15| First Couple Meeting

Within the silver-coated walls of the royal carriage escorted between the convoy, Sylteena remained stiff as a board with her eyes locked down.

With her blonde strands still wet and framing the sides of her face, her fingers pinched one another as she gazed at the leather shoe of the man seated opposite her; her eyes gingerly trailing up to his figure.

His Highness, and sadly, her husband, sat with a leg crossed over the other and his grip on the newspaper held before him.

With his raven hair combed backward, his blue eyes continued to skim over the lines of the paper in his hand.

Sylteena blinked twice.

This was her very first time seeing the prince up close as an adult. And one thing was certain... He was a marvelous example of God's creation.

Despite his well-framed structure in his simple shirt and pants, his hairstyle left his face on perfect display to take note of his sharp jawlines, thin lips and raised cheekbones.

Though he had on a stoic expression, his beauty was so well amplified, Sylteena only wondered how gorgeous he'd look if he smiled.

Her fingers tightened into fists.

This was truly the man the Phoenix had her marry? Her heart fluttered slightly at the unrealistic turn of events in her life.

He reminded her so much of all the male lead book characters she read from her teenage years while slaving back in the duke's mansion. The ones that were always so dreamy and perfectly charming, to save the poor female leads from their despicable lives of despair and shroud them in abundant love and affection along with the abrupt change of class.

Sylteena slowly lowered her gaze, sensing she had been staring for too long and would probably make him uncomfortable... Or disgusted.

She licked her dry lips, feeling the uneasy air suffocating the carriage.

The fact that he came to pick her up personally, had her feeling a slight sense of gratitude that he wasn't completely avoiding her like a plague.

But then again, she wondered why he hadn't said a single word all through their trip and why he hadn't questioned where she had disappeared and what had happened.

Should she break the silence first? Wouldn't that be rude to speak without being spoken to? Should she tell him about the kidnappers? And beasts she saw? Would he even be interested in hearing about them?...

Struggling with the conflicting emotions in her chest, Sylteena finally bottled up the courage to speak. Besides, kidnappers sneaking into the palace was a severe security breach and posed a danger to all of them...

"Yo- Your Highness?" The words barely came out of her quivering lips.

The crowned prince's eyes didn't shift from his paper.

"I- um... I apologize for speaking without permit, Your Highness but I—"

"Then stop speaking."

Her body cringed at his words, forcing her lips to seal as she lowered her head. She exhaled softly. But of course! She was definitely in over her head for a moment there...

Her eyes slowly dimmed of zeal.

A sudden jerk of the carriage before pulling to an abrupt halt caused Sylteena's body to jolt forward, falling straight onto the lap of the man seated opposite her.

She froze.

With her body resting on his thighs and her head still face down, Sylteena felt an unusual sense of dread — like she had just committed the gravest sin she could imagine.

She slowly bowed before trying to get up and return to her seat. "Apologies, Your Hi—"

Prince Anthony's leg immediately raised to push her body to the side, causing her to fall hard on the carriage floor as she let out a grunt.

She looked up at him with wide eyes, watching him wipe the fabric of his pants with a handkerchief before tossing it to her face.

Sylteena's eyes could only stare with scrunched brows as she watched his Highness' expression mold into a frown.

"Dare to taint me again," his eyes sliced daggers at her. "And I'll have your hands amputated."

The sense of ice water dumped on her already chilled figure caused her to remain still with an afeard expression.

And just immediately, the carriage door pulled open as a guard stood on the other side.

Prince Anthony raised an eyebrow at the guard, enough to make known the obvious question.

The guard then bowed, "Apologies for the abrupt stop, Your Highness. The wheels of the leading carriage broke, and one of the horses got injured as well. We are trying to repair it or move it off the path so you and the others can proceed."

Anthony waved a dismissive hand, having the guard shut the door to leave just the two of them once more.

A peeved sigh escaped his lips as he pinched the bridge of his nose, mumbling. "This trip was already galling enough..." He then shook his head to look into the eyes of his numbed wife, still on the floor. "... Yet you had to go and curse the journey back as well."

And with those sets of words that he uttered, Sylteena was bitterly reminded of her place in an instant, realizing that her life wasn't some fictional novel that a miraculously arranged marriage would change like a fairy tale.

Sylteena slowly moved to kneel as she lowered her head. "Forgive me, Your Highness..." What more could she say? Her gloomy eyes watched the floor before her.

And just before she was about to stand, his Highness spoke, "Do show some kindness and remain there on the floor." He flipped open his paper. "If would do us both a great favor."

Sylteena's head only nodded like that of a puppet.

"Yes, Your Highness."

Her eyes lost their last gleam of hope in them as she bowed once more. The weight of the intimidating silence suffocated the air around them.

With the convoy of carriages still stranded in the middle of the dirt road along the hill slope, a pair of glimmering green eyes locked on the royal carriage in the middle.

Bore by the disfigured body of what seemed like a monkey clung to a tree branch within the surrounding forest, the hairless primate of grey-black skin — that stuck to its bones — swung to another nearby branch before leaping off to rush deeper into the forest.

The small creature finally reached the grassland that centered the woods, pouncing to the ground to halt at the feet of the firm structure that stood as tall as the trees.

It then looked up.

The tall being of white timber-like skin stood with its extremities tainted oil black — staring down with a hunched back, its greyish moss-covered fleshy hair shrouded its entire head and dragged on the ground behind it.

The miniature primate immediately crawled up the creature's long legs to finally perch onto its shoulder to whisper something into the creature's ear.

Then the beast growled.