Member-only story
The Queen Takes Hold of the Narrative
Why did it take her so long to see the signs?
The devil had a nice smile. That’s what Adelaide noticed first about him when he walked into her life. For the first time in a long while, her heart skipped a beat — and it was such a rare occurrence that of course she kept looking his way again and again. That was a folly, but she wouldn’t realize till much later.
Why would a man of his stature want a girl-queen when he could have anyone else under the sun? What was the point of him chasing her when she had nothing to offer? Over and over she counted the ways she loved him — but, when she tried to figure out why he loved her, her mind drew a blank. Had they even ever had a real conversation with weight behind it? He never broke past the surface, and that was such a damn shame. He could have been someone to reckon with if he didn’t view other people as ants to be crushed beneath his feet.
Maybe all he wanted was the crown she wore upon her head. She could imagine him, drunk, tipping the crown on his head in a lopsided fashion right before he slid from the throne seat and ended up on the floor. But this time she would let him lay there. She would then walk out of the room and tell her attendants that her consort had drunk a little too much wine with dinner.
