April 789c.

            Alice stands on the balcony that outstretches from her bedroom, staring out into the pasture that runs for miles on end through the quiet province. She is 19 and she is in the ripe age of betrothal. The past couple months, since she turned 19 last October to be more precise, her mother has been working tirelessly to find her a compatible suitor. Sons of dukes and aristocrats from all over the province had come for her hand but hardly any of them were able to get past her father and even the ones that were, they were nothing but a bore. Kind and courteous, if she was to categorize all the men that she had already met, it would be nice. They were all nice and nice was good, from time to time, but her head were in the clouds. Her mother had scorned all the fairytale books that she had read. All the prince charmings in the books she owned, they were all nice, too nice. They were brave, of course, but they were also nice. Gentle on the eyes, the mother’s favorite, always saying the right things and being there when the damsel, or his future wife, needed him. She was bored with these stories and their obvious plot lines. She wanted something more in her life. If she wasn’t going to marry out of love, than she might as well marry someone that was different from all her childhood fairytales.

            Today, however, was a different day. Another suitor was too arrive but unlike the rest, he was different, or so her mother claimed. This suitor was an Arch Duke, a new Arch Duke of Vlascu, a province most up north on the continent. Although mother had only seen him, she knew that he would be the one for Alice and her father, only seeing the Arch Duke a handful of times in country meetings when all the Dukes, Arch Dukes, and Grand Duke were asked to conjoin at the kingdom, had said yes without giving it a another thought. Her parent’s actions baffled young Alice, flabbergasted that her father would allow a man they hardly knew to meet his only daughter so quickly. Either her father was in a hurry to marry her off or he honestly liked the man and to her, both sounded simply impossible.

            A knock sounded in the empty space as a voice called out for her from the other side. As Alice looked back, the door was pushed open and the face of one of the non-H maids peeked inside. Her name was Melissa and she was a beautiful young elf about Alice’s age. Although Melissa was a non-H and lived in conditions that were similar to poverty while Alice lived in excess riches, the later envied Melissa.

            “The Arch Duke of Vlascu has arrived Miss. Your mother wishes that you make haste.”

            A light sigh left her lips as she walked out of her room and followed Melissa down the three-story estate, down the hall and to the right where the living room waited. There, she found the rest of her family: her mother, father, brother and sister in law, all were enjoying the young Arch Duke’s presence. As far as her memory went, he was 23, a little late to marry but still within age.

            And once her mother announced Alice’s arrival, the Arch Duke turned and got up from his seat. As he approached her, although he wore elegant clothing made for a man of his status, she could tell that he was different from all the rest: he wasn’t a man who inherited his wealth. From the look in his eye, the hardness beneath it, he had worked his way to where he was. He fought for his place in the world and she could see that in his bulging muscle that pressed against the sleeve wrapped around his upper arm. When he smiled, she could see the faint imprint of a scar that half circled around the outer corner of his eye and the age in his face that came with the stress that followed him, a young Arch Duke with no one by his side and forced to prove himself to the world. He smiled at her and when he held out his hand, she offered her own but the grasp of his hand, the press of his lips against her chilled skin, there was nothing nice about it and she was beginning to believe there was also nothing nice about him. His hand held hers confidently, powerfully, as if to dominate her and his kiss seared through her skin, rattled her chilled bones, sending waves of some type of relief up and down her aching spine and it was like nothing she had ever felt before in her life. As he stood up again, he was clearly a head taller than she was and his wide chest shrouded her from the curious eyes of her family. He was nothing like the other suitors, nothing like them. She knew. He wasn’t nice.

            “Alice,” Her name came off smoothly from his tongue, not forced and not strained, as if he was born to only say her name. When she looked up to meet his eyes, she sincerely wished that she had not. Dark and mysterious black eyes looked down at her from behind half closed lids and although it was only a look, a mere glance, she felt as though she was being torn to pieces by him, thoroughly analyzed to uncover all her dirty little secrets and dark desires. His presence was suffocating, overwhelming; more than she could have ever imagined and the hint of woody musk with a touch of cinnamon that lingered from him made her senses feel like they were going wild. She looked at him and she knew that this man was meant for trouble, that this was going to be a day she would have to fight to forget “It’s an honor to finally meet you Miss Alice. I am Arch Duke Jung of Vlascu but Taekwoon would suffice.”

