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Chapter 4: the great betrayal

Those four months went by in a flash, I was no longer publicly humiliated by my half-sister but I could still feel the cold glares I got from everyone but my lady-in-waiting and John, the man my mother fled to the kingdom with who worked at the stables, he was the one that kept her memories alive as he would tell me stories of her youth before she had me.

It was the day before my wedding and I was soaking in the bath filled with milk, jasmine and sage, a ceremonial bath for brides in my kingdom on the night before their wedding.

After my bath, I sat on my balcony to look at the moon while my hair which had now grown back to my waist length blew in the air. As I stared at the moon, I imagined what my life would look like after my wedding, I’d finally be able to leave the palace and see the world, I’d be free from everyone and no longer be a laughing stock. As I continued to hope for my future, I heard a rustle coming from the bushes which interrupted my thoughts. I turned to the direction the noise was coming from and a small rabbit emerged from the darkness. I chuckled as I watched it hop away from my view on the balcony as I retired to bed.

As I lay on the bed, the excitement began to wear off as sleep over took me. Tomorrow I would be a real Princess.

The next day had come, it was my wedding day. I was sitting in my bed chambers as the maids began to attend to me. I was dressed in a white golf and red wedding dress that screamed royalty. My corset was tightened and I could barely breathe. I was bathed in perfume that made me want to throw up as they combed my hair into an intricate style I’d only ever seen the Queen or the Princess do.

Finally, they placed the tiara on my head and I turned to the mirror to see myself. I looked like who I was…. A real princess, not the laughing stock of the palace and definitely not the girl that had been humiliated her whole life.

The maids complimented me for the first time ever.

“Wow, Miss Astra, you look like royalty” one said

“The duke sure knew what he was doing when he said he’d marry you” another added.

They all giggled and I asked for a moment alone in the room.

After they all walked out, I stood at the window watching the convoy that supposedly belonged to the duke approaching the castle.

My wedding wasn’t the usual one, there was no ceremony to be held for me in my kingdom, I was simply meant to be taken away and to never be heard from again hence the formalities with my dress.

I stared closer and the more I did, the more the convoy looked strange from the distance I was at, I couldn’t make out what it was about them that felt off to me.

As I stared out the window, a knock on my door startled me, it was the king’s grand advisor.

“Lady Astra, the King requests your audience now”

“Coming!” I answered. I quickly adjusted my posture, straightened my back while ignoring the pain the corset caused me and delicately walked out of the room just as I had been taught by my etiquette teacher the King had gotten to teach me all the royal etiquette I should know before getting married.

I walked with an air of regalia down the hall until I got to my father’s meeting room.

“Your majesty” I bowed in my uncomfortable dress as he, my half-sister and the queen sat down to watch me.

“You look presentable,” the Queen commented.

I was dumbfounded, I didn’t know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment. Regardless, I would soon be free from this nightmare of a place so I paid no regard to her.

“For today you may call me father” My father said, in that moment, my eyes as well as those of the queen and the princess widened so much.

“It’s your wedding day, I don’t want our in laws thinking I’m giving them someone who isn’t my blood if you’re always addressing me as the king, loosen up okay?”

“Okay” I smiled.

After this, the king and the queen stepped out of the room leaving me with Kaelara. The air was stiff and tense, I knew she was going to definitely say something hurtful and I had braced myself.

To my surprise, she didn’t.

She just grabbed my shoulder and pulled me closer.

“Don’t think of coming hack here under any circumstances, we do not claim you as one of ours, you never were and you never will be”

Normally, those words would hurt, but as it was, it was how I felt as well, I had never claimed to be one of them neither did I have plans on returning, no matter what, nothing could be worse than the trauma living in this castle held.

“Yeah, I don’t plan on coming back as well,” I said with a smile.

She groaned in annoyance and walked out of the room leaving me alone. It was in this same room they decided to kill my mother and now I’m being sent off to be wed a day before my twentieth birthday in the same room.

As I stepped out to meet the duke, my father stopped me and told me he wasn’t able to make it so his father would take me to their kingdom to meet my husband instead but as I walked closer to the carriage I was to enter, a hand emerged from the carriage to hold mine.

I gently placed my hand in those hands and in that moment, I came to a deep realization, a feeling of betrayal and regret and anger began to course through my veins.

The convoy, the color of the flag they bore, the scar on the hand holding mine, the same scar on the hand of the Dragon King when I witnessed him killing my mother.

I was the princess they were selling off to the dragon king to be mated to his son!!!

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