Did you really let her go?

The members of the grievers of doom arrived at Denise's hut. They were about 19 of them present including Lily, Simon, and Denise.

The small hut was cramped as this was an impromptu meeting and they couldn't plan to meet up at their secret for the fear of being caught.

"What is the reason behind this meeting?!" Francis, a bitter man who lost his wife to the cruel hands of the royal guards questioned.

"You can't just call us out like this! What if we get caught?!" A woman in her mid-thirties

"Calm down everyone," Lily started. Once everywhere quieted down, she explained why she left.

To the members, her reason was useless because she was going to meet the cursed prince so far she had accepted to infiltrate the castle.

"His presence is so unnerving and every minute spent with him makes me feel like the air is being drained out of my body," Lily explained.

The members seemed to calm down a little more but they were still visibly upset.

"So we're back to square one?" Francis asked annoyed.

"Definitely Not, all our hard work cannot be in vain. I have a plan..." Lily revealed.

The members began talking within themselves and soon quieted down.

"Let's hear it then," Denise requested.

"Adrian, The cursed prince's brother, is going to his bride's house tomorrow to prepare for the wedding and they will be taking the road of Oax."

...

"So you just let her go?" Adrian was pissed.

"Yes," Aziel hummed and continued checking the quality of the apples in the market. He and Adrian left early in the morning to inform their Aunt living on the outskirts of the kingdom of Adrian's wedding.

They were done in a jiffy but Aziel knew Lily and Simon wouldn't have left yet so he went to the market to pass time and Adrian, unfortunately, has to follow him.

"What if she already knows too much? Letting her go was such a reckless move?" Adrian said with spite.

"Was it?" Aziel asked calmly.

"I need 200 of these apples," He told the apple vendor as he bit into one of her apples. The woman was so happy that this young gentleman was about to buy almost all her apples. That was something that took almost a week to sell.

"Hypocrites!" Adrian spatted. "Wait until they know who you really are, that's when you see their real nature."

"We can't help that now, can we?" Aziel said and bit into the apple. He nodded his head multiple times when the apple juice spread around his mouth.

"But..."

"I get you don't want to get married but I think it'd be better to channel that frustration to the cause, not me," Aziel said nonchalantly.

Adrian scowled and kept mute. He couldn't even hold a complete conversation with his father talk less of refusing whatever orders were given by his father.

The brothers then made a few rounds around the market, visiting stall after stall till sunset.

Their carriage was waiting for them at the entrance of the market as they instructed.

"I have somewhere to go," Adrian said when they got to the carriage.

"Where?" Aziel asked seriously.

"You don't need to know," Said Adrian as he turned his back on his brother and left.

Aziel then turned and smiled at the coachman "Shall we?"

The coachman frightfully got down from the horse and opened the carriage with shaky hands.

Aziel didn't bother with the demeanor of the coachman he reveled in the pleasure he got from the fear people felt when he was around. Well, except for one person, and he knew when he returned, she wouldn't be there.

The ride to the castle was eerily quiet. The eerie air was the normal air that followed Aziel wherever he went, yet people that were always with him still hadn't gotten used to it including his coachman who had served him for hundred years. At least he hasn't been killed like the other coachmen before him... yet.

"Ride slowly," Aziel suddenly ordered and the carriage suddenly came to a halt.

The coachman dared not ask why and tried to make the horses go as slow as they could. A journey of thirty minutes suddenly passed an hour yet no order of moving faster came.

"Follow that route," Aziel ordered again and the coachman obediently adhered. The route Aziel ordered him to follow was a longer route to the castle. That was another three-hour journey from that route and with the way the horses were moving at a slow pace...they were most likely to reach midnight.

Just like the coachman guessed, they reached the castle past midnight.

Aziel stalled for a moment before getting down from the carriage.

There was this unsettling feeling wrapped around his chest and making it hard to breathe when he thought about Lily not being inside that castle.

He knew she was special when he first saw her. He has been blind for years and only imagined what the world looked like. That was all he could do, imagine.

But when he first set his eyes on her, he saw for the first time after 356 years of being in the dark. Although the images were in black and white, he still saw them.

The first thing he saw when he regained his sight was Lily. She was beautiful.

His sight didn't last long and he was thrown back into darkness. After that brief moment, all that was engraved in his mind was the image of Lily looking pitifully as she begged for him to save her.

He didn't know what to make of what had happened and decided to keep Lily close to him to figure out her connection to him.

For years he had been looking for a way to break his curse. It was the only thing he wanted but couldn't get. It was his only flaw.

Maybe that was why he couldn't breathe with the thought of Lily gone. He let the only person that could probably have a clue on how to break his curse go and he was back to the beginning.

He let her go, or did he really?