'But Dad, how exactly am I supposed to increase these ancient powers?' Isla asked, her brilliant blue eyes wide with a desperate, heavy confusion.
'Through your marriage, Isla,' the King revealed, his voice dropping to a deadly, serious whisper.
'And that is precisely why we absolutely must arrange your wedding to take place as quickly as humanly possible.'
'What? What on earth does my marriage have to do with my magic?' she gasped, taking a shocked, trembling step backward.
'It means that when you are finally wedded to a completely normal human who possesses pure, untainted royal blood, and the two of you intimately become one on your wedding night, your dark powers will violently awaken and multiply beyond imagination,' he explained, his eyes burning with a dark, ruthless ambition.
'The deeper the physical passion and connection between you, the more unimaginably powerful your magic will become.
That is exactly why we absolutely must marry you to Prince Lucier; he is completely devoid of magic, yet he proudly carries the pure royal bloodline.
I know perfectly well that you absolutely despise him, Isla, but you simply have no other choice left if we are to survive.'
'And furthermore,' the King continued, his stern face darkening with a heavy, terrifying shadow, 'a massive, highly dangerous problem has just arisen... your wedding must now take place in merely a matter of days.'
'What?! In just a few days? But why?!' Isla cried out, her heart violently dropping into the suffocating depths of her stomach as sheer panic seized her throat.
'I originally planned to delay the ceremony because I foolishly believed our enemy would take much longer to arrive from the shadows,' the King confessed, his jaw clenching with fierce determination. 'But I was entirely wrong; he is already here, lurking unseen within our very borders. Before he launches his first, devastating strike against our kingdom, you absolutely must be at the absolute peak of your destructive power.'
'But Dad, I cannot just—' Isla started to protest, her mind frantically screaming for a way to escape this terrifying nightmare.
'Isla, stop your protests for just one single second and remember that fateful day when you turned seven years old!' the King interrupted sharply, aggressively playing on her deepest traumas.
'Remember the excruciating, agonizing day you first received this ancient serpent magic? You bravely endured unimaginable, bone-crushing pain as a mere child for the sole, sacred purpose of fulfilling this ultimate destiny.
Today, you are standing merely one single step away from finally achieving our grand, lifelong goal.
After crossing miles of agonizing distance and sacrificing so incredibly much, are you truly going to admit pathetic defeat and give up when you are just a few steps away from the finish line?'
Isla fell into a deep, suffocating, and terrifyingly cold silence.
She slowly closed her eyes, and the breathtaking, heavily intoxicating image of Dorian instantly flooded her desperately racing mind.
She vividly remembered his incredibly dark, all-consuming eyes, the burning, addictive heat of his touch from just this morning, and the fierce, unbreakable promise she had tearfully whispered against his lips—"that she would belong to absolutely no one else in this universe but him."
Hot, agonizing tears rapidly welled up behind her closed eyelids, violently burning her eyes with the crushing, unbearable weight of her impossible, tragic choice.
Knowing that refusing would mean the absolute destruction of her family and her kingdom, she slowly opened her tear-filled, devastated eyes, completely and utterly shattering her own heart into a million irreparable pieces in the process.
'Yes, Dad... I will marry Prince Lucier,' she whispered, her voice completely hollow and entirely devoid of life.
A massive, overwhelmingly triumphant smile instantly slashed across the King's stern face, completely oblivious to his daughter's profound internal agony.
'I knew with absolute certainty that you would make the right, honorable decision for our kingdom, my brave daughter! You have thought this through perfectly... but come, we really must be going now.
It is getting incredibly late, and judging by the loud, rhythmic rattling outside, our royal carriage has already returned.
We must rush back to the palace immediately and announce this magnificent news to the entire court!'
As they finally turned to leave the dark, crumbling ruins, the King placed a heavy, demanding hand upon her trembling, fragile shoulder.
'Isla, the sole reason I am revealing all of these terrifying, highly classified secrets to you today is so that you actively prepare your mind to build "that" exact, intimate relationship with Lucier,' he instructed with a cold, terrifying practicality.
