"Your Highness, wait!"

Nikki refused to slow her pace as she exited the carriage and entered the castle. The servants bowed as she passed, holding her head high with dignity and grace. Really, though, she wanted to burst into flames and burn her 'fiancé' down to cinders. He ran to catch up with her, grabbing her arm to slow her down.

"I said wait. Are you deaf?"

"I can hear perfectly fine. Unfortunately for you, I also have a free will and don't care what you want."

"Listen, little missy! I am your future husband, so you'd best get used to my demands and following orders."

"I take orders from no one."

"What about Maximillian?"

"That's communication, not taking orders. And I'd listen to a gentleman like him over an asshole like you any day."

He glanced at Queen Candy and gave a nervous laugh.

"Your Majesty, Princess Nicolette and I are going to go discuss things in her room, if you don't mind."

"Fine by me." She shrugged and headed for the throne room. Edward yanked on Nikki's arm and pulled her upstairs to her room. Once there, he tossed Nikki onto her bed and closed the door.

"Hey!" Nikki snapped.

"You listen here, you little bitch. You are mine. Don't you ever forget that!"

"And don't you ever forget that this is my kingdom by birth! I have more claim to the throne than you ever will."

"Oh, but once we have a son, all that goes out the window. A boy needs his father."

"And a girl doesn't?"

"Girls need their mothers. Boys need their fathers."

"A girl needs her father just as much as a boy does. Or maybe you didn't know that when you murdered mine."

Edward gasped and stumbled backwards, not believing that she knew about that.

"H-how did you—"

"You came here when I turned ten and poisoned him. Based off your reaction, I'm right. You do know that murdering the reigning monarch of one of your greatest allies is grounds for treason and the punishment is death, right?"

"You have no proof, Your Highness."

"How about you explain why you took away the parent that actually gave a damn about how I felt?"

"Fine. Your father was thinking of… backing out of the arrangement. He was seeing how unhappy you were and wanted to fix it. I couldn't let that happen, so I poisoned him. Your mother was the one who arranged the wedding, not your father, so I knew she wouldn't back out."

"And without my father, she'd be less stable and less able to rule, right?"

"Oh, women can't lead in the first place. It's why your mother arranged this marriage between us." He began to go closer and Nikki recognized the look in his eye.

It was the same look Jason had given her when he'd drugged her drink.

"And, Princess Nicolette, the fact that I murdered King William will never be believed by anybody else. You don't have proof. I don't even know how you know." He grabbed her wrists and pinned her to the mattress. "Now, you're going to keep quiet about this, or I'll have to punish you. You don't want that, do you?"

"No. And I also don't want any man touching me like this except Max!" As she said her husband's name, she kneed Edward in the crotch. He let out a yelp and fell back, landing on the stone floor. "Little tip I learned while living with him: don't let anybody touch you if you don't want to be touched!"

"You little bitch!" Edward recovered from his injury and lunged for her, but she rolled off the bed and grabbed a candlestick holder off the dresser.

"Come near me and I'll hit you in the head with this thing."

"Fine." He stood upright, holding his head high despite the pain in between his legs. "Just know that you're not getting out of this. You'll have to have sex with me eventually, and unlike you, I plan to enjoy it."

"Uh-huh. And unlike you, it's not going to be my first time."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Are you insinuating that I'm a virgin?"

"Yep." She crossed her arms. "Because I know nobody wants to sleep with your ugly-ass personality."

"You'll regret this." He turned and left the room. Nikki felt her knees wobble and collapsed on her bed.

"I miss you, Max…" she mumbled, burying her face in her pillow.

"Hello, Maximillian."

"You know, with as much as you visit my cell, you'd think that it was you I was married to and not Nikki."

"Don't be preposterous! That's illegal and untrue!"

"What the fuck do you want now?"

"In all seriousness? Leverage."

"And why do you need me for that?"

"Princess Nicolette is being difficult. I need you to help me keep her calm."

"You're letting me out?"

"No. I'm simply going to remind her that you are a prisoner until after the wedding. Perhaps we'll put you on the rack, or maybe we'll use some other device that will cause you pain. Then, we'll show her. Remind her that she's powerless in this situation."

"No!" Max felt his heart pounding.

Nikki…

"What the hell did she do to piss you off this much?!"

"She assaulted me when I attempted to remind her of her place." Max noticed him shifting in discomfort and smirked.

"I taught her well, didn't I?"

"So it is your fault she's like this!"

"She's been like this her entire life. You people just tried to crush it out of her."

"Because this isn't how a true princess acts!"

"If you want to marry a 'true princess', go for Princess Sasha. She'll be considerably easy to trick into a wedding."