            “Alice,” She said softly, slipping her hand away from his. “Pleasure.”

---

            They walked along the garden made maze, Taekwoon finding it interesting to find something like that here. Although she was against it, he insisted that they strolled through it and as they walked in silence, she could help the eerie sensation that they were getting lost. As they walked, as he led her through the maze, she couldn’t help but feel as though she was doing something wrong while she was there with him in a place that was hard to see and surrounded by tall walls of shrubbery. She felt as though she was committing the worst crime of adultery by being alone with him and no matter how hard she tried to convince herself, no matter how much she believed she wasn’t doing anything wrong and this was actually what her mother and father wanted, nothing could stop that little tingling sensation that flustered her heart. I shouldn’t be doing this, she thought to herself. This means nothing.

            “Do you know where we are going?” Alice asked as they passed an entrance that led to the exit.

            He chuckled, “And if I don’t?”

            She side eyed him, unsure of what to think about his little joke. “Then you’ll just have to go through the brush to get out.”

            And although that made him smile, she was dead serious about it. There were only two people in all of Aria that knew the way out of that maze, herself and the gardener that made it. Not even her own brother, who was much smarter than she, could figure out the way without yelling in frustration and as she followed him silently, she watched as they missed every opportunity to get out and took every turn that would have kept them in the 3500 square foot maze even longer. The more wrong turns they took, the more she was sure that they were going to be lost in there forever and miss dinner. The right path to the exit took at least half an hour in itself. And they only had an hour before they should arrive back to the main house. There was no way he was going to lead them out of there in an hour. She was sure of it. “We should—”

            “Shh,” He hushed, looking at her from the corner of his eye. “Have a little faith in me.”

            But faith was something impossible to ask for since faith had brought her nowhere. Already, she was figuring out her speech to her parents about how she cannot marry Taekwoon and that her marriage with him would only lead her down a sad and pitiful life. And he could tell from the look in her eye, the frustration and the irritation that befell her as they took another turn that she would not have dared to make on any basis. He smiled, nudging her lightly with his elbow and as he did, she looked up at him, to his calculating eyes that pieced away at the maze bit by bit but even then, there was no way to calculate a way through the maze and if there was, her brother would have known the path to the exit instead of yelling in frustration and giving up miserably.

            “What are you smiling about.” She demanded, and he only smiled more.

            “Do you have anything against me, Alice?” He asked as his feet came to a stop, hers following as well. He pieced his eyes away from the maze and he turned to face her. His eyes, although meticulous, looked nowhere but to where she stood, plastered against her and daring not to blink away. She felt nervous, as though all of her shames and mistakes were going to be pulled out of her by his very own eyes and into his hands for him to scowl and distaste at. She wanted to look away and she did, for a second before his fingers traced down the length of her dark ash brown waves, picking up the ends and lifting it to his lips as a coy smile pressed against it. She was flustered, completely embarrassed and it was too obvious for him not to notice. He had an effect on her; she knew it and sadly, so did he. “Do you hate me that much?”

            She crossed her arms and puffed out her chest, looking away from his eyes as he continued to hold onto a piece of her hair, rubbing the ends of it between his two fingers. “Why would I hate you? That’s just preposterous.”

            He shrugged, “I was told that you’re an impossible woman to get to. Even I myself was worried while arriving from Vlascu,” She scoffed but when she turned to looked him in the eye, to say something back, her blood ran cold as she met his face leaned close to hers. She felt his breath against her lips and she could hear the pounding in her ears. She could have sworn that she was committing the most adulterous act as he stood this close to her, his breath hot against her lips as she felt herself melt in his presence. “But from how your acting and how you haven’t sent me away, I may have a chance, don’t I,” And his lips pressed against her ear, rought but gentle, soft against her ear. “Alice?”

            She felt as though she was burning, like she was going to go insane from the heat and that she had to drown herself in a bath of ice to cool off. Her knees felt weak as she felt his lips curl and press against her ear, she felt as though she was going to pass out from the blood that was rushing out of her head, disallowing her to make any type of reaction to his action. She loved the sound of her name when he first said it back in the living room, but to have her name be said again by him so close to her ear, with his lips pressed against her skin and have him whisper it into the canals of her ear drum, it wasn’t fair. He was crossing boundaries and trampling lines; he was giving her no chance to go back to a life where he didn’t exist, where his touch didn’t affect her and it was driving her mad.