'You must do absolutely whatever it takes to ensure the consummation is flawlessly successful so your powers can peak.'
'Yes, Dad,' she replied in a numb, robotic whisper, completely dead inside.
'Let us go.'
The heavy, gilded doors of the palace swung open.
Isla walked in with her head bowed deeply, her shoulders completely weighed down by the crushing, heartbreaking reality of her tragic fate.
Right beside her, the King strode into the grand hall with an incredibly bright, booming laugh echoing through the corridors.
'My goodness, why on earth are you so incredibly happy today?' the Queen asked, smiling in absolute surprise as she met them in the foyer.
'You look as overjoyed as a father whose daughter is finally getting married.'
'Well, that is precisely because she actually is!' the King declared with overwhelming pride.
'Isla has officially agreed to the marriage.'
'What? That is absolutely wonderful news!' the Queen gasped, her eyes lighting up with sheer delight.
'I honestly do not think I could possibly wait two whole years for the ceremony.'
'There is absolutely no need to wait two years,' the King replied with a victorious smirk.
'The royal wedding will take place in just a few short days.'
The Queen immediately paused, her perfectly plucked eyebrows knitting together in deep confusion.
'A few days? But that is incredibly sudden.
Isla, you were so completely and utterly against this union just yesterday.
Is it not quite strange that you suddenly want to rush into marriage in a matter of days?'
Isla swallowed hard, desperately forcing a beautifully fake, composed smile onto her pale face.
'Mom... if I truly have to marry him eventually, then why should we wait two years?' she lied smoothly, expertly masking the agonizing, suffocating pain tearing through her chest.
'The sooner we marry, the sooner we can truly begin to understand each other.'
'Well, that makes perfect sense, my dear!' the Queen beamed, completely convinced by the brilliant deception.
'I must send word to Lucier and his family immediately.
They need to know that their prince will become our son-in-law so soon.'
'Mom, I am incredibly exhausted,' Isla interrupted softly, unable to bear the cheerful wedding talk for another second.
'I am not feeling very well, and I have absolutely no appetite tonight. I am going straight to bed, and please... I do not want to be disturbed by anyone.'
'Oh, my poor darling. Of course,' the Queen said sympathetically.
'If you would like, I can come and sleep in your chamber with you tonight?'
'No, Mom... there is absolutely no need for that,' Isla replied quickly.
'I am perfectly fine. Goodnight.'
'Goodnight, my beautiful princess,' the Queen whispered softly.
'Goodnight, Dad,' Isla added, avoiding his triumphant gaze.
'Goodnight, my little pooped princess,' the King teased affectionately, using his favorite childhood nickname for her.
Despite her shattered heart, Isla forced a tiny, hollow laugh. 'I am all grown up now, Dad.
I will see you tomorrow.'
Isla practically fled up the grand staircase.
She rushed into her dark, silent bedchamber and immediately locked the heavy wooden door behind her. She numbly stripped off her elegant day gown, letting the expensive fabrics fall carelessly to the cold stone floor.
She walked into the attached washroom, turned on the hot water, and slowly sank into the luxurious, steaming depths of the marble bathtub.
Surrounded by the thick, comforting steam, the heavy dam she had built inside her mind finally broke.
She was drowning in an agonizing, impossible dilemma.
She loved Dorian with every single shattered piece of her soul.
Yet, she absolutely had to marry Lucier to unlock her terrifying serpent magic and save her entire kingdom.
"If only Dorian possessed royal blood..." she thought desperately, hot tears silently sliding down her flushed cheeks to mix with the bathwater.
"Then every single one of these horrible problems would be instantly solved."
It felt as though history was violently repeating itself.
The tragic, terrifying plots of the ancient novels she used to read were slowly, painfully coming true in her own life.
She was so incredibly lost in her dark, suffocating thoughts that she did not even hear the faint, stealthy footsteps approaching.
Suddenly, a breathtakingly soft, impossibly gentle kiss was pressed directly against her bare, wet shoulder.
Isla violently gasped in sheer terror.
She whipped around, her brilliant blue eyes wide with shock.
'Dorian!' she breathed out.
'How on earth did you get in here?!'