The Opal and The Genie

Snatched Before The Bell

Those who knew him begged him not to set out on this pointless and dangerous endeavor. They insisted the princess did not love him and only gave him this quest to get rid of him, as it would most likely end in his death. But he already knew the princess did not love him. He knew she looked down and saw, not a lover, but some so-and-so whom she played with as a child and only sometimes greeted as an adult.

This was why he had to dare the endless desert. Unless he did something big, big enough to lift him up to her level, something little was all she would see, and it was hard for anyone to fall in love with an ant.

Chapter 1: Snatched Before the Bell

Once upon a time there had been a princess who tore her knickers climbing trees, stabbed her mattress with daggers till the room turned white with feathers, purposely got herself lost in the woods, and practiced grilling rats in the royal kitchen's ovens when no one was looking.

And yet here she stood on her wedding day, alone in the small atrium at the front of the great hall, trembling and tame as a newborn faun. She had been left alone per tradition for the solemn contemplation of a bride's oaths, and all she could contemplate was how off kilter she felt.

The knights outside the door should have let no one in.

"You're beautiful."

Jeremy's handsome face said his words too well. He still had that sore on the side of his mouth from when he licked his knife after peeling her apple a week back. She said he'd get cut. But he insisted, even while his hands trembled beneath the watchful eye of Kyanna's guard. These new guards would not be tricked into looking away as easily as Bartra, and stood ready to shoo the squire away the moment he finished cutting the apple the princess handed him. It had taken a ridiculous amount of planning to have even that short time together.

Since her lover had been secret, naturally the whole castle learned of him, and nobody thought well of the squire. His daring to woo the princess could only be seen as the height of arrogance, even nefarious, if not foolhardy.

Still, seeing him now, on her wedding day, and knowing whatever he had done to bribe the guards had to be phenomenal, made her chin bunch up. The heavy, numb resignation within her wobbled.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him just above a whisper, all while thinking that she shouldn't be here either. Not today, dressed in white, and clutching too hard to a bouquet of bluebells and white roses.

"I—I had to see you one last time," he said. Even so, his dark eyes looked down, hidden by darker lashes. His curls looked wet, as though he had dunked his head before coming here, despite his formal attire of blue and black livery.

"If anyone sees you, Sir Rowan won't have anything to do with you anymore."

"I know that," he said quietly. "I know that more than anyone, Kyanna."

She opened her mouth to reproach him for using her name without 'Princess' or 'Your Majesty', since this was the official end of their relationship, but nothing came out. What she wanted to do was to say 'I love you' and to hear him say it back.

"I just want you to know," he said, licking pale lips. "That I'll still be here, if you want me."

The numbness in her breast edged with ice. "Jeremy, are you—what are you saying?"

He looked up past strong eyebrows, forming a cautious and heart-broken look.

"You're the only child and princess of the greatest kingdom on the continent," he said. "If you had really wanted me, you'd had me—no one could have denied you. But I get it, don't worry. I had nothing to offer you or anyone else because of my birth. So I won't...I won't hold it against you that you have a husband. If, when you come back, you still want me..." he held out a hand. Something brightened in his eye.