A Muse of Night

TWENTY ONE

Holstein and I have made sure Kazimir has remained busy, wedding planning has consumed the past weeks as I grew more and more uncomfortable with the idea of marrying Alex. This morning I was lead into a room filled with dresses, ranging in all kinds of colors. They stood my up on a pedestal before a row of mirrors. It had been a while since I had looked at my reflection.

My once olive complexion was gray and sickly, I expected bags under my eyes like I had not slept in months but instead my skin was clear. There was a scar on my cheek that carved from my ear and down my neck as it wrapped around my shoulder. It was a memory from Nelo, his face came to mind. My hair was slick raven black but there was the left overs of blue streaks from my year on the run. My eyes were scarlet red and I found myself missing the blue glow that Ithe brought. My nails were sharp like talons and my full lips revealed my fangs. I looked like a monster waiting for it's prey.

In the wake of my imagination, a servant looked up at me and spoke. "Do you like white or cream miss?" She asked but I didn't care, if I had it my way- I would wear black to show that my funeral wasn't nearly as bright as other assumed to portray it.

"It doesn't matter, whatever you think will fit me." I spoke with a sigh in my voice, the worse call down to man as a servant fiddled with the different dresses in the room. I didn't know where they'd gotten all these wedding dresses from but I wasn't going to argue. She pulled out one white dress, almost blush in color. Like someone's depressive cupcake, I closed my eyes shut and wished the monstrosity would go away. "That is the ugliest thing I've ever seen my entire life." I complained as the servant made a face, apparently she didn't agree with me.

The younger one came to my side, even with the effects on immortality she looked only a mere sixteen. Meaning she would forever be a child, a piece of my heart cracked but I did my best to ignore it. "Silver seems to be your color." The two girls argued over dressed while I watched the room. The Queen's royal closet was nothing like I had ever seen, when I was young- I loved extravagant dresses. It was every girl's dream to be a Princess- but now it's only a reminder of who I used to be.

There was a flamboyant white dress that rested on a mannequin, dressed up with pearls and jewels. I turned my head in curiosity. I asked the youngest girl, her red eyes shot up at me with worry. "Whose dress is that?" I mistakenly asked.

"You don't know?" The youngest asked me, her eyes filled with heartbreak and betrayal as she slowly turned her gaze back to the white dress that sat on the rack. I was red expecting her answer, but I should have. "Miss Crina Teodorescu, she and the King we're supposed to get married when he returned to court from Scotland." Words so simple yet so cruel, my throat went dry for a moment as my mind processed what she was telling me.

My brows creased as I thought about both blonde vampires, my body conflicted as I didn't know how to act. As usual when it came to Alex, something wasn't adding up- and it pissed me off. "Alexandur wasn't married when I came to court." I whispered low enough for only everyone in the room to hear. The timeline was strange, from when we were in Scotland and our first kiss to now. I needed to know more than what I was being told.

The youngest began s speaking, she made sure to chose her words wisely. Her own fear nestled in her heart as the worry consumed her. "He pushed back the wedding but they were madly in love." Madly in love. I paused, a long bewildering breath caught between my lungs as I felt an laughter rise in the back of my throat.

He was in love with Crina when he kissed me in Scotland, Holstien must have known. Everyone must have known.

It felt like my heart had been breaking over and over again, even if I didn't love Alexandur even an ounce. It was clear how he saw me, to him I was a tool. Used for his pleasure, I tried to blink away my sadness. Closing my fingers into fists as I looked down at the white skirt of the dress I was fitted in. I had changed my whole life for him and he's only seemed to break me time and time again. The older servant spoke, "Cici. Do not speak about the King's ex fiancée in front of his new fiancée." She said but that didn't help the situation.