The Cold Queen

Searching for the truth

Godfrey, as the well-mannered servant, made a little bow and stepped out the door, waiting for the king to follow him.

My eyes returned to the Dark King.

His reaction made me feel sick in my stomach. I knew that I was playing right into his game, which was the worst part. I had no idea what sort of game we were playing.

If I do not know what the game is, how can I win it?

Our eyes met and, to my surprise, in the most proper way, he lowered his head in respect to me and followed Godfrey out of the room.

I turned to the others left in the room and dismissed them.

Right now I needed to be alone, to figure out what the hell just happened and how I could save my kingdom.

The two guards that led the king here and my usual two guards left after them.

The moment they walked out, I walked to the door and locked it after them.

The moment the lock clicked in place, I pressed my back against the door and released a frustrated tirade of curse words.

Frustrated didn't cover even half of what I was feeling right now.

I ripped the tiara from my hair and walked to the table.

A part of me wanted to throw it across the room, but it was too valuable of an heirloom to be treated like that. So, instead, I placed it on the table with a little less gentleness than usual.

Leaning over the table, I took a few deep breaths that were still restricted by the freaking corset. I wanted to undress but I had to go through the records and figure out what the hell happened that made my father sell his daughter to the freaking dark kingdom.

I smacked my fist against the table letting the pain bring my focus back to the current moment as I straightened my back and pushed the few pieces of hair back in place.

There is no time to lose control or my cool. I have to sort this out before dawn.

Feeling a lot more under control, I straightened my back and walked to the wall of records on the other side of the desk. Quickly scanning the dates on the back and finding the period in which the deal was made.

I pulled out our treasury records and my father's journals from that time.

With those books in hand, I walked back to the table and sat down in my chair ready to read through every page a hundred times if I needed to. I will find the truth even if it will take me the whole night.

I still could not wrap my head around the idea of my father doing this to my sister. How the hell did my father and kingdom end up in a situation where they thought it was okay for them to sell off their own child like this?

Sure, my parents had a lot of faults and flaws, but this was beyond what I thought they were capable of.

I opened my father's journals first and started reading through his day-to-day life he recorded in the cream-coloured pages.

Not sure how long time had passed, but the pages in front of me started to get blurry.

A loud knock on the door pulled me out of the books and I sat up.

I must have left the door locked because when the person on the other side tried to open the doors they wouldn't budge. For a moment I hoped that whoever was on the other side would get the message that I was not there or did not want to get disturbed and leave. I was in the mood to talk to anyone right now, but the knocking got louder and louder.

It was followed by Alexa’s voice from the other side of the door.

“I know you are in there, Eliza. Open the freaking door right now or I will… I will…”

With a deep sigh, I got up and walked to the door.

I opened the door before she could finish her sentence because she would, like always, threaten to throw herself off the clock tower or something dramatic as that.

One thing about my sister is that she has a flare for the dramatics… and when I say flare I mean it’s the main pillar of her personality.

“Calm down, Alexa.”

I said to her as I walked back into the room, letting her follow me.

‘“Calm down? You are telling me to f*****g calm down? You are not the one that has been promised to the freaking king of the Dark Kingdom.”

Trust one thing about this castle, and that is, gossip travels fast.

“And who told you that?”

“My maid. I am not going to marry that brute. I’m not a freaking cold fish like you. I can’t marry someone I don’t love. I refuse. I won’t let you control my life anymore.”

What f****d up s**t did I do in my last life to deserve all of this?

Shaking my head I started talking, but was cut off before I could even get out two words.

“Alexa…”

“I won’t marry that man. No matter how you threaten me, I refuse.”

With those last words, she turned on her heel and ran off. She did that before I could tell her that I was not planning such a thing.

But like always, she jumped to conclusions which were wrong and, like always, this meant she would lock herself in her room for days, punishing me by starving herself.

I love my sister, but sometimes I dream of the day she gets married so I can have at least some piece in my life. I feel bad about it, but I dream of the time when she will be someone else's problem.

Thoughts like these make me feel like a shitty person and only added to my already foul mood, so I rose to my feet and walked to the little secret bar area my grandfather installed.

I don’t remember him much because he died when I was three, but from my history lessons, I know that he was a mean man that ruled the kingdom in a very tight fist.

And I am sure that what I learned about him was not even half of the f****d up s**t that man has done.

He was a shitty person but had a great taste for alcohol.

With a glass of strong whiskey in my hand, I sat back in my chair staring at my parent's picture on the other side of the room right in front of me.

It was intended to be a motivation for me to do my best for them, in honour of them, but most of the time it’s more like a reminder that I will never be them.

The people loved them and respected them, but I only have a part of what they had… the respect part. Alexa got the love part instead.

She was the beloved daughter of the kingdom that mourns her tragic parent's death while her cold-hearted sister gets to rule the kingdom in a tight fist that resembles her grandfather's.

It’s not that I don’t feel or that I want to control everything… it just happens like that.

When I took over I was not ready and I did the best I could, but it was never good enough. So I try to control everything and every time I let my control get a little bit loose, I regret it, so I stay in control all the time now.

“Father, how could you mess up so badly?”

I forced my mind to turn back to the problem at hand and not the self-pity party.

The Dark King was telling the truth.

My father came to his father after all other kingdoms turned him away.

My grandfather, whose whiskey I am drinking now, has made our relationships with other kingdoms very difficult.

In other words, they all hated us and when my father took over, he made a few very bad, expensive decisions that left the kingdom on the brink of bankruptcy and the only kingdom that agreed to help was the Dark Kingdom.

Somehow, I missed those entries when I read all these records before… maybe because I more or less concentrated on the more recent ones and only scanned through the older ones.

Feeling so tired and a bit defeated, I leaned back in my chair, letting my tired eyes rest for a bit when a more quiet knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts.