“Of course, Your Highness,”

The Prince turned in her direction and she gave him a small curtsy before speaking, “Good Evening, Your Highness,”

He ignored her completely and addressed the knight when he spoke again, “You made her wear satin gloves, it is as if you want her to miss her target!” his voice remained contained, but rugged enough to scare the knight.

“Pardon me, Prince Alex, I thought they’d protect Her Highness’s hands from any damage caused by the bowstring!”

“She’s not made of paper, Kalon. Take off your gloves and all of that as well,” he instructed and she obeyed without hesitation.

“Your Grace, she could scar her hands-”

“I suppose that’s my problem, isn’t it. We don’t need your supervision, Kalon, you may leave now,” flustered, the knight left throwing Eliana a pitiful look. She lowered her head, her eyes fixated on the ground. “Leave us,” she knew that was for the maids and the guards from the way they scattered away the next second.

He picked up another bow and a single arrow for her and handed it to her. “Thank you, Your Highness,”

 “I think we’ve reached a point where you can address me by my real name, Eliana,” she’d always felt her name was ordinary until she had heard him say it. It rang with such passion and possessiveness that it almost didn’t sound like it belonged to her.

Something gave her the courage to raise her head and stare into his eyes. He handed her the bow and the arrow and came up right behind her.

“On battlefield you won’t have time to put on your armours or even your gloves. The enemy won’t wait for your to be ready. Learn to tolerate some pain, princess,” And there it was, the mock again.

“Yes, Your Highness,”

He ignored her attitude and spoke, “Take a minute to take in your surroundings. Let your eyes adjust to the dark. And if you still can’t see, we can always turn you into a vampire,”

She turned around so fast that the string of the bow strapped and attacked her right in the face. The Prince moved almost just as fast, but he couldn’t save the string from getting embedded in her skin.

She sucked her torn lip to keep herself from crying out in pain as the Prince cursed. He quickly detached the string from the bow.

“Hold tight, my robin,” with only those words as warning, he scooped her up in his arms and ran to her room faster than humanly possible.

She somehow managed to keep herself from crying as the tears only made it sting more. A healer arrived a few minutes later followed by her helpers carrying all sorts of remedies. She closed her eyes and her hands formed fists around the sheets as the healer started applying the ointments.

By the time the healer was done patching up her wounds, Eliana was covered in blood. It slid down her neck and stained her gown’s neckline, all the while soaking her hair. Her eyes met with the Prince’s and something darkened in them and she realized she was bleeding in front of a vampire.

The Prince rose up from the chair as soon as the healer left. “I need to finish some work,” he spoke quietly, his eyes drifting anywhere but towards her.

He turned around but before he could take a step, she asked, “If I asked you to stay, would you?”

He lowered his head, sighed, and then walked out of the door as if she hadn’t spoken at all.

That morning she dreamed of the last festival of Ganea.

Flowers overlooked the entire garden beds, stretching for miles in distance. They had a good harvest that year, with just the right amount of rain and bouts of sunshine. Ganea had magic seeping through its veins, through its rivers and the air that everyone breathed.

It was a land of the pagans.

Nature always shined upon them, with mother earth’s gifts splurging from the crops. Pagans were the followers of nature itself, with abilities that surpassed all of the other magical beings. Nature answered them every time they called out to it.

As the youngest princess of Ganea, she was showered with gifts from people all over their land. The first day of the festival was dedicated to that: the people showing their love to the royals.

The King and the Queen sat in the centre, with the Princesses by the Queen’s side and the Crown Prince by the King’s side. One by one, families came forward, rewarding gifts to a royal or royals of their choice. Eliana’s brother Cole received by far the largest number of gifts, enough to make both Eliana and Roese jealous.

People served him swords and knives and arrows. Some brought forward tunics, while some stuck to special magical items blessed with curses.

Their father gained the allegiance of men and excited little boys. Old women gifted him food items while younger woman shyly offered some stitched works of their own. Their mother received the most boring gifts out of them all. Most people gave her a part of their harvest: it was a variety of crops but nothing much. Some brought her dresses while some logs and coal for the hearth.

Roese got a wide range of white dresses. She was sixteen, and her marriage was something the entire land was looking forward to. Their were different veils and undying flowers with the finest of jewelley. Many lords and knights and messengers of a few princes brought with themselves a proposal.

And Eliana got the prettiest of tiaras, some beautiful dresses, unique stones, a pony, loads of flowers, a chess board, a bow with a bunch of arrows, a tea set, a variety of dolls and jewellery and toys, and a single proposal, one from the Night Kingdom.

