The whispering foam of the ocean gently brushed Daniela's toes as she stood on the beach, far below the castle. She had pulled the hem of her simple white dress up, revealing her bare calves, until only her toes could feel the cold water.
Even though she felt trapped at the castle for the marriage market, this simple act of standing on the beach was the most free she had felt in so many lifetimes. She treasured the simple things, which felt fantastical in this realm. She couldn't recall the last time she had been on a beach. She tilted her head back, letting the sun's warm rays kiss her pale skin. She cherished every moment of being alive.
"Princess, I do have a parasol," Lola said, holding the shade in her hand, poised and ready. "Your skin is so white and delicate; it will burn if you get too much sun."
Daniela only shook her head. She wanted to feel the sun; she didn't think it would be too bad if her body got a little bit of color. She was almost sickly pale.
"Leave her be, Lola," Josephine said, the wrinkles around her eyes more prominent as she smiled at Princess Daniela. Every time she watched her, it was like seeing someone who had lived too long, yet was still finding joy in the smallest pleasures of life. It wasn't something Josephine wanted to rob the girl of. If rumors were correct, Daniela had spent most of her life in a chair. It would probably be nice to touch the sand and feel the sun.
"What if the prince prefers her porcelain skin, and she ruins it with the sun?" Ida whispered lowly to Josephine.
"I don't believe it's her skin that has won the affections of Prince Jasper. Princess Fox is also very pale," Josephine dismissed in simple words.
The sound of structured footfalls made the three maids turn. They bowed respectfully as a footman arrived with a palace butler.
"I come with a word from Queen Aurelia. Her Majesty has invited Princess Daniela to join her in her study for tea," the butler announced to the princess's maids. His eyes flickered to see Daniela, who had lifted her dress enough to expose her calves. His eyes widened for a fraction before a blush peppered his cheeks. He quickly looked away, only addressing her maids. He hadn't expected the girl to be so vulgar and tasteless as to show such an intimate area.
Daniela didn't turn to look at them. She enjoyed the view for a little bit longer before taking in one last deep breath. She walked back over towards her maids, dropping her dress once she was on the cobbled path. Her sandy feet were hidden behind her skirt. She had left her shoes in the small carriage they had used to get down here.
"Shall we!" she said, nodding politely.
With a face as red as a tomato, the butler guided the women back towards their waiting carriage. His carriage was positioned just next to theirs.
The ride back up to the palace was quiet.
Daniela hadn't given the tea with the Queen much thought. In her previous life, Eric's mother had always been his greatest supporter. She never found any fault in her son; he was her perfect boy, and she had always been proud of him. Daniela remembered when she had confided in Eric's mother that she was scared of her son, and she had been chastised by the woman, who felt Daniela was ungrateful and didn't understand what true love felt like. Since then, Daniela had hated Eric's mother in every lifetime. This one would be no different.
Once she had cleaned off the sand and changed into the sapphire dress, the same butler who had gathered her refused to let her maids follow them to the room, stating that only Daniela was invited to tea.
"Right this way." The butler opened large stone doors etched with ancient writing she did not understand. Nodding, she entered the room, her sapphire-blue dress billowing a bit longer than she would normally wear. Her shoulders were bare, and, as usual, Jasper's necklace hung around her neck, prominent and exposed for the Queen to see—an obvious declaration that she didn't care about the Queen or her son. Even Daniela's dark green hair was pulled up into a neat bun to ensure that her necklace could never be obscured, not even by her own hair. It had been a conscious decision.
When Daniela entered the room, she was confused. The chamber was brightly lit with an abundance of candles and a glowing fire, but there were no windows. The walls looked like hard stone. The moment the door closed, Daniela whipped around to see glowing runes all over the door, an indication that some sort of magic was at play.
"You made it!" Eric's harsh voice whispered in the private battle room.
Daniela pursed her lips as she heard his voice. Now this room made more sense. The moment she turned around, she saw his blood magic swirling around him. The bodies of the maids, guards, and butlers littered the stone floor around his feet, each one sliced open to ensure a profuse, continuous flow.
Their blood pooled, a thick, dark liquid that vibrated and lifted toward him. As Eric's magic drew more power from the slain, the corpses beneath him began to shrivel and desiccate, their skin clinging tight to bone as their life fluid was viciously stolen.
