He gently places his hand on my waist and weaves my fingers into the other.
"What are you doing here?" I say, struggling to keep my voice controlled.
His face settles into a bemused expression.
"What do you mean? I'm simply enjoying a dance with the beautiful princess of the magnificent kingdom of Arania."
I scoff. "If it's so magnificent, why are the pirates blundering and pillaging it?"
A muscle in his sharp jaw twitches. He's angry.
"They're men who have spent most of their life at sea, they were bound to go a little mad sooner or later."
He spins me around before pulling me back towards him. "Maybe if you royals haven't kicked us off the seas, we wouldn't be making trouble on land."
I sigh. "If you pirates didn't pick fights with the royal ships for no reason, we wouldn't even be having this conversation."
He spins me around again. "Oh really? I seem to remember it being your royal ships who picked fights with us."
I huff. "Is that why you're here then? To negotiate the terms of your part of the sea?"
He nods, making a piece of his white hair fall into his eye. I resist the urge to put it back in place. ]
"But it seems like your mother is interested in more than just the sea, or else she wouldn't have invited us all the way here?" he questions, cocking his head to the side.
I narrow my eyes. "Why else would she want you here?"
His eyes move back to me. "Now that your father's gone, you are next in line for the throne. You need as much support as possible, the Pirate King is not a bad ally to have, neither is the pirate prince."
The song finishes as he dips me low to the ground. We bow to each to each other just as my mother starts walking towards us, her lips stretched into a tight plastic smile.
YOU ARE READING
RULE (Completed)
Adventure"You are queen now, start acting like it." Ariana has waited her entire life to become queen and rule her country. But things prove to be much more difficult than she ever thought they would be. After the death of her beloved father, her mother sudd...
