The Bloody Crown

a red carpet for me to go out? Idiot.

Its all in vain, and I admit Im tired. They hold me in a vice, like a strong vine of prickly hops entwining, I can breathe freely, speak freely and express my thoughts, my desires. And I don want to be their slave in my own house, I want to remain the same disobedient and gain the freedom to make decisions myself. And I don want to get married! Almost a year ago, by the grace of my father, I was engaged to a man who is 27 years older than me, twice a widower. Our castle is full of rumors, the servants know how to add fuel to the fire, so I learned about the vile character of the future spouse, a tyrant who likes to humiliate women and beat them, not forgetting to change left and right to his wives. So is he a double widower by chance?

Something I doubt.

And so all this year I have been looking for ways to retreat. I tried to talk to my father, begged, poured rivers of tears – it didn help. And I decided to run away. More precisely, I tried, more than once, but failed every time. It is difficult to be an ordinary person when you are surrounded by magicians and witches, and it is even more difficult to hide from them, as you understand. Partly for this reason, I was betrothed against my will. The shame of the ancient Rivaldi family had to be compensated by the magical side of the future husband, well, his valuable territories, and an army to boot. My opinion, of course, was not taken into account in this matter.

I grew up in a happy full family – a loving, gentle mother, a strict but caring father. So it was until my fourteenth birthday. That year, my mother began to slowly wither, no one could understand the reason, as if magic was leaving her body, even ancestral charms and artifacts did not help. The best healers from all over the continent of Riliya were invited, but everyone just shrugged.

When she was gone, a part of my soul seemed to break off, and when my father remarried a year later, another part of her ceased to exist. I loved my father, but he changed overnight – he became cold, rude, alienated me from his surroundings, which cannot be said about stepbrothers and sisters – it seemed that he sincerely loved them as relatives. I didn insist on such a manifestation of feelings for me, just don marry me off, leave me alone. I beg.

By the way, the news of the engagement reached me 3 years later, then I was seventeen, a decent age for marriage, many of my friends were delirious with this idea and often therefore attended balls and social events. From them I learned about how repulsive my future husband looks, each of them looked at me sympathetically, but no one could change my fathers decision. Im still so young, not bad-looking, if only a little rebellious in character, but thats not a reason to get rid of me like that. I assume that this happened with the light hand of my fathers new wife. I don love her, and neither does she love me, however. If you ask me, I think shes a witch who bewitched her father. There is no other way to explain how he so soon forgot his beloved deceased spouse and stopped showing paternal interest in his daughter.

My father (aka the king) has only one of his own children, no matter how hard my mother tried, she could not bear other children and there was no crown prince, only I, a girl without magic, like a curse. Maybe thats why the father recognized the children of the new queen as his own, but I have not been given the exact reason to find out.

And so I found myself in the place from which I was trying to find a way out, if there is one. You can, of course, accept your fate, or you can go to the end in your stubbornness to escape. I certainly don take her. But as I said, Im tired of trying to run and bumping into closed doors. All my faith in a bright future disappeared somewhere at once and the heavy weight of the realization of hopelessness began to press on my fragile shoulders. And I decided, tightly closing my eyes, with wet drops appearing in the corners, I take a step forward. They won get me! Never!

Free fall, lightness and emptiness, there was no more fear, only the expectation of a hard blow and freedom.

Hard. The crunch of my own neck vertebrae was loudly reflected in my ears, and before the light of my eyes went out, I felt hands tightly squeezing me.