The room was suffocating with tension. The silence hung thick in the air. Xandria stood frozen, her heart hammering against her ribs as she looked up at the man who had sealed her fate with a single command.
The king.
She had expected him to be older, cruel looking, draped in the extravagance of the throne, he stood up from where he was sitting and walked towards where she was standing. He stood before her like a storm given human- strong, broad shoulders and impossibly composed.his cloak of deep crimson pooled around him like spilled wine,trimmed with gold embroidery that caught the sunlight that reflected through the open windows. He looked young, not older than his thirties. But Xandria knew that wasn't true. It had appeared in one of her dreams s few years back, the king was older than what he looked like. Infact he never ages. His gaze carried the weight of a thousand battles, a thousand decisions no man should have to make.
And those eyes.
They locked onto hers, sharp and unreadable, as if peeling off the layers of her soul without permission. His red eyes, deep and calculating. A gaze meant to unnerve, to command and to bend people to his will, and it seemed to be working.
His eye color was so unique that it could not be missed. An then it finally dawned on her, this was the stranger she bumped into during the festival.
'This isn't happening.'
The thought barely registered in her head before his voice rang out again, smooth but edged with finality.
"You are coming with me Alexandria."
She inhaled sharply, 'No. No. I won't' but the words were lodged in her throat, strangled by the weight of the moment. Her entire words had been ripped from beneath her feet in an instant. Leaving her hanging at the edge of something vast and inescapable.
'Refuse him Alexandria. Just say anything.'
But even as she tried to summon her voice, a strange pull curled around her bones, like an unseen thread, tightening and a strange whisper pressing against the edges of her mind. It wasn't fear. It wasn't logic. It was something else.
The grand gias.
She did not know why that was the first thing that popped up in her mind, but it seemed like the only reasonable solution to what she had just felt.
She had read about it in some history books. She even had a dream about the first king that had the grand gias.
Legends. Old stories passed down in hushed voices. A bond that was woven by fate, some called it a gift and others called it a curse.
But those were just myths, weren't they?
Yet, as he turned and strode towards the entrance doors, expecting her to follow him without questions, her feet moved before she could stop them. A choice she has never made, a decision that was never hers to begin with.
Her heart pounded. She should fight this. She should fight him.
But when he glanced back at her, something flickered in his gaze. And just for a second there was a crack in his cold facade.
He felt it too.
And somehow thst terrified her more than anything else.
It was when she reached the royal carriage and was about to enter that she heard Elara calling her from behind.
She waited. Elara quickly ran towards her and wrapped her in a tight embrace.
"I thought you said you wouldn't go Xandria." Elara sobbed in Xandria's embrace.
"I thought I wouldn't go too Elara. But I can't fight it." She tried to explain.
"Reject him Xandria. Renounce him. We will bear the consequences together." Elara argued. Void of reasoning. Ready to drag Xandria away.
"I can't Elara. I just can't."
A cold voice came from behind Xandria, sounding calm but impatient.
"I'll let what you said slide just for today, but you won't be spared next time." Maltherion warned Elara, glaring at her with his cold eyes. He looked at Xandria who was wiping Elara's eyes and trying to console her.
"Get into the carriage." He turned towards the carriage door and stepped into it with so much aura and confidence brooding form within him.
Xandria quickly got into the carriage.
She stared at her mother and father who stood at the entrance of their house looking at her.
Her mother wiped the tears that was about to fall from her eyes and waved her goodbye.
Before the carriage started moving, Elara quickly rushed to the entrance of the carriage and stared at Xandria.
"I love you so much Xandria and you will always be my best friend."
She took off her necklace that was on her neck and wore it on Xandria's neck.
"I love you too Elara. I really do." She kissed her in her cheeks and then on her forehead, before letting her go.
"Can we get going?" Reagan, who sat beside the Coachman asked when he saw that Elara was no longer close to the carriage.
Xandria curtly nodded her head as she stared outside the window.
She was going to miss this place, that's for sure. She had never envisioned another home apart from this place.
As she watched the carriage move farther away from her father's house, the tears which she had been holding for so long finally fell out. She kept on sobbing, trying to regulate her breathing but she was failing.
Everything felt suffocating. She could not believe her fate could change in just the span of one day.
As she stared at the passing trees, she began to wonder, what would have happened if she hadn't gone to the festival that night.
If it is the fate of the grand gias, then one way or another, she will surely meet the king.
She pondered upon her thoughts, trying to keep herself occupied from the drastic change that has just occurred in her life.
Maltherion stared at Xandria as she looked outside the window. He knew she was crying. He could hear her heart beating wildly against her ribs. But there is nothing he can do. She is destined to be his wife and she must be his wife.