Long May She Reign, page 5
“Nice to meet you, Marie,” Ishani smiled, and Astrid felt her breath get caught in her throat at the sheer beauty of the South Asian woman in front of her. She felt like she couldn’t trust her voice, so instead she opted to smile and nod.
“I always like to sit in the back,” Ishani whispered a few moments later, as the room slowly began to fill with eager and anxious college kids.
“So that you can see everything?” Astrid guessed, silently hoping she was making a friend. At the very least someone she could talk to during classes.
Ishani smiled while nodding enthusiastically before motioning to the empty seat in between the two. Astrid nodded as soon as she realized that the other woman was asking if the seat was free. Ishani practically jumped from one seat to the other before she continued to talk.
“Yes! It just makes me feel a lot more-”
“At ease,” Astrid finished her sentence with a slowly growing smile.
“Exactly,” Ishani’s ember eyes ran over every single feature on the face of the woman in front of her.
A slightly tanned but overall healthy complexion that hinted at hours spent in the sunlight. The barely there sunspots and small acne scars that were dusted over rosy cheeks. A nose that had a slight upturn at the bottom with medium pink lips seated beneath. Dark and thick manicured brows that were seated perfectly over almond shaped sea green eyes with small crinkles from laugh lines.
A laugh that Ishani felt herself wanting to hear.
Oddly enough, Astrid didn’t feel self-conscious but admired. As though she was an art piece that deserved to be worshiped by anyone who looked at her.
“I have a feeling that we are going to be very good friends, Marie,” Ishani told Astrid after class when she was packing up her satchel.
“So do I, Ishani,” just as long as you don’t discover who I really am.
“Your sugar fix,” Astrid teased as she placed the caramel concoction in front of Ishani on a napkin.
“I don’t want to hear anything from you and that rocket fuel you are addicted to,” the only response Astrid gave the woman sitting in front of her was wrinkling up her nose and taking an exaggerated sip of the delicious green concoction.
“You’d think with how long you spent in England; you’d prefer tea over coffee,” Ishani joked before snorting at the small dance Astrid did after the sip.
Shit.
Astrid swallowed hard and drew her arched brows together as she thought quickly of a reasonable answer that wasn’t too detailed but also not too vague.
“I guess that’s why they threw me out,” she gave Ishani a tight smile before taking another small sip, “I’m just a rebel like that.”
She can sense something; I am sure of it.
The duo sat in a comfortable silence as they drank, but both of their minds were racing with thoughts of each other.
For Ishani, her thoughts were bouncing around to how the light hit every single auburn highlight in Marie’s hair and how there were flecks of forest green in her ocean eyes that usually went unnoticed. How she licked her lips if she took a longer than normal sip and how every single time, Ishani couldn’t help but stare at her lips.
This woman is one of my best friends! Stop thinking about her mouth!
But for Astrid, she only had two thoughts that had grown louder and been causing her heart rate to increase for weeks.
Am I truly ready to tell her who I really am and change everything? How would she react if she found out?
The women languidly finished the drinks and headed out the door. Walking down the street, still in a comfortable silence. Astrid couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. She even shot a look over her shoulder as subtly as possible but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“Do you have any plans this weekend?” She attempted to shake the feeling from her body by making conversation.
Ishani hummed in thought before answering.
“I have to finish my proposal for the internship but maybe we can get together at my place on Saturday night? Aishwarya is going out of town for the next few weeks, and I want to spend as much as possible with her before she goes,” Ishani suggested, causing a pang of an unknown emotion to hit Astrid’s stomach.
When Astrid met Ishani’s family for the first time, Aishwarya was the first one to truly welcome her. But she had also made it clear that if Astrid hurt Ishani in any way, shape, or form, she would answer to Aishwarya. Her protectiveness for her little sister made Astrid gain a large amount of respect for the woman. And since then, the two had become rather close.
“What about Rohan?”
“Still back home trying to convince Nani to move here,” Ishani sighed, “that’s why Aishwarya is going. My parents think that Nani will listen to her more than him.”
Rohan, the eldest Singh sibling, had been in India for the last two months trying to bring their maternal grandmother to the States so that their parents could watch over her after a stroke. But she refused to leave the family home.
Astrid did admire her desire to remain where she grew up in Rajasthan, but also knew how stressed the Singh family was when it came to Nani.
“We could always have another Dish and Dish night,” Astrid suggested, “catch up on the ones we’ve missed.”
Ishani threw her head back and raised her hands in the air in silent celebration.
“Yes, please! I need a night of fun. And a drink. Like a really big one. A really, really big one. It needs to second as a swimming pool.”
“Your wish is my command,” Astrid teasingly bowed causing Ishani to let out the full-bodied laugh that Astrid adored, “let’s just do it at my place again so we have the space in case people need to sleep over.”
“Just text me and let me know what time you want me to come over so we can set everything up,” Ishani looked down at her watch and winced, “I have to get going. My next class is in thirty minutes but-”
“You forgot something in your office,” Astrid chuckled while Ishani groaned. Clearly annoyed at how well the other woman knew her.
