shock. His guards helped me down from the carriage and into the arms of my maid Anna. Anna looked me over quickly as if she was checking to make sure nothing happened to me. I reassured her I was fine as she ushered me past the other servant and back into the palace.