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Princess Anastasia saw a dark figure looking down at her. The face of that man wasn’t clearly visible. But she could clearly see his crystal red eyes that harbored the most sinister desire.

Anastasia panicked and tried to get up from the bed.

However, that man was quick enough to pin both of her hands above her head and trap her with his body.

“Your Majesty, p-please spare me. I didn’t d-do anything wrong...” Anastasia begged in a trembling voice.

However, Anastasia’s pleads fell on deaf ears. That man’s killing intent was unhindered. Rather an amused smirk danced on his lips.

He brought his cold face dangerously close to the Princess and spoke in a ragged whisper, “Oh I know that you didn’t do anything wrong, my dear.”

“Your Highness... Princess... Princess...”

.....

Anastasia suddenly heard a woman’s voice calling her from afar. She tried to turn her head and look in that direction but that man recaptured her attention.

He playfully traced Anastasia’s slender neck and muttered in a grim tone, “But I can’t help myself. Your neck looks so inviting that I want to-”

“Anna!”

Princess Anastasia jerked and inhaled sharply. She flung open her eyes to see her handmaid, Tilla, giving her a worried glance.

“Tilla...” Anastasia heaved a deep sigh.

‘It was just a nightmare...’ she thought to herself and gulped to moisten her dry throat.

She was thankful that it was just a nightmare and not a reality.

“Sorry for waking you up, Princess.” Tilla held Anastasia’s trembling palm and apologized, “Your breathing got unusually irregular and I got worried.”

“You did the right thing,” Anastasia gave a feeble smile to her handmaid, who was also her best friend.

The Princess closed her eyes again. She tried to calm her heart as she kept on lying on the seat of the moving carriage.

And after regaining her composure, she asked her handmaid, “Are we there yet?”

Tilla knitted her brows as she recalled the tall and grim wall that they had crossed long ago.

“We are already inside the Kingdom of Sorvando,” Tilla replied in a gloomy voice.

Anastasia felt the pit of her stomach churning after hearing that.

Tilla was already drowning in an insurmountable sea of fear as well as pity.

After all, her best friend had been sent away as a tribute bride to King Caspian Heradi, the King who was rumored to be a ruthless monster.

The infamous tyrant wouldn’t allow his single citizen to leave the sky-high walls of his Kingdom. And the outsiders who somehow snuck inside those walls, never made it back alive.

No one from the neighboring Kingdoms had ever seen that cruel King. But they all speculated him to be a hideous monster.

Else, why would he hide behind those grim walls of his Kingdom?

Rumor had it that he was a merciless monster who liked to torture and kill people endlessly.

And those two ladies were heading towards that same monster’s castle.

Princess Anastasia began to hear the sound of birds and some animals. She flung open her lashes to reveal her emerald green irises and peeked out of the carriage window.

Her pale face instantly looked as though some dark clouds had taken residence there.

‘Why are we going through a forest?’ she thought to herself.

She pinched the crease of her gown and wished, ‘I hope the castle isn’t in the middle of a forest.’

Anastasia had tried not to let all the rumors about King Caspian being a monster to get to her. However, the deeper the carriage went inside the forest, the more she started to believe that the rumors weren’t false after all.

Soon, Anastasia’s eyes fell on the huge gate that was covered with creepers. She didn’t know whether it was her eyes or her deep-rooted fear, but the creepers made the gate look spooky instead of beautiful.

After the carriage passed through the gate, Anastasia’s heart began to race as though it was ready to jump out of her mouth. The knot in her stomach never left her.

So to calm herself, Anastasia took out the mysterious letter that she had received on her seventeenth birthday. She took a deep breath in and went through the contents of that letter again.

She had already done that countless times on this journey alone because it reminded her why she decided to marry the rumored monster.

“We’ve arrived at our destination, Your Highness,” Anastasia heard the coachman informing them after the carriage came to a halt.

The evening rays of the sun were slowly fading away when Anastasia and Tilla stepped out of the carriage.

The coachman placed two small leather suitcases beside Tilla.

One suitcase belonged to Anastasia while the other was Tilla’s. Even though Sorvando was now going to be her new home, the Princess brought very few belongings with her.

