Chapter Text
The feeling of teeth brushing the underside of her wrist.
The press of icy fingers against her lips, coating them with the metallic taste of gold-flecked blood.
A night spent in a crypt with a abnormally beautiful man that looked liked he had been carved from marble, a tongue tracing along her pulse point.
An exceedingly charming man with eyes the color of deep set emeralds, the most beautiful woman with drawings of dragon flame on her skin.
Plummeting off the side of a cliff with somebody, but yet somehow feeling more protected than she had in eons.
A warm light seeping into her bones as gentle hands bandaged her wounds.
The closest to home she has felt in years as arms wrapped around her and words were whispered into her ear, “But for tonight, let me pretend you’re mine.”
Her whispering “I’m yours,” in return.
Bloody tears dripping down the man’s face as he told her to leave.
Thoughts of man with tears of blood and women with dragon flame tattoos quickly fade from Evangeline’s mind when the buttercup yellow of the morning sun sprinkles throughout her room, waking her from her strange dreams and all but erasing them from her memory. It is not long after that when her ladies in waiting come bustling for the door.
“Your highness,” they all chirp in a bird like chorus, curtseying in one united motion as if they were the marinates her father used to sell in his shop from time-to-time.
“His royal highness Prince- sorry King,” Gaila, the one who seems to be in charge hurriedly corrects herself, “King Apollo Titus Acadian would like to request you to join him for breakfast in the west wing dinning hall.”
Evangeline barely has time to nod her head before she is being pulled out of bed and herded like a sheep to the dressing corner in her room. Evangeline is too lost in her own thoughts to be embarrassed as the maids slip her out of her chemise into a blush pink day dress with snow white stitching in the pattern of ivy leaves.
Three days , Evangeline thinks to herself as the maids continuing lacing up her gown and undergarments. Three days since she woke up in a library under statues of Angels weeping tears of stone and covered in gold flecked blood. Three days since she was told that she apparently was princess of the Magnificent North and married to the ruler, Apollo. And they were madly in love. The tale of her kidnapping by an assailant known as Jacks who had tricked Apollo into being his friend before poisoning him and absconding with Evangeline for his own cruel desire to rule the Magnificent North. For weeks the kingdom had believed Apollo dead as Evangeline had fought to escape Jacks. Apollo eventually triumphed over the curse Jacks had placed on him at last, only to find Evangeline abandoned and alone in the library with her memories stolen from her. Presumably a consequence from her time with Jacks.
“I’m never letting you go,” Apollo had told her when he first picked her up off the library floor. And in the days following he had been nothing but exceptionally kind and patient with her as Evangeline gained her footing into what she supposed would be her new normal. Everything should have been perfect beside her missing memories. Evangeline was safe from Jacks. She’s married to a prince that looked liked he fell right out of a fairytale, who by all appearances loves and adores her, and is Evagenline’s chance at Love at First. Lives in a castle filled with people there to support her every need. And is living in the same land her dear mother grew up. The same place she had dreamed of seeing ever since she was a child.
But as the last ribbon is tied and the final curl of her hair is fluffed, Evangeline can’t help but feel as if she is out-of-place. Like something is wrong. It was as if she was one of the curiosities from her father’s shop, dropped and placed into a pristine-looking picture unable to break free from it as everyone else watched.
“Your highness? Are you alright?” Gaila asks, in a tone that suggests that this is not the first time she tried asking Evangeline that while she was lost in her thoughts.
“Oh yes, I apologize. I must have been day dreaming. What were you saying Gaila?”
“I was just making sure you were ready to be escorted to breakfast your highness.”
That was another thing in Evangeline’s life that made her feel out of place. From the second that she was strong enough to stand on her own two feet, Apollo had a swath of guards following her every move. Evangeline expected to only have to deal with one guard shadowing her, she was queen-to-be after all (a word that still made Evangeline’s stomach flip over in somersaults). But what Evangeline had not expected is no less than ten guards following her almost every step she took that was outside of her room. When she questioned her supposed husband about it he waved away her concern with his hand and insisted that it was for her own protection.
“Yes, thank you Gaila. And the rest of you. I appreciate your assistance this morning.”
“Of course, your highness. It is both my duty and my pleasure,” Gaila responds back dipping into yet another curtsy and the rest of the ladies followed suit.
Then like clockwork all the ladies shuffle out besides Gaila and a swath of guards take their place.
