Summary

Aria is princess and she wants nothing more out of her life than to be able to decide what to do with it. But fate (and her mother) have another plan. What will our headstrong heroine do when she finds out she is betrothed to the prince of another land? And what happens when sparks fly between them and she finds herself falling hopelessly in love with him?

All right Aria had just fainted when she found out that she would be marring Prince Rigel, right, well that's where I remember I left off. Thank you for reviewing.

I woke up to sun shining in my eyes. I must have forgotten to close the curtains; I hate it when the early morning sun wakes me up.

I mean that is just a bad way to start the day in general. I like to sleep in the dark. I went to get up and then I realized it...

OH MY GOD! I screamed. I am still in the clothes I wore today. I looked out the window and it wasn't the morning sun that woke me it was the setting sun. I screamed again.

That meant it wasn't a dream. I was getting married in six weeks, six weeks, who gets married in six weeks? And that annoying little voice in my head said well me obviously.

I sighed and went to my dresser, I looked like hell. Literally. I took out a nice blue one it was simple, no bows or frills, I hate that. Especially when I try to mix my potions, they get in the way.

I have all my dresses made with tight sleeves, no butterfly sleeves, though they are the fashion. Mother gets so mad at me when I refuse to wear them. I had a plain French braid that my maid did in my hair, after i got re dressed for the day.

I went where I always go when I'm faced with something hard, my study. I walked quietly down the hall, praying to dear god that no one would see me and 'congratulate me' or worse make me go down to dinner.

I couldn't believe that my parents would do that to me, they knew I didn't want to marry. I wanted to help people, how can I possibly do that now, now that I'm betrothed to 'him'.

Being a mage isn't easy, how can I do that with a family, I have to travel all the time and I constantly would put myself in danger. How could I sleep at night knowing I had a husband and children somewhere?

IfI was in love with him, I might give up my dream, and help people in other ways. But this just isn't fair, I never wanted to get married or have kids.

Aijia is the mother, I am well, not. I love kids don't get me wrong I can't wait till Aijia and Leuce get married, then they'll have kids and I'll be an auntie.

I can spoil them rotten, & feed them sugar, sugar, sugar, then send them home. Now I can't, now I am going to have to get married. I have no choice in the matter, I don't want to run away, but i don't want to get married.

If I join the church, I wouldn't be able to be a mage or have lovers or anything fun. It would be worse being a nun than the glorified housewife I am going to be.

I sighed a long drawn out sigh, I finally reached my study. As I walked in through the door, I saw someone sitting in my chair. Then I saw a cloak hang on the hook by the door.

It was a long black cloak. It was too big to be Marcus's; it had to be 'his' (yes I had referred to calling Rigel "him"). I walked into the room, my study, totally intending to scream my poor little heart out at him, but then he looked up at me.

And I saw he too had tears in his eyes. He didn't want to marry me either. He quickly wiped them away and got up to leave. Against my better judgment, I said, "Wait."

OK so I felt bad he didn't want to marry, either or it was when I found out I fainted and I think I threw up. Either way it was a bad situation all around.

We just stood there and stared at each other. As I was about to speak, he beat me to it.

"Your Mother told me you might be in here, but I understand if you hate me, really I do," he was starting to ramble on. It was good that he wasn't always so confident with himself. He finished.

"If your done babbling, you can sit we need to talk." I said confidently, although I didn't feel it. He smiled at me, that breathtaking grin, and took a seat "Thank you Aria, am I allowed to call you Aria?"

I sighed as I took my own seat, "Of course you dolt, I hate being called Arianna, I don't know what my parents were thinking when they named me."

He frowned a bit and smiled again but the smile not reaching his eyes this time. "Rigel I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." I need to think before I speak " I didn't mean it like that." I finished lamely.

He stood up, came to sit beside me, took my hands in his, and looked me straight in the eye. "Aria think nothing of it please, how are we supposed to be married if every time we speak we are afraid of offending each other?"

I opened my mouth to speak but he put his finger on my lips. "No Aria, don't be afraid to mention you parents, ever. I think we do need to talk but not here."

His finger was still on my lips so I nodded my head yes. He smiled; I love that smile I really do. The more I am around him he more I like him. 'NO ARIA, you can't think that.'

He took my hand again and we stood up. He dragged me out of the small office and down to the garden.

As I was getting my bearings (not to mention my breath) he spotted a small bench by the lilies and let out a small "ah ha" and proceeded to drag me (again) over to the bench.

He let go of my hand sat and gave me a roguish grin, "Sit down Aria the bench is comfortable. Or is it me" He said in a playful tone.

