Snow White Queen [NaNoWriMo 2018]

Chapter Fourteen

"You're doing very well, Neva," Tamela congratulated her.

Years had passed. Neva was almost eighteen. She would soon take the crown from Lilia, and Tamela guessed that by her birthday she would be the most powerful vampire in the country.

Neva took the praise with only a solemn nod, though deep down she was jumping with joy. One of the things that had been drilled into her, especially by Tamela, was keeping her emotions off her face. It was a surprisingly hard task for Neva, and she had only recently started to get the hang of it. She wasn't going to slip up now, not when Tamela was giving her praise, which rarely happened.

"I've never seen such raw power in anyone else before. You're very special, Neva."

Another nod, and an emotionless voice. "Thank you."

"Don't let anyone distract you. You have very much potential, and it'd be a shame if you let anyone get in the way of it."

"Of course."

~~~

"Dorian." A smile lit up Neva's face as Dorian walked around the corner to their arranged meeting spot. They fell into an embrace as they reached each other. She looked up at him, and they kissed lightly. All at once, the world fell away, until it was just the two of them.

All the practice Neva had put into hiding her emotions went to waste every time she was with Dorian. When they were together, she let everything out; they had no secrets with each other. They were always the most relaxed with each other.

Today, though, he seemed a little more nervous. He wasn't letting on much, but she could tell in the way that he kept fidgeting with the edges of his sleeves. At first, she tried to dismiss it, but after some time she couldn't stand it anymore.

"What are you so nervous about?"

Dorian cleared his throat. "I was hoping you wouldn't notice."

"You know you can't hide anything from me."

"Right. Not how I was envisioning this going but here we go." Dorian moved until he was facing her head on. "I'm sure you've heard the whispers. People want you to get married soon, since you're about to be crowned. You'll need someone at your side. And, uh, people have been saying that, uh... that I'm a good choice."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Let me finish." He cleared his throat again. "Neva, you've been one of my best friends for as long as I can remember. I can't imagine my life without you, and I don't want to have to live without you. I don't care if we're king and queen or two farmers with nothing to our names, I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Dorian dropped down to one knee. "Neva Erythrodis, will you marry me?"

Barely a heartbeat passed before Neva gave her answer, smiling so wide her face started hurting. "Yes. Yes, of course."

~~~

It was official. The Erythrodis and Nezerra lines would cross, and Dorian was to be the future king, once Neva was crowned.

In general, when a man and woman married, the woman would take the man's last name. However, royals operated differently. Since the first born always inherited the throne, it was very common for a woman to be the blood heir, and for her husband to become her right hand. It would make very little sense in those situations for the woman to take her husband's name, since that would be the name of a completely different royal line.

So, in Neva and Dorian's case, Dorian would take Neva's name.

Thankfully, that was one detail that was predetermined. Not that that took anything off the huge workload they had to do.