A Month before Victoria Rozenreff's  Fifteenth Birthday

PRINCE COREAN Shuia Eckrett tasted the first whiplash of pain after the cherry red eyes of Victoria Rozenreff rejected his heartfelt confession. The winter breeze numbed his aching heart, but all he could feel was the glacial look of the lady he dared to love. In his almost eighteen years of existence, no one woke the curiosity in his core. No one until she stepped into the secret room of the Turvy to dare persuade him to fight for his right, something he never once cared.

Cory could still remember Victoria's flaming cherry-colored eyes. She looked so fragile for him yet she could display the courage that no knight in the empire could master. She was quite a curious thing and he was drawn to her unpredictable actions.

The next thing he knew, he was already following her every move. The thoughts of her touching other men disturbed something primal inside him. It was almost a taboo feeling for the second prince who was known to be an emotionless doll of the northern palace. Yet her fierceness sparked a fire inside him that even he could not fathom.

She drew him like a moth to a flame.

He watched her walked away, her silhouette getting smaller. Cory was left alone inside the Rozenreff Duchy's greenhouse. The well-arranged Petunias that he personally grew and arranged for this special day lost their grandeur. His plan to ask for her hand was a secret between him and his trusted, Ilya, known to many as Lady M.

He knew from the very start that having her was an impossible feat but he's the second prince of the Eckrett Empire. He should at least try.

His wavy chocolate-colored hair whipped his face when a gentle breeze passed by him, who was still standing where Victoria left him standing. The bouquet of Petunia was still in his right hand and he was looking in the direction where she disappeared when he saw a familiar silhouette that was about to walk into the greenhouse. Cory muted his steps as he hid behind the only tree inside the enormous tree. Coincidentally, the steps stopped.

"Prince Lauren wanted me to assure you that Lady Victoria's reckoning will come, sooner than later."

Cory froze upon hearing his beloved's name being uttered by a familiar voice. He knew who owned the voice but he refused to believe at first. Utter disbelief reflected upon his face as he listened to his one and only friend betrayed him.

"That wench acted like she already won! Arg!" Lady Sabina of House Rozenreff lashed out to the flowers in the greenhouse. Cory could hear the vases breaking after being thrown mercilessly by the young mistress.

"Calm down, Lady Sabina. Your distress will delight your half-sister. I promised to help you, right? And so did Prince Lauren. So believe us when we tell you, your sister will perish. Prince Lauren already got a plan and it will start today. Can't you see? We're inside the greenhouse where Victoria marked her death."

Lady Sabina replied with agitation and doubt laced upon her voice. "What do you mean, Lady Merilla?"

"The second prince confessed to your sister yet she dared to reject him as we expected. This will create an opening for the first prince and me to use bait, Tessa. Prince Lauren told me that Tessa would sway Prince Corean's resolve to the point of abandoning his main goal which is to be the king of the empire. While I, the leader of the Information Guild and aristocratic faction will sway the second prince's support on the inside. Destroying your sister who built a solid foundation by being surrounded by her powerful vassals, we need to take one step at a time."

"And we will start by destroying the bond between the second prince and Lady Victoria Rozenreff."

Cory could not move from everything he heard. His golden eyes sharpened upon realizing that the only person he considered as a friend betrayed him for reasons beyond him. What he hated was listening to their vicious plan to the lady he cared about most along with his mother.

His jaws clenched as his nails pierced his palms with the brute force of fisting. He wanted to plummet them to the ground, not caring if they were ladies or not. What he heard was unforgivable, but if he wished to save his beloved, he needed to outsmart his brother and Ilya.

Cory waited for the two to leave before he decided to leave his hiding place. He stared at the bouquet that he never let go of. "I don't know if I should thank Gaia that you rejected me, Victoria. But from this moment on, I will walk a path that will push you away from me. I don't care as long as this will save you from them."

THE NEXT time that Cory met Victoria was in his greenhouse. This was the only place that he wanted to share with her. He even planted Petunias around the area in hope that the time they would meet here, she would give him the smile that he loved most. But the circumstances changed drastically after that wretched day. Now, he was with Tessa, the spy that his brother strategically planted. This was part of the plan that Merilla mentioned to Sabina.

While sitting comfortably, Cory felt the sudden jolt of his heart as dainty hands slyly slid from his neck to his chest. Cory knew this familiar static. He missed her. The lips touched his right ear brought a shudder to him and when she whispered. It took everything on him to stop himself from grabbing her to his body. "Are you waiting for your lover, Cory?"

