Amy's POV

Yelling at Nik was painful. Not because the pressure was upsetting my wounds, but because I didn't mean what I said.

I had no one. Kelly was nowhere to be found and the only one I could talk to was Blue...but he was always busy and aloof, not to mention a secret.

I. Had. No. One.

And I was starting to believe the hateful words that Lydia, Leticia, and Candace always told me. So I kept my head down Monday morning (also as a way for no one to look at the makeup covered scars), ready to avoid everyone and everything. And then I ran into someone—or rather, vice versa.

"I'm so..." when "sorry" should've came out, Kevin just smirked. "Not sorry." I watched as he, Candace, Lydia, and Leticia walked past me.

I just went to the sports medicine room, happy that I made it through the day...maybe because Nik wasn't there. Well I thought that, until he showed up in the trainer's with someone supporting half or most of his weight. Just my luck that Ms. Peterson had just now left and I was to tend to him...alone.

I politely and quietly asked him to flex his leg, but after a few trials, I could tell there was nothing wrong with him.

"You're free to go," I told him, avoiding eye contact. I noticed that he stayed there. "You can go."

"I don't want to," he said. Why did I have the sudden feeling that he faked getting hurt, just to see me? "So I heard you and Kevin broke up."

I gave him a death stare.

"Why? I was kinda glad to hear it, but why'd it happen in the first place?" he asked. "Because you dumped his sorry ass for hitting you?"

The school bell rang and then I started to leave before answering him. He grabbed my waist and pulled me back. I tensed up and turned to him.

"I have to be somewhere," I told him. "And you have practice to get to."

"It can wait," he whispered.

"Apparently not," I said before trying to make an escape, but of course he was an athlete as well and stopped me once I made it out the door. I looked to the familiar faces that were a few yards away.

"I know you may think it's not possible, but I do care about you, Amy. I like you," Nik confessed. "So don't be mad at me for trying to care about what the hell is going on with you, Kevin, Candace, and whatever sh!t they're trying to get away with."

"That's not why I'm mad at you," I plainly said, walking around him and brushing past Candace and my sisters who waited with arms crossed. I looked over my shoulder to see what would happen. But I found that I was soon out of hearing range.

Nik's POV

I turned to chase Amy and found Candace, Leticia, and Lydia standing impatiently with their arms crossed. Candace gave the twins a look and they walked off, but she still stood there with a hard glare as I tried to look around her to see Amy walk off. I hope she didn't think I didn't see her glance back occasionally. Once she rounded the corridor's corner, I looked at Candace with a plain look.

"So you like her," she started.

"Haven't I made that clear?" I sort of roared before walking past her, but she grabbed my arm. I stopped and turned to her.

"What about us?" she hissed. I shrugged.

"I haven't been interested in you since seventh grade, sweetheart," I broke. She acted as if she was surprised and taken back.

"You're really gonna throw away nearly six years for some peasant? That's a dumbass move, Nik—"

"A dumbass move is to have no living parents and been treated undeservingly and then have to deal with bitches like you and the twins all the time," I retorted with two meanings—one because of Amy and her situation, but other because of my own life that Candace didn't even know to care about...

I scoffed at her and then left to jog to get Amy, but I was caught by coach and was ordered to practice. It was hell with everything running through my mind. About Amy, about myself, about...everything.

So when Kevin was "accidently" elbowed in the face in a scrimmage, it was no surprise to me.

"I was in your way, apparently," Kevin said, getting up. "Sorry."

"Well I'm not," I growled.

"Excuse me?" he asked as everyone was setting up on their opposite position down the court.

"Meaning that's what you deserve for Amy," I clarified.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"I know you hit her," I growled. He gave me a dark look and after that point, an elbow in the face was the least of his worries from me.

Amy's POV

"Wow. Stealing someone else's boyfriend? Especially when he's way out of you league?" Leticia said.

"Way to be a WHORE," Lydia added.

They were approaching me in a threatening fashion with their arms crossed, but this time, I wasn't afraid of them. I hadn't ever been afraid of them aside from the one night when they gave me a reason to, but now...I don't know. I just didn't care enough to be scared.

"Wow. Trying to defend your 'best friend's ex boyfriend when you really have nothing to do with him?" I mocked. "Way. To. Be. A. Follower."

They gave me glares before sending looks to each other.

"Do something," I dared with doubt. Thus, starting a fight.

King Tate's POV

"What is it?!" I finally asked my annoying secretary that was persistently trying to get my attention.

"Prince Nikolai is in the police department," he informed. I stopped what I was doing, grabbed the car keys myself, and bolted out of there.

***

"Don't even start that sh!t, Kevin!" I heard Nikolai yelling through the corridors. I noticed that he had a few battle wounds, but not as many as the other muscular teenage boy.

"Son!" I yelled as he lunged at the boy. I grabbed him by his torso and spun him around. Everyone quieted down. "What is the meaning of this?!"

With both boys shouting over each other, I turned to an official for confirmation and clarification, but they didn't know the truth, either.

"He hit her, I know he did," Nik said, twenty minutes later, now pointing a finger at the other boy: Kevin Hodge. He was an old friend's son.

"Whatever! You have no proof of anything, so you can't say sh!t !" Kevin roared back. Before I could ask what the dilemma was, I saw three girls being hauled in with handcuffs on. A pair of twins that were obviously in a fight with their pouting, bruised faces...and then there was another girl with a smug look and healing wounds that didn't originate from an altercation from tonight. I recognized the last girl.

"What the hell did you do now?!" Nikolai yelled. The girls didn't answer as they filled were processed, but I noticed my son weaken his stance at the last girl. "Amy..."