It wasn’t ideal. The Night Kingdom wasn’t the best of a land. It was powerful and vast, it’s army was unbeatable but it wasn’t the best place to send your daughter, at least that was what the advisors told them.

The royals didn’t make much of a proposal, no one even bothered opening it and reading it. The King, their father, believed that she could do much better, and her brother promised that he would let her marry out of love when he ascended the throne.

Roese’s proposals were put aside and assessed thoroughly that night by the advisors while the performers started a show for the royals. Not everyone paid with gifts, some decided to showcase their talent.

The jester had already once gone through their programmes and supervised their work, just to be certain it was safe for the royals.

The night had started with fireworks. The local folk had performed a dance, the elders had sung. A circus from the nearby town had performed followed by jousting and melee and the night yet again experienced some fireworks.

Eliana woke up feeling homesick for those experiences and almost forgot about the cut down her face and the previous night’s event crashed on to her, dampening her mood.

A hollow filled her chest as she remembered that he had left.

She’d asked him to stay, not really because she needed him but because she wanted to see if he’d stay.

But he hadn’t.

Eloise told her that they could hide the wound until it had at least clotted. It was impossible, but that was what she needed; a scar to form.

“A scar like that would take years to disappear even with magic. The Prince must’ve done it on purpose so no one could steal his beautiful wife,” a chilling sincerity laid behind her joking words.

“It wasn’t his fault,”

“Bowstrings don’t snap by themselves. He could’ve done it and you wouldn’t have even realized. He’s a vampire, my darling,”

They didn’t go further into the conversation. Eloise picked out a dress for her and left with that, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She knew Alex hadn’t hurt her on purpose. She’d known him for seven years, and even though he didn’t love her, he somewhat cared for her, she knew that for a fact.

She knew that because even that day a basket came for her with food. It was again bigger than it should be, but she hadn’t been able to have dinner the previous night, and the Prince hadn’t underestimated her hunger.

By the time she was done, only a bite of chicken was left. “Do the Prince and I have different cooks?” she asked her chambermaid while she was cleaning the table.

“No, Your Highness. But I have heard that for the past two days he has been getting breakfast from elsewhere just for you.” A smile came to her face before she even realized.

That night, the Prince came yet again to her chambers.

She stood in the doorway while he ran a feather-like finger over her bandage and asked, “Does it hurt?”

“I have suffered worse,” she replied, unsure whether to be honest.

“Not what I asked,” his hand dropped to her shoulders and he guided her outside gently. He let go of her as they entered the grounds.

“Are we doing archery again today?”

“Yes. I spoke with Kalon. You were good at almost everything else. I suppose as a parting gift I should help you out with archery,” he handed her a new bow. “I had the strings tested beforehand just to be sure.”

“Thanks,” she gingerly took it from his hands. He noticed her hesitation and his voice softened,

“I am sorry for what happened yesterday,”

“It wasn’t your fault. I don’t want your apology or your pity, whatever it was,”

Something playful flickered in his eyes and he dropped an arm around her waist and pulled her in his arms. She would’ve been mad if she hadn’t been shocked and flustered by his gesture.

“You are mad at me,” he leaned down to rest his head against her shoulder and pulled her closer until her back was pressed tightly again his chest.  

“Alex-”

“So now you decide to use my name,” he joked, turning her head towards him with a finger. “I am sorry, my dear robin,”

He kissed a side of her head and ran another finger on her bandage. “Don’t worry, I am fine,”

“I have booked a safe passage to Ganea,” he said all of a sudden. “I cannot come because of the treaty but I have called a hundred guards to take you there and all of your staff. I have yet to confirm the entry of the guards with the King of Ganea but they won’t be representing Sleyisea. They’re your personal mercenaries, paid for a month and till then, they’ll only represent you. I have explained that in a letter to your father,”

“When did you get the time to get all that done?”

“Vampires don’t need much sleep, my darling robin,”

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. It was an impulsive gesture, something she had never done before. “Thank you so much for this,”

As gently as he could, he pried her hands off himself and turned her around. “Let’s get back to shooting,”

Trying not to feel rejected, she trained her eyes back on the target and let the arrow fly.

The Prince had to carry her back to his room for dinner after they’d both realized that her pain medication had started to make her dizzy and that she was bound to pass out after an hour of shooting.

“I carry you one day and you make a habit out of it,”

“Stop complaining, you’re a vampire, none of this affects you anyhow. Plus, Sir Kalon sort of mollycoddled me. I am spoiled, deal with it. You were the one who kicked him out,”

“Kalon carried you?” he asked, his voice lowering.

