Adalina Salvatore

" I don't know. " I lied straight into his face. He didn't even look a bit convinced and by the unamused looks on his face I could tell he was getting irritated. Good.

Placing a new cloth on my wound, he took his gloves off and stood up. " Alright. Just don't be offended if I don't come to your royal funeral next week. "

" I'll haunt you I swear to fucking god. " I glared.

" So, start talking. " he put his equipment away and flopped on the bed, a few feet away from me. I glared at him.

" Please. " he begged in a bored tone.

I huffed. " Fine. "

" Go on. "

" Okay. "

" Go ahead. "

" Alright. "

" Don't make me join hands with your enemy. Because right now you're irritating and I just want to shut you up forever. " he deadpanned.

I let out a breath. I knew he wanted to protect me, to end this because they were coming back. But, those were the memories I didn't want to talk about or even acknowledge. He stared at me urging me to go on. He was determined and I could tell he was going to find out one way or another.

So, I told him. Not about the gang who called themselves the skulls, no one knew who they were or where they were. I told him about my knowledge of their existence, the beginning of the royal destruction cult who was dead set on killing us all.

I killed for the first and last time at the age of nine. It was a massacre, a bloodbath on the floor of my childhood bedroom. I murdered them all without thinking twice, all twelve men thrice my size. I didn't want to but I needed to, I had to. At least I thought so.

I was recently announced as the crowned princess then. Father's words rang inside my head each time I pulled the trigger. He spoke in clear demanding tone with a hinge of concerns hidden through the lines as he told me to protect myself but our people would always come first and so I did.

People before the crown, always.

Whoever after us was set to ruin the whole kingdom starting with the poor helpless citizens. Father was right. The men weren't there to kill me, they were there to torment me and threatened the throne. They wanted to give us a warning that they were coming. They brought bloodied corpses of the royal guards and placed them on my balcony under the stormy night. I watched as their blood flowed into my room through the rain water. I remembered feeling like I was suddenly sucked into a horror movie.

It was like the sky was going to war with itself. The rain was pouring down angrily like the dark night was finally letting its frustration out. I thought the sky was about to tear in half when thunderous lightning struck across the night. I covered my ears, frightened but the sound of their voices echoed past the storm like a bell ringing inside my eardrums.

I heard their laughters almost too clearly when they cut through the flesh of those dead people with their shiny silver blades. The looks of joy on their faces as they smeared innocent blood on my glass windows and wall traumatized me.

How could people be so inhumanly cruel.

Those people, my people didn't deserve to die in such vain. Those guards protected my family with their own lives and I needed to do the same for some sort of justice that my father taught me so I silently cried and shot them all with the pistol my father hidden for me, from the darkness of my closet.

Their heads turned into the direction my room when their friends started to drop dead on the floor. Some managed to run inside, some was calling for helps but they never found me as death welcomed them one by one. More blood flooding my floor, I sobbed like I could taste the gunpowder and their blood on my tongue. I was a murderer.

But, was I really a princess if my kingdom was destroyed and there was no one left to rule except cold corpses of the dead?

In the mind of nine years old me, I was sure I needed to protect my people no matter what I became in the process of it.

Then the sound of gunshots fired back from the other side of the wall started. I clutched the gun to my chest and ran past the bodies. I felt like tearing my feet off of my legs when the warm liquid clung onto my skin like a permanent scar. More tears flowed down my cheeks but I didn't let out a single whimper.

Crawling under my bed felt like a thousand hours but when I was finally hidden the effort was worth it. Until his lifeless eyes met mine for the first time after I killed him. I bit my lip until I tasted literal blood and then I saw it.

The tattoo that had been haunting me for fifteen years, the skull with a crooked crown on its head. Fuck I hated that with every atoms inside me. It felt like I had that same tattoo but instead of on my skin, it branded inside my brain.

The gang was discovered the moment father and grandfather came in and pulled me from under the bed. And, they had been trying to find the leader of that certain gang since then but every clues and hints always led to nothing, liked it was running on its own.

But, only an insane mind would believe that.

" You're traumatized and sad but you don't act like you are. " Eden blurted almost as soon as I finished my childhood story.

I chuckled humorlessly, blinking the tears that was threatening to come out away. Memories I tried not to remember rushed back full force.

" It's better when you act like you don't care about anything but yourself. "

He whispered " But, you do care. "

" About myself sure. What's your favorite color? " I asked, smiling at him weakly.

" What? " he narrowed his eyes at me like he was trying to figure me out. He must think that I was the same as some sort of mathematical problem he liked to solve.

" My prince, I told you about the darkest memory that has been haunting me forever in a heart beat when you asked and you can't even tell me your favorite color? " I cocked an eyebrow at him accusingly before leaning my back against the headboard.

He stared at me for a moment and I swore he saw right through my soul and watched my whole life.

" Brown, like dark chocolate. " he muttered, tearing his eyes away.

I was grateful that we simply dismissed the previous topic like it was nothing important. The air shifted from the tension and I was able to breath again. He didn't pressure me further into it. I could tell he wanted to discuss more about the situation but he didn't, not when I didn't want to.

I silently thanked him. If he didn't have a heart, god blessed his brain.

" Okay your turn. " I grinned. He raised an eyebrow at me.

" What? I thought we were playing twenty questions and finally have a decent human conversation for the first time since our fairytale wedding. " I joked making him scowled in annoyance.

If this wasn't true love, I didn't know what is.

" What's yours? " he sighed.

I looked him, blinking slowly. " Baby blue, like the ocean on a calming day before storm. "

Liked your eyes. A very light blue, so clear like crystalline water but at the same time so mysterious that only a fool like me would dare dove in head first without thinking twice about the darkness awaiting deep down.

" How and when did you become the asshole that you are right now? " I asked.

I knew his answer. He wasn't trying to be jerk or be mean to anyone. I was sure he didn't even notice that his words cut deeper than a knife. He was just like this. Eden was only being Eden. My poor misunderstood husband.

It was going to be good when he broke. I only hoped it would happen before my hair turned grey.

" Born and raised. Not my parent's fault. I'm just me. " he mumbled. I fucking knew it.

" Some of the people, your people, hate you because they claimed you're a self centered b-word. How do you feel about that? " he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

I shamelessly gaped at his flexed biceps as he did that. He frowned at me and I cleared throat. Caught red handed and guilty as charge. Too bad I couldn't give a fuck.

" I don't care. They all can kiss my ass. " I winked and he nodded his head slowly.

" If you don't want to deal with it, tell me. I can make them disappear. " he suggested.

I watched him, again. Did he just? Did I trigger an emotion out of him other than boredom and annoyance? The sun must be rising from the south tomorrow.

" Is that your fucked up way to tell me that you care about me, my prince? " I asked, grinning. And, he scoffed dismissing my delusion.

" You're my duty and I protect you, always. Stop thinking about it. " he sighed before getting off the bed then left the room.

I shook my head in amusement.

Eden Salvatore

She never put her shirt back on. I didn't utter a word about it. I didn't know how the fuck did I manage to hold a conversation with her while she was there, half naked. But, I did and I graded myself as the most fucking patient motherfucker on fucking earth.

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