Eric's blood-red eyes were pulsing with life. His features were contorted into his true vampiric form: his fingernails shone as claws, his facial bone structure was sharper and more angular, his teeth jagged and sharp, and his fangs were so long they pushed past his lips.
Daniela barely took a breath before she watched his blood magic swirl, a red haze permeating the air around him. The blood on the floor began to rise, swirling and vibrating pools of life. His eyes narrowed on her as he sent his blood magic to surround her.
Daniela's pendant instantly came to life, creating an inky black dome around her. The shadows amongst the darkness protected her from Eric's blood magic, which had circled the dome, the blood circling the center of the sphere, expertly squeezing tighter and tighter.
Eric created blood daggers, pulling more and more life fluid from the bodies. The drops rose from the ground, slowly forming into razor-sharp daggers as he began to consecutively toss the blood blades toward Daniela's ever-dwindling dome.
A streak of pure fear ran through Daniela as she felt herself in unimaginable danger.
Jasper had given her this necklace as protection against other princesses, but it wasn't made for battle magic.
Eric's relentless assault continued, and she watched as the dome began to lessen and tighten around Daniela until it was barely an inch from her skin.
Daniela felt her arms stuck to her sides as she gasped in pain. She was being strangled, crushed, truly. The barrier was so thin, and his power was crashing against it, forcing the barrier to get closer and closer to her skin. Each pulse of power was a death cry.
Eric grinned as the dome began to collapse. He created one last, massive blood dagger, aiming it specifically for Daniela's pendant.
His intent was to shatter the gem and break Jasper's magical barrier forever. Shooting the final dagger at the onyx gem, he watched as the surface cracked, the sound like a spiderweb fracturing in the silence. A wisp of smoke exited the pendant, and Eric's blood dagger didn't simply shatter on impact but splattered, his blood seeping into the cracks in the pendant and destroying the magic within.
The magic surrounding her dissipated, and Daniela was suddenly crushed by Eric's raw power. Her legs gave way, her knees buckling until she crashed against the hard tiled ground. The droplets of blood that had adhered to her exposed skin and dress shuddered for a moment, then slowly fell away, coalescing on the ground to rejoin the vast, crawling pool.
Eric released his hold on Daniela. His blood magic pooled around her as it slinked across the tile ground back towards the bodies he had killed. He strode toward her, his gait powerful and filled with hubris. It was the stride of a man who understood that he had won.
Daniela glared as she looked up at him, her chest heaving desperately. She had felt as if she would have been squashed, crushed to nothing. For a moment, she had felt so much regret that she would die at his hands, die without being able to deliver the revenge that he so justly deserved.
Eric stood over her, grinning. His satisfaction could not be dampened in the slightest. Lowering himself until he was eye level with her, he held her chin with his two fingers, tilting her head upward. He had finally captured his beauty, and no one could take her from him.
"Do you understand now! That you are mine! And you will never escape me. We are fate!"
She had heard him say that before: We are fate. He used to say it all the time. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see his face, but she could see it even with her eyes closed. All the lives where he said "We are fate" slithered into her mind.
His fingers tightened on her chin, the pressure forcing her jaw taut. "Open your fucking eyes!" His words were harsh and demanding, ripping through the silence of the room.
Grinding her teeth against his insistent grip, she did as told, glaring into his crimson orbs. "You love me! And you will love me more. I will never let you go." His thumb caressed her cheek, his claw gentle enough not to rip her skin apart. She was precious to him.
Daniela wanted to escape. She felt the need crawling up her throat again. Every time she was in his presence before, it was there: the need to scream. But she pushed it down. She refused to give in to that weaker part of herself that she had long buried.
She wished to disappear, to sink beneath the floor, to find herself somewhere completely different. She just wished the floor would open up and let her fall down. The Divine gift in her chest vibrated, as if an answer to her silent wish. Daniela felt a smirk crest her lips as the floor beneath her disappeared, and her body tumbled downwards.
"No!" Eric screamed as he tried to reach for Daniela, but it was too late. He had only managed to claw her cheek as the tiled floor could be seen again, and Daniela was gone. He screamed as he smashed his forearms against the ground. "I will kill you, Deacon," he shouted to the seemingly empty room, knowing that the only one of them that had the ability to move in the shadows was Deacon, and he had taken his princess away from him. He didn't know who he was fucking with, because Eric would kill every fucking prince. She was his, and they all needed to stop touching what he had claimed as his own.
Author's note:
What would eventually Daniella do, with godlike magic?