Queen Emory wiped imaginary dust from her violet dress, peeping at her husband through her lashes. Her husband, King Lucian, had sent that cursed brat on a mission, and the brat wasn't back yet. It was making the king uneasy and she didn't like it, she didn't like that the king was worrying over that rabid dog. Emory scoffed.
"Don't you think the princess acted a little bit out of character yesterday?" Emory directed her gaze to her son, her pride and joy, Prince Teagan. Teagan was sitting across from his parents, he too, counting the minutes until his brother got back from his mission.
Teagan flashed his mother a small warning smile.
"You know she has been asleep for a long time," Teagan's voice was cool, just like it had always been. It had the right amount of everything to make him sound serious but friendly.
"That is no excuse for her strange behaviors. Why am I even talking to you? No matter what I say, you will support her anyway," Emory rolled her eyes. She sighed.
Emory had fought, cried, and begged the king for suns and moons, to let Teagan marry the Princess Solela instead of that inhuman thing, not only because Teagan was heir to the throne and deserved to get married first, but because Teagan was quite smitten by the young princess since the first day he'd seen her, but no matter what Emory had said, no matter how many times she'd cried, no matter how many nights she had starved herself, Lucian didn't heed to her words.
Normally, the King hardly said no to his wife, but it was the first time he'd done so, and Emory didn't like it. Lucian had even raised his voice at her -after banging on the tea table in their room, breaking one of the legs in the process- telling her that it was the last time she was to bring the matter up if she didn't want him getting another concubine. That seemed to have worked as Emory zipped her lips about the matter, feeling sorry towards her son that she couldn't do anything about his feelings.
Emory had tried; she had tried to do everything in her power to turn that little love that Lucian still had for Fayan into gruesome hate, but no matter what she did, no matter what she said, Lucian didn't respond. He had gone ahead and loved Fayan anyway. Emory had even begged the king to tell Fayan to leave the palace, but Fayan declared rather nonchalantly, that he wasn't going to leave, and that was the last they talked about that matter. Anything that concerned Fayan, only her husband and Fayan himself, had a say. No one else mattered.
"That is not the way it is and you know it, mother. I only feel sorry towards her." Teagan smiled, looking down at the book on plants and potions situated on his lap. He touched the book softly, recalling how sweetly the princess had looked at him yesterday. Those thoughts were an abomination to the dragon gods because she was betrothed to his older brother, but he couldn't help it.
Teagan thought that in place of taking his older brother's title as first prince and heir, the dragon gods had punished him by making him watch his beloved get married to another man, to his brother, the same one whose title he now had. He sighed.
"Prince Fayan the cursed has arrived, your majesty," Ralph, the announcer, announced. Teagan hadn't even noticed when the man entered the room. He shook his head.
"Let him in," the king answered a little too enthusiastically for someone who had a resting scowl on his face all the time. Emory rolled her eyes and then looked away. She didn't want to see Fayan. If she had her way, she would never get to see him ever again, but she didn't, so the least she could do was turn away from him.
Fayan strolled lazily with his sword on his neck, blood dripping from the sharp metal and more blood splattered on his shirt, trousers, harness, and cloak. Fayan was a messy killer. He killed like he was an animal; sprayed blood everywhere and walked around proudly with blood stains all over his body without shame.
"Father," he bowed, acknowledging him. He directed this gaze to Teagan and gave him a curt nod, then proceeded to ignore the woman in the room. The Queen scoffed, clearly annoyed that Fayan didn't pay his respects to her.
"What took you so long?" Lucian asked his son, yelling at him like he wasn't just worried that he hadn't returned.
"There was a festival in the local market. I stopped to watch with my men," Fayan yawned. It was just another day, another mission, another kill.
Fayan had been 12 years old when his father sent him to kill someone for the first time. It was the first month after the curse started manifesting, and Fayan had been scared, but he had killed ten armed guards before then and the King thought he was only acting up because it was an order. Fayan had killed the official his father sent him to kill and had been killing for the man ever since.
Fayan loved killing, he loved slicing people and hearing them yell out their last cry in agony did something unexplainable to him. Fayan could only feel normal after he had killed someone or something. He could only feel like his younger self -before the curse manifested- after he had killed.
He had tried to control his urges to kill then, but it had been fruitless until the curse was fully manifested, and he understood what he was and he was no longer fully human. He was half-human, half-demon. Fayan didn't have to kill every day to feel normal anymore, he could control his urges to kill but that wasn't enough because every day he'd wake up he could feel his humanity slipping away. He knew that when he would finally lose his human touch, all those small potions that Teagan made to tame him, to stop him from killing his family, wouldn't work anymore.
"I'll be on my way then," Fayan bowed.
"Your wedding date will be fixed, now that the princess is awake and alright," the king's words stopped Fayan in his tracks. His marriage to the princess was something he wasn't sure would happen after that incident, he had thought the princess would say something about what had happened and call off the wedding, but she hadn't said a word.
"But she only just woke up," Teagan cried in protest and earned a stink eye from both Lucian and Fayan. The King had shot the Queen a look of her own when she parted her lips to protest with her son. She closed them respectfully.
"Do whatever you want. I am always at your beck and call," Fayan bowed again and walked out of the room. Teagan sighed. The Queen scoffed, and the King smiled.
"He is not interested in this union. I can see it in his soulless eyes," Emory dared to say, but the King ignored her.
"I will call the shaman so the date can be fixed," Emory added, hoping that she gets a response from her husband this time. She did. Lucian gave a short grunt of approval, then he got up from his throne and headed to his room.
"This old man never listens to me. I wish I didn't love him as much as I do," Emory cried to her son. Teagan laughed.
"That is because you disturb him every other day," Teagan smiled then got up from his seat, taking his book in his hand as he made his way out of the royal room.
There was nothing that could be done again. If the date for the wedding was to be set, he'd better cleanse himself from whatever feelings he had for his brother's soon-to-be wife. Teagan opened the book in his hand, studying the next potion he was going to make, this time for the princess. If there was nothing he could do to stop the wedding, then he would make a pacifier for the princess to keep her safe from his brother. It was the least he could do.
While Teagan walked, completely oblivious to his surroundings, he walked into something, or something- no, someone- walked into him. He was firm, but the person wasn't, they lost their balance and held out their arm, which after throwing his book, he caught, pulling them to him for safety.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking-" Lela stopped mid-apology to stare at the work of art that held her arm. This man was close, so close, too close she could smell his breath- which scented like mint.
She had seen him yesterday, but not this close. This time, all of her body was pressed against him, and he wasn't letting go, he just stared at her, as though he could see into her soul.
"I'm sorry," Lela whispered. Her words seemed to knock the prince back to reality, and she watched as he blinked, a small smile forming on his lips. Lela's heart was beating uncontrollably. She was close to a man, and not just any man, she was close to the first prince, a man she wished she was betrothed to.
"It seems you have a thing for falling," a deep voice interrupted them. Chills ran down Lela's spine. She knew that voice, it was the voice of the person she had tried to avoid, the voice of the murderer, the man she was betrothed to.
Lela cursed the cursed prince some more mentally for interrupting them and having the first prince step away from her. But in reality, she was scared, she was scared of this man they called the cursed prince.
"I will take it from here,"