Esmira (Enora)
Before the guards could move, a growl tore through the room.
Alpha King Eldric rose to his full height, his massive frame blocking the light from the window, and turned on Roderic with a fury.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” His voice was cold.
“You want to arrest my daughter? In my presence?”
Roderic’s jaw clenched, his hand still raised, and his eyes still locked on me with that terrible blackness.
Both men stared at each other, their eyes filled with murderous glints until Lord Aven stepped between them.
“Your Majesty,” Lord Aven turned to Eldric.
“Alpha Roderic spoke out of turn. The situation was distressing, and he reacted emotionally, but I assure you, he did not mean it.”
Then he turned to Roderic, with a look that carried a very specific warning.
“Did you, Your Majesty?”
Roderic’s nostrils flared.
His eyes moved from Lysara, still weeping and then to Lord Aven.
Whatever calculation passed behind his gaze happened in a fraction of a second.
“No,” he said tightly.
“I did not.”
Eldric scoffed.
“If you don’t want my daughter, Roderic, I would be glad to take her back. I didn’t raise my girl to be shouted at and humiliated in her own chambers.”
Before anyone could respond, the doors opened, and the healers arrived—a man and a woman in pale grey robes carrying linen and tinctures.
They greeted the Alpha Kings and Lord Aven before they moved to Lysara, who was still sobbing.
They knelt beside her and began cleaning the wound.
After they managed to get the bleeding under control, they started making plans on how to carry her to the Sanctum.
But before they could conclude, Roderic bent down and lifted Lysara gently, cradling her like she was the most fragile thing on earth and moved towards the door.
At the doorway, he stopped.
He didn’t turn fully; he just angled his head enough to get his gaze cut across the room and find me.
The look lasted less than a second, and then he was gone.
Taking with him the maids and the healers.
Eldric exhaled heavily, shaking his head.
“I don’t like this, Aven. My precious daughter, barely married two days and already being mistreated. That boy has no respect.”
“He’s young,” Lord Aven said, guiding Eldric toward the settee in the room.
“And in love with another woman, it makes men foolish. But I’m here, and I assure you, no one will mistreat Esmira while I draw breath.”
My father didn’t say anything, and after a while, he turned to Lord Aven, his face hardened.
“It’s that Vaelis girl, isn’t it? She’s the one turning my sweet Esmira feral, making her do things she’d never do.” He glanced in my direction.
“My Mira would never hurt anyone. She doesn’t have it in her.”
He rose to his feet and crossed the room, crouching in front of me.
I kept my gaze on the floor, my bloodied hand pressed flat against the marble.
“Come, darling,” he said gently, placing his hands on my shoulders.
“Let me take you to wash off this blood. I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you; I was only surprised. I might not even understand how you feel, but if you tell me, I can know why —” he trailed off, clearing his throat.
“Come now, baby, you don’t need to sit here like this.”
I didn’t move. This story is hosted at novelping.com.
I couldn’t.
This man, this stranger who had never seen my face before today, was crouching before me with the voice of a father.
It was warm, protective and ready to carry his daughter’s pain as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Esmira was a lucky girl.
I had never had a father.
Mine died when I was too young to remember his face.
I’d grown up in Dunmere, watching other girls ride on their father’s shoulders, and I’d told myself it didn’t matter.
It mattered now; because a father’s love was being poured over me, and none of it was mine.
It belonged to a girl who was dead, and I was stealing it the way I’d stolen everything else that belonged to her.
“Darling?” Eldric’s voice softened further.
I could feel his distress.
“Have I offended you? Can you forgive your old, thoughtless father?”
I clamped my lips tighter to stop the sob that rose at the back of my throat.
I wanted to at that moment bury myself in his warmth, but I dared not.
This warlord loves his daughter so much, that much was clear.
If he notices I was an impostor…
Lord Aven stepped forward and said with a kind tone.
“Perhaps the princess is ashamed, Your Majesty. She’s had a difficult morning. Give her some time.”
I heard Eldric’s soft sigh, and then he hoisted himself up, not before reaching out and squeezing my shoulder.
The gesture conveyed his love and tenderness that my throat closed completely.
“I love you, Esmira,” he said.
“No matter what happens in this palace, no matter what that boy or anyone else says to you, your father is here, and I will protect you, always.”
