The Cursed Prince's Strange Bride

"Dead?" Susan asked as she exchanged a look with Williams before looking at Alvin. "How? Did you kill her?" She asked suspiciously, and Alvin tried not to scowl at her.

Although he wished he had killed the maid earlier when they first began to suspect her, as that would have saved them the trouble, but then, whoever had used her would have used someone else. And it irked him how Susan jumped to the conclusion that he was the one who killed her. Why was he surprised? She seemed to be good at jumping to conclusions.

"Her rotting corpse was found in the village river.

She has been dead for some days," Alvin said as they arrived at the palace. He didn't bother to tell them about her being a twin since that wasn't their business and there was no point in giving them that information.

He was yet to give Harold the details about the twins since Harold had gotten off the bed and hurried down to the torture hall the moment he got off the bed and dressed up.

He still did not know how Harold had known that something was wrong. He had been moving around the palace in search of Susan to ask her some questions when one of the guards came to inform him that Harold was awake, and he seemed furious as he changed his clothing hurriedly. None of the guards could ask him about his health or what had annoyed him in his unconscious state, so they had come to find Alvin.

Despite how close he was to Harold, he felt a trickle of fear in his spine at the moment he got into Harold's chamber and saw his face and eyes.

At that moment, he had been thankful that he had returned to his senses and listened to Susan's suggestion for him to leave Harold's side and try to save his wife. He had no doubt that Harold would have killed him had he woken up to see him sitting beside him while his wife was being tortured.

"If anyone gets in my way, cut them down." Harold had ordered him calmly as he marched out of his chamber. That calm tone... Alvin did not like that, especially when he realized that Princess Amber had just been sentenced to death.

"Can you just stop and answer my questions?" Susan asked as she blocked Alvin's path. She was trying not to get angry at him since he had just rescued them, but he was refusing to tell them anything when they were risking their lives for this course.

Alvin stopped walking and looked at her with a raised brow. "What question?" He asked, while Williams watched Susan suspiciously, wondering if she truly had feelings for Alvin, because her behavior towards him wasn't normal at all. And for some reason, he noticed that it appeared like Alvin was slowly beginning to indulge her behaviour.

"Did you find out if she drowned or if someone killed her? It doesn't make sense that she would die just like that after making that confession," Susan said, and Alvin had to admit that she was a lot smarter than he had thought, and loyal too.

Even though he still found her annoying, it was good to see that she had a brain in her head and didn't just use it for jumping into conclusions.

"She was killed. You don't have to worry about it. I will find out who did it," he said confidently, and Susan nodded before looking around them.

"Where is everyone?" Susan asked when she noticed how lonely the place was. Everywhere seemed to be empty. There was no sign of life around them. It was unusual not to see at least a maid going about her duties or a guard patrolling. It was too quiet inside.

If not for the fact that everywhere looked tidy, and there was no trace of blood, they would have thought that Prince Harold had slaughtered everyone in the palace.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, causing the twins to shudder. If that was not enough, they heard the angry growl of a wolf that made fear grip every one of them, Alvin not excluded.

"Whhat... is that?" Susan stammered as she took a few steps backwards, going to stand behind Alvin, who was also surprised and wondering what was going on. Did Harold shift in daytime? His curse has been broken? Everyone was going to know now.

"Is that...?" Williams left his question hanging as he began to take large strides to go look for the closest balcony to the execution ground where he could watch what was going on.

"Where... are you going to?" Susan asked in a panic, torn between chasing after Williams or staying there. As much as she was curious, she was terrified.

"I need to know what is happening. Father is there!" Williams yelled without looking at her as he began to take the flight of stairs.

The growl shook the entire palace again, causing Susan to cry from fear before she began to find it difficult to breathe.

Everywhere stank of blood and poisonous pheromones that made her begin to choke.

Seeing this, Alvin quickly turned to her and took out a spare handkerchief he had with him.

He pulled her by the hand to face him and noticed how tears were beginning to pool in her eyes as she struggled to breathe.

He took out a piece of paper from his inner shirt and quickly opened it. There were two little brown medicines, and he forced one into her mouth before using the handkerchief as a nose mask for her, standing in front of her and tying it to the back of her neck.

When she blinked, tears fell from her eyes, and she raised her head to look at him.

He looked down at her with a bored expression as he said, "Go wait in your chamber until everything settles."

She stepped away from him, and it was as though she had just thought about something and quickly snatched the last pill from his hand.

"Sorry," she said apologetically as she began to run back towards the direction they had come from.

Alvin stared at her in disbelief as he asked, "Where are you going to?"

"MY MOTHER IS STILL OUTSIDE!" She yelled back without turning to look at him and just kept running with the hem of her dress in her hand.

Alvin continued to look at her retreating figure before he scoffed in disbelief. But he remembered he had something more important to do, so he quickly began to find his way towards the execution ground.