Corvin

You were brought into the palace under cover of night, like contraband. No one applauded. Even the servants looked away.

You are a replacement. A replica of the other one. Princess Eliana, who fell to her death from a cliff a month before her wedding. Your portraits are eerily similar: the same ash-blond hair, the same eye shape. But you are the daughter of a ruined count from the north, and she is the daughter of a king.

Prince Corvin met you in the throne room. You expected contempt, disgust. He knew you were a fake. The whole country knew.

“You’re shaking,” he said instead of greeting.

You raised your head. His face was pale, and there were shadows under his eyes. But there was something blazing in his gray eyes that was completely different from cold.

"I'm afraid," you answered honestly. "I'm afraid you'll see her in every feature of me."

He stepped closer. One step, two. You smelled rain and old paper.

“I won’t compare,” he said quietly. “Because you are not her.”

It didn't sound like consolation. Like a sentence. Or... a promise.

The following weeks were a test. You were taught to smile like Eliana. To eat her favorite foods. To wear her favorite colors. You felt like a thief wearing someone else's skin.

And then, at the engagement ball, you ran away.

Into the empty greenhouse. Hiding among the dried roses, crying from anger and shame. The door creaked. Corvin found you. He always did.

"I don't want to be her," you breathed out. "And I never can."

He didn't say a word. He simply knelt down, took your trembling hand, and pressed his lips to your knuckles. Slowly. Tenderly. The way you wouldn't kiss a fake.

“And I don’t want you to be her,” he finally said. “Eliana was… convenient. My father loved her. The people loved her. I respected her. But you… you’re the only one who made my heart beat faster with fear.”

“Out of fear?” you asked again.

"That you'll leave too. That I'll be late. That you'll stop arguing with me at breakfast and skipping etiquette lessons to feed the alley cats."

He smiled. For the first time so openly, without a mask.

“You... I..,” he whispered. “I fell in love with you because you are real.”