Chapter 49 - 48 - The Fragility of Monsters
Riven turned to her, his gaze locking onto Ashtoria’s face. There was a seriousness in her eyes—calm as always, but beneath that calm, something trembled. A flicker of hope, fragile and unspoken, shimmered in the red glow of her pupils.
He furrowed his brows slightly, hesitating... then threw the question back to her.
"Why are you asking about Queen Ashtoria Belmore?" he asked softly. "Do you have a connection to her?"
Ashtoria didn’t answer at first. In her heart, she wanted to say it—to confess that she was that woman. The queen whispered of in every corner of the kingdom. The tyrant, the mad ruler, the one painted in blood and fear.
But just like every truth she had sealed away... she swallowed it again.
"I’m just curious," she said flatly, trying to sound unaffected. "Curious about what you think... of a queen everyone calls terrifying and monstrous."
She didn’t fully understand why it mattered so much. Perhaps because she wanted to know how he saw her—not Anna, not the mask she wore these past few days—but her true self. The real Ashtoria. No throne, no crown... just a woman standing before a man she couldn’t stop thinking about.
And for some reason, his answer felt like it might change everything.
Riven took a long moment, his expression unreadable, before he finally exhaled a breath and shook his head slowly.
"I don’t know," he said honestly. "I’ve never seen her myself... only heard the stories."
Ashtoria looked at him more closely, her usual icy grace now tinged with something more vulnerable. Her lips parted slightly, her breath catching. The air between them was thin, charged.