"Engagement party?" I echoed. My voice sounded distant, as if a veil of fog covered my ears.
"Of course. It's a good way to establish bonds between our families, and it'll give Crown Prince Nikos the chance to see what he's getting out of the deal. We don't want to disappoint him."
"When?" I cleared my throat but the lump remained. "When is the engagement party?"
"In June towards the end of spring. We haven't set a date yet."
That was in two months. I nodded numbly. I loved reading romance novels and whenever the couples in them married, I'd imagined how my wedding would be. I'd always imagined it would be filled with excitement and love. Empty dreams of a stupid girl.
"So I'm allowed to keep attending the school go nobel girls ?"
What did it even matter if I graduated? I would never go to on yo study more , never work. All I'd be allowed to do was to warm my husband's bed.
My throat tightened further and tears prickled in my eyes, but I willed them not to fall. Father hated it when we lost control.
"Yes. I told The Atmos King that you attend an all-girls Nobel Lady school, which seemed to please him." Of course, it did. Couldn't risk that I got anywhere near boys.
"Is that all?"
"For now."
I walked out of the office as if in trance. I'd turned sixteen four months ago. My birthday had felt like a huge step toward my future, and I'd been excited. Silly me. My life was already over before it even began. Everything was decided for me.
I couldn't stop crying. Victoria stroked my hair as my head lay in her lap. She was thirteen, only three years younger than me, but today that meant the difference between freedom and a life in a loveless prison. I tried very hard not to resent her for it. It wasn't her fault.
"You could try to talk to Father again. Maybe he'll change his mind," Victoria said in a soft voice.
"He won't."
"Maybe Mama will be able to convince him."
As if Father would ever let a woman make a decision for him. "Nothing anyone could say or do will make a difference," I said miserably.
I hadn't seen Mother since she'd sent me into Father's study chamber. She probably couldn't face me, knowing what she'd condemned me to.
"But Arabella sis —"
I lifted my head and wiped the tears from my face. Victoria stared at me with pitiful blue eyes, the same cloudless summer sky blue as my own.
But where my hair was light blond hers was red. Father sometimes called her witch; it wasn't an endearment. "He shook hands on it with Crown Prince Nikos's father."
"They met?"
That's what I'd wondered as well.
Why had he found time to meet with the head of the Rousseau Royal Family but not to tell me about his plans to sell me off like a better slave? I shook off the frustration and despair trying to claw their way out of my body.
"That's what Father told me."
"There has to be something we can do," Victoria said.
"There isn't."
"But you haven't even met the guy. You don't even know how he looks! He could be ugly, fat and old."
Ugly, fat and old. I wished that were the only features of the Crown Prince Nikos I had to worry about.
" I will go to the store and get his small card portraits and see some articles about the Prince of the Atmos Rousseau nation. " Victoria said to me .
After some times Victoria returned as I had no idea of how much time had passed . She had some brownish articles in her hand and she also had a bag hanging around her neck in which I was sure she had bought the portraits of Crown Prince which was definitely from the illegal sources.
"He's taller than everyone probably taller than the peopleof our country," Victoria said in amazement.
He was; in all the portraits he was several inches taller than whoever stood beside him, and he was muscled. That probably explained why some people called him the Bull behind his back.
That was the nickname the articles used and they called him the heir of The Atmos Rousseau and That he was a Businessman. Maybe on the outside. Everybody knew what The King Of Atmos Rousseau was like , but of course nobody was stupid enough to write about it.
"He's with a new lady in every photo."
I stared down at the emotionless face of my future husband. The paper articles called him the most sought after man in Capital city of Atmos , heir to hundreds of millions of rupaiya and tons of gold and all . Heir to an empire made up of death and blood and wars , that's what it should say.
Victoria huffed. "God, women are throwing themselves at him. I suppose he's good looking."
"They can have him," I said bitterly. In our world a handsome exterior often hid the monster within.
The society girls saw his title, his good looks and wealth. They thought the bad boy aura was a game.
They fawned over his predator-like charisma because it radiated power. But what they didn't know was that blood and death lurked beneath the arrogant smile.
I stood abruptly. "I need to talk to Uncle Raven."
Uncle Raven was almost fifty and my father's loyal knight. He was also Victoria 's and my bodyguard.
He knew everything about everyone. Mother called him a scandalmonger. But if anyone knew more about CrownPrince, it was Uncle Raven.
"He became a special soldier at eleven," Uncle Raven said, sharpening his knife on a grinder as he did every day.
The smell of tomato and onions filled the kitchen, but it didn't give me a sense of comfort as it usually did.
"At eleven?" I asked, trying to keep my voice even. Most people didn't become fully initiated members of the Royal armies until they were sixteen. "Because of his father?"
Uncle grinned, revealing a gold incisor teeth, and paused in his movements.
"You think he got it easy because he's a King's son? He killed his first man at eleven, that's why it was decided to initiate him early."
Victoria gasped. "He's a monster."
Uncle Raven shrugged. "He's what he needs to be. Ruling over Atmos Rousseau country, you can't be a pussy." He gave an apologetic smile. "A wuss."
"What happened?" I wasn't sure I really wanted to know. If Nikos had killed his first man at eleven, then how many more had he killed in the last ten years since?
Uncle Raven shook his head, and scratched the long scar that ran from his temple down to his chin. He was thin, and didn't look like much, but Mother told me few were faster with a knife than him. I'd never seen him fight. "Can't say. I'm not that familiar with Atmos nation."