Rosangela: The Half-Blood Princess

“What are you doing here, Lupita?” someone chimed in.

Lupita whirled around. She hurriedly rose to her feet when she knew that the person who just came was Sigmund.

“My Lord.” She gave a slight bow of her head to show her respect for Sigmund.

“I asked you a question, Lupita. What are you doing in Princess Mirabelle’s bedroom?” Sigmund repeated his question in annoyed tone.

“I just brought Princess Mirabelle’s dinner, My Lord,” Lupita answered.

“Go back to your work now!” Sigmund ordered.

“Alright, My Lord,” she responded. Without another words, Lupita scurried out of my bedroom, leaving me and Sigmund alone.

Sigmund crossed his arms over his chest and asked me, “King Bellamy told you to get some rest, right? But why didn’t you sleep yet?”

“I intended to sleep, but Lupita came to bring me my dinner. So I think I’m going to eat first and then I’ll go to sleep,” I explained.

“Okay.” Sigmund said while taking a seat on the sofa by the window.

I raised my eyebrows. “Why are you still here?”

“Because I want to be here,” he replied.

“I said I would eat and then go straight to bed. So you can leave now,” I scoffed.

“King Bellamy gave me a strict order to keep an eye on you for twenty four hours,” he told me.

“What?! 24 hours? So you’re going to stay in my bedroom the whole night?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes. And I’m going to follow you around during the day,” he added annoyingly.

“You don’t have to stay in my bedroom. You can wait outside with the other guards,” I said.

“No, I have to be here,” he insisted, “King Bellamy told me not to let you out of my sight even for a second. He’s afraid the werewolves will try to kidnap you again or you’ll sneak out of the palace and endanger yourself again.”

“But I can’t sleep if you’re in my bedroom,” I protested.

“Don’t mind me! I’ll just sit here quietly,” he said.

“But—”

“No buts, Princess,” he interrupted, “Now eat your dinner and then go to sleep!”

“I don’t want to eat,” I refused, “I suddenly lose my appetite. Thanks to you.”

“Fine. Suit yourself,” Sigmund said.

I lay in bed and pulled the cover up to my neck.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sigmund pulling a small book out of his pocket. And at last, he began reading it.

I tried to sleep, but I couldn’t. My mind was occupied by Alpha Wolfgang’s remarks. If he were right about my grandfather who had killed my parents and he also planned to sacrifice me for his mortality, I would be dead meat.

'No, no, no.' I shook my head mentally. 'I don’t want to die. Not now. I’m still too young. There are still so many things that I want to do in this life.'

I felt a sudden surge of panic. 'I have to do something to foil his plan? But what shall I do?'

Consumed by anxiety, I ended up tossing and turning in bed.

What I was doing apparently attracted Sigmund’s attention. He lifted his eyes from his book and complained, “Why do you keep tossing and turning all the time?”

I rolled over to face him and retorted, “I told you I couldn’t sleep if you were here.”

It wasn’t a lie. Besides worrying about the possibility of the sacrifice that Adolph Wolfgang told me, Sigmund’s presence in this room also made it hard for me to go to sleep.

“Nice try, Princess! But I’m not going anywhere,” he said stubbornly.

“If you didn’t want to go anywhere, you’d better shut up. I’m trying to get some sleep now,” I scoffed.

“Fine.” Sigmund finally turned his attention back to the book.

I lay back down and turned my back on him. My mind slipped back to Alpha Wolfgang’s words about the sacrifice. And anxiety began to gnaw at me again.

I racked my brains, trying to find a way to thwart my grandfather’s plan. But even after several hours went by, I couldn’t come up with an idea yet.

The sun was just rising, and tiredness began to wash over me, but I couldn’t get some sleep yet.

I craned my neck and saw Sigmund dozing off on the sofa by the window. The book which he read last night lay on his lap.

The morning sunlight that flooded into the room through the curtains seemed to not affect Sigmund at all. It’s probably because he’s an old vampire, so he had gotten used to the sun.

I lay my head back against the pillows and started thinking about the sacrifice that Adolph Wolfgang had told me again. It seemed that there’s nothing I can do to prevent it from happening. So maybe I just had to accept my fate that I would probably get killed on my seventeen birthday, exactly at my wedding night.

At the mention of my wedding, an idea suddenly popped into my head.

The werewolves told me that the vampire king would sacrifice me at my wedding. So it meant that if there were no a wedding, there wouldn’t be a sacrifice. Right?

'But how can I make King Bellamy call off my wedding?' I asked myself. 'If I talked to him, he surely would be angry with me again.'

After thinking it over, I finally came up with another idea. 'I think I have to ask Prince Maximilian’s help to persuade King Bellamy to cancel our wedding. I hope my grandfather will listen to him.'

Because the morning had just come, I was sure that Prince Maximilian was sleeping by now. So I decided to get some sleep first. And after the sun set, I would meet him right away.

I shut my eyes. Shortly after that, I was out like a light.