"My Lord..."
Kenric was about to leave the room when he was once again stopped by Annalise who seemed a little flustered as she looked back at him with hesitation.
"What is it?" He asked while making sure to keep his voice gentle. He wasn't really tired considering he wasn't a mortal who needed rest to keep his body working properly, but he really didn't want to spend more time in her company.
The image of Annalise that he and the other Lords had pictured in their minds was nothing like the one standing in front of him. She was way more beautiful than he could have ever imagined. The fact that his fingers kept itching to touch her hair again was already bad enough.
They all came to the conclusion that she would be a spoiled rich lady considering she was the only daughter of the Grand Duke of the Seelie Realm and also the youngest Princess who had been spending her life in luxury.
Someone like her who was used to living in a grand mansion with dozens of servants catering to her all the time, would not have been able to survive in the Cursed Castle for even a single day.
They were actually surprised that the King and the Grand Duke offered her hand in marriage even in the first place, but it was probably because they were really in need of help. The danger lurking in the shadows of the Seelie Realm was not something common or small, and it seemed like the King had finally realized it.
That's why the three of them thought that it was probably the King and her family who pressured Annalise to marry them and the woman would throw tantrums once she appeared at the Cursed Castle, taking out her anger and hostility towards them for ruining her life.
The three of them, in general, didn't have a good impression of women, whether mortals or the ones from their own race. Before shutting themselves in the Cursed Castle, they had seen a fair share of the darkness, cruelty, greed, and lust that the women hid behind their beautiful and meek facade.
The three of them needed their brides probably more than the Seelie Realm needed their help to save itself. And since the three of them weren't looking forward to handling three women in the same house, they decided to marry a single woman and accept her as their wife.
Before they left their realm, the Royal Seer told them to wait till the moment they would receive an offer for marriage, and once the offer arrived they needed to grab it. And the offer finally arrived after a long wait of Five hundred years - from the Grand Duke and the King of Seelie Realm.
So one could imagine the shock that Kenric received when he finally got to meet Annalise. She was nothing like the women he used to know. It seemed like she had nothing similar to the women of his realm or the others he and the other Lords encountered during their journey to the Seelie Empire.
She didn't look at him with hostility, nor anger, but there was also no sign of lust or greed in her eyes either when she looked at him. She wasn't too polite, and neither was she rude. Nothing about her seemed arrogant or luxurious. She was probably the simplest but also the most complicated woman he had ever seen in his life.
The more time he was spending with her, the more he was realizing just how different and unique she was, and the more he wanted to find out about her. The realization of how much she was affecting his sensibility was what scared him and made him want to flee as soon as possible.
"What is it, Annalise?" He found himself asking when the woman didn't speak after stopping him. Her name rolled out from his tongue like honey, and he suddenly realized that he liked her name too.
"Well..." Annalise didn't know what to say, she was too distracted by the manner he called her name so smoothly. Not having words to say, she just stretched her arm out to show him the Moon Threads that she had been holding in her palm all this time.
"Moon Thread..." Kenric recognized the divine threads that were used in the Seelie Realm as a symbol of marriage. The Moon Threads were given to the bride and groom at their wedding and it was up to them to find a way to make their moon thread look different from the rest of the ones that the other married couple in the realm were wearing.
During the last ritual of the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom helped each other in wearing the Moon Threads that they had prepared for their life partner.
Kenric noticed that the Moon Threads that Annalise was holding seemed to be in their simplest form. She hadn't decorated them and she was right for doing that considering the one she was wearing also looked as simple as the ones she was holding.
"Here." He said while offering his left wrist to her. He noticed the surprise that flickered through her mesmerizing ocean-blue eyes before she blinked it away and took out a Moon Thread to help him wear.
Kenric felt a warm feeling filling his chest as he watched her wrapping the thread around his wrist and he wasn't sure if he liked that foreign feeling or was scared of it.
Annalise finished tying the knot of the Moon Thread and securing it with a simple spell before she pulled her hands away. "My Lord, can I trouble you to take these two Moon Threads to the other Lords?" She asked while offering the remaining two threads to the Lord.
"You should do it on your own when you will see them. Besides, if I tried to give it to Damien, he would probably throw it away without even taking a look." Kenric immediately refused politely as he imagined Damien and Valerius's reaction when the two of them would finally meet their wife.
What a great show that would be!