The King of Sorvando had been pre-informed that the Kingdom of Orsenia would be sending their Princess as a tribute bride for him as a sign of goodwill between the two Kingdoms.

And Princess Anastasia was at least hoping for some type of welcome or at least a guide who could show them around.

However, she was utterly disappointed.

Even then, Princess Anastasia forced a smile on her face. She couldn’t blame King Caspian for not being welcoming when Orsenia was practically forcing the bride on him.

“Tilla, let’s go inside. I think we will have to find our own way,” Anastasia turned to look at her handmaid who looked pale and stunned for some reason. And she asked with a frown, “Tilla, what is it?”

Tilla gulped noticeably and whispered in a shaky voice, “Don’t you see how the castle looks? I don’t think it can even be called a castle. It looks so old and... ghastly.”

The handmaid swiftly turned to check if their carriage was still there. The coachman was preparing to leave.

Tilla grabbed both of the suitcases from the ground and said, “Princess, let’s head back. I have a bad feeling about this place. I don’t think we should stay here for a minute longer.”

The maid was not exaggerating when she said that the castle looked ghastly. It indeed looked like that.

The grey and black walls looked as though they had been standing there for several centuries and had witnessed countless events. The pillars of the castle had carvings of some grim creatures which made the castle look like a haunted house at night.

And to make it even worse, both the girls felt as though something was whooshing past them every now and then. They felt as though someone or something was constantly watching them from the dark shadows.

There was something off and cold about this castle.

Princess Anastasia suddenly got cold feet. She wanted to go home. However, she did not have the luxury to choose. She was already betrothed to the King of Sorvando. This castle was her home now.

Also, she had her personal reason as well.

Anastasia softly said to her maid, “Tilla, you are forgetting that I am doing this for my own sake. The letter said that King Caspian is the only one who can save me from this misery. And even if it is the last thing that I do, I am willing to take my chances.”

Princess Anastasia glanced ahead and before she lost the tiny bit of courage that she had mustered up, she took a leap of faith and stepped inside the castle.

“Wait for me, Princess.” Tilla tightened her grip around the suitcase handles and ran after the Princess. She was afraid that if she stood outside all alone then something would drag her away to the dark abyss.

They cautiously walked through the long and eerie corridors of the castle. Even though it was already getting darker, not a single lantern had been lit up. And what was even stranger? They did not come across a single maid or servant even after walking for quite some time.

The whole castle looked deserted and the only thing that they could hear was their own hammering heartbeats.

Tilla was still unable to accept that they had come to the right castle. So she broke the silence and whispered as softly as she could, “Princess, I don’t think anyone lives here. We should go-”

And as if to prove Tilla wrong, a man’s scream resounded throughout the huge castle.

Anastasia inhaled sharply and abruptly stopped walking. Tilla almost bumped into the Princess as she was tip-toeing closely behind.

The scream sounded so gut-wrenching that both the girls were scared to their core.

“What was that?” Tilla whispered so close to Anastasia’s ear that she startled the Princess again.

“Tilla!” Anastasia gulped and whispered in a complaining tone, “Don’t scare me more than I already am.”

“Princess, this place looks dodgy. What if someone forged that letter? Or what if that cruel King was the one to trick you into coming here? Let’s go back.” The handmaid muttered desperately.

However, to Tilla’s disbelief, Anastasia walked in the very direction from where they heard the scream.

And Tilla whispered aggressively, “Er... Princess? Shouldn’t we be running in the opposite direction?”

“I don’t think we can find people somewhere else. So let’s take a look there.” Anastasia clutched her fists tightly and began to increase her pace.

The screams got louder and louder. Tilla’s face had already turned pale as she imagined all sorts of bad things that could happen to them. But it was already too late to stop the stubborn Princess. She had no other choice than to follow her.

At last, Anastasia found the room from where the sound was echoing.

There was a small crack in the door. Anastasia’s curiosity got the best of her and she peeked inside.

The moment she peeked, her eyes widened and her heart stopped. She wished that she had listened to Tilla’s words and returned to Orsenia. Because what she just witnessed was enough to give her recurring nightmares.

Anastasia saw a man dropping dead to the ground with a thud.