Elena truly loved James; she did. But as she stood there, watching how he smothered her stepsister with kisses, she was surprised at the fact that she did not feel even an ounce of pain. It was so much so that she stood there, studying the complexities of the way he kissed her; it almost seemed as if he was swallowing her whole face.

James had never kissed her like that. The highest he had ever done was to give her a feather light kiss on her lips, one she doubts she even felt. She supposed she should have seen it coming, the betrayal, that is. Nothing had been going right for her ever since the death of her beloved Queen Mother. And her father, the King, did not waste his time replacing her.

She doubts that her father ever loved her mother. As soon as she had reached the age where she could understand her surroundings, she realized that the marriage between her parents was just a farce. Oh, her mother loved her father, but the King never even glanced at her.

She had heard the gossip between her mother's maids, on the day of her mother's death that the only reason her existence came to fruition was as a result of a drunken stupor her father had fallen into. He slept with her mother, mistaking her for one of his lovers.

Being her naive and stupid self, her mother laid with her father, even though she knew he thought her another person.

Her father woke up the next day, and realizing what he had done, he spat on her and left the room in disgust. He never saw her again till her death.

Her mother was abandoned in her quarters, and as time flew, even the palace servants lost their respect for her. She gave birth with the help of a village midwife and not the palace midwives because, for some reason, they were 'busy' and therefore could not attend to her.

Elena grew up with only the existence of her mother. Despite being a royal princess, her childhood was no less than a commoner. The kingdom was not informed of her birth, and even if anyone in the palace wasn't in support of the way she was treated, no one said a word.

She remembered always asking her mother about her father. Still, as she grew up, she came to understand that her father never acknowledged her. So she stopped asking.

When she was fifteen, her mother was poisoned. Her death was recorded as a natural cause, and no one cared to investigate. That same day, she was buried as a commoner. Two days later, the King remarried.

If Elena had any hope before her father finally acknowledged her, it was crushed when she saw the vast difference between how he treated her and her stepsister. They were both of the same age, and her stepsister looked a lot like their father, so her father had been with another woman even before she had been conceived.

Elena was made a palace clown. She was laughed at, sneered at, spat at, beaten, and had almost been raped. Her hope dwindled every day, and her heart turned colder, but all the same, she still had hope.

She had met James, who was the son of a Duke of a nearby kingdom, and at first, had thought him to be genuinely concerned for her. She took him as a friend and even told him the most embarrassing secrets she had of herself. There was finally someone she could converse with, and she was happy about that.

But with time, she started to realize that she had never been his goal in the first place. She realized through his subtle behavior that all his kindness towards her was all really for show. His main target had been her stepsister.

Knowing that her stepsister had made it her goal to take everything that even created a spark of interest in her, she was not surprised that they finally ended up together.

She left them in the hallway and made her way down to her quarters. Fortunately, no one resided where her mother had previously been, which her haven was.

As she walked to her room, she changed her mind and decided to go to the throne room. Using the secret passages, she had found in the palace, not only had she been able to discover so many palace secrets, but she had even been present in all the throne room meetings.

She made her way to the wall corner directly behind the throne seat. As she was on the other side of the wall, the holes on the wall in front of her made it visible for her to view the back of the throne seat. She could see that, but not the throne room. However, that did not prevent her from hearing what was being discussed.

"Your majesty, how about we offer Elena as a bride to the Blood king? She is a princess also." That was the new queen, her stepmother.

She wanted her to be offered to the Blood King?

No! Her father would never agree to it!

Even though she had lost all hope in him, he couldn't be that evil.

"That's a great idea!" He acknowledged. Then he faced the scribes and announced;

"Let it be known, that from this day henceforth, Princess Elena," he said the 'Princess' with a sneer,

"... would be given as a bride to the Blood king; a tribute of the relationship between the two kingdoms."

Ha.