A Kiss Toward Chaos (750 Words)

Author's Note:

Hi. This is an entry for the 750 Word Project 2024, which is to tell a complete story in 750 words. I believe this entry does just that, but I do have an interest in expanding this world into a series about the daughter once she's grown and fully powered. Let me know if you think that's a good idea or if I should leave it as is.

With much appreciation for your comments and opinions on the matter,

Alice

~

My dress blazed. I could've laughed or cried, but did neither. I'd been so certain he wouldn't go through with it; I was the virtuous queen. His virtuous queen.

He stepped forward, his face twisted in some mockery of disgust and sorrow. I tried to shrink back from him as my dress smoldered, but the shackles about my wrists and waist didn't allow me that courtesy. He lowered his torch and my dress flamed anew.

We both cringed at the scent that filled the space between us. He kept the torch to the fabric, not pulling away, letting it burn higher and higher before tears finally fell along my cheeks. "You're better than this, Nathan. You are not his pawn."

"I perform my duties as required, my queen."

"I've done nothing wrong, Nathan. You were there that night, you saw..."

His eyes lowered from me. "What I saw doesn't matter."

"You saw it, Nathan. You saw it come to me and force me..."

"The king only knows the heir isn't his. He's shown a mercy to not have her strapped to your chest to meet your same fate."

"Are you to raise her then? The bastard child of the woman you loved and burned alive to sate her husband's ire?"

His gaze met mine as burning fabric fell onto my bared leg. I cringed, and his face crumpled in despair at my pain. "I've no choice, Alyssa. I'd burn beside you if I refused."

A whimper caught in my throat and the flames licked higher as smoldering fabric fell from my body. "We were friends. In childhood you were my best."

He stepped up onto the pyre with me, his eyes traversing my bared form. "Then you became queen." Nathan's fingertips caressed my cheek.

"And you a murderer," my words were barely a whisper. It was all that was needed with him so close to me.

Nathan pressed his lips to mine, forcing me into a gentle kiss that I had no desire to resist. He sighed heavily once his lips broke from mine. "And me a murderer," he whispered before stepping away and dropping the torch on the wood at my feet.

I pulled my feet from the flames and tried to lift myself to the log I'd been shackled to. Nathan's sorrowful expression sent a rage through me. I'd not chosen this life. My choice would've been him every time, but I wasn't allowed that choice.

The heat rose and I drew in a breath. I wouldn't beg. But I wouldn't let him look away from me, either. "This is your choice," I seethed, nostrils flaring as I pulled myself from the growing flames. "You will never be free of my voice, Nathan. I will follow you and whisper over your shoulder for all of your coming days. In my daughter you'll see the life you stole from us. Weep at t he chaos she will sow in her wake. The power she'll radiate through sorrow and loss. I will whisper it and she will ascend to greatness your odious king can never imagine. My daughter will bend you all to her will. She will know you're the one who set me aflame for naught but being forced to bed by evil on a moonless night. A night where you were meant to protect me but stood and watched me taken instead."

His eyes lowered, and I scoffed, "Look at me, you wretched, weak-willed man. Watch your work with pride. Know your obedience steals any chance you ever had at love."

Nathan lifted his gaze to me, his face strained. It was apparent he was trying to look away but couldn't. I smiled and leaned my head back on the stake as the flames blocked my body from his view. The heat brought sweat to my brow as flames licked at fine hairs along my flesh, singeing and burning them into putrid air.

Tears streaked his cheeks and I tipped my head, wrath replaced with regret and despair, "You could've at least bedded me first. I never would've said no to you, Nathan." The tears on my cheeks evaporated from the heat as my hair caught a twisting flame.

The air was heavy and hot. It heated me inside as my flesh blistered. I thought it would hurt longer than it did. My mind had prepared for agony, heart racing, breath quickened. Smoke filled my lungs and the pain subsided as everything about me faded to black silence.