Mark winced as his father began to cough and hack loudly. He was dying; he’s been dying for a long two months but Mark had noticed it had progressively gotten worse. If the king dies, what happens? Would Mark be crowned king by default or would it shift to a new family like it did when the last king had died?

    “Mark,” his dad said moving the handkerchief away from his mouth after his coughing fit subsided, “you’re going to be getting married soon. That is not a request.”

    A frown furrowed on Mark’s brow. “I’m going to what? Why?”

    “You will get married before the month is over. It’s crucial in order for you to become king.” His dad stifled a cough into his handkerchief and cleared his throat. “We already have your wife-to-be coming over. She’s a princess from Crestha. Nice, proper girl. You’ll like her.”

    “No, I refuse. I can’t get married to someone I don’t love.” Mark shook his head firmly. “I want to fall in love first. I can’t marry someone I don’t love. This is unfair—”

    “I said,” the king said in a loud voice making Mark flinch, “it’s not a request. You’re getting married and that’s final. The people of Thyslao won’t take you seriously without a queen. This girl was raised to be a queen.” He sat back on his throne, his hands folded into his lap. “You will be wed. No further arguments.”

    The prince snapped his mouth shut. He bowed his head to the king and left without a word.

    How was he to wed with a woman he didn’t know, especially to a girl who was brought up to be a queen. It felt intimidating. Mark himself didn’t know anything about being or acting like a king. Those lessons stopped after his mom died. His dad was way too busy to teach him and he had already forgotten everything he was taught.

    He made his way out of the castle and stood at the front gate watching as it slowly opened. As it opened, Mark stood there and stared out beyond the land at the channel of water separating Trinsa island from the great Thyslao continent. Part of him wanted to bolt for the ocean, run across it to Thyslao and disappear to live a different life, but the other part of him didn’t want to disappoint his father. He ducked his head away from the ocean with a longing sigh and headed for one of his only friend’s, Taehyung’s place.

    Because Mark was raised within the castle walls in secret until he was ten years old and had only stayed on Trinsa island, he never had many friends. The entire kingdom didn’t know of his existence and those who do are usually sworn to secrecy to never speak of him. So Taehyung is the only friend he’s ever had. They met on Mark’s first trip outside of the castle. Mark got so excited to be outside the castle that once the gate opened, he ran out and bumped into Taehyung. They’ve been friends ever since.

    Taehyung isn’t from Thyslao or Trinsa island. He is neither from any other continent in this entire world. He came from Heaven. He was an angel until he was exiled for falling in love with his charge. A girl he was supposed to watch over. Mark never asked too much about the details knowing Taehyung hated to talk about his banishment from Heaven so that’s all he knew. It was all he ever wanted to know anyway.

    Mark finally made his way to Taehyung’s house and kicked open the door to announce his presence as he always did. But today, because of his frustration, he kicked a little too hard and it fell off its hinges.

    Taehyung, who had been eating, stared at the door laying on the floor. “You better fix that,” he said.

    Mark smiled sheepishly and picked it up, setting it back into place. “I’ll fix it…”

    He went over to the table and fell onto the chair across from Taehyung. He leaned his elbows on the table and buried his face in his hands letting out a frustrated groan in the process.

    Taehyung rose an eyebrow looking across at his friend. “What’s up? You look troubled.”

    Mark rubbed his forehead, leaning back against the back of the chair. “I have to get married…”

    Taehyung snorted as he held in a laugh. “That’s funny. Funniest thing I heard all day.”

    Mark glared at him. “This isn’t funny. It’s serious.”

    The smile faded from Taehyung’s face. “What? You’re serious? You have to get married? You?”

    Mark nodded.

    “Who’s the poor girl who has to marry you?”

    Mark rolled his eyes, his fingers restlessly taping on his thighs. “I don’t know. She’s a princess from Crestha. She was apparently raised up to be a queen. Talk about intimidating…”

    “Crestha, huh?” Taehyung scratched his chin in thought. “People from there are known to have elemental powers right? Maybe she’ll have fire powers to melt your icy heart,” he teased.

    Mark shot another glare at the other that was, this time, accompanied by a snowball to the face. “Stop teasing me. This is serious.”

    Taehyung wiped the snow from his face and groaned. “How many times do I have to tell you not to use your powers indoors? She’s going to yell at me again if you make a mess like last time,” he grumbled as he quickly wiped up the melting ice on the floor.

    “Aren’t you listening to anything I’m saying, Tae? I have to get married! Me, of all people!” Mark groaned, throwing his head back. “I haven’t even had my first kiss, let alone had a girlfriend before. How am I supposed to get married when I haven’t even had any of those?”

    “Well, maybe if you weren’t so literally cold to all the girls who were trying to court you all these years, you would’ve had one.” Taehyung rolled his eyes remembering back to all the girls who had liked Mark and how he turned every single one of them down.

    “I’d rather get married to you than some girl I don’t know and love,” Mark continued.

    “I’m flattered you’d even think to marry me, but you’ve never once bought me dinner like a proper gentleman so my answer is no,” said Taehyung. He stood taking his empty bowl to the sink.

    Mark sighed. “What am I going to do now?”

    “Look, man,” said Taehyung,” I don’t know what you want me to tell you, but an arranged marriage doesn’t sound so bad for you.” He turned to the prince. “You’ve never liked a girl, ever. You are the literal definition of ice prince. You even got the powers to match.”

    “What are you getting at?”

    “Maybe...an arranged marriage is good for you. You could, you know, end up slowly falling in love with her in the process.”

    Mark crinkled his nose. “But I don’t even know her. What if she’s a terrible person? I want to get to know her first… Or go on a crazy adventure with her, make a few bad decisions… You know?”

    Taehyung sighed, patting Mark on the shoulder. “Sorry, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. You can’t just walk away from this either. Your dad would be so pissed. You’re going to have to go through this marriage whether you like it or not.”

    Mark frowned and looked into his lap. ‘Or not,’ he thought.

It was the middle of the night and Mark was still awake. He stood by one of the many large windows in his room and stared out at the ocean.

    “Or not,” he muttered to himself. He unfolded the map of Thyslao he had an examined it. There were four major parts of the continent all separated by a border wall. His eyes flicked over the names of each section from the bottom to the top; Lindres, Hiondus, Nyskat, Juhar. He knew very little about each but knew that each section contained a segregated part of Thyslao’s population. Lindres housed what they called the Hunter’s district where the humans lived. Hiondus housed the Demon district, Nyskat with the Warlock and Faerie districts, and Juhar with the Lost World district.

    Mark had always dreamed of visiting each district. He never got to. Until now.

    He placed his crown on his pillow and didn’t look back. He folded up the map, slipping it into his pocket and headed for the window. He opened it and climbed out onto the giant orange tree just outside. He remembered always climbing out onto the tree as a kid and he sat there eating oranges until he got in trouble.

    When Mark’s feet touched the ground, he ran. He ran across the lawn and climbed over the rock wall and onto the street. He ran down the street all the way to the docks. Once at the dock, he stopped at the very end.

    His body screamed to turn back around and go back to the castle, but he didn’t. He took one step onto the water and it froze under his foot. Both of his feet were now on the water. He took a deep breath of the ocean breeze and bolted across the channel to the next heap of land. Thyslao.

    Mark climbed up onto the land and panted for air. The air was different here. It felt more crisp and fresh. It smelled different as well. It was unlike anything Mark had smelt before.

    He took a glance around, a smile forming on his face. “Thyslao… I’m here…”