Marrying the Stranger Prince ✔ (The Stranger Prince Series #1)

Bonus Chapter!

This chapter is taking place two months after the curfew was imposed on Archensheen. Technically, four months before the epilogue.

Get ready for some Lydia+Edgar moments! Hope you like it. Do suggest a ship name for these two cuteess.

♚

The mirror lied all the time, didn't it?

It showed everyone how everything was okay. How everything was just fine. How nothing was damaged. It showed a man his reflection, but it was all wrong.

Very wrong.

Prince Edgar sighed, as he buttoned the coat fully up to his neck, and then ran a hand over the wholly luxurious, maroon fabric. He looked up, in the mirror, and his eyes were reflected back to him.

He could've sworn the golden in his eyes used to sparkle brighter than this. He could've sworn that he used to smile more often than this, he could've sworn he used to do so many more things that he didn't do anymore.

But things changed, didn't they?

All he could do at that was a long, deep, tired sigh. Yes. A whole lot had changed in these past few months, more than he could have ever have imagined.

Edgar looked out the window in his dark room, the moon the only source of light over the dark Kingdom of Archensheen.

Dark. That was what Archensheen had become now, huh?

But he couldn't say that. He shouldn't, because the Kingdom had become much better than it had been a couple of months back. Thanks to the help from Larcbost, Archensheen was slowly coming out of it's spell.

Larcbost had been affected by the severe winters as well, but not to such an extent as Archensheen had been. No one could cover for the hundreds of lives that were lost, for the hundreds of the families that were destroyed.

But everyone had contributed as much as they could. Slowly, homes had been built. Crops had been grown. Larcbost had sent in loads of food supply, that had helped cure everything.

But it was still supposed to take time, and it was. All Edgar wanted was things to go back to normal.

But...

But did he even know what normal was anymore?

He liked not to wander over that for long, so he quietly stepped out of his room, closing the door behind him. He found himself in the dim, silent halls of the Palace.

As he walked down the halls, his footsteps echoing, he felt the urge to tear something apart. Because this was not how the Palace used to be.

This was not how it was supposed to be.

But everyone was grieving, so many things. They were grieving the loss of all those innocent lives, they were grieving for the Kingdom. And they were grieving for an alliance that had been lost in just a matter of minutes.

He still tried to keep the memories of the Choosing Ceremony out of his mind. Those thoughts, they haunted him in his dreams. Adela's face, as he looked at her helplessly, because there was so much he'd wanted to do for her, but there was nothing he could've done. Nothing.