A self-imposed challenge of my own creation, running from February 1, 2016 to February 29, 2016. I only plan to start these stories (producing around a thousand words for each), not to finish them within the month.
The sorrow in her eyes hurt most of all, and there was a part of him that latched on to it, a part of him that spotted it and clung as if he wanted it to assure him that she was being victimized just as he'd thought. That this was something he could save her from, rather than something she would force him to accept.
"It's been two years, Caderyn. People change."
"But you and--" He couldn't finish that thought; neither of them would ever let him hear the end of it. "You and him? What about Zephyrus? What about that mage, the elf? Hell, even Sigurd would be better than this." Charon's laugh was cruelly and ridiculing, and Caderyn felt his fury flare to life more fiercely than before. "Did he rape you?"
The look of shock on Adrasteia's face was enough of an answer, but he waited anyway. "Of course not!" she protested, sounding horrified. "You think I would--I would've killed him if he'd done that to me--to anyone--succession or no succession. He wouldn't do that."
She said it as if she believed it, as if it was really more realistic for him to believe that she'd given herself to the tyrant they'd sought to dethrone--to a man who tried to kill her just two years before--than that Charon had somehow forced this on her to get back at them both. "Then why?"
Adrasteia stared at him for a long, silent moment, and his heart relied on her answer. He needed her to deny this all, to claim it was some sort of mistake or perhaps a simple dalliance like what had gone on with her and Zephyrus; the Adrasteia he knew could never have felt anything but begrudging tolerance for a man like Charon.
"Because I love him," Adrasteia said, and that was the moment when Caderyn's heart broke for her.
He should have done it all differently, he realized. For all he loved Elizabeth now--for all he couldn't wait to meet their child--he should have married Adrasteia when he'd had the chance, if only so he could have saved her from this.
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Out of Sight [3/3]
"It's been two years, Caderyn. People change."
"But you and--" He couldn't finish that thought; neither of them would ever let him hear the end of it. "You and him? What about Zephyrus? What about that mage, the elf? Hell, even Sigurd would be better than this." Charon's laugh was cruelly and ridiculing, and Caderyn felt his fury flare to life more fiercely than before. "Did he rape you?"
The look of shock on Adrasteia's face was enough of an answer, but he waited anyway. "Of course not!" she protested, sounding horrified. "You think I would--I would've killed him if he'd done that to me--to anyone--succession or no succession. He wouldn't do that."
She said it as if she believed it, as if it was really more realistic for him to believe that she'd given herself to the tyrant they'd sought to dethrone--to a man who tried to kill her just two years before--than that Charon had somehow forced this on her to get back at them both. "Then why?"
Adrasteia stared at him for a long, silent moment, and his heart relied on her answer. He needed her to deny this all, to claim it was some sort of mistake or perhaps a simple dalliance like what had gone on with her and Zephyrus; the Adrasteia he knew could never have felt anything but begrudging tolerance for a man like Charon.
"Because I love him," Adrasteia said, and that was the moment when Caderyn's heart broke for her.
He should have done it all differently, he realized. For all he loved Elizabeth now--for all he couldn't wait to meet their child--he should have married Adrasteia when he'd had the chance, if only so he could have saved her from this.