“Sometimes. And when I asked him really sweetly, he even helped me freshen up and get into my night clothes,”

“Not funny, robin,” but the amusement was evident in his eyes. The ride to his room seemed so long somehow that she fell asleep right in his arms.

When she woke up, she was on the table with her dinner served in front of her. “Eat,” the Prince ordered.

“I just want to sleep,” she argued, but even as she said it, she felt her stomach grumble with hunger. She hadn’t eaten since lunch and the medicines were making her hungry as a wolf. After eating, she passed out again on the table.

When she woke up, she was lying on the Prince’s bed under the covers. He was lying right beside her on the blankets, fully awake, his head in a book. “Good you’re awake, now I can have my bed back.”

She shot upright on her bed, letting the blankets fall down, only to find herself in a thin underdress. “What- what happened? Did we-”

“Don’t panic, robin, nothing happened. You fell asleep at the table. Your maids got you out of your dress and I put you to bed. That’s it,” she exhaled in relief before falling back down. Alex raised a hand and the lights dimmed in the room.

She saw him put down her book and lie down beside her. “Thanks for letting me stay,” she whispered and he leaned towards her and kissed her forehead. “Are you cold?” she questioned, raising the edge of the blanket.

Tentatively, he got under the blanket keeping a safe distance between the two of them. She was touched by how much he took her comfort into consideration but spoke nothing about it.

She’d spent nights previously in his room; her wedding night and a week or so when she was injured.

He had taken care of her then as well, wordlessly so, as if they weren’t the prince and princess-consort of Sleyisea and just two normal people.

She gave in to the darkness looming around the corner, and as it possessed her very conscious, it whispered in her mind that she had given in a long time back.

The second day of the festival was even grand than the first one, because it was a gift from the royals and the lords to the public. The people of Ganea led a happy life, and there was rarely a shortage of food, because from almost all the revenue collected, it was redistributed among the poorer of the people.

The lords sparred in the arena, while the ladies knitted up high on the mountains. Fairytale. That was what Ganea really was. A world from books Roese used to sneak into her rooms after midnight and read them till she fell asleep.

She had a lot of nannies but no one took care of her better than her own sister. And that was what she loved the most about Roese. In the world of royals where even mothers were often jealous of their daughters, such love between sisters was uncommon.

She was too young to notice all that, it was just what had always happened around them, but Roese was smarter, rebellious. She fought with her parents when Eliana obeyed like a pet fairy. Roese was fierce, she was a dragon, she was the most suitable ruler of Ganea, if not by age, then by courage.

On the morning of the second day, their mother, Candice, had woken the two of them by delivering some exciting news for them. Twenty-six marriage proposals had come for Roese, and seven of them were from future monarchs, and one of them was from the young Prince of Keovalan Empire, Daniel.

Daniel’s coronation was in two months, and he had to find a suitable bride by then to at least have as a fiancé. According to Candice, the proposals were sent to several many princesses and some ladies.

Roese did not match Eliana’s enthusiasm, as she stomped her foot and left the room. Candice sighed and made Eliana promise that she wouldn’t act the same way as her sister did.

Breakfast was early, with only the five of them at the table. “I don’t wish to get married, father!”

“You’re almost sixteen, my dear Roese, you must start considering suitors! This is the best proposal you could’ve asked for. He’s barely twenty-one. So young and the heir to such a powerful kingdom! You’ll be a Queen, my darling,”

My sister sighed. “He won’t love me,”

“Of course he will. Your father loves me,” my mother prompted, but her father only nodded to that sentence.

“You can’t marry a man with an inferior status. Besides, Keovalan is an empire of heretics. Your pagan powers will be worshipped there. You will be worshipped there.”

“I don’t want to be worshipped,” Roese whispered, her head hung in defeat for she knew there was no convincing her father otherwise. Her only hope was the Prince of Keovalan finding another bride before they mailed back their conditions.

That day, lunch and dinner were all complimentary to the people of Ganea. An informal court was established, with the Queen leading it while the King drank away in peace with the nobles.

People approached the Queen with simple demands: some wanted seeds, some food, while some merely wanted to cry at her feet and kiss them for all the help royals had provided.

The jester performed some tricks that night. Both the princesses danced around to lively music with the daughters of some nobles.

The Prince sparred with the sons of the nobles and the soldiers using wooden swords. A few knights gathered to perform an act and alas, the King rose, asked for the Queen’s hand and they danced away into applause and peace as the dawn sank.