Love Before Blood

Chapter 4

Avalon's POV

After I agreed to participate in the marriage alliance, I’ve been a lot busier than I’m used to for the past five weeks. Gown fittings, shoe fittings, crown fittings. They’ve been making me take lessons on which utensil to use when eating, which is a lot simpler than they put it. They have also been making me do everything with my back straight. Luckily, I was strong and I have been able to endure it. I noticed that when I was eating, I was given a lot of food with nutrition and a little bit of fat. I couldn’t finish the first meal because I’ve never had this kind of food my entire life.

Queen Rosario actually had the nerve to tell me that I was too skinny to be a princess and that I needed to gain weight, and she even did it in front of King Locke. I was ready to throw one of the dinner knives. It’s not all my fault that I ended up this way. Despite all those changes to my schedule, the one part that I’m really happy about is having a bigger room to live in.

At first, the bed was really hard to sleep on, since I’m not used to having an actual bed. After a few days, I’m more used to sleeping on bales of hay with a blanket on top and sometimes finding spiders crawling on my blanket when I would be sleeping. And not to mention the bathtub, always filled with hot water when I needed to relax. It also had a terrace, but I doubt I was going to go out on it. The sky has been gray since this war started. The terrace overlooks the gardens but ever since the sky turned gray, the garden has eventually lost its life.

The one thing I’m definitely not used to is maids. They are actually...serving me. I can’t get used to it. When I just want a glass of water that is within my arm’s reach, they would hurriedly do everything and give it to me. Every morning and night, they would brush my hair and do my makeup. They would actually dress and undress me, and follow me around calling me “Your Highness” or “M’lady” the entire day with a respectful tone. I know how much a lot of the maids would talk about how they would like to be done for them sounds amazing, but to be honest, it’s annoying. I don’t think I would ever get used to the treatment I’ve been receiving. Other than that, I’m glad my mom has been doing a lot better. No more chores, better room, new clothes, and actual food.

Now with the wedding coming around in less than a week, I’ve been getting more lessons crammed and final measurements done. King Locke told me that I would be marrying the youngest prince, Azriel Fennix. According to Bryce, he is able to defeat our armies within the first wave of theirs. In addition, I heard from other people that he has the most victories as well. With that information, I thought of him as fierce, mean, and well, basically, like a jerk. I was also thinking of him as bloodthirsty, too.

He already picked out all of the venues and sent over the dress for me to wear and adjust. I didn’t get to see it, but one of the maids told me that the veil was very thick. At one of the dress rehearsals, they gave me a practice veil and dress. I couldn’t even see where I was going and ended up tripping on the dress.

“No!” yelled Queen Rosario,” Again, you can’t mess this up! Our reputation is on your shoulders, if you mess this up one bit, I promise I will be the last thing you see before you die.” If she keeps screaming like that, she's definitely going to be the last person I hear. I rolled my eyes and I had to have a maid walk me down the aisle, again. She didn’t let me go until the very end of the day, more like the end of the night. I don’t know why I was practicing so hard, our traditions are different from theirs. Not only that, the wedding was going to be at the Crystal Palace.

I was so exhausted, I didn’t even bother to take my hair out. I heard a knock on my window, and when I turned around I saw Bryce holding a basket and a smile on his face. He was dressed all in black. I opened the doors and asked,” What are you doing here? And how did you get up here?” I asked,” You’re going to get in trouble.”

Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen him since that day I was given my title as Princess. Knowing him, he probably got all the latest gossip. He also looks a little more muscular than I remember, he must’ve been training too.

“Sorry, Princess,” he said while mockingly bowing,” but I heard you didn’t eat all day.”

“Thanks,” I said, taking the basket from his hand and started stuffing myself with fresh loaves of bread that were inside.

“You know, everyone could hear the queen screaming from the soldier’s quarters.”

“I bet,” I said, in between mouthfuls of food,” She screamed so loud I thought I was going to go deaf.”

He laughed and said,” Nice to see how much your training has paid off.”

I elbowed him in the gut and he immediately stopped laughing. “I’m on a terrace with a basket in my lap. There’s no need for manners where it’s not needed.”

He rolled his eyes at me. “I heard you requested me to go with you, as your bodyguard.”

“Yeah,” I said,” Is there a problem with that?”