“I’ll see you later, okay?” Ishani turned to Astrid and opened up her arms for a hug, causing the taller female to smile deeply. Feeling the dimple in her right cheek appearing.
As they embraced, each breath filled their senses with the scent of the other.
Ishani smelled distinctly of caramel and coffee, jasmine, and rosemary. The latter being something Astrid knew Ishani used as a hair oil. The final note was a faint spice.
Cinnamon.
Whereas Astrid was wearing her signature scent. A perfume that had more masculine notes of sandalwood and sea salt, with a sweeter undertone of lavender.
After a few moments, they pulled away smiling.
“I love you,” Ishani giggled as she started to walk away.
“I love you too,” Astrid waved and waited as Ishani crossed the street and disappeared into a building before, she too left.
The walk to her loft apartment was relatively short, only about seven or eight minutes due to her leisurely pace.
One of the best parts about New York was the constant movement. Everyone was far too busy dealing with their own lives that they didn’t think twice about what someone else was doing. At least not publicly. There was always something more interesting going on.
Although some times it felt as though… life was being sped up and had no inclination that it would slow down. The opposite of Varune.
Of home…
From sunup to sunset people in every city, every village were collaborating and living their lives together. There were moving parts of course, but it functioned more like it was a beautiful machine. Cogs that had to work together in order to work at all, and if one part was off then the entire operation was displaced.
It was easy to get lost in the bustle of the city. Flying under the radar, being able to go wherever she wanted and do whatever she pleased. But there were days, much like today, that Astrid Devereux missed the island she called home once upon a time.
A faint buzzing from her purse snapped the princess out of her reminiscing. After a moment of wrestling her cell phone out of the bag, she glanced at the caller ID and rolled her eyes.
“Hello Mara, to what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Oh, you know this and that. After our lovely breakfast this morning, I distinctly recall telling you that you were to be escorted to the consulate so that we could decide how to best deal with the situation of your return. But low and behold, I am sitting in the conference room, awaiting a princess who is nearly an hour late.”
“And I distinctly recall telling you that if going to the consulate required stepping foot in a car then you would just have to make other arrangements.”
“Princesa-”
“Not to mention the men you placed on me are less than discreet, so, no, Mara, I will not be going to the consulate today or any other day for that matter. So should you need to speak with me about matters, official or otherwise, please feel free to drop by my apartment. Goodbye now.”
“Astrid-”
Astrid ended the call and placed her phone on silent before walking at a far brisker pace than before.
The fact that Mara had even suggested Astrid take a car made the princess feel a burning rage in the pit of her stomach. Mara acted as if that kind of trauma was easy to get over. Like it was possible to ever be the same after something like that happened.
Like the accident never even happened.
As she rushed up the five flights of stairs, a sharp sensation in her chest grew to the point of being borderline unbearable. A metallic taste filled her mouth from worrying too hard on her inner cheek. Attempting to open her apartment door proved to be more difficult than she anticipated from her shaking hands.
Once the door was open, she slipped into her serene safe haven, locked the door immediately, and slid down until her backside was firmly seated on the floor. A faint meow came from the velvet couch before a thump.
Astrid looked up in time to see her three-legged baby hobbling towards her. She picked him up and held him close so he could cuddle into her chest; slowly relaxing at the sound of his purring while repeating a mantra.
I am safe. I am in control. I am safe. I am in control.
The steady repetition of said mantra allowed her to look around the room and take note of the things she saw. Then the things she could physically feel and smell.
After sitting on the floor for an unknown amount of time, Astrid determined that it was safe to stand. Her clothing suddenly felt uncomfortable, making her skin itch.
The boots were the first thing that she removed, though they were a bit difficult due to the thick heel that took her height from her usual five-foot-nine to six-feet even. Balancing from one foot to the next until they were removed and put into the shoe cabinet next to the front door.
She slowly walked further into the apartment with Kuna still nestled in her arms. Making her way past the kitchen and living room, and through the streams of rainbow light that had been created from the sun breaching through stained glass.
Along the way, she placed the still purring cat on his cat tower before reaching around to unzip her corset harness. Shedding it off her body and onto a steadily growing clothing pile the floor.
As she sat on the bed dressed only in her underwear, she began to drag her gaze across the road map of her life that had been memorialized onto her skin.
Small scars that were lighter than the surrounding skin decorated her hands and feet. A faint smile crossed her lips as she traced one that almost stretched from the base of her thumb to the tip of the finger. Courtesy of a rather disastrous prank that resulted in the beheading of a suit of armor and the near impaling of a twice removed cousin on her father’s side.
“Astrid Marie! I swear with all of the shit that you pull my hair is going to be completely white by the time I’m thirty!”
“Well at least that white hair on the side of your head will have friends,” the laugh of the fifteen-year-old princess quickly turned into a scream as she ran away from a furious Mara.