            He knew her game. He knew how she ticked and how she thought. He had made sure to do his research on her, to make sure that when he arrived, he would be leaving with a bride. He dared to stand so close to her before she could have even properly sorted her thoughts about him. She was analytical, weighing her pros and cons. That’s how she was able to reject all the previous suitors that had come to meet her but this time, this sole occurrence, she couldn’t. Everything that was good about him, it was also a con. His sweet, honey filled voice that swayed her heart worked against her as he and played with her. His strong and muscular stature was attractive and pleasing to the eye but he used it to lead her, to keep a hold of her, taunted her that he was in control and she wouldn’t be able to act against him. All his pros became his cons but he worked them in a way to his favor and she wasn’t sure about anything at all. And it made him smile to think that his plan was working out all too well.

            He removed himself from her, to catch her eyes wide and in a daze, her cheeks red from embarrassment.  He hung an arm around her waist and continued to walk her through the maze with his fingers wrapped firmly against the curve of her hip, content about the touch he had against her heart. They continued in silence, a purse on her lips and her brows pulled downward as she thought of every horrible thing she could ever say to him. How she hated that stupid smile of his and how his mind games were annoying. How he was an idiot for jumping to conclusions because before, she didn’t hate him but now, she was very close. She complained about anything and everything that he was in her head to the point that it was showing on her face: her cheeks puffed and pink but it made him laugh, her little frustrations.

            “If you want to say something, you are always welcome to.”

            She turned her head away. “I have nothing to say to you.”

            He nodded, “Then may I say something?”

            “No.” She said quickly, walking out of his touch. “I am tired of playing this childish game with you Arch Duke. If you wish to get lost, you are more than welcome to get lost by yourself but do not dare to drag me into it. I have better things to be doing with my time rather than be playing games.”

            He looked at her, shocked by her forward personality but he wasn’t offended nor was he angry about it. Rather, he felt as though it was refreshing, something different in the pool of women who always gave in to the will of a man. He looked at her as she walked ahead of him and she was no woman that he could chase, no woman that he could reach for and grasp, someone that he could command without worry that she would disobey. She was a woman of her own right, strong willed and stubborn if must. Although she had agreed to follow him through the maze, she wasn’t going to allow him to dictate the path that she had went onto and it made him smile as he watched her walk ahead of him. She was a dangerous woman, an incredibly stubborn woman who was going to stand to her thoughts and ideal. He scoffed soundlessly as he watched her take the last turn at the end of the path. She was going to cause him trouble if he was going to marry her. She was going to introduce trouble after trouble for him and he knew it but he smiled. He continued to smile. She’s interesting.

            So he followed her down the last turn in the path and he joined her outside of the maze. He looked out at the scenery before them and the cool breeze was refreshing against his lungs as he took a deep breath, content that he was able to bring them out of the maze in time before she started to yell at him. Looking over, Alice’s eyes were wide with shock and although it made him want to laugh, he didn’t. He only looked away, pretending to not see her state of shock. She was a woman he could easily anger and from his past experiences, women of any species were the last people he would ever want to anger. So he gave her a minute, looking over at the clear blue skies and the birds that flew overhead. He imagined a life in a calm and quiet province like Aria, completely different from his home in Vlascu. He tried to imagine it, if his family had decided to move here so many years ago but when he tried, he couldn’t and it somehow made him sick. Turning his head to insist they go back inside, he looked to see no one and find her already on her way back, holding the front of her opal corset gown as she walked back to the large Cross estate.

            “Does that mean I pass?” Taekwoon asked, unable to refrain himself from asking.

            He watched as she came to a stop, turning her head to look at him as the sun kissed her skin and pressed against her in a warm glow. He had never noticed when they were inside the main building or even in the maze but she had beautiful grey eyes. “If you wish to continue courting me then you will return back with me. If not, leave.”

            And she turned back around and continued walking, leaving him alone in the garden. He chuckled lightly to himself before turning on the heel of his foot to followed after her. She may have been stubborn and quick to anger but she was fair.