I curse under my breath “I’m not ready yet!” “You’d better be.” The Empress is standing above us before I can blink “Your Majesty!” I stand hurriedly to curtsy “You said it’d be just after this song ends, but it hasn’t yet— “It takes time to move everything into place.” The Empress says, her voic
He steps back, as gently and easily as he’d enveloped me in his frame, and once his shadow is gone, I’m left standing alone in the bright light of the moon. Was that a pep talk? Right now?! I walk the rest of the distance and stand at the podium, my face still warm. But it doesn’t matter! He’s righ
The ending paragraph seems like the most normal anyway! “The same occurred for the next 12 nights, and as the sun arose on the 13th morning, the other gods looked upon the two lovers and to remind them of the difference in the station of a goddess and a mere mortal, turned him into a hideous beast
When he says nothing, finally, I wretch my gaze to Zen. In the pale moonlight cutting through the small new leaves and web of branches, I can see both his arms wrapped around his stomach. Is he… shaking? Zen bursts out laughing. He’s laughing so hard, and so unrestrained for a moment, I even forg
“I have a question.” Just as Dinah sits down, she looks up with dark eyes gleaming with curiosity. I take a seat by her side. “Go ahead.” She leans back as much as she can, until her feet hang slightly above the floor of the gazebo. The fur of the cape brushes her jawline, and Dinah looks ahead i
I give a slight shake of my head “They’re sent away early on. Or killed.” Her silence is near unbearable. I reach out to touch my fingers to the side of her face, touching her as gently as one might a glass relic, turning her face to me. “There’s no point in being upset about something out of our
Dinah huffs out a breath, blissfully unaware of all the thoughts in my mind. These thoughts that caught me off guard too, would surely give her the shock of her life. The idea of telling her is almost amusing. “Fine. If you say so, I’ll take your word for it.” She says grandly “You said to the Emp
“How have you been finding your stay, Sigmond?” “Thank you for asking, Your Majesty. I’ve slept better under trees.” “Hmph. It’s a shame your tastes are too crude to be accommodated in a palace.” “If the walls all over the imperial city were a little thicker than paper, perhaps I would stop heari