"You were always meant to be mine," The Ice Emperor said.
Amber felt the grip of his fingers dig painfully into her jaw. His eyes flashed as an icy light glowed out from within. His eyes were a piercing blue that was difficult to look at, but she could no longer look away from.
"You. Are. Mine." He emphasized each word by squeezing harder until the tips of his nails dug into her skin and Amber could feel warm blood trickle down her neck.
Rage boiled within her, bubbling just under the surface, but this moment was not the time to act, not yet, but soon. Soon this man's life would belong to her, along with everything else that he cared about.
Two months earlier...
Amber stared down at a personalized invitation, held in her hands. It was made of thick cream colored paper and written with melted gold.
It said,
'My beautiful Lady Amber,
I am utterly captivated by you. I can not sleep without a vision of your loveliness filling my mind. I have become incapable of speaking to other women without your name coming to my lips. I am a ruined man who desperately longs for your touch and companionship. Have pity on this blind and foolish man. Say that you'll be my date at my birthday celebration and for the upcoming Nexum Ball. I can not imagine you with any other man.
Forever yours,
Your adoring fiance, First Prince Macallan.'
Amber looked down at the unexpected love letter with a twisted feeling of dread in her stomach. She'd been trying to get the First Prince to break off their engagement, but the crazy man had just insisted on chasing after her. Now how was she supposed to break off their engagement?
Luckily Arabella was currently asleep. She didn't know how to deal with Arabella lately. Arabella had hardly said two words since the incident at the First Prince's lab. It was clear that she'd finally gotten the wake up call that she had so desperately needed, but her heart had been totally broken just the same.
Although Amber was currently in this body, in her past life she'd been twenty-eight when she'd died. Although the people in this world were considered adults at the age of sixteen, she still couldn't help seeing some of them as just teens. Things were different here though.
People here were forced to mature faster or face the consequences. They had adult responsibilities from the age of sixteen and a lot of pressure to succeed from the age of twelve. A lot of their success and potential just boiled down to pure luck. It all depended on what kind of magic they had and if their magical talent was high enough to get them noticed by an influential entity in the first place.
Arabella had just been lucky that her parents hadn't sold her off ages ago. The only reason why they hadn't was because she was technically still the First Prince's fiance. Although Amber was still pretty irritated with Arabella, a part of her still had a small soft spot for her situation.
Amber remembered her first love and how much it had hurt when her love goggles had been harshly broken. Perhaps she still hadn't fully gotten over it? She wasn't sure. She hadn't loved another man since. Honestly, she wasn't even sure she'd really loved him. She didn't have anything else to compare her feelings at that time with. What had hurt the most were her feelings of betrayal and rejection. Always rejection. Her parents rejected her, her friends, her boyfriend, her best friend, and the rest of her family. Generally everywhere she went, she felt rejected. Perhaps it was more the feeling of being rejected again.
One of these days Amber would have a nice and lovely vacation. She had been telling herself this ever since she'd come to this world, but something immediately pressing always came up to keep her busy. Wasn't that the dream though? To get everything to work so smoothly so that it could continue to work even if she wasn't always babysitting everything?
Another thing had also been bothering Amber since she'd gotten back too, Nova barely talked to anyone and she barely ate anything. Nova just kind of moped around. Every once in a while Nova would look into Amber's eyes and her mouth would briefly pop open. Nova would stare at Amber with her mouth slightly open, but then would close her lips with a bit of force and rush out of the room. Amber knew that there was something on her mind, but she had no idea what it could be. Amber had been debating if she should confront Nova about her strange behavior or if she should give her the chance to gather her thoughts and come out with her concerns on her own. Whatever was on her mind definitely didn't seem like it would be simple. Amber wanted to respect Nova's space, since she was more than just a passing stranger to Amber at this point, but the anticipation was killing her.
She looked up from the letter in her hands to the face of her so-called father whom she'd only just now seen for the first time in her life. Sure, she had access to some of Arabella's memories of her parents, but this was the first time he had bothered to summon her in this life.
Amber sat in Baron Frost's study. It was a large room with two large windows and a large dark stone fireplace between the windows. Inside the fireplace, a pink fire burned. The fire let off a slightly sweet smell that repelled most mafau and maflo. Draped on the windows were thick dark green velvet curtains and the walls were slate gray. Against the walls were bookcases and in those bookcases were thick magic manuals. Most of the manuals dealt in space magic, runes, and enchantments, but there were a few others. Amber took note of the manuals on the walls and their placement from the corner of her peripheral.