"There's one thing I still don't understand… what did you do with the royal alchemist?"

"Nothing. Far as I know, he's with my family outside Sleepy Peak still."

"He… traveled with you? And didn't return the princess?"

"Neil's loyalty is more to Nikki than to this fucking place. They've been friends since they were little kids; what did you expect?"

"I expected him to take his role seriously!"

"See, that's what happens when you expect things of people—they let you down. Next thing you know, you're sold to the child dealers and forced to work as a slave."

"What were you expecting from those people?"

"For them to be my fucking parents instead of my owners."

"Ugh! You fed her some sob story about you being abandoned."

"It's the fucking truth. You don't get how hard it is to not be born a royal. Out there, you're lucky if you live to be five years old."

"And I don't care. Watch your step."

"As long as you watch your mouth."

"Max? Edward?"

The two looked to see Nikki and Lucy standing there, Lucy holding a lantern for her mistress.

"Nicolette, darling!" Edward greeted her. She crossed her arms. "What on Earth are you doing here?"

"Visiting my husband. I'd suggest you leave unless you want more damage done to you."

"Don't get too comfortable with him."

"I know."

Edward left the dungeon. Max breathed a sigh of relief before he and Nikki interlocked their fingers through the bars again. Lucy clutched her hands to her chest, her eyes sparkling as she viewed the pure love between the two.

"I've missed you," Max told his wife.

"I've missed you, too," she replied. "How are you holding up?"

"Only visitors I get are Prince Edward and the guards… which sounds more like a band name, to be honest. What about you?"

"Oh, you know. Dealing with my mother and my 'fiancé', figuring out how we're going to get out of here… typical stuff." Max bit his lip.

"Nikki… is something wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"You seem more pissed at Edward than usual. You're always pissed at him, but this seems different."

"Well, for starters, he tried to pin me to my bed—"

Max let go of her hand and punched the wall. He hissed and cradled the injury as Nikki covered her mouth.

"Max, calm down! I kneed him where it would hurt."

"That bastard shouldn't be touching you."

"And I didn't let him."

"Good. What else?"

"This is going to sound crazy, but… I talked to my father and Rosemary in my dreams. And Rosemary told me two things. First… I'm pregnant."

"I knew that already."

"Wait, how?"

"Your dad came to me in a dream and told me. I'm glad that we're going to be parents, but not when we're separated like this and Prince Asshole is in the picture."

"About him… Rosemary told me that he was the one who poisoned my father."

Max's jaw dropped.

"Are you serious?"

"I confronted him about it. Apparently, my father was going to back out of the arranged marriage and Edward wanted me to marry him, so he killed my father to keep the arrangement going."

"Son of a bitch."

"I know!"

Lucy was feeling very uncomfortable.

Keeping the princess's secrets is a high-stakes job…

Queen Candy sighed as she sat in the throne room. It had been several days since Rosemary Baker's funeral, and Captain Baker was still in mourning for his lost stepdaughter. Despite this, he was still dutifully serving his queen—including her schedule. The wedding was the next day, for God's sake! She had to be prepared for her new son-in-law.

"Now presenting, from the church in Sleepy Peak, the Quarter-Minister!" announced the royal herald. The old man entered the throne room and the queen eyed him with disgust. He had a long mustache and a hook for a hand—in fact, she remembered him speaking at Rosemary's funeral.

"Your Majesty," he grunted, bowing. "I am the Quarter-Minister."

"Yes, yes. What is it that you want?"

"I am here to speak on your daughter's behalf since you refuse to believe that she is already married."

"How much did she pay you?"

"Nothing, Your Majesty. I performed the ceremony and I have their contract with me." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the paper, presenting it to the queen. She took it and unrolled the scroll to see her daughter's name written in her messy cursive, as well as Max's name written in a much neater script.

"Oh… it was legitimate."

"There were at least half a dozen witnesses as well. And, to my knowledge, they successfully consummated the marriage."

Queen Candy bit her lip. Nikki had been telling the truth, but Candy hadn't about the marriage.

In all honesty, ten years earlier, the king of Woodland had threatened war. The marriage had been arranged to prevent that war from breaking out. Woodland had a strong army that Lilac couldn't hope to stand against. His reasoning? Queen Candy spurned his advances years earlier when she'd been about to marry her husband. When he discovered that she was now a queen, he was furious and threatened her.

If they backed out now, it would mean war and Lilac ceasing to exist. More than likely, Woodland would wipe them off the face of the Earth, starting with her and her daughter.

"What do I do…?" she murmured.

"Might I make a suggestion?" Quarter-Minister grunted, raising his hook hand. "You end the engagement."