Her fingers drifted further up the outside of her left where there were thin, narrow slashes. The scars on her arms matched the ones on her legs. Jagged lines that crept up the flesh like snakes. Broken glass was responsible for all of them, but the largest one that stretched from one side of her right thigh to the other was from a piece that Astrid used to trigger her pain response. A method she had used to keep herself conscious.
Along her stomach, hips, and chest there were stretchmarks that ranged from a pale white to a faint pink. Marks that never failed to remind her of the stripes on a tiger. But the only scar that she would give anything to remove was on her left collar bone. A thin, two-inch line that was a constant reminder of the day he saved her.
The day she wished their places had been switched.
* * *
“-currently Crown Princess Astrid Devereux, the eldest of His Majesty, King Henrick Devereux and Her Majesty, Queen Alexandrianna Devereux’s children-”
The last photo taken of the Crown Princess that had been released by the palace press was splashed across the screen. The same photo that was plastered in nearly every magazine during what had been dubbed by Helena, the middle sister of the royal siblings, and Astrid as “the Royal Witch Hunt.”
Five years really will change a girl.
“-has been named as the first female heir apparent to the throne! And should she be crowned, will become the first female monarch in the nation’s long history. This would make her one of the most powerful women in the world. But despite the undeniably progressive views of Varune, many are calling this decision an incredible mistake on King Henrick’s part-”
The overwhelming temptation to throw the television remote was growing within Astrid as she listened to the bullshit that was being reported. A small, cynical chuckle did escape when she imagined how quickly the information would be handled by the palace.
Her father would more than likely give a small speech or statement, her mother by his side looking as gorgeous and timeless as ever. Of course, it would be something along the lines of, “the Devereux family has always had male heirs… blah, blah, blah… taking our great nation into the twenty-first century… blah, blah, blah… why should my daughter not be able to rule….”
Whatever King Henrick said would be devoured by the media and eye-rolled by his children. A beloved monarch with his perfect image and perfect family.
If only it was true.
* * *
Across the vast Atlantic Ocean, in a country that acted as a barrier between the United Kingdom and the northern coast of Spain and France, was a woman who was plotting her husband’s imminent demise. Or at least his torture.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty! You can’t go inside! Her Majesty has requested not to see you.”
Henrick swung around on his heels and stared down Emilia, one of his wife’s assistants, with a glare that made the woman swallow harshly and stand down.
The king walked past two other guards and Theo, Alexandrianna’s personal assistant and bodyguard.
“Your Majesty,” he bowed stiffly, “she has asked to not be disturbed.”
Henrick’s resolve to see his wife had weakened upon seeing her through the glass walls of the greenhouse. She had a faint smile as she ran her fingers over every blossom and leaf, but there were tear streaks down her flushed cheeks.
“Did she-”
Theo nodded, knowing already what the king was going to ask. He had been stationed right outside of the bedroom door when the queen had begun crying before she had requested to go to the gardens for fresh air.
“Damn it,” Henrick swore under his breath as his head tipped back.
“I take full responsibility for any harm that comes to myself, mentally, physically, or emotionally.”
The last sentence was directed at his own guards which were standing on either side of the path that led to the greenhouse. A verbal contract of sorts that he had been required to say since the day they were married.
The first time he wound up with a spike heel thrown at his head and a cursing out that made his own mother impressed.
He passed Theo and allowed his hand to meet the brass knob into Queen Alexandrianna’s refuge.
A refuge he had built for her with his bare hands for her twenty-first birthday.
Flourishing flora covered every surface, including the tile floors. Constant sunlight and timers that released water from the ceiling sprinklers maintained the humidity needed for the tropical plants and flowers. Air orchids hung from the ceiling in baskets. Vines crept up every wall encasing the entirely new world in a delicate cocoon.
As Henrick moved further into the enclosed jungle, he was led to the center of it by a pair of discarded high heels. One further in front of the other, meaning she took them off as she walked. They led him to Alexandrianna who was now seated at a small table. In front of her sat a crystal chessboard and the game had just begun.
“Might I join you?”
She did not answer. Only used her foot to push out the seat in front of her.
Henrick removed his suit jacket and undid the first two buttons of his shirt as he sat down. The heat was finally getting to him.
Alexandrianna bit back a smile as she waited for her husband to make his move.
They played in silence, going back and forth smoothly and organically. But the very game conjured memories of years ago that sent pangs through the hearts of both of the monarchs.
“But why do we have to learn this game? I’m never going to understand it!” A ten-year-old Astrid groaned in frustration as she flopped her head down onto her arms.
“Sissi, you just haven’t found the way the works for you,” Aleksander smiled at his sister reassuringly, “let’s try again.”
Alexandrianna and Henrick watched with content smiles as their son taught their daughter how to play chess while a young Helena and Sebastián played with baby Ophelia on the grass. After some hours, Astrid came bounding over to her father with a wide smile and threw her arms around him.
