You're My Destiny

It wasn’t like he hadn’t heard those words before. He was a prince, after all. Women had loved him before they even heard him speak—some before they knew his name. “You’re my destiny, Elias,” they’d say. “My heart beats for you, Elias.”But Lirae—his Lirae—never told him that. Even after years of friendship, months of courtship, and nearly an engagement, she had never once said I love you.And yet, here was Lyra—her mirror, her copy… telling him she loved him after one night that nearly knocked his soul out of his body.He didn’t want to believe it.He couldn’t afford to.Maybe it was the sex. Gods… the sex. He shifted awkwardly, trying not to remember too vividly. But there it was—every movement she made, every breathless whisper, the way she looked at him like he was hers. The way she said his name.“Gods, Elias,” he muttered under his breath. “You are so screwed.”The castle doors creaked open behind him and he turned. When he saw her—hair loose, cheeks flushed, dress slightly askew

Last Updated : 2025-07-19

Walking Like A Drunk Squirrel

“Define easy,” she muttered, hoisting up her skirt and stomping after him.*****Twenty minutes later, Lyra was gasping like a fish out of water. Her chest heaved as if she’d just danced a waltz with a bear. “‘It’s quite easy,’ says the idiot.”Elias, annoyingly unbothered and barely breaking a sweat, paused to glance back at her. “I know you’re mad at me, but really. Could you cease with the insults?”“No,” she snapped. “It’s therapeutic. Gives me the energy to walk this damned cursed hill.” She leaned on a tree and pointed at the hill.“Will you let me hold you now?” Elias asked, holding out his hand.“No!” she said, stubbornly, stomping ahead. Her boot snagged on a root and she nearly fell face-first into a bush. “I’m fine!”“Right,” Elias muttered behind her. “Totally fine. Walking like a drunk squirrel.”“Bite me.”“Tempting.”They continued up the trail, the late sun bleeding gold through the trees. Birds chirped lazily overhead.After a few minutes of silence, she asked, a bit

Last Updated : 2025-07-20

She Comes From Another World

“I mean…” Elias continued, still unaware of his mother’s internal fuming, “Lyra here stumbled into my land.”“At Wentworth castle, of all places…She comes from another world—”Nerisse’s brow lifted.“The only clue about how she got here is a mirror. She touched it and here she is.”Nerisse glanced at Lyra once more.“She’s helped me,” Elias said, more seriously now, “quiet down the scandal with Lirae’s disappearance. And I owe her. So I must do my part and find her a way back. We looked through the volumes of The Great Purge—”“Still intact?” Nerisse interrupted, raising a brow.“Yes ma. I don’t mess with your books. Though I brought the volumes back with me to Windmere Hold.”“Elias…”“I will return them…As I was saying, there’s nothing. No mention of mirror portals. So I thought maybe… you’d have an idea.”Nerisse knew of the mirror, but the information about the mirror came with a lot of secrets.“How about you both rest,” she said carefully. “You’ve come a long way.”Lyra glanced a

Last Updated : 2025-07-20

You Are Stalling

“Don’t worry. I’ll make it reasonably comfortable for you.”Elias gave a theatrical groan. “You never had a soft spot for me, did you?”Nerisse smirked. “Oh, I did. Once. Then you grew up and started thinking you were charming.” She winked.“Mother?”“What?” Nerisse responded without looking at him, carefully placing the tray on the low coffee table in the center of the room.“You are stalling.”“No.” She adjusted a cup unnecessarily. “You don’t have to leave till tomorrow, no? We have all the time in the world to talk.”“Mother, I know you well enough to know that you are currently looking for a way in your head to tell me something in the least annoying way possible…Can you get Lyra back, mother?”“Come, eat.”“Mother!” Elias snapped, frustration flaring in his eyes.“Just sit and eat. I will tell you.” She didn’t raise her voice, but the tremor in it spoke volumes. She gestured for them to sit, and after a long moment of silence thick with anticipation, both Elias and Lyra moved to

Last Updated : 2025-07-21

I'm Not Pretending

Lyra clenched her fists at her sides. “I’m not pretending. I’m terrified. I don’t understand any of this—your magic, your veil, your duties. I just want to go home.”“Do not take that tone with me,” Nerisse snapped. Her gaze sharpened. “Every child with an assignment is groomed from childhood, hidden away from those who seek to bury her. In another world.”Lyra dragged in a long, shaky breath. Her jaw tightened as she struggled to hold back the explosion bubbling in her chest. “I truly am trying to be respectful,” she said, her voice trembling with fury, “solely because you are Elias’s mother and he cares about you, but you are making it hard. I have no idea what all this is. Read my lips.” She enunciated the last words slowly, as if speaking to someone who had refused to hear her for too long.Nerisse leaned back slowly on the old, creaking couch, folding her hands in her lap as if retreating into herself. Her sharp features softened momentarily, eyes distant. “I will have to find ou

Last Updated : 2025-07-27

He Resented Us Both

He stared at her, trying to imagine her as a young woman—walking into a court fractured by politics and bloodlines, carrying secrets and magic, manipulating a kingdom’s future by the pull of her heart.“And Earl Phillip?” he asked hesitantly.“He resented us both. He still does,” she said, her tone quiet. “But I did what I had to do. I believed in your father. And despite how it ended for me, I would do it again.”Elias looked down at the ground. “Is that what Lyra is meant to do for me?”Nerisse glanced toward the house, where a dim glow still shone from the bedroom window. “Perhaps. Or perhaps she’ll do something neither of us can yet imagine.”Elias nodded slowly, thoughts churning.“You said you loved father. Was that all an act?”Nerisse looked away for a moment, her gaze lost in the darkened silhouettes of the woods beyond the tree line. The moonlight glinted softly off her cheekbones as she turned back to him. “No, son,” she said gently, “I chose your father because I fell in l

Last Updated : 2025-08-02