1
Alina
She’d suffocate me.
All for the sake of her own dramatics. The ebony veil over my face was heavy enough to obscure my features while still allowing me to see. With no one but Mother and Aric in the backseat with me, the absurdity of it all struck me in the chest and tore a ragged groan from my lungs. Sweltering, with my hair plastered to the side of my face, my own stale air refilled my lungs. All because of her desperate bid to keep me hidden, even though the tinted windows ensured that already.
The Kingdom of Oshal stunned as the gates opened, and the driver eased the limo through them slowly. Such wealth and opulence seemed so foreign to me with the way my Kingdom suffered.
My father had been many things in his life, but a fair and money-savvy leader was not one of them. Since his death, my brother had done everything he could do to repair the financial hardships my father had created. But it took time to rebuild a nation and ease the burden of poverty.
The palace took my breath away, a heart-stopping finale in the journey from the airport and through the streets of Oshal. A masterpiece of white marble and glass, it speared out of the hillside, a marvel of architecture and wealth. With the city around it and the blue-green waters of the ocean in the distance behind it, I'd never seen anything quite like it.
But impressing me wouldn’t have been difficult. I had never left the grounds of the palace I called home.
Sheltered. Protected.
Caged.
Cameras flashed as we neared the horseshoe at the end of the drive. The media's presence served as a stern reminder that we weren't at home anymore. A reminder that, no matter how happy I was to have a slight taste of freedom for the first time in my life, I'd probably have been better off locked away like always. Not struggling to breathe with a black veil on my face and preparing to meet my future husband. A man I'd never laid eyes on. A man over twice my age who knew nothing about me. A man I would spend the rest of my life trapped beside.
Oshal, beautiful as it was, served only as a station as I moved from one prison to the next.
“Another pretty cage,” I whispered to myself, desperate to find peace with my shifting reality. Struggling to find acceptance even as panic welled inside me, threatening to spill over until all the rumors came true.
I was the broken princess. An embarrassment to her kingdom they hid away for eighteen years.
The limousine came to a gentle and silent stop, and the SUVs with our bodyguards slowed to surround it. I heaved in a deep breath, glancing at Aric. Though he could hardly see my eyes, he knew me well enough to know he was the one I would turn to in my moment of discomfort.
Never our mother.
"Are you ready?" he asked, his voice soft and understanding. His pointed look told me he’d heard my mumbles, but he’d refrained from commenting. He knew they’d calm the turmoil and anxiety churning in my gut. A familiar comfort in a sea of unknown expectations.
I nodded. Mother tutted in a mostly silent scold, and I clenched my eyes shut as she reached across the seats to make sure the veil was secure at the collar of my dress.
"I don’t have a choice, do I, Aric?" I snapped, immediately regretting it. While Aric might have been able to override our mother's insistence on keeping me hidden until the ball, nobody had the power to change my fate. Princesses married Kings. If they were less lucky, Princes who were heir apparent, or, worse yet, the second or third son who would never sit on the throne.
But the lineage had to be royal and the marriage was doomed to be nothing more than a business transaction. Love was something that existed for the "commoners." Alliances between Kingdoms were all that mattered for girls like me. Not silly things like passion and devotion.
"Make sure they don't see you," Mother reminded me, giving me a stern look that communicated just how displeased she'd be if I ruined her plan. Nearly two decades of keeping me hidden would be all for nothing if I showed my face to the paparazzi before the ball.
Giving me one final nod, Aric plastered his Kingly smile on his face and knocked on the door. His favored bodyguard, Hicks, tugged it open and gave him a nod to signal it was safe to emerge. Aric went first, straightening the coat he wore, before turning to offer a hand to my mother.
She took it with a grace that said Queen from head to toe. Without diving into her history, one would never know the truth. Marrying her had brought scandal to my father’s throne and had disrupted his political power.
My mother wasn't born a royal. Her roots were humble. A merchant family, descending from one of the races who had once roamed the lands that our country, Lantis, now occupied. The blood had diluted over the years, blending with the other races of my homeland, but my mother looked every bit a child of the mostly forgotten race, with her golden skin and dark hair.
As did my brother and I.
She smiled, stunning, even though her youth had begun to fade with Aric’s refusal to pay for the cosmetic treatments she’d demanded of our father. Whenever she walked into a room, people would notice. Whenever she smiled, she turned heads. The problem was that she did so rarely, at least, not genuinely.
Aric leaned forward, looking into the limo with a supportive smile and holding out his hand for me. Staring at it for a moment, I wondered if I could convince the driver to take me back to the airport. I didn't want to marry King Corbin, but I couldn't spend another moment of my life as a prisoner.
I wanted to live. Even if I never got to love.
It was with that in mind that I heaved out a deep sigh, ruffling the fabric of my veil, and accepted Aric's hand. He pulled me out, letting the shapeless black dress I wore settle around my legs, revealing nothing. Gloves even covered my hands with mother's pathetic attempt to keep the suspense at its highest.
The rumored beauty of Lantis, only to be revealed at the Opening Ball of the Royal Gathering after her eighteenth birthday.