Give Me Your Crown
“Say you’ll do it.” He choked out, his hands white-knuckling the collar of her night dress. “Promise me.”
In that moment Valeria looked at the man in front of her for who he was: the man who, upon his father’s orders, pillaged her country; murdered all disenters; executed her family; manipulated her into signing a marriage pact to save her cousins; instated a military occupation; dragged her to this Mother-forsaken country to make her a spectacle; and forced her into a marriage she did not want. And yet his worst crime was being a man. Had he been a monster perhaps she wouldn’t have felt sympathy, perhaps she would have laughed in his face while his mother’s blood was still wet on his skin. Mother, perhaps it would have better is she was as apathetic to the world like Elisa, but she was not.
Elisa had been right all along, she gave her energy to people that weren’t deserving of it and some day it would be her undoing. It wouldn’t matter in the end, she had nothing left to give.
“Fine.” She breathed.
“Say that you will. Say it.”
Valeria reached forward and grabbed his jaw to force his eyes to hers. His normally crystalline blue were red rimmed, and his pupils were blown wide- unfocused.
“I will make you emperor.”
