Chapter 48 #2
She was draped in emerald silk, silver embroidery curling along the fabric in intricate filigree, its pattern reminiscent of the vines that clung to the stone walls of Asadia’s oldest palaces.
Her veil, delicate as frost, framed her face without obscuring it, allowing the full force of her beauty—her sharp cheekbones, full lips, and knowing dark eyes—to remain visible.
Her skin had a healthy, sun-bronzed glow all women strived for whenever they went out in the sun, but not all could achieve.
She was a woman born to be looked at, and she knew it.
Even the smallest of movements—the graceful turn of her wrist, the glittering ornaments on her fingers and hair, the way her silver bracelets sang like soft wind chimes—were calculated to draw the eye, to command attention.
And from the hush that fell over the gathering, she knew it was working.
Hassamir stepped forward first, bowing.
“Princess Reiyana,” he greeted, his voice smooth, polished. “It is a privilege to welcome you. My daughter, Lady Anna?s, and I are honoured to be here to celebrate this momentous occasion.”
Reiya inclined her head, keeping her expression composed. “The honour is mine, High Chancellor. Lady Anna?s. I have heard much of your service and your loyalty. ”
A small courtesy. A calculated choice of words. And she saw it land in the flicker of amusement behind Hassamir’s eyes.
Service . A recognition of his duty.
Loyalty . A reminder that it was expected.
He smiled faintly. “You are most gracious, Princess.”
Then Anna?s stepped forward, and the court seemed to lean in, holding a collective breath.
The lady neither paused nor hesitated. She reached out and embraced Reiya, as if they weren’t strangers who’d just been introduced at court, but two old friends reunited.
Reiya felt the cool brush of silk, the soft press of bracelets against her back, the whisper of rose and frankincense perfume—it was all precise, choreographed. A touch meant not for genuine intimacy, but for spectacle.
The faintest pressure of lips against her cheek was cool, perfunctory. A lesser woman might’ve stiffened, might’ve let the weight of courtly eyes make her uncertain.
But she was no longer that woman. Instead of shrinking back, she stepped into it. She returned the embrace, hands lingering on the woman’s back for just a moment longer than necessary—a silent statement of her own.
She let her lips brush against Anna?s’s cheek in return, matching her rhythm, her presumed warmth.
When they pulled apart, Reiya met Anna?s’s gaze head-on, allowing the faintest curve of a smile—not too broad, not too slight.
The other Omega’s dark eyes gleamed, searching, measuring, meeting hers in a battle of perception, played in silk and stillness.
“Welcome, Princess,” Anna?s said at last, her voice honey-smooth and pitched just high enough to carry through the crowd.
Her Isseric was flawless, laced with the faintest accent—enough to make each word linger, all the more captivating for its exotic edge.
“It is an honour to finally stand before you.”
Reiya kept her voice steady. “Thank you, Lady Anna?s. Your welcome means more than you know.”
“The court will speak of you for weeks, Princess. You have a way with words. ”
“It is easy to speak from the heart when one is inspired by Asadia’s strength.”
There was a pause while Anna?s smiled and leaned forward, as if she’d spotted something that intrigued her enough to warrant a closer look.
“How I admire your eyes,” she mused with a smile, voice light, almost thoughtful. “Like the clearest waters of a distant shore. So rare, so unusual. No one in Asadia has eyes quite like yours.”
The words were a carefully crafted blade, slipped between silk and skin. Not an insult precisely, but a reminder that Reiya was not of this land.
She was other .
And in a court where lineage and legacy held power, otherness could be a crown—or a chain.
Reiya’s lips curved into a faint smile. “Then I suppose I shall see Asadia with new eyes. Perhaps, in time, it will learn to see me the same.”
She caught a flicker in Anna?s’s expression, too brief to name. All the while, the court watched, waiting for another blade to be unsheathed.
A calm voice cut through the tension.
“My mother,” Kaelen said, his voice smooth, effortless, deceptively idle, “the late queen, had the most striking green eyes. Didn’t she, Father?”
A shift, subtle but unmistakable, passed through the gathered nobles, and Anna?s stilled.
King Azarion nodded, a slight, wistful smile on his lips. “She did, indeed.”
Somehow, Kaelen managed to silence the lingering unease with the precision of a well-placed blade.
Reiya let the silence stretch for a breath longer, then, with the ease of someone settling into the seat she’d claimed for herself, she tilted her head.
“It seems Asadia has long embraced beauty in many forms. How wonderful.”
Anna?s said nothing, but Reiya saw the glimmer behind her dark gaze. It wasn’t defeat yet. She merely paused to reassess, as if swiftly adjusting the pieces of a board game she refused to lose.
The woman turned toward Kaelen and Alarik with perfect poise, but everyone could see the sheen of tears in her eyes.
Reiya wasn’t sure if it was regret or longing, or pure performance.
Kaelen, ever attuned, inclined his head toward her, his tone smooth but distant. “Lady Anna?s, it’s good to see you and your father joining us this afternoon. Asadia benefits when all its voices come together.”
Anna?s lowered into a graceful curtsy. “Your Highness. It is good to see you as well, after all this time. The court has been . . . quieter in your absence.”
Kaelen’s lips twitched, but he didn’t reply.
Anna?s turned to Alarik next, her movements composed, but slower than before.
“Lady Anna?s,” he greeted politely.
“Prince Alarik.” That glimmer of tears in her limpid eyes returned. “It’s been some time. I trust you’ve returned . . . safe and sound?”
His reply was quiet, but even cooler now. “Quite, though I’ve never feared the road. It offers fewer opportunities for manipulation than at court.”
The bite in his words was unmistakable. Reiya caught the tightening in Anna?s’s expression—a flash of something sharper, almost like anger, though she reckoned the woman was too smart to let an honest emotion show.
Then, as she predicted, Anna?s smiled—a careful curving of the lips.
The moment passed, for now.