Elara left the little bookshop, the sound of the bell above the shop door chimed softly as she stepped out into the crisp evening air. She had her purchase clutched tightly to her chest, and even as she tried to suppress the grin spreading across her face, she couldn't help it. Her heart still thrummed every time she thought about how the second installment had ended, all the loose ends that had yet to be tied up.
Luckily for her, her apartment wasn't even five minutes away. She began her walk to her apartment, humming tunelessly the whole way. When her building came into view, she sped up, nearly jogging to reach it.
Once she was inside, she shrugged off her coat, kicked off her shoes, and stood still for a moment, debating.
She wanted to go ahead and just start reading--the events from the last installment were still fresh in her mind, and she very much wanted to just sprawl out on the couch, pencil skirt, blouse, and all, and continue where she'd left off.
She sighed. No, taking a shower and getting into her soft, comfortable clothes was for the best. She wouldn't be able to fully enjoy the book with the day's work still embedded in her skin.
She sat her new book on the coffee table next to her couch and headed to her bathroom to get the water running so it would be hot by the time she'd gathered all her things and undressed.
Underneath the hot water, her muscles relaxed, and she found herself forgetting all about the day she'd had. And damn, did she ever have a day. Her manager had made her run all over the office today, delivering papers here, copying this, faxing that. He'd made her do the jobs that weren't even in her job description; it was work they normally passed off to the temps who were still learning the ropes. But he'd skipped right over their temps and beelined straight for her, slapping papers down hard on her desk and demanding she take care of it.
And, of course, she would have liked to snap. She would have liked to tell him just what he could do with those papers and where he could shove them. But she was an adult now. And adult Elara had responsibilities. Adult Elara couldn't afford to be quick to anger and do the first thing that came to mind.
Adult Elara had bills.
Adult Elara needed food and her internet and her skincare and her hair care.
And if Adult Elara wanted those things, Adult Elara had to put up with her shitty boss. That was just the reality of the real world.
She sighed. She'd almost missed the bookstore because of her Manager. The place closed at five and he seemed determined to hold her at work until the last possible moment. In the end, she'd only been able to get into the bookstore because the owner knew her and let her in even though they were in the middle of closing.
I would've fucking throttled him if he'd made me miss the new installment for The Day of Eternal Night.
After her shower, she brushed her teeth and saw to her skincare. After she was done with all of that, she decided to check her messages. Once she started reading, she was in her own world, and no one would be able to reach her when that happened. As expected, there wasn't really anything of note. A scattering of messages from her mom and her sister, some promotional emails, and forums for The Day of Eternal Night.
She responded to her Mom and her sister's messages and then, even though she'd been avoiding it, she decided to take a quick peek at the forum for The Day of Eternal Night. She typically avoided it until after she'd finished the novel she was reading, but she was so curious as to what people were saying. The moderators for this particular forum were usually pretty good at weeding out spoilers anyway and Elara could count on one hand how many times she'd actually seen a spoiler on the forum.
User: NightshadeQueenie
I can't believe how much I felt for Caspian in this one. Author is so good at making him such a layered character. Part of me was actually rooting for him to win. Spoilers below.
Elara didn't click on the blocked text to reveal the text continuing the review. Instead, she nodded to herself from the part she'd seen. Everyone always had it out for Caspian ever since the end of book one, but Elara had always been on his side. She had trouble understanding why others weren't really. The Emperor--Caspian's brother and the male lead of The Day of Eternal Night series, was a complete piece of shit. Actually, Elara struggled to understand how anyone could choose him over Grand Duke Caspian.
She wondered what had happened to have changed this person's opinion. It made her excited for what was coming next. She scrolled to the next review.
User: BookWyrm6969
Yeah, tragic backstory. Dead mom. Shitty brother. We get it, we get it. That doesn't excuse what he did. I mean, the way he treats those loyal to him? No excuse for that.
Elara was crafting a response before she even realized she was doing it.
User: ElaraLysander222
Caspian's choices--good, bad, ugly--are what make him a compelling character. He's not just some two-bit villain; he's a product of his environment, of the choices and failures of the people around him. What he's done might not be right, but he can be redeemed, I think. Underneath it all, he's a good person.
She hit send, breathing hard. She immediately sighed when she came back to her senses. For God's sake, she was twenty-seven years old. She wasn't at the age where it made any sense to be arguing back and forth over fictional characters. But when it came to Caspian Isyndor she found she couldn't help it. Even she struggled to pinpoint what exactly it was about him that held her in his thrall. She did have a penchant for sexy, white-haired men but there were tons of fantasy books that described men just like that, so she couldn't say it was that.
All that she could guess? She saw herself in Caspian. Their stories weren't the same at all, but there was something in the isolation that surrounded him that was so painfully familiar. There was something in the way he hid his feelings, something in the way he clumsily tried to explain himself, only to have his words twisted around into something crude by those around them despite that clearly not being what he meant that called to Elara.
Shaking her head at her own stupidity, at the memories that started to surface, Elara attached her phone to its charger and left it on the nightstand.
She went into her hallway closet and got one of the candles she'd bought last week. She didn't read the label to see which one she took out; she knew it would be something floral anyway because that's what she always bought. Every scented thing she bought was floral--her perfumes, her candles, her house sprays, her house cleaners, her laundry aids.