I just scowled at him. In a more serious voice, he said, "Do you really dislike me that much; I mean you fainted when you were told we were getting married."

"Rigel," I said sitting down taking his hands in mine and giving them a squeeze. "It's not that I don't like you, it's just that it was such a shock."

If it was possible, his face fell even further, I let go of one of his hands and I touched his cheek, he closed his eyes and sighed then he kissed my palm. He opened his eyes and began to speak

"Aria, didn't your parents tell you?" "No that was the first I heard of it, why?" I went to drop my hand that was on his cheek but he caught it and kissed it.

"Aria we've been engaged for three months. I was going to send you a letter but every time I tried to my grandfather told me to let your parents tell you..."

He trailed off all I heard was "three months." I was angry, I was beyond angry, I was pissed off.

I stood up quickly and started to run with Rigel at my heals. I had to know if it was true if my parents looked me in the face and didn't tell me. How could they? Just how could they.

I kept running down the hall even though Rigel was calling me to come back, I wasn't listening. I just kept running to my parents room where I knew they were.

They always spent the afternoon together. It was their 'together' time. I reached the outside of their room and banged on the door.

I kept banging when my mother answered the door. I knew I was crying, and my braid came out of my hair, I looked like a wild child.

My mother was about to speak but I pushed past her. I went in to talk to my father, what I didn't know was Rigel was at the door with my mother. My father came out of the bedchamber and into the sitting room.

That's when I let loose. "HOW COULD YOU, HOW COULD YOU LOOK ME IN THE FACE AND NOT TELL ME ANYTHING?" My father looked shocked, he came over to me and tried to hug me but I pushed him away.

He looked hurt, good that was my intent, I wanted to hurt him as he hurt me. I loved my father more than I loved my mother, I was his little girl. I couldn't believe that he did this to me.

When I finally calmed down a bit, I asked him "Did you know, did you know three months ago and not tell me?"

He looked like he was choosing his words carefully, good he better. "Aria it isn't that simple, I, we, wanted you too be able to laugh still before we told you we knew you would be mad, but we... we ... we wanted you to be happy."

"And this is Happy, Daddy?" I asked sarcastically.

He sighed sadly, "Aria, if I knew you would have been this angry, I would have told you sooner." I was too angry to hear anymore, I stormed out of the room.

Before I did, I told him I hated him. Someone caught me as I tried to leave, it was Rigel.

He pinned me up against the wall outside of my parents room as my mother shut the door, and went to console my father. I slapped him.

He still didn't let me go, leaned close to me and whispered in my ear "Aria do you know what I would do to have parents like yours, do you know what happened with mine? My Father raped my mother, your parents are wonderful people and you just told them you hated them."

I was so; I don't know what you would call it, maybe emotional, or surprised, that I started to cry. Rigel just held me close and let me sob into his shoulder.

When I stopped crying, I was so exhausted that Rigel had to carry me back to my room. As he was carrying me back, I rested my head on his shoulder and thought it wouldn't be so bad if I married him.

Granted I was still very angry with my parents for not telling me sooner. Yet as he carried me back my anger didn't matter much anymore, he was good and kind to me, especially after I slapped him.

I don't know too many men that would let a woman cry on his shoulder after she slapped him. Let alone a man that would carry a woman back to her room. I sighed (something I have been doing alot lately) I picked up my head a bit so my lips could reach his ear and I whispered a simple "Thank you."

He shivered a bit and I put my head back on his shoulder. When we got to my room, he didn't put me down so I could go sob on the bed.

No, he carried me over to my bed and pulled the covers down a bit so he could put me down. He put me down on the bed and took my shoes off. Then he covered me with my blankets tucked me in and kissed my forehead and whispered goodnight to me.

He was about to leave but i caught his hand and stopped him. I sat up and I looked into those deep blue eyes, What I saw there was trust. He trusted me. I touched his cheek and traced my hand along his jaw line, as I did that he closed his eyes and sighed contently. I leaned in close to him and kissed him softly on his cheek, the one that I slapped. He opened his eyes and kissed me, but this time on the lips.

He pulled away after a moment and kissed my forehead. "Aria, get some sleep, I come for you at breakfast tomorrow, we'll eat in my chambers, I would like to get to know you first."

Ok now who can resist it when a man says that to you? Not me I couldn't. I was goo, a puddle of goo at his feet.

I smiled at him and he smiled back. I kissed him again on the lips, and said "Rigel, I would love to dine with you at breakfast tomorrow." He kissed me again a bit sweeter than the other one though.

I smiled as he told me to lie down so he could tuck me in again, and kissed my temple. "Good night Aria, Don't make me wait to long." He said as he exited my room. I smiled as I fell into a dreamless sleep.