A Kingdom's Expectations & A Shocking Revelation {Sequel}

Chapter 14

20 comments til next chapter x

"I woke up and you were gone." His voice trembled with a flurry of emotion: rage interspersed with something darker - grief. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, shoulders hunched over as if bowed by some great weight. "Your side of the bed was ice-cold like you'd never slept in it at all. I didn't know whether you'd been taken. I didn't know whether you'd left for a midnight stroll. Worst of all, for the first time in my life, I did not have a single damned idea what to do."

Regret pulsed inside me for my impulsive decision. Though my entire plan had hinged upon an outcome in which he would feel hurt at my departure, I could not bear the anguish within his tone. I'd desired this future and yet upon its realisation, it birthed an unexpected misery within my very soul.

"Did you alert the King?" I asked, trepidation colouring my tone. Understanding whether the situation was contained forced itself into becoming my first priority - if the King knew, I would be facing more drastic consequences.

"No," he responded and I could not help a sigh of consolation that rolled through the constricted set of my shoulders. His eyes tightened at my avoidance of the issue sprouting between us. I turned away, walking to my dresser so I could relieve myself of my travel garments.

I removed the pins that lingered within my locks, allowing the glitter of metal to adorn my dressing-room table. They offered a solitary glint within the darkness and I wished I could spend a sole moment just admiring its existence within the shadows.

"Why?" The question sprawled out from the darkness, targeting me alone. Sebastian's voice was a keening animal: wounded and dangerous. In its injury, it amplified the risk of confrontation.

"You weren't listening to me," I explained quietly but firmly. "I needed to make you listen."

A crash! echoed out from the interior and my hand slammed down upon the door frame, frightened into requiring physical support.

"You can't act like this!" Sebastian cried out. A vase lay scattered in pieces on the ground, the silver edges gleaming in the faint moonlight that snuck through the curtains. "You are a damned Princess of England and you believe that staging some grand escape is a reasonable solution to - "

"You're right, I am a damned Princess of England!" I interjected, my fury rising to match his. "But you are a Prince and the heir to the Throne - and it is you who believes you can treat your wife in such a manner... and believe that she will stay."

"Oh, so you were leaving me," he scoffed, pacing within our chambers. "You were abandoning our marriage."

"I wasn't abandoning you," I retorted, hands forming into fists that itched to strike out as his has. "I just wished that you would realise not to take me for granted. I am here solely because I choose to be."

Sebastian scoffed angrily and opened his mouth to shoot back another enraged response - but I cut him off before he could flesh out another indignant syllable. "I'm not interested in an argument. For the last few weeks, all we have done is snipe at each other and engage in a tempestuous discourse that results in no resolution. For once, we need silence. Consideration. I know I should not have took to running away. I... I felt desperate. I wanted you to listen - because the Lord himself knows that when we get like this, we are deaf to true discussion."

The rationality that was attempting to worm its way within my words stuttered as a malevolent shadow flitted across Sebastian's features. I was truly tired of fighting. I was exhausted.

"Sebastian - " I muttered brokenly, my breath hitching as I tried to withheld a sob. "I need more than this. I need - " I caught the cry before it could fling itself from the confines of my throat, stubbornly holding onto it as a child holds onto candy. I sunk to the richly carpeted floor, holding onto the tendrils of fabric it was composed of.