Her warm breath froze his once relaxed body. Cory had to close his eyes to control his action. He knew that Tessa was watching. And with the way he was acting with the latter, Tessa truly believed that he fell, hook, line, and sinker to her. He also knew that Victoria and his mother thought so too. If he was able to fool his mother, then his façade was successful.

Cory dropped his book to his lap as he attempted to spin and was only stopped when Victoria pressed her front body to his back. The sizzling feeling of their skin touching after many weeks of being apart brought relief to his barren heart. Victoria was now practically hugging him intimately from the back.

"Are you meeting your concubine?"

Cory noticed the edge in Victoria's voice. She might think that she successfully hid it from him, but he spent a year observing every antic she did. He knew her like how he knew the back of his palm. Victoria could not fool him. Cory knew that Victoria was worried and annoyed with his actions. But he could not console her if he truly loved her. He needed to fool her first in order to fool their enemies.

With a heavy heart, Cory pried her arms away from him as he stood to face her harshly. His blazing yet cold golden eyes met her mocking red ones. Cory steeled himself as he showed his ugly emotions to his beloved. "For the record, Tessa is my lover. Your dream to become queen has long been drained since that day."

Victoria charmingly crossed her arms in front of him. Cory had to bite his cheek to stop himself from smiling at her cute antics. "Are you threatening to make that sewer rat your queen?"

Cory wanted to tell her that he only had her as his queen, but he saw Tessa's silhouette hiding behind a plant. So he channeled his anger for the situation inside him before he answered his beloved. "I am your superior so you bow down to me when I told you so, Lady Victoria."

Cory saw Victoria's grin faltered when he called her by her name. He never wanted to call her that in the first place. Everyone close to her called her Tori. Cory wanted to call her Victoria. The sensual roll of his tongue by mentioning her name matched her fierce yet sensual image for him. In a blink, her toothy grin came back as if her momentary reaction never happened at all, but Cory saw it all. He always took notice of the very little things she did.

The way she smiled when she was pissed, she would close her eyes as if she was smiling genuinely. But in fact, she was just hiding her emotions by closing her eyes.

The way she smiled when she was sad, she would use her toothy grin. In reality, her smiles seemed rehearsed to react when she was hurt as if she was already used to being sad or disappointed.

The way she smiled when she was genuinely happy or pleased, she would show her cute dimple in her left cheeks.

Cory knew that Victoria was feeling disappointed with him judging from the toothy grin she was showing at him the whole time.

His hard glare followed her when Victoria closed the distance between them by touching him which ignited something primal inside him. His jaws clenched not from anger but the restraint that he was keeping up.

Her red eyes never leaving his gaze. "Are you sure you want to let go of my hands? When I rejected you, I clearly told you. I can give you my body over and over again. But never my heart, no one will have it. Why can't you just accept that rancid fact?"

Victoria kept tracing her fingers to the contours of his chest. His ragged breathing betrayed his emotions; Cory wanted to give in. But it took one glance for Corean at Tessa's location to snap himself. "I am an obsessed person. If you want to be my queen then you need to surrender your heart to me." Corean uttered those words knowing that Tessa was listening to him. The latter would report this to his brother, Cory was sure of that.

Laughing from his declaration, Victoria took a step away from him. Cory immediately longed for her touch. At a good distance, Cory saw Victoria's toothy grin turned into a venomous one. He missed that look of hers. "Never forget, Prince Corean Shuia Eckrett. My hands are your saving grace. Though I think I need to educate you again so I will show you how will it feels if I choose to abandon you."

Taking a step towards him, Victoria grasped his neck as she whispered her words a good millimeter from his lips. Cory could smell her cheery scented breath that he was addicted to. "You will never be king without me, Your Highness."

Corean agreed to Victoria. He would not want the throne if she would not be his queen because, for him, he would move mountains and oceans to save her from his brother and all of Victoria's enemies.

It pained him to watch her silhouette leaving him again. He was afraid that the very last thing that he would see would be her leaving form. But if that would mean that she got to live, Cory knew that he would rather Victoria left him to live than be with him just to die.

Cory already knew that Victoria built walls around her, disabling anybody from crossing that dreaded boundary.

He felt a pair of arms snaked around his torso from behind. "Poor Lady Victoria," whispered Tessa. Corean's golden eyes sharpened before turning to Tessa and giving her his infamous gentle smile.