#adele agreste

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Nathalie sat down on the fainting couch and stayed quiet for a few minutes while she gathered her thoughts. “You’re trying to manipulate me and I don’t appreciate it, Adele.”

“I’m not!”

“I can feel it,” she ground out and mentally reinforced the wall in her mind.

“I don’t mean to be, I promise.”

Nathalie begrudgingly believed her once she looked up to see the stricken expression on her face. It wasn’t Adele’s fault everything she felt was funneled towards Nathalie, but it wasn’t Nathalie’s fault either and she was beginning to feel exhausted by the whole ordeal.

“I’m not a royal. Even if I agreed to this madness, a son born by me isn’t going to be a prince.”

“He would still be Gabriel’s child and a full vampire and that’s what matters.” Adele crossed her arms. “I don’t understand how you can say things like that.”

“Things like what?”

“If I agree,” she repeated with a huff. “Why do you pretend you get any say in it?”

Nathalie gaped at her. “What?”

“We belong to Gabriel and if he wants to come in here and have us both, he can.”

“Did he say that?”

Adele blinked. “Well, no.”

“Good.” Nathalie tried to suppress a shiver. “That doesn’t sound like him.”

“But that’s the way things are, Natty. It’s his right.”

“It’s barbaric and he knows it,” she muttered. “And since when do you talk like this? You’re not some mindless doll. This stuff makes you as angry as it makes me.” Her frustration lessened when she looked up to see tears shining in Adele’s eyes. “What is it?”

“The king spoke with me today while you were fetching our afternoon tea,” she whispered.

Nathalie felt ice seep into her veins. “What did he say?”

Adele began to shake and Nathalie was out of the chair and crossing the room as quickly as she could manage. She wound her arms around the other woman and pulled her close. “It’s okay.”

“It isn’t,” she sobbed. “He said if I hadn’t given Gabriel multiple heirs within the next three years, he would have me killed like the last one!”

A flash of a sobbing Gabriel holding Madeline’s still body against his overtook Nathalie’s mind for a moment. There was more than one reason Gabriel had been trying to keep his current wife at arm’s reach.

“He...he said...” Adele hiccuped as the tears streamed faster down her cheeks. “He said that I needed to give Gabriel heirs, plural. I can’t...what if it’s not fast enough?! I need you to do this with me!”

“Calm down. It’s going to be okay,” Nathalie soothed. “Why three years?”

She sniffled and wiped at her nose. “He said I come from good breeding and it would be a shame to waste my coloring.”

Nathalie ground her teeth together and offered Adele a tissue from the nightstand. Adele wiped at her eyes with a whimper. “Please, Natty, please do this for me, for us. I just want to keep us safe.”

“And if she dies, you die,” a small voice added in her mind. Nathalie tried to ignore it. “I’m rather old, Adele. I don’t think--”

“Please try.” She gripped Nathalie’s hand tight. “Please. This might be the only way we survive here.” Her expression softened. “It’s not a fate worse than death. That’s one of the first things we learn as little girls.”

"That might be the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“You have to help me.”

Nathalie tightened her hold on Adele. “Let’s give it some time, okay? Gabriel has been staying with you more and I think even one heir is going to appease the king for a bit.”

They were both quiet for a few moments as Adele cleaned her face.

“One year,” she finally sniffed.

“What?”

“If I’m not pregnant in one year, you have to start helping.”

“Adele.”

“I mean it, Natty. I’m terrified but I’m trying to be rational.” 

Nathalie could feel Adele’s fear beating against her mental block like a battering ram. She swallowed hard and attempted a small smile. “I don’t think I have the right coloring.”

Adele ignored her quip. “I’ll talk to Gabriel about it unless you would like to. We should get you started on royal blood as soon as possible.” She wiped at her nose once more and threw the used tissue down with a huff. “What a mess. I should’ve married that balding duke my father introduced me to at the party, but no, I just had to test the waters with Gabriel. He was so handsome and scandalous.” Her shoulders slumped. “I do love him.”

“I know you do.”

“It’s been nice seeing him more.”

“I’m sure it has been.”

Adele looked at Nathalie with wide eyes, shiny with fresh tears. “Tell me everything’s going to be okay.”

Nathalie ignored the screaming in her head as she replied, “Everything going to be fine.”

Just for Tonight

Before Just for Tonight drabbles