To Aurum With Hate

Five: Imperator Zale

Five:

Imperator Zale

            It was late in the evening when Antero finally showed with Princess Sirena. We were in the family parlor. Mother was reading, and father was going over paperwork. The door opened and Antero burst in with Princess Sirena by his side.

            She was different than the image of the little girl I had in my mind. Of course she should have been. Her face was round, she had brown eyes, and brown, curly hair. She was small, but curvy in all of the right places. She wore a white skirt, a white blouse, and a royal blue coat with royal blue heals. Her brown hair was pinned back with a royal blue bow.

            All of us stood at the sight of her.

            “Imperator Zale, I have found your fiancé,” Antero said.

            I nodded at him. “Thank you, Antero. Your service is, of course, a godsend.”

            “Yes, thank you Antero Dukas, for returning me to my fiancé,” said Princess Sirena, curtseying to him.

            Antero bowed deeply. “It is my pleasure.” He then turned to me. “I will retire to my station, if you are alright with that.”

            “Of course,” I said. When he was gone, I walked over to the girl that was my fiancé. I placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m relieved that you are alive and well, my dear, and I am so sorry that you had to endure that.”

            “Are you?” she challenged.

            I raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

            “Well, it’s just that it seems awfully strange to me that I get here and the first thing that happens is that I’m kidnapped.”

            At those words, my father stood up from his chair. “Are you accusing us of something, your highness?”

            “Yes,” she said, “high treason. Because it is treason to kill a Princess.”

            “A princess wasn’t killed,” said my father, “in fact, the Princess was saved, and she was only saved out of the goodness of our heart. The Argenti are a terrorist organization. We do not negotiate with them. We could have very easily left you there to die if we wanted, but you are my son’s fiancé, and so we rescued you.”

            I coughed. “Father, you’ll have to forgive her. It has been a stressful day for us all. Why don’t you let me show the Princess to her room, and in the morning, we can meet everyone all over again? When we aren’t stressed from a day of waiting to see if she is going to be alive.”

            Father sighed. “Very well. Get her out of my sight. That’s probably best for everyone. I do not care for ungratefulness.”

            Sirena pursed her lips together.

 I took her by the arm and led her out of the parlor. “Foolish girl,” I hissed.

She glared at me, pulling her arm away. “Foolish girl?” she hissed. “Foolish girl? I was sent here today to be welcomed as your fiancé, and the first thing that happened was that I was kidnapped! Do you really expect me to trust anyone after that?”

I frowned. “I’m sorry. I suppose you are right. With the history between our two countries, I wouldn’t trust anyone right now either. However….”

She bit her lip. “I shouldn’t have voiced it out loud.”

“No,” I said, “you shouldn’t have. A very bold move, telling off the Imperator, Princess.”

“Perhaps I like boldness,” she said, “if you were bold, we would not be in the situation we are now, with your father bombing my country.”

I glared at her. “You have been in Aurum barely a day, and spent a mere five minutes with me, and you seek to advise me on how I should handle my relationship with my father?”

“I seek to end the violence between our two countries,” she said, “although I don’t know how we can even manage that since you couldn’t be bothered to come save me.”

I laughed. “I’m the heir to the throne. What did you expect me to do? Go in guns blazing?”

“You weren’t even at the airport,” she said, “if you had been, perhaps this mess could have been avoided.”

I frowned. “There is a protocol. We are not yet married, and it would have been dangerous to have the two of us in the same space before then.”

“We’re not married now,” she said, “yet here we stand, in the same space. Should I return back to my castle, Imperator Zale, because it is too dangerous? Because I would gladly return if it would mean getting away from you.”

I sighed. “So, you’ve already decided that you’re going to hate me, is that it?”

She placed her hands on her hips. “I decided that I hated you the moment that I walked through Perdita and saw the dead bodies on the ground, Imperator. I have simply added to the list of reasons why I hate you.”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t have to be this way, you know. I want to love you if you’ll let me.”

“Can you erase the memory of the dead body of the little girl I saw who was crushed by a fallen building?”

I grimaced. “No. I can’t.”

“Then, it absolutely does have to be this way.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at me with such a look of disdain I had no idea how we would ever get over it. “I’d prefer someone else to show me to my room.”

I sighed. “You’re making a mistake, Princess.”

“You already made yours,” she told me.

I glanced at Antero, who was standing by the parlor door. “Antero, would you be so kind as to escort the Princess to her room? It is the one across from mine, you will remember.”

“I do,” he said, “and yes of course, I can escort the Princess to her room.”

I glanced at her, as she stood there glowering at me. “I don’t want to be your enemy, Princess.”

“You were born my enemy,” she said, with a shake of her head, before she followed Antero to her room.

I watched her leave, hating that my fiancé hated me. But I was The Imperator. I could make her love me, the same way that I did everyone else. Or I would die trying. But one way or another, she would be mine.