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CHAPTER TWENTY ▪▫▪▫▪
MORANA'S FIRST KISS HAD HAPPENED when she was around thirteen years old and still living in Ketterdam.
She'd been running away from stadwatch after stealing a watch off some tourist's wrist. She'd only been caught because she'd stumbled as a costume-wearing entertainer had bumped against her and the watch had fallen to the ground.
She ran all the way to the part of the city where the Barrel began and saw a boy around her age walking down the street. Without a second thought, Morana had grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket and pulled him closer to her, hiding herself from the view of the guards as she pressed her lips to his.
The guards had been fooled by a couple of kids in love. And when Morana pulled away she grinned sheepishly at the boy, whose mouth was hanging open as he looked at her.
"I'm sorry, that was so inappropriate but the stadwatch was... Nevermind. I'm sorry." She finished with a grimacing smile and the boy snapped back to reality chuckling.
"Do it again and I'll forgive you," he said with a grin and Morana rolled her eyes. "I'm liking Ketterdam better and better."
"You're a tourist?"
"Newly arrived resident actually."
Morana frowned, looking around. "Where are your parents? It's dangerous to be here alone."
"Where are yours?" he retorted. Without giving her time to answer he asked another question, "What's your name?"
"Why do you need to know?"
"A random girl just kissed me in the street. I'd love to know her name."
"I'm Morana," she answered with a laugh.
"I'm Jordie," he'd replied.
And Morana hadn't seen him again after that day.
Jordie Rietveld, as he'd informed her as they sat by the edge of a street, had moved to Ketterdam with his younger brother Kaz after his father passed away. Apart from that she knew nothing of him. And a couple of weeks later she'd fled from Ketterdam.
That had been her first kiss. As chaotic as every moment from her time in Ketterdam; but clearly lacking any passion, any love, any actual spark. If she'd stayed perhaps she would've come to care for Jordie. But she hadn't and she wouldn't know. What she did know was that even though that had been her first kiss, everything with Nikolai felt like the first time.
Because it was the first time she'd been in love. Morana Zoreslava was in love.
And she had no fear of admitting it anymore, she was unapologetically intoxicated by the King of Ravka and she wasn't scared to poison him. Not anymore. Not when they were going to end her father once and for all. Not when Nikolai was falling right beside her and they'd drown together in each other.
