All Chapters of QUEEN OF THE RUINS: Born to Power. Crowned in blood : Chapter 21 - Chapter 25

Kamara The brush slipped from my fingers and hit the floor with a soft clatter. But even that barely pulled me back to the present.I blinked, glancing around my room. It was a mess of paints, brushes and half-painted canvas. My eyes stopped at the cardboard in front of me. I had been trying to reconnect with the artist in me ever since I got back from college but instead my mind continued to wander to something I knew wasn’t supposed to bother me as much as it did.I bent, picking the brush again then without thinking I groaned.“Who am I kidding? This isn’t working.” Valerie, who had been in the room for over an hour but I had only come to remember a few minutes ago, spoke startling me.“What’s going on Kam?” she walked over to look at the disaster I had yet again painted.“Yikes.” She met the frustrated look on my face. “I mean it’s not that…bad.”I rolled my eyes, stepping away from whatever it was. “I think I need to do something else?” I made my way out of the room.“What els

KamaraBy late afternoon, I had finished packing up the scattered art supplies and the preparations, all while still trying to avoid Brian which was even more difficult because we were a pair.I left the room supply room once everyone had cleared out, brushes cleaned, paint tubes capped and all the stuff we would supposedly use for the event. Today, I managed to paint something that wasn’t an absolute disaster, it felt good or at most an improvement.Valerie had left for her own team hours ago, promising to “check in later,” which really meant she was waiting for updates about an idea I refused to explore. I didn’t give her any, because there was none to give.To her it was Brian, to me, someone completely different but I wasn’t about to tell her now. After all, it was just a pointless experiment.Meanwhile, when I got back to my apartment, Jace still hadn’t shown up.Three days straight and there were no signs of him. And despite telling myself it didn’t matter, even repeating it

Kamara The moment the meeting ended, I practically escaped the studio. My skin still felt hot from everything Brian said earlier, and my chest was tight with that kind of humiliation you can physically feel.I just wanted to go home. Or disappear. Either one was fine.When I reached the curb and opened the car door, I was surprised yet relieved to see Jace at the driver’s seat.I climbed in expecting the car to move the moment I closed the door but a few minutes later and still nothing.“Hey—“ I started but words died in my throat when I caught his eyes staring back at me through the rear-view mirror.If one could somehow stare into a person's soul just from one stare then that was what he was doing.I unlocked my phone, scrolling through everything, anything to act like I wasn’t spiraling over eye contact.The engine finally hummed to life.I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to convince myself I imagined it. That he wasn’t really looking at me or maybe he was checking the mirror f