Lord Alex left and Roxanne had to sleep outside for the night.Ariel didn't let her in even though she begged. People were much more enchanting when they saved you from bad people.The mystery that surrounded the cursed prince in her head had been shattered now. She didn't like him so much anymore.But she couldn't leave.Roxanne dozed off with thoughts of Anabelle and Lord Alex in her head. The news of Annabelle's disappearance was all she had been able to think of ever since Lord Alex told her.She hoped Annabelle was safe and alright.The cold hard floor wasn't the best condition for comfort but sleeping here made Roxanne nostalgic as well as it made her afraid.She woke up on the floor, but this time she was inside the castle and in the presence of someone else.Ariel stared at the body of the woman that slept on the floor.She couldn't be past the age of eighteen, twenty at most.Twenty measly years of age and yet so annoying.She was also beautiful. So beautiful that it felt lik
"Can I know more about your curse Ariel?"Roxanne knew she had asked the wrong question the minute the words left her mouth. She could feel Ariel's glare burning into her back the minute she said it.It was just a question wasn't it?What was so bad about asking questions?It had been like this all week.She would ask a question and he would simply glare at her. Like she was committing the gravest offense.Speaking to him made her breathless and made her heart pound, but that wasn't her fault. Anyone would be breathless if they were talking to the cursed prince. She felt brave for even being able to speak to him. She could do what a whole village couldn't, but being around him also made her have a lot of questions, and she needed answers to all of them.For instance, what exactly did his curse do to him, and in what way did that make him a threat to her?There was always a leeway to curses. She had read many in a lot of books, and she knew that the best way to beat a curse was to s
Over the course of the next few days, Roxanne and the prince argued over the smallest things. He couldn't clean up after himself and the castle looked like it hadn't seen a broom in a hundred years. It probably hadn't and Roxanne grimaced as she thought of that. She probably should stop asking that question. Food wasn't that hard to get. Ariel helped her secure what to cook and he sometimes went into the woods to look for wood so she could cook with it. She was glad he was eating actual food, but he was always gloomy. It cast a sad aura around him and it made her feel sad too. She didn't want to see him sad. She always tried to bring up topics for them to talk about. She figured he was a prince right, so he would probably be concerned about the kingdom and some of its recent policies. She had heard of a few that really worried her and she had brought them up at opportune times, usually when they were eating and the castle was quiet. His responses always annoyed her. "I don't
"What is wrong with you? Are you daft?" Roxanne frowned as displeasure rippled through her. Why was he calling her daft? "I didn't choke intentionally, y'know. It was an unexpected action." "An unexpected action borne from what? What reason could you possibly have to spill food all over my body?" Ariel sounded annoyed and Roxanne tried not to let her temper get the best of her. She could feel her emotions rising and cresting like a tidal wave and she could feel annoyance like an itch at her back. "You aren't very nice y'know?" The prince only smirked at her and nodded his head. "Monsters aren't meant to be nice." Roxanne rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. She could still feel some of the food in her, in places food wasn't naturally meant to be and she felt sorry for herself. Choking and giving herself away at the same time. That was two strikes against her composure and intelligence, and unfortunately for her, the cursed prince was also intelligent because so far he ha
Roxanne refused to say anything. She started packing her things instead. She didn't come with much anyways, but the little she came with seemed to be scattered all around the castle now and she had to look for each one of them. Coming here was a mistake. Coming to this darned town alone had been a huge mistake. She had to go. '"I'm still waiting for my answer Roxanne. You won't leave this castle unless you tell me what I want to know." Roxanne raised her head to look at the prince and she gave him a bored look. "You'll kill me if i don't won't you?" Ariel seemed miffed by that and Roxanne tried her best not to feel amused at how he opened his mouth and closed it again. She failed miserably. "I'm not joking Roxanne. I mean it. I could end your life and forget I even did it." Roxanne ignored the prince and picked up the comb she was looking for. That was the last of her belongings. "I'll be leaving now Prince Ariel." Ariel blocked her path and Roxanne glared at the masked p
They argued again.Roxanne sighed as she dropped her bag back into the room she resided in. It was on the main floor of the castle. The place had probably been a storage room.It annoyed her that Ariel was so determined to see himself as a monster. Yeah. he was cursed, but that didn't mean he was a total monster.It would be almost a week now that she had been living here with him and she hadn't seen him shift into his cursed form once. The only thing he complained of was a headache, and even that seemed to have subsided."Roxanne?"Ariel's voice made the frown on Roxanne's face disappear and she turned back to face him. He was holding something out to her. An envelope. She recognised it immediately. It was the same one from this morning.It was almost noon now. They had spent a whole day arguing again.Roxanne found her heart sending a weird emotion through her and she sighed as she took the letter from him. She hated arguing with him.He probably wanted her to help him open it
"Do you think we should go to the capital?"Ariel was pacing the length of the kitchen as the lady behind him continued with her task. She was cooking for them, again, and even if he didn't really need her food, he still enjoyed eating it.There was a huge gash on his chest now, the curse had manifested8884 while he was asleep and he slashed a claw against his chest.Roxanne helped him clean it and bandage it, but for some reason she seemed out of her element today.She looked sad.Ariel found himself letting out a sigh and turning to face her."Is this about the letter? I thought you'd have forgotten about that?"Roxanne tried her best to smile but she failed."I have, I just don't think it's fair."Ariel shrugged."The world isn't fair."Roxanne nodded glumly and went back to stirring the contents of the pot."I can see that now."The sunlight pouring in through the open windows did nothing to alleviate the sadness she was feeling. She was trying her best to feel better, but it just
Ariel could feel his heart taking him back down memory lane as he listened to the words the lady in front of him spoke. She was reading his letter to him. A letter he had read countless times himself now and in which he only saw one thing. His father's hate for him. He had been a very bad child. A really bad one who had even wished his own father death once. He had been rebellious, wild, unwilling to listen to anyone and without fear or favor of anything. He had been renowned for his looks once, but after the curse, that beauty turned to shame and he couldn't look anyone in the eyes again. He had read this letter a million times now, but never had he heard the words like this and never had he seen those words in this light. Roxanne was changing his father's words. That was what she was doing, but at the same time she was keeping it as it really was. He could hear his father's displeasure in the way she spoke. He could hear the anger and the disappointment his father had expre