In front of the fire were two girls lounging in plush light gray chairs. They each had a rune manual in their hands while they pretended to study.
The eldest of the two, was a girl with long slate gray hair and matching eyes. Her eyes slightly tilted down at the outside edges and her lips had a perpetual pout. She wore a long white empire dress like a proper Lady. However, she was sitting with her knees up and slouching with her back curved. Hidden inside the middle of the rune manual was another book about sword upkeep and care which she was engrossed in.
The girl sitting in the other chair in front of the fireplace had long red hair like her mother, but she also had matching red eyes. She had an angelic heart shaped face and porcelain like skin. She looked like a lovely doll in her pink empire dress and matching bow in her hair. Although she had the manual in her hand, she was obviously not reading it. She was openly looking around the corner of the chair's back and was staring at Amber.
Amber was sitting at an oval table with the Baron trying to lord over everyone else at the table from the front. If they really wanted to be technical about status, his status was the lowest in the room.
Sitting next to him in the closest seat was a medium height slightly plump woman with quite generous curves. She wore a sage-green empire dress that matched her eyes, and had a slit that reached her thigh. Her long red hair was in an intricate up-do with long tendrils that hung loosely around her shoulders and down her back. She kept on twisting a handkerchief between her hands and slightly fraying its edges between her long pointy red nails. While she nibbled on her plump, dyed red, bottom lip, her green eyes darted between the faces of the other people sitting at the table.
Amber sat directly on the other side of the table when she'd been called into the room. It was customary for a daughter to take the seat furthest away from the head of the table and to the side, to indicate their lower position within the family. She was aware of this custom, but ignored it anyway.
As much of a worthless fiance he was to her personally, being engaged to the First Prince did have one distinct perk. Amber was technically connected directly to the royal family. She was a Princess Intended, which gave her about as much authority as a Duchess. The only reason people tended to look down on her was because Arabella had been a horrible pushover and the First Prince had reviled her. However, this letter changed things greatly.
Baron Montgomery Frost picked up his coffee cup and took a sip while he looked over the edge at Amber, with cold gray calculating eyes. His thick black hair was short and layered with a similar hairstyle as the Duke, except that his hair was mostly black and peppered with gray. Stubble lay on his strong jaw and he was surprisingly fit for his age. He wore a basic tunic and loose black pants outfit that was common for men to wear in this world. On his ear was a single jewel, twice as large as a normal familiar jewel, and pure black.
A small crease appeared between Amber's eyebrows when she looked at that jewel. 'Duchess Dash' had mentioned that some unspeakable thing had happened to Baron Frost in his youth while he was lost in the Shadow Forest. The book also mentioned his fear of mafau and maflo, but it didn't mention anything about the Baron having a familiar of his own. It never said that he didn't, but Amber had always assumed that he wouldn't have one because of his fears.
Sitting in the seat of least authority, where the Baron had wanted Amber to sit, was Celine Frost. Her ash brown hair was roughly cut to her shoulders. The edges of her hair were uneven and frayed. They looked like someone had cut it with a dull knife. Her once glowing complexion was dull and she was wearing a once white, now stained wrap dress, and looked like a poorly treated servant. Her gray eyes didn't lift from her hands while she clasped them together in front of herself. Every once in a while her fingers slightly shook, but then she held them more firmly together. Her skin was dull and her eyes were red rimmed with telling bags under them. She was thin enough that you could easily see the shape of her bones under her tightly wrapped skin.
She was a far cry from the woman she had been before she'd fallen for the Baron. She had been a woman who was a treasured daughter in a Ducal family, but had thrown it all away for a man with a silver tongue. So charming he had been that she had been drawn in completely by him, to the point that she could no longer see reason. Now her life was in shambles and her very last hope had disappeared with the arrival of Miss Regina Bluit.
Celine's gray eyes flicked up and briefly met Regina's sage-green eyes. A confident smirk appeared on Regina's lips as she looked Celine up and down. Then she looked away, back towards Celine's husband, and easily dismissed her as if she didn't exist. Regina reached out her red clawed hand and possessively wrapped her fingers around the Baron's arm.
Celine flinched and quickly looked away towards the book cases against the wall, as if there was something incredibly fascinating over there.
