By the time dawn arrived, Regina was so exhausted by hours of socializing that she was nearly dead on her feet. 

After spending the first one-and-twenty years of her life speaking only to a select group of family members and servants, and as often in monosyllables as she could manage, Regina had had enough social interactions to last her the next one-and-twenty years. 

What’s more, the thought of going through her actual engagement party with even more sneering nobles that same day almost made Regina collapse and wish an assassin had found her after all. 

As it was, she found herself curled up in a balcony corner, watching the sun rise as she tried to recover from hours spent raving about how amazing the bond between Artem and her family happened to be.

(Even if she could not prevent her own death, she wanted to make sure poor Artem was not blamed for it. Given how eagerly he was participating in all her schemes, that was the least she could do for him!)

Yet as Regina watched the sun rise with weary, red-rimmed eyes, she felt both pity and sadness for poor Artem. 

“He just wanted to sing to me,” she said, maybe a little wistfully. 

Though Artem’s lyric-sheet was still in need of editing, Regina realized now she actually did wish she could have heard his song. After all, it was not as if she had ever had anyone else want to sing for her.

It would have been… nice to feel special enough to have earned a song, even if everyone else seemed to think her singer was a sentimental fool.

Regina now winced as she thought of the number of thinly veiled insults that she and Artem had faced tonight when they greeted every noble at their impromptu party. Each and every single one had made Regina want to spit venom, though she had had to pretend not to understand their insinuations… 

Even as sweet Artem had truly seemed to not understand how the nobles felt about him, based on how he had smiled widely each time the nobles had called him “compassionate” and “understanding” for going along with his “wife-to-be’s whimsical whims.”

“Artem really does deserve better than me,” Regina softly admitted to herself. “I spent all night pulling him from one group of nosy cruel nobles to another just so that he could be insulted in slightly varying words. I then forced him to greet and socialize with those awful people… only to have him praise me to every person who spoke to him. I am a terrible bride-to-be!”

“No one,” said a soft voice behind her, “insults my amazing fianc é e… not even you, my dearest darling.”

Regina almost leaped into the air and off the balcony before a pair of surprisingly sturdy arms embraced her and she turned her face to look at Artem, who now looked worried.

Trying to cover up her foolishness with a jest, she replied, “No one startles like your fianc é e either. Take care not to scare me, my prince… or when we are married, I may put a bell on you to know when you are coming and going.” 

Regina was even more startled by the strangely wide smile that spread across Artem’s face before it turned into something much milder and more familiar.

“Would you mind then,” he said shyly, eyelashes lowered most attractively, “if I sing to you? You seemed to… know that I wished to sing… and you did not seem to mind?”

Artem looked up through his eyelashes then, so hopeful and bright, that Regina privately thought that he outshone the rising sun.

Nodding almost as if she was hypnotized, she was rewarded by a smile that was somehow even brighter than his previous hopeful expression.

Then Artem opened his mouth, staring at her in a way that felt intense and comforting and exciting all at once…

When his song finally reached her ears and carried her to a place that felt so far away but familiar all at once, Regina felt her eyes begin to sting.

Nobody had ever looked at her like Artem was looking at her.

She had never thought anyone could look at her like Artem was looking at her.

Regina did not even want anyone else to try .

As she tried to refocus her strangely blurry vision as Artem’s song came to an end, Regina suddenly realized that Artem had moved closer, even as he had taken her hand in his.

“You have been working so hard by yourself,” he said softly, his smile replaced with a somber expression. “I can see how much you have had to bear, all alone.”

Regina felt as if it would have been less surprising if he had suddenly stabbed her – which was the only excuse she had for the bitter words that she then spoke. 

“ Nobody sees me,” she said – confessed , knowing she was ruining a sweet moment but strangely incapable of lying.

Artem was suddenly so close that Regina could feel his breath against hers and wondered if he could hear the heartbeat that was so loud in her ears.

Even as her eyes went wide, Artem leaned closer to her face, his gaze never leaving hers for a single second.

He was so close that Regina wondered if somehow they were going to melt together when his mouth opened and – 

“I see you,” said Artem.

– and Regina forgot how to breathe .

All she could do was stand still as Artem gently cupped her face in his hands and moved closer, his eyes as blue as the autumn skies…

…before she jerked away, almost flinging herself out of his arms as her desires collided with the reality that she had no idea how to properly kiss him and that if Artem realized how inept she was – 

It was one thing to dream of receiving a passionate embrace from her beautiful and caring husband-to-be.

It was another thing to be confronted with an embrace in reality… and to realize she might fail to live up to his dreams.

Yet Regina could not confess her fears any more than she could confess the real reason she wanted to marry Artem so badly.

So instead, staring at a forlorn-looking Artem, Regina sputtered the first words that tripped over her tongue.

“You make the most beautiful jewelry I can imagine,” Regina babbled. “In fact, I – I wear the beautiful gifts you send me day and night! After we wed, will you make more for me?”

She immediately winced, knowing she had made herself look like a ridiculously greedy woman who wanted to use Artem – which truth be told, she was , but only because Artem was her only hope of surviving calamity.

Yet to her surprise, instead of looking disgusted with her avarice, Artem just smiled even more brightly.

“You are,” he said, his voice almost as sparkling as his smile, “the perfect woman.”

Before Regina could determine what part of making him miserable, denying him any pleasure, and then telling him she wanted him to service her made her “perfect,” Artem suddenly drew his hands together –

And conjured up the bouquet of golden roses that Regina had seen him create for her in her last vision.

Even as her mouth gaped open at Artem’s casual use of his metallurgic magic – how could he dismiss and then conjure metal that well? – he gently moved to weave the golden roses into a graceful crown for her hair and continued speaking.

“I have so many things I want to share with you!” he said brightly, almost hopefully, as he stared up at Regina through his eyelashes.

Touching her new rose garland with wide eyes, Regina asked, “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Artem continued, obviously warming to the subject, “ that I wish to give you what is your due, my princess. In fact, I can do more than share what I can craft myself. All the treasures of the Alpins will be yours once we are wed!”

That, Regina thought skeptically, seemed to be a promise that was hopefully more the exaggeration of love than actual fact. 

After all, Regina had no intention of letting Artem draw the wrath of his Alpin relatives by stealing priceless treasures for her.

To Regina’s surprise, Artem obviously noticed something wrong due to the way her eyebrow was trying to take residence in her hairline. He quickly added, “I will get you whatever you desire because I intend to make you the happiest bride possible… as I am already the happiest groom.”

Though Regina’s eyebrows now threatened to take up permanent residence near her hairline, Regina had to smile.

“Then our mutual happiness,” she replied, “is enough for me. If we could be safe and content and far from assasi – er – assumptions that others make about us, I will be most pleased!”

~♦♥♦~

Author's Note: This chapter continues in the next episode!