The soft, wavy flow of her silvery white hair, the way she smiled, and the way that the woman starred back from the portrait looked exactly like Shia. The only difference was that she had a pair of hazel-colored eyes while Shia’s were of a darker brown hue. “It’s so scary! I cannot tell the two of you apart!” Khailis exclaimed while flipping her gaze from Shia and back to the woman in the portrait. “I didn’t realize it back then, but I think this was the reason why you looked so familiar to me when I first saw you in the woods,” the prince whispered to her. “Who is she?” Shia inquired, gasping at the apparition she was seeing. “She,” a voice from behind them spoke, “is the lady of this house – Duchess Tristal Mariana Andry.” The three of them were met by a tall woman in her early forties with silvery hair that was tied neatly in a bun. Her eyes looked kind, and they started shedding tears as she came closer towards them. “By the gods o

“I am not the slightest bit afraid,” Langrion said. “I don’t want any other bride... I-I think I have already come to love you.” Perhaps it was the weariness from the travel and from all that have happened on the past few days, but the words already came out of Langrion’s mouth before his mind could recall them back. As his own words sunk into him, his ears and face turned so crimson and became so heated up, it felt like he was having a heart attack. Thankfully, Shia looked as if she was already fast asleep. If he were lucky, she will not remember any of it. Everything will remain as it is; everything will still go according to plan... Then reality hit him... ‘I love her,’ he thought desperately. This was not part of his plan. He just needed her to be by his side for some time while he looked for a way to break his curse. He could not afford to love someone, or anyone, for that matter. What if he does not find a cure? Or worse, what if the Devil, the

If Shia thought her encounter with the man by the dirt road was bizarre enough, she did not know that things would only just turn stranger and more irritating as her day went by.Shia and Khailis were each able to heave a sigh of relief as their carriage finally drove out of the manor’s front gate. Shia didn’t go down from the carriage to bid her goodbye to the duchess and the baroness and only looked at them from the small carriage window to avoid any questions that may arise from her ruined dress. It was a bit unconventional, but thankfully, they bought her excuse that she was too excited to see her dress for her to crawl back down from the carriage and properly say her good bye.Thankfully, Khailis did have a cloak inside her carriage that can be put over Shia’s dress. Upon closer inspection, however, Shia could not decide which one is filthier: her dress or Khailis’ cloak that she admitted to have kept in the carriage’s storage box for

Langrion’s voice sounded sinister as he breathed his words, “Didn’t you know that it’s bad luck to lose a shoe, deary? And it’s even a far worst luck to meet some stranger in the woods at this dreadful hour...” After he spoke these words, he grabbed one of Shia’s arm, which made her lose her balance. With a loud thud, they crashed together hard on the ground. Shia’s head seemed to spin a little from the fall. When she came about, she realized that Langrion’s muscular body had landed on top of her. She tried to move about, but she can’t. She looked down and saw that his face had buried itself near her stomach, but his hands gripped both of Shia’s shoulder so forcefully that it hurt quite a lot. “Let me go, Langrey. You’re hurting me,” Shia said. She was waiting for Langrion to laugh at her anytime now and tell her that he had simply missed a step or that everything was a joke. She waited, but he said nothing. A twinge of panic began to rise in the pit of her s

Shia shot a glance at the face of Langrion’s twin and surveyed it one more time before she finally decided to lower down her weapon. As soon as she did, an arm and a pair of coat were wrapped around her body. It was Langrion. He continued to lock her in an embrace, which she felt was more for the sake of his brother than for her. “She is feeling unwell. I shall take her back into the room,” Langrion declared to the people around the table. “Obviously she is, boy,” the old man replied. “But let her stay. I want to see her face up close.” The lady with dark green eyes snorted, “There goes my appetite...” Shia’s eyed the group of people around the dining hall suspiciously. How did each of these horrible folks come to know each other? What’s worse is the fact that even Langrion is acquainted with them! Was there some kind of connivance between all of them that they decided to single out this day to infuriate her? In an apparent compliance, Langrio