Although this mother of hers had been entirely useless as a mother, Amber could feel a bit of indignation and ire bubble up within her. She understood that in this empire it was common practice for men to have multiple women, but that didn't give a common mistress the right to blatantly look down upon the legal wife of the household.
"I don't believe that we've been properly introduced?" said Amber to Regina.
Baron Frost frowned at Amber while Regina rubbed her hand back and forth against his arm.
"I sent you a letter informing you about Regina and your half siblings coming to live with us."
Amber rested her elbow on the arm of her chair and rested her chin on her hand. Her long silver hair draped over, uncovering the many jewels on both of her ears. She was confident and stunning in a long pure black empire dress made from the highest quality of materials. Her long sharp nails were painted black, she wore black lipstick, and black winged eyeliner. Her medium purple eyes appeared to be blue to the other people in the room, but she was still just as stunning. A languid confidence rolled off of her in every gesture and movement that she made, to the point that the Baron felt a slight chill travel up his spine. He had not felt such a phenomenon since the previous emperor's time. He became angry with himself for feeling such a thing towards a mere girl and his own daughter nonetheless.
Amber chuckled condescendingly. "That's hardly an introduction," Amber said and then grinned widely.
Baron Frost pinched his lips together and then glanced down at the letter held in Amber's hands. He had planned on disregarding his first wife and children in favor of his mistress and children with her. Now he had to be a bit more cautious. When had this nearly forgotten daughter of his gained such a shocking presence, regained her beauty, gained the First Prince's affection, manifested rare magic, and collected familiars? He didn't know her anymore to the point that it felt like a stranger was sitting in front of him. However, what bothered him the most about this situation was that she gave off a feeling like she was his equal. The Baron ground his teeth in irritation. No, she gave off a feeling like she was his better.
Regina stilled her hand on the Baron's arm and slightly squeezed. Regina and the Baron's eyes met briefly before he shrugged his shoulders and adjusted his tunic, as if there was anything wrong with it.
Then Regina looked back over at Amber. "You may call me Lady Regina Frost."
Amber widely grinned and chuckled. "Oh, I may? My goodness! Aren't you delightfully delusional?" Amber said with sparkling eyes.
Amber looked at the Baron, "Father, where did you find this jester? She's hilarious."
Amber looked back at Regina and leaned forward, as if sharing a secret. "Miss Regina, wasn't it? As amusing as that introduction was, I wouldn't continue to speak like that if I were you. Impersonating nobility is a crime punishable by death. It'd be a shame to have your pretty little neck cut in half and all your lovely red hair ruined. There is also something else you should keep in mind. Although I'm currently living in a mere Baron's household, I am still considered a member of the royal family. It is required that anyone below my status has to give me proper greetings and speak formally to me. It's also required that any concubine, mistress, or other type of shameless whore pay respects to my Mother, the legal wife, in return for being a homewrecker. It's the least you could do after spreading your legs so readily for an already married man," said Amber.
"Arabella! How dare you speak to your new mother that way?" Baron Frost said.
Amber turned her attention towards the Baron. "I will speak any which way I want, to whomever I want, save for the Emperor himself. Are you claiming to be on the same level as the Emperor?"
Baron Frost's eyes widened. "I wouldn't dare. You've misunderstood my intentions. I simply wanted to remind you of filial piety."
"Since when did your station get promoted to The Royal Family's Advisor?" Amber said.
Amber looked at Baron Frost in the eyes and pointed her finger at Regina. "This nasty, disease infested thing you brought home, needs to come over here, and pay proper respects to this member of the royal family. Then she needs to pay proper respects to the legal wife of this household. After that, I want her out of my sight, and away from my air. Her presence is making this room smell like rotting fish. You also need to invite a doctor over here to test this..." Amber looked Regina up and down. "...thing for STD'S."
Amber looked back at the Baron and lowered her arm. "I wouldn't want my Mother to catch some unspeakable thing if she ever decided to sleep with your lying, womanizing, cheating, and worthless self ever again." Amber said with a pleasant smile on her face.
Amber lifted up the letter. "Or I can just call the First Prince over here and see what he thinks about this situation."
By the end of Amber's speech, the Baron's face was bright red, and he was choking from pent up rage. He moved, ready to give this rude little girl a sound and well deserved slap across the face, when he felt Regina holding him back.
Then the loud sound of chair legs scraping against white ash wooden floors suddenly filled the otherwise quiet room. Everyone seemed to hold their breaths as Regina pushed her chair back and stood up.