The Cursed Prince

Elara Thalwyn

[Kael's POV]

She shouldn't have been here. No one should.

I watched her from across the room as she moved with quiet purpose, her gaze taking in the gloomy remnants of a life long forgotten. She didn't flinch in the cold or hesitate as the shadows crept toward her. There was something unsettling about her presence, something that tugged at the edges of the carefully constructed walls I had built around myself. I couldn't understand it. Why her? Why did the castle allow her in?

Elara. Even her name felt warm, foreign, like it didn't belong in this place.

She was unlike anyone I had seen in years. Where the others—servants, guards, occasional visitors—had come and gone with dread in their eyes, this girl had something else. She was quiet, but not because of fear. Her eyes—an amber so rich they seemed to hold the fading remnants of a sunset—held curiosity, determination, and a strength that defied the bitter chill that wrapped around my kingdom. She did not tremble like the rest. In fact, she seemed almost defiant, as if she refused to succumb to the gloom that swallowed the castle whole.

It confused me, this small woman standing in a place so broken and frozen. She didn't seem out of place, but she didn't belong here either. I tried to tell myself she was just another servant, another face I would soon forget. But I couldn't stop noticing her. Couldn't stop wondering why her presence felt like it disrupted the quiet desolation I had grown accustomed to.

I shouldn't care. The curse had made sure of that. I had long stopped caring about anything, anyone. But there she was, daring to bring warmth into a kingdom that had long lost it.

I told myself to stay distant, to push her out like I had done with everyone else. And yet, some part of me—a part I thought was long dead—whispered that maybe, just maybe, she was the crack in the ice that had long encased my heart.

[Elara's POV]

I wasn't supposed to be afraid. That's what I kept telling myself as I stood in the prince's chamber, his presence looming in the distance like a shadow I couldn't escape. And yet, there I was—heart pounding, hands trembling ever so slightly. I hadn't expected to feel this way. I wasn't sure what I expected, really. To be invisible? To blend into the background like every other servant?

But here, in this cold, desolate castle, I felt everything. The weight of my family's debt, the fear of failing them, and now, the heavy gaze of a prince who felt like he could see straight through me.

Still, I couldn't let it show. I couldn't let him see how much this place unnerved me. I had to be strong. I had to be the brave Elara everyone thought I was. But the truth was, in that moment, I wasn't sure if I belonged here at all. What could I—a simple girl from a forgotten village—possibly do in a place so lost to the cold? What could I do for a man who seemed more like a ghost than a prince?

But as I stood there, something stirred inside me. I wasn't just a servant. I wasn't just here to survive. Maybe I didn't know what my role was yet, but I wasn't going to let fear define me.

I thought of my mother's words: You have always been stronger than you know.

Maybe she was right. Maybe I was more than the girl who had been sent here out of desperation. I wasn't just here to do as I was told. There was something in me—an ember, a spark—that refused to be snuffed out by the cold. I couldn't let this place or its curse swallow me whole.

I had to believe that I was here for a reason, even if I didn't know what it was yet.

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