PROLOGUE | Adela

Adela kept her eyes shut, her breathing steady and her body still under the soft, silken sheets of her four poster bed. She had stayed unmoving, waiting for Sir Raymond to leave.

She'd been in the same position for a period of time nearing on ten minutes and she was itching to move. But she couldn't risk moving and alerting Raymond of her consciousness. His dull conversation was absolutely insufferable.

She could hear him exchange conversation with her father sometime after she came to bed, then entering her room alone. She froze in her bed and was stuck like so until he decided to leave.

She listened intently to his footsteps across the room she was so familiar with. The faint steps came intimidatingly closer to her and stopped towards her left. She tensed ever so lightly as she could feel her cheeks getting slightly warmer, and then a rough finger touched her. It drew light lines on her rosy cheek before retreating.

Suddenly, she felt another warmth on her cheek, this one hotter and moist. Inside she was screaming but her expression stayed indifferent. A soft sigh sounded above her.

"Oh, Adela. You will be mine, my love. You resist now, but I will have my way with you," Raymond whispered quietly and it took everything in Adela's power to not to jump up and give him a good beating.

But she stayed still and waited until he turned and left the room. She used the click of the door shutting as a signal that the coast was clear, and rushed to rub any remains of a kiss from her cheek.

She stood from her bed, stretching her stiff muscles back to flexibility. Stepping lightly across her room, she made her way to her armoire and disrobed her night gown. She put on her night gear: a pair of thick dark green tights and a short tunic of the same colour. She pulled on her thick leather boots and waist-length hooded cloak, before wrapping a hooked belt around her waist.

The princess stalked to her window, pulling her hood up and making sure she was as quiet as possible and as prised it open. She peered down at the long drop and gulped, filled with flittering nerves.

She had survived this fall many times but every time she felt the same nerves and excitement. She knew she could get down safely, as she did every time, with a simple levitation spell - one of the only spells she knew.

"Levitus Dominia," she whispered and she floated into the air and out of her window. She turned and closed her window, before flying off away from the castle.

As she soared through the air towards the forest, she felt the fresh air rush into her lungs. She revelled in the liberty of the outdoors and the familiarity of the night sky.

Flying was without a doubt her favourite thing to do. She wished that she could fly more often, and that it wasn't frowned upon by her parents and her kingdom. She was yet to hear of a place that accepted her weird hobbies, but refused to give up searching.

She would leave early in the morning or late at night nearly every day to go exploring. She would ride her horse, Kyra, and wander around Greythorn, with nothing but a bag of money and a cloak to keep her warm. Sometimes she would venture passed the borders of Greythorn into Belitoniz.

It was a dangerous area; her father always warned her to never go there on her own. But she didn't listen. She just wanted to be free of her invisible chains. So she would sprint across the forest floor and stalk through the clear streams with no shoes on her feet. It was her escape from the airtight castle in Greythorn. The parents constantly sniffing around her business.

Many a time, she had wished that she could run away to the forest, maybe make a shelter and forage food. It was an open option for her and more than once she had been ready to go.

But the pure air and the calming silence would always bring her back to her senses and send her back to the castle.

She thought about it as she landed softly at the edge of the forest, and entered on foot. Her boots sloshed through the moist mud and she weaved and ducked through the wild forest. Branches and leaves scratched at her legs and arms, but she soldiered on through the bushes, dead set on her destination. She followed the trees, using them to help her navigate. Left after the one with three low branches, hop over the over-grown roots and take a right when she came to the large rock.

Soon she reached the place she had been looking for. Tree branches stretched across stream and had entangled themselves over hundreds of years. They formed a bridge in which Adela could swing across. She did so and followed the familiar routine of sitting down at the rock along the edge.

She slipped off her leather boots and placed them neatly under a crook in the large rock she was sitting on. Standing up, she stretched and wiggled her toes, pulling her sleeves up as she looked at her arm. They weren't littered with goose bumps meaning the water was warm enough to get inside.

She made her way back to the edge of the stream and sat down, pulling her hood down and loosening her pony tail. She let her hair flow down her back, the long wavy tips tickling the grass below. She leaned back, propping herself up with her hands and she dipped her feet into the stream. The cooling water danced inbetween her toes, cold at first but she gradually became accustomed.

Adela sat and thought for a while - about life in the castle and about life out of the castle. About things that made her happy, like the stream she currently had her toes dipped in. About things that infuriated her like her father and Sir Raymond.

Sir Raymond.

Undoubtedly handsome and terribly stubborn described Sir Raymond exactly. His wonderfully arrogant and utterly stupid attitude baffled Adela to no end. She wondered forever how her mother and father had even decided on him. She was surprised that they had even been able to tell him about her, seeing as Adela herself could never get a word in.

He only ever talked about himself, and the only time he would verge off subject would be to tell the Lacertus helpers that his tea was too hot.

Now, Adela was forced into marriage with this intolerable, gold digging rat. Everybody knew he was just in it for the money. The fame. The status. His feelings towards Adela were strictly business and Adela knew this.

She thought about what happened around an hour earlier. The burn of familiarity tingled through her cheek. The kiss he planted on the side of her face seemed permanently imprinted there. Reminding her of the chains that held her.

She hated Sir Raymond.

She hated Sir Raymond so much.

She hated Sir Raymond like a Fivera hated water.

"I didn't know your feelings were so strong, Princess," a husky voice sounded behind her. A familiar husky voice. How did he get here? How did he know what she was thinking? Or did she, in the midst of silence, unknowingly say it out loud?

Adela turned reluctantly to face a chosen suitor, not even remembering to hide the pure hate and disgust in her glare. "Now, Sir Raymond, I didn't think you were one for the great outdoors," she snapped in response. Her only happy place invaded and tainted by the only poison that could do such a thing.

"Adela, why so venomous? Are we not betrothed?" He stepped closer towards her, circling behind her and she stiffened. "It isn't ladylike to be so rude, or to even sit where you are currently sat."

"There is nothing wrong with where I am sat. The only wrong thing is who is here with me," she retorted. No description could account for the rage that coursed throughout her body. Her fists clenched and her knuckles were white.

"Listen, Princess. I believe you need to evaluate your position. I have to make a fundamental decision," Adela's ears pricked up when she heard this - out of mere curiosity she decided to listen and not burn him to a crisp with a simple spell.

"I can either tell the King and Queen about your secret sanctuary and have you locked up forever. Or I could save you the lifetime of imprisonment wi-"

"I choose option two. Will you leave me now?" Adela interrupted hastily.

"Let me finish, Princess. There's a condition," Raymond smirked deviously. "You have to love me - unconditionally. Like a good wife should."

"Are you insane?" Adela shot up from her place on the grass and narrowed her eyes at the unbearable man stood confidently before her. "How could I love such a vain, narcissistic evil man like you?"

"You will have to if you want your little hideout to remain a secret," he smirked an evil smirk, one that showed very well how much more angry and impatient he was becoming.

"Never," Adela shook her head furiously. "I will never be able to love you. You don't even love me."

"But I do, Adela, dear. I love you so much," he replied stepping closer to the Princess and stroking her cheek lovingly with his hand. It was warm against her cold skin, so the burn made Adela feel uncomfortable and she jerked away.

"You will not give in will you?" He stared at her, more exasperated than angry. Adela stared back blankly.

"Very well," Raymond nodded in defeat. "But be hasty, Princess. You don't have much time before your father sends guards here to take you to your own home in chains."

"No, Raymond! Please don't tell him! I will marry you! Just don-"

"Permoveo Portinimus," Raymond muttered mischievously as Adela reached out to grab him.

But she was too late.

Raymond was gone.

And so was her freedom.