The King's Cursed Bride

Letting Go

Author's Note: I have at least fourteen votes for The Fiction Awards! OH MY GOODNESS! I know I'm gaining more popularity on Wattpad, so I probably should have been more like this: 😎 But I really wasn't sure anyone else would vote for TKCB, and I honestly gasped and squealed when I saw each notification, so I was more like this: 😄😆💖💖🎉🎉🙌🏻. I am so honored you guys would vote for my story!

***

Carissa shoved open the door to her room, her formerly withheld tears wetting her cheeks. Though words couldn't break bones, they were certainly capable of bleeding hearts.

Arms folded around her. Elon's. He'd been waiting for her, and with the thin walls, he'd likely heard everything they'd said.

She sank into his embrace, until she remembered: he had foresight. He'd sent her to her mother, knowing exactly what would happen. She tore aware from him, and when his grip on her didn't loosen quickly enough, she shoved his chest. "You knew—" Sobs overtook her words, and she pressed a fist to her mouth to stifle them.

Elon cupped her face and slid his thumb across her cheek, smearing her tear tracks across her skin. "I did know."

"Then why?" Grief so ravaged her voice she barely recognized it as her own.

When Elon took her into his arms again, she didn't resist. After all, Elon was one of the few people who offered his touch regardless of the circumstances. Carissa thought back to how her mother had darted away from her and flinched.

He didn't reply, simply tucked her against him and held her as though she were made of glass, ready to break at a moment's notice. Or maybe she was already broken, and he feared being cut by the shards.

His chest swelled with a sigh beneath her hands. "I told you the truth, Carissa, and I left the choice to you."

She leaned back—or at least, as far as he would allow her. "You didn't tell me all that would happen."

"I told you what was important, that this moment would determine the ones that came after, that you ought to choose based on who you want to become rather than what others might do."

She inhaled, her breath snagging on suppressed sobs. "And you didn't think my mother's reaction was important to me?"

"I thought there were more important things than that, and I didn't want fear of your mother's reaction to inhibit your decision making. So no, I didn't tell you." He bent closer to her, halting only when a fine sheet of air stopped their foreheads and noses from nudging. "Do you wish that I had done otherwise? Do you regret what you spoke to her now that you know the outcome?"

Did she? If she hadn't, neither she nor her mother would have been hurt—or at least, not as hurt as they both were now. Yet, she'd felt it was the right decision regardless, the kind of decision a loving person would make.

Her resistance escaped on a sigh, leaving her limp in Elon's arms, and after a momentary pause, he bent, slid his arms behind her shoulders and knees, and cradled her against his chest. He kissed her cheek, tempting her to cry once more. "Rest, Carissa. The hour is late."

He laid her down on the narrow straw mattress and joined her. Her pallet wasn't meant to accommodate two people, and they were pressed together, Elon's chest swelling against her side, his breath tickling her cheek, their limbs brushing.

Discomfort squirmed through her, but she hadn't the energy to part herself from Elon. The emotions she'd poured out had drained her dry, and with each passing moment, her body seemed to sink more deeply into the sheet-covered straw.