She trekked back into the living room and set the candle on the coffee table that sat in the center of the room, right in front of her TV. She lit it and then turned on the TV just to play some nice background music. She went into her kitchen, grabbed the electric kettle after filling it with water, her favorite mug, and grabbed the tea she was obsessed with right now--a pomegranate rose blend--and brought it to the living room.
She set everything down and started the kettle. And finally--finally--reached for the latest installment of The Day of Eternal Night.
She wrapped the throw blanket around herself and propped her feet up, cracking the book open.
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It was four in the morning, and Elara hadn't slept despite the fact she had to get up and be ready for work in three hours, yet she couldn't find it in her to care. Actually, work and all the repercussions staying up all night would undoubtedly have on her body were the last of her worries.
Because what the actual hell had she just read?
She had re-read the last chapter over and over again ever since the first time she'd finished the book, but it still felt like she was reading gibberish for all the sense it made.
Furiously, she dropped the book onto the chair next to her like it contained the plague and hopped up from the couch, the throw blanket that had rested on her shoulders flitting to the ground in a soft thump.
Heart racing, she walked to her bedroom where she'd left her phone to charge, her feet were clumsy in their haste. She unhooked it from its charger and went straight back to the forum she'd just been on a few hours earlier.
User: ElaraLysander222
Umm...excuse me, author, what the fuck? Did you seriously kill off Caspian Isyndor? I mean, I get the argument that he wasn't perfect and he definitely did some terrible things, but his brother did SO much worse, and he gets to just live the cushy life--he's king, he gets the love of the female lead, and his citizens and the dude's a total piece of shit. This is so disappointing, not only as a Caspian fan but also as a fan of the series itself. Your writing is typically on the realistic side, so I was expecting that maybe you might kill Caspian off, but giving his shitty brother a happy ending is just too much.
After she'd pressed send, she tossed her phone onto her bed and stood there for a moment, staring at it with her arms crossed as if it had done her some terrible offense.
But when some time had passed, Elara sighed and went about straightening up. She poured out the rest of the water in her kettle and placed it back where she'd gotten it. She placed her mug into the dishwasher, picked the throw blanket off of the floor, slung it across the back of the couch, blew out the flickering candle, turned off the lights, and hopped straight into bed.
Once in bed, she tried her hardest to fall asleep. She stared at the ceiling and tried counting sheep and counting backward from one hundred, but nothing worked. She was too vexed.
Caspian Isyndor wasn't perfect by any means. The tyrant Duke of the southern province of the Isyndor kingdom, there wasn't a subject who didn't know he had been given the territory as a means to rid him of the capital. Yet, despite the territory being virtually useless because it was all mountainsides and valleyed grasslands that--while lush and bountiful--were hoarded by goblins and orcs who killed any who tried to take the land for themselves--Caspian had come in and turned things around. The useless southern province was suddenly a thriving metropolis where; it was a province of equal footing to the capital where nobles and commoners alike spoke of how much better the quality of living was there compared to the capital under the king's rule. And it was all because of Caspian.
Caspian had turned things around, and he'd worked damn hard to do so. And yet, he'd had to die in such a way. The land he loved and had worked so hard for was invaded by the king and his guard, those Caspian loved and trusted were all killed one by one by plots the king and the female lead. Caspian, seething with rage, decided to storm the capital and attempt to seize the crown for himself. Which was what the king and the female lead had planned. He was killed right as he'd made it to the throne room. Tricked by the female lead who he'd come to feel was a kindred spirit, he ended run through with twenty swords.
Meanwhile, the king and the female lead get to live happily ever after and all that bullshit.
Like they weren't the villains in this story.
Sometimes books were told in the perspective of the villain--Elara had read quite a few books like that--but this particular one was irking her like nothing else.
Sighing, she punched her pillow and roughly tossed and turned, trying to find a comfortable spot.
It took some time before she was able to find sleep.
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Even in her dreams, she seemed to be unable to stop thinking about The Day of Eternal Night because she found herself in the final scene of the novel she'd just read. She was standing in the grand throne room, decorated with tapestries inlaid with gold and crafted in silk and walls inlaid with gemstones. The chandelier hanging overhead was made with crystals that breathed over the thrown room prettily, their every breath sending rainbowed light filtering in every direction.
And right in front of her was Caspian Isyndor. He was surrounded by Imperial Guards, all of their swords pointed at him while the king gazed down at the duke with a satisfied smirk. The female lead was watching him, too, but Elara couldn't determine what expression she was making.
Their faces were all indistinct, like seeing someone through a clear waterfall. She could make out bits and pieces of their expressions, but she really had to squint to do so.
They were exchanging words, though, that she could tell. Caspian Isyndor said something, and then the king replied, the tone lilted and mocking, and Caspian Isyndor rushed at him. He fought off five guards with ease but right as he was about to reach the king he was stuck through once, twice, a third time and a fourth until twenty swords had impaled him.
Elara watched, her stomach churning as his blood rolled onto the pristine marble floors, inching its way over to her until her feet were covered in his blood.
She swallowed, breathing hard. Did she usually have such realistic dreams? If she did, she didn't remember it. She usually forgot her dreams once she woke up.
As he drew his final breaths, Caspian Isyndor turned to look right at her, her silvery eyes locking hers in its steely grasp. And then he smiled. She could see it through the watery haze that protected all of his features.
"Found you."