“Your highness,” the one in charge of the guards, Arne, “we are here to escort you to breakfast.”
“Of course, thank you,” Evangeline says, trying her best to plaster a convincing smile on her face as she drops into a small curtsey.
Evangeline and Gaila walk in near silence as the guards escort her towards the dining hall. Soon enough the doors open and Evangeline is greeted with the sight of a long oak table piled high with waffles coated in pink sugar, mulberry syrup, dragon-fire bacon, grapes shining as brightly as gems, pitchers of vibrantly colored juice, and dozens of other plates filled with a wide array of foods that she didn’t recognize. And at the end of it all is Apollo and Evangeline is barely in the room before he is pushing away from the table and smiling at her in such a warm way that she can’t help but feel a fluttering in her stomach.
“There she is. My beautiful wife,” Apollo exclaims proudly, immediately pressing a kiss onto her cheek and Evangeline can’t help but stiffen at the contact. In the three days that Evangeline had been at Wolf Hall, Apollo had been more than courteous giving her space and so far the only contact he had initiated had been picking her up off the ground when he found her and carrying her to the medical wing. And kissing her on the forehead when he escorted her to her room the first night. Evangeline hadn’t even gotten used to being dressed every morning by other people much less her husband, treating her as... Well as a husband normally treats his wife.
“Here I am,” Evangeline supplies back, trying her best not to waver as he loops her arm through his and walks her and seats her in the chair right next to his.
“How are you this morning my dear?” Apollo asks, once he is seated back in his own chair.
“I slept well for the first time since the library, which was nice. But I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being dressed by other people, especially in such extravagant outfits” Evangeline answers honestly, allowing a small smile to form on her face.
Apollo laughs warmly at her remark, “I have faith that in time you will get used to it. After All somebody as beautiful as you shouldn’t be dressed in nothing but the most beautiful dresses and helped by the most loyal of servants.”
Evangeline can’t help the blush that spreads across her cheeks at Apollo’s comment, “Thank you Apollo. I can’t tell you how kind you are.”
“I am merely treating my wife with the respect and adoration she deserves.”
There goes the blush again, so Evangeline tries to direct the conversation somewhere else, “I don’t think I recognize all the dishes laid out here today. Would you care to explain them to me?”
Apollo immediately beams at this and begins to explain and walk her through the numerous dishes on the table and what parts of the North they come from. It is clear while Apollo talks that he is enjoying teaching things to her, so Evangeline tries her best to pay attention but once again her mind drifts off and her mind goes all but blank when the smell of apples from the streets below drifts through the window. And seems to cause a slight pounding in her skull.
“Evangeline,” Apollo prompts, as he eventually noticed that Evangeline’s attention was somewhere else.
“I’m sorry. I still don’t think I have gotten quite used to my life here just yet.”
“No apologies needed. I have no idea how hard it must be for you, to wake up in a life familiar to everyone but you. If anything I should be apologizing-”
“No no, you don’t have to,” Evangeline interrupts quickly but is cut off quite quickly by Apollo.
“But I must. I have tried my best to give you space these past few days. I thought you needed some time alone to adapt to your life here. But I should have been doing the opposite. If anything I need to be with you as much as possible. If we want you to get your memories back, we must show you what you’ve been missing.”
The thought of spending even more time Apollo, with him constantly trying to get her to remember makes Evangeline begin to panic. She can’t even handle trying to get herself to remember on her own, much less a whole other person putting the pressure on her.
“Apollo, I insist I’ll be okay on my own. You have a kingdom to rule after all, I don’t want to take time away from that.”
“You are so considerate my sweet, but I meant what I said when I rescued you from what that horrible monster of a person Jacks did to you. Nothing is more important than you and I am never going to let you go.”
As Apollo stared into her eyes, so full of care and warmth, Evangeline thought back to this morning. This should have been everything she ever wanted. Alls she ever wanted was a fairytale story like her parents. Her very own love at first. And here it was, in the form of a prince no less. Back home in Valenda, Evangeline had nobody. Both of her parents were dead and everyone else she might have known back home was constricted in the layer of fog that seemed to have permeated her brain since she woke up. And Apollo is here. And he has shown her nothing but kindness and patience in her very own short time with him. That Evangeline remembered anyway. So if this was supposedly Evangeline’s dream come true, why did it supposedly feel like the beginning of her very own nightmare?