Dane wasn't sure if he had lived or died.
For one long night, he and his comrades battled the monsters at sea. He fought and watched as the beasts took out most of the boats and men around him. Even as they shot their arrows true and straight for the demons' eyes. Even as they lobbed jars of explosive fire that burned even more fiercely on water. Whatever they did, more of the creatures kept coming and coming. In the end, it was pure luck that saw Dane and a lucky handful scrape their way through to see the morning light.
Yet there was no time to dally on the shores. No time to even count or grieve their losses. Leaving his commanders behind to gather the men, he rode ahead on his own. For all the months it took them to fight the monsters all the way southward, it took him only five days to race back to Lyons. Yet it was still five days too late.
A part of him had held onto a wink of hope that the monsters had flown right past Lyons or that the city's defences had somehow managed to fight them off, but what greeted him was a city of rubble and buildings that teetered on the edge of collapse, like the bell tower that stood slanted on an angle, ringing now and again in an ominous off-key.
As if that wasn't enough destruction for a man to witness, he had to steer his horse through the corpses that covered more of the streets of Lyons than cobblestones, passing by gaunt, hollow faces of survivors who hadn't yet decided whether their survival was a blessing or a punishment in disguise. For the newly-made orphans, for the men and women who went from happy families one day to losing all their brothers and sisters and children the next, what was life but a living hell?
Selfishly, he'd hoped he wouldn't be one of them.
Even when he strode into the palace and found himself swarmed by familiar faces, none of which was the one he looked for, he hoped for a bittersweet reunion with Cassie to make him feel that there was someone who would be there to help him rebuild the kingdom.
Even when his steward led him through the halls to her bedchamber, and he saw her lay there, so still and peaceful, he hoped she would wake to greet him with a tight embrace that promised him that one day, everything would be all right again.
But everything would not be all right.
Nothing was right in the pallid coldness of her skin. Nothing was right about her laying there while he stood and breathed, not knowing if he was alive in living hell, or if he had died and his afterlife was a recurring nightmare he couldn't wake from.
"Cassie... Cassie!" She couldn't hear him, but he had to try.
He fell to his knees and gripped her hand. That was when he found the folded piece of parchment in her palm.
Hi Dane!
Forgive me for not knowing how to start this. I don't think there is any proper way to start a letter like this under any circumstances, so let me get right into it and hope you forgive me for not making a whole lot of sense.
There are many things I do not understand and may never understand, just as there are many things which might never have an explanation at all (like how I can find you so adorable and infuriating at the same time).
The Seer of Meltec has told me many things about my soul—how it was split between two different worlds, how we led different lives that were never meant to cross, until the day we did and we became whole. It's still difficult at times to think that I am Cassandra and she is her. I am jealous of Cassandra for having had you for ten years. TEN YEARS. I didn't even get ten months!
Anyway, it's overwhelming. I still have so many questions but I have no time to ask them.
What I do know is that the collision of my souls is not the only reason why I feel more complete now than I've ever felt in my entire life. You are the reason I feel this way, Dane. You and the beautiful daughter you have given me. Together, you are my world. The world I would protect with all my body and soul.
I was saving this to tell you in person, but now I regret not having told you sooner:
I love you.
I love you from this life to the next. With all my heart and however many parts of my soul there are.
And even though we've been parted for too long, I still love you more and more with each passing day because you are brave, and honourable, and cute, even when you are being an arrogant, narcissistic ass.
As I said, there are many things I do not understand, but the one thing I need you to understand is that I cannot afford to lose you or our child, and this is why I have to do this.
Please tell Fate that I love her, so, so much. Yes, I've named her Fate because it could only have been Fate that brought us together across worlds. And one day, perhaps Fate will bring us together again, in the next life and the next.
Until then, Dane.
Love,
Cassie
It was a guttural, animalistic cry that tore out of him. The tears fell freely, drenching the sheets. He didn't care. What was there to care abou—
Fate.
"I am sorry to intrude, sire," the steward said from behind him. "It's not exactly an urgent matter but... 'tis related to Lady Cassandra, so I thought you should know."
"Speak."
"The rumours have started, sire. One of the young guards, Finn, explained that a fortune-teller on the streets had declared that Lady Cassandra was cursed. And now that... well, she is dead and the beasts disappeared, the survivors who had heard the fortune-teller's allegations now claim that Lady Cassandra had caused the destruction and deaths of their families and friends." The steward hesitated, then swallowed before he continued, "They demand payment. They want her body, and the... 'devil spawn' she carried... burned on the pyre for all to see."
The kingdom was half destroyed, yet nothing had changed. It was always rumours and more rumours. He was cursed, they said. She was cursed, they said. He'd always tried to ignore them, but he would not let anyone sully her name when she had given up her own life to save them all.
Words held power, and it was time he learned to wield them.
"Spread the word that it is I who was cursed. Say that Cassandra—my queen I did not have the chance to present to the world—sacrificed herself to rid me of my curse."
"But sire—"
Dane held up a hand. "Tell them that before she died, she gave birth to our child—Princess Fate—who the priests have declared blessed, and her blessing will help the kingdom rise again."
It would be an easy lie for the people to accept, for many of them had already believed for a time that he was cursed.
So let it be.
From this day on, let history know him as The Cursed King.
———
A/N: As I mentioned in the previous chapter, the last few chapters of this story will come a little slower than I've been posting recently as I will be working on my novella Deliciously Deadly for the ONC2023, which I will probably be updating at least 1-2 times a week because I'm forced to meet word count requirements for the contest lol.
YOU ARE READING
Bride to the Cursed: a Snow White retelling
Fantasy[COMPLETED] When a king makes an order, he expects it to be followed. When King Dane divorced his wife, he expected her to get out of his sight and stay out of his sight. Not reappear three months later in his bed, spouting nonsense about being a 'l...
