Half-Breed Queen (FantasyAU!Dabi x Reader)

3 ~ The Lost Prince

The halls were dimly lit by the gentle light radiating from the flickering candles. A shivering wind blew through the hall and warned of the quickly approaching winter. Even as the cold spilled through the flimsy material of my clothes I couldn't find it in my head to care as my thoughts trailed off to a life I'd only remember in dreams. Everything had changed since those days; The friendly warmth of my family trickling away to be replaced by hateful memories as my antipathy grew.

As I walked the candles slowly dimmed more and more as their waxed dripped and foretold the passage of time, every step seeming to carry me further into the future of which I despised. Soon I found myself standing on the bridge to the eastern tower, the stars twinkling high above my head proving a brilliant luster. Townspeople wandered freely through the streets without seeming to care of the festivities ongoing in the palace, how I envied their blissful ignorance.

"So," my voice filled the silent night air and lingering for a moment before I continued, "are you going to kill me or should I just jump off the bridge myself?"

I turned around and faced the person standing behind me; A tall man dressed in all black sterling armor, purple scars littering his exposed skin and trailing down to only the gods know where. His turquoise eyes appeared to gleam brightly in the night though I knew it to only be an illusion. My knowledge of his presence seemed to stun him as he'd stopped drawing his blade with it only half out of its hilt. Though it quickly wore away as he released the blade from its holster.

"I thought they said you didn't talk." His tone held an air of annoyance and I let out a short burst of laughter. Turning back I let my head fall low, no longer caring of the confident appearance I'd tried for so long to keep up. As I faced my death I couldn't help the words that drained from my brain to my lips and out into the air, because in this moment it was just us. A woman who'd bitten her tongue for the entirety of seven years and a known member of the rebellion.

"I'm not supposed to." A small laugh caught in my throat as I looked up at the sky where the spiteful gods sat watching this scene unfold. Thunder clapped in the air and I imagined that they were laughing; I was but a show for them to watch and play with at a whim. "Good princesses don't speak unless spoken to by their king. Good princesses will run and seek guards when in need. Good princesses aren't supposed to have a free will."

My ears honed in on his armor, the quiet scratching of the metal on the stone as he shifted his stance. There was no way to see what he was doing, for all I knew there was a sword point at my back, though for some reason I doubted that was the case. His utter annoyance seemed to fade in a matter of seconds as he listened to my sorrowful voice fill his ears. How long could I allude death like this, speaking my mind for the first time in so long that even a man with intent to kill took pity on me.

"If you want to kill me, do it. There's nothing left for me as of this moment: My family despises my existence and my life is no longer mine. So feel free to stab that sword of yours through my chest, but please leave my face in peace." A malicious smile crawling across my lips as the beginnings of another rain shower began. The man in armor didn't seem to mind the pelting water droplets as he stayed stuck to his spot. "I want my look to haunt them for the rest of their lives, however short the gods choose to make them."

"(Y/N), right?" His voice was gravelly and deep as though he'd spent years choking on the smoke of a dragon-born. From the looks of his scars he might have actually done so, but that story was unknown to me. He was a man to behold, surviving far more than any one person could imagine enduring. "The Princess of Atonima, a voice as mysterious as the ways of the gods but a beautiful woman to behold. With admiration comes incentive, so why would you risk leaving the banquet alone at such a late hour?"