"But, if I do that, we'll go to war!"

"War is meaningless."

"Woodland has threatened war with us unless this goes through!"

"With all due respect, Your Majesty, why don't you just marry the king of Woodland?"

"Prince Edward's been a gentleman the entire time he's been here."

"Have you met your son-in-law? Your daughter doesn't want a true gentleman. She wants someone she loves."

"Other than Nicolette's marriage to Max, there's no legal reason to terminate the agreement."

"Talk to your daughter. Actually talk to her, instead of arguing. She'll give you a good reason, I bet."

"I… suppose you're right." She turned to Captain Baker. "Go get Nicolette, please. I need to speak with her… and her husband."

"Right away, Your Majesty." Captain Baker bowed low and turned away. Candy could sense an uneasy feeling in her gut as he left.

Max heard footsteps approaching his cell as he and Nikki were sitting in silence, just enjoying their uninterrupted time alone until those footsteps came.

"Hide!" he hissed to his wife. She slid behind a wall with her maid, who blew out the lantern. Max looked up to see Captain Baker turn the corner.

"The queen has requested your presence, Your Highness," Captain Baker stated, bowing to Max before unlocking the cell. The prisoner blinked, staring in confusion.

"I'm sorry—what did you just call me?"

"It has been determined that your marriage to Princess Nicolette is legal; therefore, you are now the prince of Lilac."

Dumbfounded, Nikki stepped into view of Captain Baker.

"He… he's free to go?"

"He's going to stay here, but your mother has requested that both of you come to the throne room to speak to her." Nikki and Max hugged each other, relieved that they were finally able to be together to some degree. Lucy smiled as she followed them up and out of the dungeon.

As they walked down the hall, the servants stared at the princess and her husband holding hands without anybody protesting. They seemed happy—and seeing the princess both happy and on her way to see the queen was a rare occurrence. One that hadn't really happened since before the king died.

"Presenting Her Royal Highness, Princess Nicolette Clarisse Amelie de Gardenia and her husband, Maximillian Greene!" the herald declared. Max stifled a laugh and Nikki elbowed him playfully.

"That's all," the queen sighed. "I need everyone to leave except Captain Baker and these two."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" the occupants of the room replied, leaving after paying the royal family the proper respect.

"Now that they're out of the way," Candy stated, turning to her daughter and son-in-law, "let me just say, Max, welcome to the family."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

"You can just call me Candy."

"So, what's this about?" Nikki asked.

"This has to do with you marryin' Prince Edward." She took a deep breath. "It's my fault this whole thing got arranged in the first place, but queens have to make tough choices—the happiness of their children or the safety of their people. Ten years ago, when we first arranged the weddin', it was because the king of Woodland threatened us with war if we didn't arrange it."

"What the fuck?!" Max yelped. "Why?!"

"Because I refused to marry him. I was already engaged to William at the time—may he rest in peace—and I wasn't willin' to marry someone else. I'm not like you, Nicolette. And now, with the weddin' not happenin' at all… we could be facin' a war with Woodland. They have a strong military we can't fight with our current army, and it's likely they'll win and go after us first."

"So the whole reason you locked Max up was so you could figure a way out?" Nikki inquired.

"No. I didn't believe you'd actually married him. My mistake. My point is that we need to figure a way out of the war entirely. If Edward committed an act of treason, then maybe we'd have a solution, but as it stands, he hasn't."

"Does attempted sexual assault count?" Max growled. "He tried to pin Nikki to her bed earlier."

"Unfortunately, no. I should really change that…"

"How about murdering a member of the royal family?!" Nikki called.

"What are you talkin' about?"

"He killed Dad because Dad was going to back out of the arranged marriage."

Candy leapt to her feet, tears forming in her eyes as she walked back and forth across the dais her throne sat on. Max felt uncomfortable.

"That's… that's certainly treason… but we don't have proof. We can't accuse him without proof."

"He confessed to me when I confronted him about it. That's why he tried to attack me."

"And I hope you kicked him in the balls for it!"

Hearing the queen using that kind of language was not something anybody present was accustomed to.

"First my husband, then my daughter… who are those bastards going to try to take next?!"

"Yeah, Mom, about that… you're going to be a grandmother."

Candy's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed.

Okay, I know I just did an author's note with the previous update, but my update schedule was thrown off due to me being out of town over the weekend. I'm currently two updates behind, and the fact that I'm getting writer's block at this crucial point in the story isn't helping. Today, if I had managed to stick with my schedule, would've been chapter fifteen.

Things were revealed and relationships will be tested, next time on…

Wait, wrong story.

Okay, the first part rings true.

So long and thanks for all the fish!