The Kingdom of Secrets and Ruin

Ruairi

Dalliah is a high I can’t seem to climb down from.

Now that I’ve had her, I can’t seem to want anything else. I could go days without water, food or shelter, but a morning without her smile isn’t worth thinking of.

I know it makes me pathetic but I’m past caring. Whatever it was that had her standing by the edge, ready to jump into the abyss that is us, is finally gone and it doesn’t take an expert to guess why.

It feels good to finally take my amour off so to speak. Last night we were able to just be ourselves, no secret grudges, no hidden identities, just Dalliah and Rhu coming together as one. I liked it more than I ever have and that scares me a bit.

This side of us is still quite new, but if I could have it my way, I’d never hide her again. She would be mine and there’d be no need to masquerade as a maid, a companion or anything else that she’s not. Maybe she was born a princess, but I could make her a queen if she’d let me.

“If you keep looking at the eggs like that, Odelina will stab you with her fork.” Dalliah leans over in her seat slightly to whisper to me, and my nose is hit with the sweet smell of cloves. Her smell.

“Are you telling me you wouldn’t protect me from my sister?” I whisper back to her with a smile and watch as she rolls her eyes.

The news of her name has spread like wildfire through the night, and by morning, the only mystery seems to be how to act. Respect is a given, I challenge anyone to try otherwise just to see what happens, but then there’s also the question of where this leaves her rank.

When I took Apheya, I replaced her father as king by taking his head. A fact I’ll not be mentioning very often where I can help it. But with Dalliah alive and thriving, does this make her a princess still? Or something else?

Another reason to make her mine, if you ask me but I can’t deny that there’s a fear of scaring her off now that I’ve got her.

Odelina, who happens to be on my other side now joins the conversation at normal volume, “You will like them and you will pick one to roll down the hill.” If I had any choice in the matter, it is gone when she picks up the fork in question.

“Roll it down the hill?” I ask sarcastically, wondering if this is something she’s made up or the actual reason why my table is covered in colourful eggs.

“It’s an Apheya thing, at easter we dye patterns on eggs and roll them down the hill to see who wins. I’ve never done it before though, so I’m picking this green one.” She looks excited when eyeing her choice, and even if I have to stamp on every other competitor, I’ll see to it that she wins.

Odelina seems to have read my mind and scoffs in disgust. “It’s too early for this and my tea is not strong enough.”

“That’s what you get for butting into conversations,” I reply before turning back to my breakfast, there being less colourful eggs ready for me to devour on my plate.

“What do I get?” Avery comes up behind me with scraps of paper I assume to be from our ravens and have to laugh at his impeccable timing.

“You get a colourful egg.” I hold my hand out for the paper and skim through them while Dalliah explains the new additions to the table.

It seems the title of Red King still has a hold on this continent, which has given me far more than I bargained for, and thankfully all of the rulers I have invited will be here within a fortnight. I’m thinking of making this a regular thing, every quarter so that I don’t need to rely on tours to monitor progress.

I might actually get the hang of this in that case and Silas’ blip doesn’t seem so serious if I can prevent it from happening again.

“What do I get for butting into conversations? I already have a colour egg and you seem to be in the middle of one internally.” Dalliah teases.

I look up and find the table practically empty as people have left now that breakfast is over, giving her the confidence to speak to me more openly and I wish we didn’t have to hide it.

“You get whatever you want.” I reach under the table discreetly and squeeze her knee.

She tilts her head to the side, considering my words, “I don’t know, I don’t think you can afford it.”

I raise my eyebrows, curious to hear my challenge and exceed any expectations where she’s concerned. “Let’s hear it then.”

Her face brightens as I play along and the idea of going up to my room to write letters vanishes instantly.

“I want you to tell me a secret no one else knows.”

I have plenty of those, but which would she be more happy to hear?

“I don’t like colourful eggs?” I offer as a light joke to see what sort of answer she might be after.

But she sighs, “Ruairi, half the people at breakfast could guess that.” She reaches over to take a sip of her tea, probably now cold, but I beat her to it and trap one of her small hands between my own.

“How about a real secret, or better yet let’s make it a question.” I pull her hand in closer and kiss the back softly, trying to gain the courage to ask it, “Will you be mine?”

“What do you mean by yours?” Her follow-up isn’t a refusal thankfully, but it’s clear that she’s about to get her secret’s worth.

“I mean mine, my partner, my future queen… everything out in the open with no reason to hide.”

She swallows hard, clearly not expecting this off the back of her little game, but I’d like to think I’m never too predictable anyway. That would run the risk of her getting bored and I can’t have that now that I’ve experienced what it’s like to have her.

“Is this another deal?” The corner of her mouth twitches as she holds back a smile, which makes the weight of anticipation fall from my shoulders.

“Why? What would you like out of it?”

“You to be mine in return.”