Saving the Stranger Prince (The Stranger Prince Series #2)

Chapter 22: Yours.

"Love: It will kill you and save you, both."
- Delirium, by Lauren Oliver.

♚

Her eyes nervously went from the top, to the bottom; for the 20th time, it felt like.

It also felt like Lydia was so much more stressed about this whole wedding thing than Adela herself was. As if she could hear her thoughts, Adela looked down at her and smirked while Lydia still struggled to get the gown to be as perfect as possible.

She frowned up at her, and Adela started giggling. Lydia had noticed she was a lot more giggly today, and she had no reason not to be.

Today, earlier in the morning, Sebastian and Adela had come down to Breakfast. Not many people would've noticed, but both of them had been practically glowing.

They had seemed so full of life, so different from the dull bodies they had seemed like just a day ago. Lydia had pitied Adela so much the night of the celebration, and just the next day she saw her completely changed.

Even though none of them had been sure of what had suddenly changed over the night, Lydia had felt happiness bloom inside her. Happiness, because she had seen the Princess happy after so long.

They had sat down, and started eating the food quietly. Until Sebastian had blurted out.

"We want to get married today."

Both the Queen and King had seemed to choke on their breakfast at the same time, and only after a very long coughing fit had everything seemed to come back in control.

Lydia could have not done anything but laugh quietly at the utter shock she had seen on the King's face. The King of such a big Kingdom, looking like that, was not a sight any of them got to see all the time.

"Impossible." The King had whispered, shaking his head.

But neither Adela, nor Sebastian had seemed shaken by the disapproval. Of course they had been expecting it, and then Sebastian launched into the longest explanation she had ever heard.

And it explained everything from the start. And yes, the start meant the start. From when he had fallen in love with a girl named Charisma, when and how he had lost her. That particular part of the explanation had seemed to pain him like nothing else, and she could see it on his face.

But she saw Adela's hand, holding his firmly. And it felt like that one point of contact was exactly what gave him the courage to continue. And she had hastily wiped a tear as Sebastian had explained what had happened to him after he had lost Charisma.

How his brain had dealt with everything, and how it had seemed to affect him more severely than it should've. He explained how these phases caught him every once in a while, where he would forget what he was, who he was. He forgot the line between everything he loved and hated, and he clarified that he hated it.

"But it was just last year, that no matter how much of a monster I had become, I still loved Adela more than anything else in the world." In that moment, he had looked over at her. Something exchanged between them, something only for the two of them.

"My love for her was what had helped me get out of that phase, to become human. And she was the one who brought me back now, too."