Today Bella decided to give Archer a tour around the palace.
After she had let out her anger on Dylan for setting her up with arch boy who gets on her nerves, she now felt more at peace and accepted touring the mysterious untrusted man.
Actually, what made her endure spending more time with him was after she punched Dylan continuously on the stomach until he woke up wincing in pain. Then she kicked him off his bed, falling flat on his butt. As final revenge, she ripped one of his perverted magazines that he was hiding from the servants and the king in slow tortures motion before his own. His heart ached with each rip as his ear stung from the harsh voice. After that, she felt hella satisfied with her achievement of hurting Dylan physically and emotionally as he grieved on his ripped magazine. While she was leaving, her ears picked up his desperate whispers. He held the ripped magazine closely to his heart dramatically, whispering how sorry he is for not protecting his precious magazine from haters. With one last sly smirk, she threatened him to dare and fool with her again.
"Woah, this horse is a feisty one," Archer commented, patting the horse's hair while she kept moving her head excitedly under his hand.
"This one is called Ferose," Bella introduced the pitch-black horse who had a glowing black hair as well. "she is my companion." Bella finished smiling at her beautiful horse, who kept jumping and making voices after Bella said her name. The horse has been Bella's since she was a child. She had a strong attachment to her, and Archer noticed.
"Ferose?" Archer wondered. "why, Ferose? what does it mean?"
"Ferose means furious and wild," Bella paused, looking at her horse. A smile grazing her angelic features. "And this one here is a hella fierce and wild one, so I named her that. she was mine since she was young, and I felt that it always suited her." Bella finished with a shrug.
"I see now. " Archer absorbed her words in, his eyes solely on her. "And coming to think about it, I think it really suits her. She is just as fierce as her owner." Archer said with a smirk, he wanted to wink, but he talked to a princess here, and he didn't want to fall in trouble, so he stuck with the smirking. Bella didn't pay him attention as she was in another world thinking about god knows what with English on her face. Hence, he decided to ask another question to avert his attention back to him. "its clear that Ferose isn't an English name, so What's language it is from?"
Bella sighed, trying to compose her anger and upset while plastering on her blank face to not show any more emotions. She simply answered the question bluntly with no feeling nor emotion, "It's Italian."
"Why, Italian?" Archer already knew the answer, but he wanted her to wipe that blank, expressionless face-off hers. He wanted to witness her vulnerability to show him her real emotions that he couldn't grasp. She was good at masking her feelings and emotions.
Bella sighed, clenching her fists hard that her knuckles were already turning white. "My mother was Italian, so I know a few words." Bella got more riled up after spitting that sentence. She was confident that he already knew about every single detail about her life and was just getting on her nerves as always. Everybody knew! She was the damn talk of the media. Even her confidential-visits to the therapists have been leaked. She wanted to blow some steam off and didn't want to let it on him even so he deserved it, but she contained herself till she gets away from him for her papa's sake." Let's take a break." Bella ordered, storming out of the stable amidst the anger boiling inside her.
Archer felt slightly guilty seeing her storming like that, he wanted to apologize, but then again, he refrained himself, remembering that he must be cold-hearted, not caring about anyone or anything to accomplish his plan. Even though the guilt feeling kept growing, bothering him not able to block those thoughts nor feelings. Nonetheless, he kept reminding himself of the leading cause of his visit and what he would do next.
He already knew about princess Bella's tragedies because there was a buzz from the media about this incident since it happened. In each memorial, they were filming it live talking about it for the whole month that it happened in. Still, he was aware that the media tend to exaggerate. For that, he hoped he could know the entire story better from Bella herself. However, he understood that this girl won't budge that easily with the guards and walls she had built around her. He also knew that she went through a lot, and it was not fair what he was putting her through or persisting in putting her through, but he kept telling himself that it was for the best.
As Archer had an inside battle with himself about what he desired to do and what he was supposed to do, Bella was storming to her bedroom. She wanted to hide in the bathroom attached to her in-suite, not care about anything or pay attention to anyone as only ragging thought accompanied her. Her anger had her completely consumed that she didn't pay attention when she bumped into Dylan's shoulder, who was having the day off from touring as the man he was touring wasn't feeling well today.
"Ouch, watch out, Bella! My body is still sour from all of that beating yesterday and the emotional brea--" His teasing words trailed off as soon as he saw her stern glare and the tears that were threatening to fall. He knew this look well enough. It's the look when Bella was on the verge of having one of her brutal break-downs and self-loathing.
"What happened?" Dylan asked, shaking her shoulders, terrified at the sight of his best friend. She was his cousin, sister, and best friend. He would tear the whole place down if he had to just to make that agonizing dark hole she was diving in be erased. "Did something happen? Why are you crying?"
A lone tear fell out of her eye, but Dylan immediately caught her. He knew she hated to display weakness; hence, he hurriedly took her to her room.
As soon as they entered, he made sure to lock the door behind them. Bella started throwing and breaking everything in her room, punching the punch bag that she had in the corner of her room until it was ruined. Tears fell rapidly from her eyes, wetting her once dry cheeks; she looked like an utter mess -shameful princess. Nonetheless, she didn't care about any of that. Her eyes were clouded with anger, and a raging storm swirled in her heart.
Dylan already witnessed her many times before in that state, knowing that it is better if he let her by herself. He stood at the corner of the room as his eyes watched with grave sadness while his mouth let out a stream of curses under his breath for whoever triggered her.
Later on, she calmed down, falling defeatedly on the ground sobbing ugly. Dylan approached and wrapped his muscular, tanned arms around her. At the same time, she buried her face in his chest, absorbing the needed familiar warmth.
"Shh, Its okay Bel, Calm down." He soothed her as he used to do in those situations stroking her hair gently. She just needed to collect herself, get rid of her haunting thoughts. "Tell me what happened?"
Bella lifted her head, breaking the warm and comforting embrace wiping her tears as they were already at the end.
"Archer.." She began, and Dylan's face hardened with anger filling his eyes. Through gritted teeth, he muttered, " What did he do?"
Bella relayed to him what happened, and Dylan just got more riled up at the bastard who for sure knew everything and did it on purpose. No one, literally no one didn't know about the tragedy and how it corrupted Bella the more she got older. So he decided that it was time to teach that bastard a lesson throwing all the prince's manners in the nearest bin. Still aware that if his papa knew he would agree with him calling off the agreement, he decided to solve it on his own and see if golden boy here would rat him out or keep quiet.
Bella, already knowing what her best friend was thinking of, she got worried for her papa's sake. However, her sensible thoughts came to a halt when arch boy's face popped on her head. He deserves it. She shall bear the consequences later on with Dylan as they always did. They would always have each other backs. Trouble or not, they are a team. She gets angry; he gets. He gets in trouble; she also does. They act more like twins and maybe even more if that's possible.
However, her responsible side was battling with her enraged one. Is she supposed to stop Dylan or not?
"That bastard will go down!" Dylan spitted while Bella's eyes widened, knowing that it would end badly trying to decide whether or not to stop Dylan. Breathe, she reminded herself.
She felt the air get stuck in her throat at the sight of the motionless body. It's just your imagination, Bella. She comforted herself. Her heart ached terribly by just seeing those once glimmering with mischief eyes look utterly dull and void of life. No, my eyes are playing tricks on me. She wasn't even aware anymore of what's real and what's not.
"Oh my god..." A gasp left her lips as the tears stung her eyes. Her knees were on the verge of giving out. He made her go through that. All over again, suffering.