Christmastime in the palace of Ilya…

Christmas was your favourite, the colourful and warm lights, the trees, the songs, the decor, the presents, and the love. Well, your love.

Take us back to last year, when you and the eldest prince of Ilya fell in love. Kisses around every corner, walks through the snowy grounds, being spoilt rotten with presents, but it all fell apart in January when you had to leave for finishing school. The haven of your relationship was cruelly snatched from you like your favourite doll.

Kitt was wonderful, sweet. Kitt as a lover? Passionate, kind, caring, doting and desiring. He would worship the ground you walked on back then. You were his world.

And that can’t change in just a year, can it? The world spins and the light is illuminated elsewhere, that doesn’t mean you stopped being his world. His favourite. He told your parents about who he’d been hanging with while you were gone.

It’s the kind of cold, around the palace, that goes to your bones, fogged up windows and you felt it when you passed his room. You hadn’t seen him yet. You unpacked your bags into your familiar room in Ilya’s beautiful palace.

Whose fault was it that you were like this? The ache in him, put there by the ache in you. It was a never ending circle.

So when you saw him in the grand decorated living room, well one of them anyway, you froze. He was the same pretty prince you fell in love with. No girl on his arm, no one. No marks on his neck. Untouched. Just how you’d left him. The royals spoke and laughed with your parents and other friends, while you stared at Kitt until Kai nudged you.

“Call it even. Be his while you’re here. Plagues know you both need it.” He urged, murmuring in your ear.

You wore the silver charm bracelet he’d bought you and the charms he’d gifted, the silver earrings he’d bought, and the necklace. He was everywhere. The road not taken looked really good now.

You talked with Kai, smiling sipping champagne when he joined you both, “Kai. Rose.”

That godsdamned nickname. Rose.