"Crowns topple easily. Thrones crumble like dust. Hearts cease to beat. Thorns draw blood."
In a country torn into two, there should have been no room for mistakes. Especially not at the very core of the royal family. That was what she was. Yes, a...
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"There are men here to see you about the mission you gave them."
"Send them in." He commanded, putting away his various correspondents. He had stayed up all night, not bothering with a wink of sleep, attempting to find a way to even out the deal he had made with a very important person.
A group of men entered, all of them somber and quiet. They were dressed quite rugged, like men who had chosen to drudge through mud and dirt, instead of men working for royalty.
"Well?" He demanded, raising a brow. He did not have time for news every time he would assign them to do something. After all, they should merely be successful, adequate in their tasks, and await the money he would send them.
One of them stepped forward, his tone apologetic. "We were not able to carry out your command. I take full responsibility. Forgive us, moi tsar-"
He backhanded the man, angry. "I am disappointed in all of you. How difficult is it to kill one person? An unarmed one at that?"
"She had help, sire." One of them piped up, clearly desperate to resolve the situation.
That piqued his attention. "What kind of help? From who?"
"We have reason to believe she had help from a Grisha."
A smirk found its way on his lips.
"A Witch? Perfect. We can kill two birds with one stone."
//
"Why are you helping me?" Irina demanded, gathering up her skirts in her hands while trying to follow the strange Shadow Summoner.
Why was she even following him? She did not even have a name to call him by.
However, she was quite shaken up from the prior events. If she did not start to feel the consequences of her actions before, she felt them now.
The lives of those men began weighing on her. Though they tried to kill her, she could have shown mercy. She could have maimed them instead of killing them.
Then again, it was not as if she knew how to control her power. She only knew how to let go, to let it fill her.
She did not mean to let loose with her power. It just happened, from one second to the next. Like breathing. It was completely and utterly natural.
The opposite of the man walking ahead of her. The moment that she saw him, truly looked at him, there was a shift in her. She could not explain it.
She felt as if she was like a machine and the cogs just turned into place, triggering a series of movement within. She still did not know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
He answered with silence as if he was too busy walking ahead to answer her.
Irina pushed herself to move faster, catching up to his swift movements and placing herself between him and his path.
He leveled her with a serious look. "We would get to where we are going faster if we kept moving. It is not safe in these woods, especially when there are people hunting you down."
"I don't know if I will be any safer with a strange nameless Shadow Summoner than in the woods all alone." She answered, refusing to move from her spot. "You may have saved my life, but I do not even know if you saved me out of the kindness of your heart or to condemn me to a worse fate."
He looked at her enigmatically, taking one of the clenched fists at her side. He carefully unfurled her fingers from their tense position, not once breaking their gaze.
Before she could ask him what he was doing, he pressed the hand he was holding to his own chest, right above his heart.
She looked from his quartz eyes to her hand pressed to his chest. She could feel the steady beats of his heart as it pumped blood throughout his whole body. Not nervous at all, more calm and collected.
As his fingers encircled her wrist loosely, she felt the same power flood through her veins in a way that was not overwhelming but natural. Like breathing in air.
Using his free hand, he tilted her face upwards, to connect their gazes once again. "You have the power to stop my heart right at this moment, to pull the truth from my lips. I am giving you the choice now to do what you feel is right. It is all up to you, Irina Lantsov."
What Irina saw in those dark eyes was far from emptiness, far from the abyss. Instead, she saw eternity. Endless, all-powerful eternity and all she wanted to do was get close to it.
She inhaled shakily, the air around them seemingly still. "At least tell me your name, a real name to call you. Not a name based on your power. Not 'Shadow Summoner'."
He tilted his head, clearly calculating as he let go of her hand. Not one single part of them was touching, but the force between them seemed tangled from the moment he took her hand.
"I have had many names from the many lives I have lived. Which one of them would you like to call me? Or if you'd like, perhaps you would want to give me a new name?" He offered.
She shook her head. "You are not an animal to name and I would not wish to call you anything other than the name that was given to you. The name you had before you were anyone. Please."
He smiled then, quite confused by the feeling that erupted in his chest. Just from the words that the young princess spoke. "Very well. The name I was given and the name that I was known by is Aleksander. If that is what you wish to know me as then I will not deny you that."
She said the name over and over in her head before saying it out loud. "Aleksander."
His smile grew then as if the mere mention of his name caused the shadows around them to extend their reach. "Irina."
Irina extended out a hand for him to shake. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"Likewise, moya tsarevna." Aleksander reached out to shake her hand once before letting go. "Now come. We have to take care of that wound of yours and we must move before more of those men come looking."
Irina looked down at her shoulder, seeing the burgundy stain that had spread. She had almost forgotten about it, what with everything that had occurred. Luckily, the bleeding seemed to have stopped.
"Alright lead the way." She gestured forward.
Right before he could take a single step forward, the sound of a sword being drawn caught both of their attentions.
Aleksander hurriedly pushed Irina behind him, putting his hands together and summoning the shadows. They stood at the ready, waiting for their master to command them.
"Give me the girl or I'll strike you down from where you stand." A familiar voice sounded.
Aleksander only grinned mischievously, putting his hands together and surrounding the area where the voice was, in darkness.
"Go ahead. Strike me down. A bit difficult though, for you will have to do that in the shadows. Which I control."
~ 𝓪𝓾𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓻'𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓮 ~
Okay....so what do you guys think?? :>> I was pretty excited for this chapter cos I rlly wanted to start calling him Aleksander instead of you know 'him/he'. I almost wanted to name him 'Eryk', as he once posed as an 'Eryk' in his childhood but then I thought that it'd be rlly confusing sooo Aleksander is hereeeee wheeeee!
Anyways, they had their first real moment! Eeeeek! So exciting! Irina and Aleksander <3! Alright, I am curious as to who you guys think the mystery attacker is. :0 Stay tuned for the next chapter and I am hoping that you loved this chapter as much as I loved writing it. Lots of love <3!