He was quiet for a while and then added.
“Are you tired of the marriage, darling? If that’s the case, you don’t need to —”
“Your Majesty,” Lord Aven intervened with a small chuckle.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You saw with your own eyes how Roderic talked about their passion a while ago, and we know the princess is set to always have her way —”
“But of course,” Eldric interjected with a scoff.
“She’s a woman, Aven. Women are precious treasures that must always have their way. Does that insufferable prick have a problem with it?”
“No, no,” Lord Aven laughed.
“It’s between them; we should allow them to settle their differences without getting involved. Don’t worry, all will be well.”
My father sighed, then grunted, before leaving the room.
After he left, silence filled the room.
I could feel Lord Aven staring at me.
After a minute, he said quietly.
“Stand up.”
His voice had changed.
The warmth he’d performed for Eldric was gone, replaced by the coldness I knew.
I didn’t scramble to my feet the way I usually did.
“He didn’t know,” I said, my voice sounding different in my own ears.
“Alpha Eldric had looked at me and thought I was his daughter, Esmira. The room was chaotic, so that helped, but he looked right at me and didn’t see a stranger.”
Lord Aven watched me, his expression unreadable.
“And Lysara had thought I was Esmira too.” I continued.
“I also didn’t cut her. She came into my room through the hidden door behind the tapestry and started screaming at me about the wedding and Roderic. Then she took the letter opener and cut herself. The moment the maids arrived, she started crying and begging for forgiveness, making it look like I’d attacked her.”
The room was silent for a long moment.
“I know,” Lord Aven said quietly.
I turned my gaze to him again and saw he was watching me with an expression I hadn’t seen before.
It was as though he was impressed.
“You know?”
He scoffed gently.
“Lysara has always been that way with Esmira, but you handled it better than I expected.”
He crossed the room to where I stood and did something that caught me entirely off guard.
He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
It was a casual gesture, fatherly even; for a disorienting moment, the line between him and the man who had just left the room blurred.
“I should have prepared you for that,” he added.
“For Lysara and your father. That was my oversight, and for that, I apologise.”
Then he took my hands and guided me to the vanity table.
He settled me onto the stool, and I found myself staring at my tear-streaked, pale, blood smeared across my fingers, reflection.
While he stood behind me, his reflection towering over mine in the mirror.
“This palace is a dangerous place, Esmira,” he said, straightening a crease in my collar.
“People die here of something every day. A wrong word, a misplaced loyalty, a door left open, and the person is dead. The truth is, it’s safer to live outside these walls, but you don’t have that opinion anymore.”
His pale eyes met mine in the glass.
“I control ninety-nine per cent of the affairs in this kingdom. Every appointment, trade agreement, military decision, is passed through my hands before it reaches anyone else’s.” He paused.
“The one per cent I don’t control is the love between Lysara and Roderic.”
He sighed and continued.
“Roderic obeys my every word, but what you saw today- the way he looked at Lysara, the way he turned on you without a second thought- that is the power of love.”
He smiled gently at me when my eyes widened in surprise.
“A man in love believes he can kill a thousand warriors. He will burn cities, betray kingdoms and destroy himself all for the woman who holds his heart. It is the most dangerous force in any court, because it cannot be reasoned, bargained or controlled with.”
He leaned closer, his mouth grazing my ear.
“As long as Lysara continues to stage scenes like today, you will never gain Roderic’s favour. He will always choose her and see you as the obstacle between him and the woman he wants. But you don’t have to accept that reality as the other Esmira did.”
I swallowed hard.
“Thankfully, Eldric noticed nothing wrong, but if I had not intervened, Roderic would have insisted on locking you up, and your father, who loves you like his life, would have blown things out of proportion.”
He straightened and met my eyes in the mirror one final time.
“This is why I tell you to be strong, Esmira, not for me or the kingdom but for yourself. Shed the girl you were, or else she won’t survive this palace. She will be eaten alive by women like Lysara and men like Roderic, and no one will mourn her because no one will have known she existed.”
Something stirred deep in my chest.
It was as though every part of me was making a conscious decision.
Behind me, Lord Aven waited patiently.
I met his eyes in the mirror and said, in a voice that surprised even me:
“Can you teach me how to be strong?”