BILLET-DOUX (A Love Letter)

The palace bells tolled midnight, their echo chasing down the marble corridors like a warning.

Bastien stood at the window of his chambers, looking out over Madrid's sleeping city. The air was heavy with the scent of orange blossoms, but the sweetness did nothing to soften the weight on his chest.

The world believed the Crown Prince of Spain was untouchable-gilded in gold, born to rule, and destined for the throne. But in truth, Bastien had never felt more like a prisoner. His life was a script written centuries before he was born, every page signed in royal ink.

Two weeks earlier, Dion and Andrei-his oldest friends and fellow sons of Spanish nobility-had slipped quietly from the country. Dion, the sharp-witted son of the Duke of Medinaceli, had fled the crushing gears of an arranged marriage meant to fuse two powerful houses. Andrei, heir to the Duke of Alba, left behind ballrooms and bloodlines to chase his forbidden dream of becoming a chef.

Their destination was a faraway archipelago whispered about in the palace kitchens-the Philippines. A place where no one cared for titles, where the sun was warm, and the sea stretched endless and blue.

Bastien had laughed when they first told him of their escape. But the laughter died as his father's council laid out his own fate: another year of public appearances, of rehearsed smiles, and of marriage negotiations with a princess he had met only twice.

He made his choice that night.

GRAMMATICAL ERRORS AHEAD!
Not entirely accurate. Alternate world story.