PLAYING CUPID

NOAH

— If you are brought before the Council, you may be put to the test and given the choice between staying with me or abdicating the throne!

— What? What's the idea, Andrew?

— But it's true, Noah! — I don't feel good about this situation, I...

— So, you want to break up, is that it? — This is what you want? — I ask, and my heart beats wildly, I feel my eyes teary. — You seem to have forgotten that we are predestined...

— I haven't forgotten that we're predestined, and I don't want to break up, but I can't look at you and not remember all the harm my father did to you, you know?

— I know it's not easy, but I don't look at you and see the son of the man who hurt my family, I see the man I love, my fated mate!

[...]

A few days passed, and the situation remained the same, even after the conversation we had. Andrew still thinks he doesn't deserve to be by my side because of everything his father did, and because he thinks that the people of Ascabaltt will punish him for it, and they won