“No,” he said. I think I saw him blush a little. “I’m glad you requested me. I’d be happy to go with you. It’s just, I thought you would request someone else.”

I chuckled,” How can I request someone else if you’re the only friend I’ve had so far.”

“Good point,” he said as I gave him back the basket. We sat on the terrace in silence for a little bit. “How do you feel, y’know, about the prince?”

“Azriel?” I asked and he nodded in reply. I thought I saw a hint of jealousy in his eyes. “Quite honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never met the guy or heard of him until today, but he does sound a little intimidating though, especially after what you told me about him. But who knows, maybe we’ll get along somehow, after all I’m marrying him in a few days.”

I noticed how Bryce’s face scrunches up in a way he was trying to hide something. “Bryce, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly. His face returned to what it was, as if he never made it at all. Before I could ask him another question he said,” Listen, I gotta go. I’ll see you at the wedding, I’ll be busy training and packing my things for the next few days.

Something about those words kinda hurt. Did I say something wrong? During the first few days of training, I was wondering when he would visit me or talk to me, but it didn’t happen like I had hoped and it eventually became the last thing on my mind. It was like this before too. I’ve never known when he would talk to me, he always pops out of the blue.

“Goodnight, Princess,” he said, before climbing down the terrace into the night.

“Goodnight,” I said to no one in particular, and went to bed.

The next few days went by in a blur. I hadn’t seen Bryce or my mom, and the wedding was about to start. Prince Azriel had already arrived, with a wedding escort, before dawn. At that point, the maids shook me awake and brought the dress out and accessories.

When the maids showed me the wedding dress he sent over, I thought it was beautiful compared to all the gowns I’ve been forced to wear for sizing and for new clothes. I’ve seen Queen Rosario’s dresses for her parties, but in my opinion, none of them were as beautiful as this. The dress was a long sleeved and pearly white. Depending on the direction you were looking at the dress, there were pink hues. The cape that came with the dress was sheer white with hues of rainbow that glossed over it, and a matching mask that covers the top part of my face. I think it has a hood on it, but I couldn’t tell since the maids hurriedly dressed me into the gown.The accessories were silver with diamonds embedded in a pattern of the sun. However the shoes were different from what I expected. I was given a pair of knee high winter boots that looked like it was meant for cold weather, there was a small wedge to it.

Unlike the dresses I’ve tried on for fitting, this was a very comfortable dress. It was very form fitting, but comfortably snug. The cape also had a thermal lining inside. Apparently, he’s a warrior with good taste. I didn’t have time to admire how comfortable it was for very long. The maids rushed to put my makeup on and get my hair done. When they finished, they literally smacked the mask onto my face and threw the hood over my head and rushed me out the door.

Unlike the veil I was given to practice with, I was able to fully see where I was going, but because we were in such a hurry to get there at the right time, I nearly tripped on the dress several times on the way there. “Princess has arrived,” the maids told the announcer.

They brought me over to King Locke, while they announced my name. The position of his hands to escort me was awkward, like he couldn’t make it anymore obvious that I was made into a legitimate heir out of convenience. I was trying to look more natural, but I probably made it worse by walking a little stiff.

He escorted me down the path that was covered by a red carpet. The king offers my hand to someone who was looming over me, which I’m assuming is Prince Azriel. He was wearing light grey boots and pants with blue hues, but were new for the ceremony. When my hand was put into his I flinched a little. They were cold, icy cold, but after I flinched his hands warmed up, as if he realized why I flinched. There was a priest who was giving us a quick blessing, and we had to kneel to him.

While he was giving the blessing, I could feel the callouses that were around his fingers. They weren’t scratching me or anything, but I could tell that he was a very experienced warrior. I think I felt crooked fingers that were probably broken in training or in battle. When the priest was done, we got up and faced the crowd.

I heard bells ringing and cheering from the people around us. I felt a gust of wind flying around me, I think it was from his wings. He scoops me up, and I wrap my arms around his shoulders from surprise. I could see that he was wearing a matching collared shirt and I think I saw the pattern of the sun that was the same as my jewelry. Just like his hands, he was cold to the touch, but he warmed up after a quick second.

“Hold on tight,” he whispered softly, and I did what he said. And with a strong flap of his wings, we launched into the sky to the Land of Drakes.