The familiar girl looked over to Nikolai. At first it was in address, but then changed into alarm or some sort of emotion. She had an even more alarmed expression when she looked between him and Kevin.

I tapped the shoulder of the nearest police officer for the more recent case and asked him about it. Apparently, the twin girls provoked a fight and Amy stood her ground...really well, apparently.

"It was you, then," Nikolai accused to the twin girls. "You beat her up."

"I told you," Kevin grumbled.

"You did too, so shut up," one twin replied to Kevin.

"No I didn't. That was all you girls; not me," he denied.

"Bullsh!t," one girl called.

"You were a part of it," the other girl said.

That was all that was said before I demanded to be told of the circumstances and situation from the beginning.

Nik's POV

After explaining everything in the truth, Amy was released from the handcuffs and was just questioned like everyone else. They called in Candace as well.

What happened the other night was she raised her voice at Kevin and he hit her only once, promising to never do it again. It was sort of common behavior in this land since it was a bit old fashioned, but he had promised to never lay a hand on her again, although this didn't restrict him from leading her right into the trap at her own home where she was beaten up and threatened by Lydia, Leticia, and Candace. Which led to today. The twins tried picking a fight with Amy and she stood her ground. She even claimed that she just dodged their hits and they ended up sort of beating themselves up. I couldn't say the same about me and Kevin. I just kicked his ass as much as I could before the rest of the team pulled us apart.

So now we were in separate areas of the police station. Everyone except Amy and I were under custody and I sent looks to her from across the room, wanting to talk to her, but I was sure my father would now forbid me to do so. He was sitting in a sort of funk—after years thinking Candace was the one for me and was horribly wrong, or that his "son" could become so incisive and violent. I didn't really care what he thought. I only cared about Amy for now.

"You little twit," I heard someone say. I looked up to see Lily Cantwell speaking to Amy—who now stood—as Lily waited for the officers to retrieve Lydia and Leticia, although they would have a court date for harassment and assault. Even though Amy didn't want to press charges, I insisted that the charges be pressed by the kingdom instead. "Just because you don't have what they do, doesn't mean that they deserve to be behind bars. It's more like you do!"

I saw as Amy stood with clenched fists. I knew she'd never hit her step-mom, but I couldn't think of her doing anything else, until she proved that her modest act was to step around her and jog out the door. And as she did, it was as if slow motion took place. Each foot hitting the floor, her long hair bouncing around her shoulders, her hand reaching up to wipe a single tear as her other pushed the door open. I had half a sense to go after her, but then I looked to my father and saw him staring right back at me with an unreadable expression.

I had to wait until Kevin and Candace's parent arrived. For Kevin, so I could apologize and for Candace, just to see the worried look on her face. Of course, I didn't need to stay. The only reason I had was because my father sat in the same chair, thinking, the entire time, not telling me what to do or where to go. The fact that I was royal meant that I could get off scotch free—I could even blame everything on one person and have them in jail for the rest of their life just for disrespecting me or sentenced to death for assaulting me. But then I thought of the stupid curse and the initial purpose for it. Therefore, I told Kevin's parent they could press charges, but they denied me—I think out of fear.

"Amy St. Claire," my father started. I turned to him. He stared into the distance. "She's just like her mother." Okay...? "I still don't believe her father would leave her in the care of the Cantwells," he added.

"Meaning?"

He shook his head to disregard it as he stood. With that, we left and as I returned home, I was being questioned by my brother about my actions.

"It doesn't matter," I'd grumble as I walked through the palace.

"You disgraced the name of this family—"

"The name of this family is 'Christophe'," I reminded with a raised voice toward him. "I am not a Christophe."

"For good reason," he replied, for the first time in his life. I stomped up to the west wing of the castle into my sanctuary of sorts. I didn't make it to my bedroom, or even Emmett's. Just the corridor filled with the prophecy. I reached the end and noticed the flower. Red petals were accumulating at the bottom of the glass, although I'd never seen red petals in my life. The single blue petal that fell to harass Emmett was the only one of its kind. Meaning: Maybe I was getting it worse than him.

I deserved it.

When I was a baby, my mother and father left me. King—or at the time Prince—Tate Christophe found me and decided to raise me as his own with his wife even though they had a son of their own who was just born as well. I grew up as royalty without any suspicions. When my adopted mother died of illness, was when—then, crowned—King Tate told the land about me. It was the first for me to hear, too. Either way, I felt as if being adopted by royals meant I was given the right to act like one. Thus, I acted like a royal and arrogant ass my whole life. When I hit the end of sixth grade, Emmett—who I've known my whole life—and I met an old lady. She spoke of unnatural and unholy things, but I wouldn't listen. She seemed to pester me so I threatened to lock her up. She looked to me and Emmett and started chanting and rhyming. She gave us a strange, unidentifiable flower before saying two words and then leaving us.

We took the plant home. The sunset that night, was the first time we turned... Into ugly beasts for the way we've treated people. We had remembered the spell she put on us and set the sacred plant in a glass containment. Once in its seemingly rightful place, it glowed. Moments later, the entire west wing corridor was transformed to read of the prophecy with stained glass windows and large text in various fonts.

Although being cursed was a bad thing for our actions, it was quite different between me and Emmett.

Anytime the sun died, we would turn into beasts. When it rose, we'd transform back into our human selves. It would remain like this our entire lives we thought. Ah, but there was a catch. At first we thought it was our behavior change, but then it turned to be the kiss of our true love just like some fairytale. But, of course, there were loopholes; every annual ball we would remain human—seeing as we couldn't meet girls at our all boys school; also, we were able to stay human until midnight on the last Friday of every other month from August to February—since time changed. But this was a weird loophole considering the night at the ball this year, Emmett nearly changed in front of the disguised Kelly as if the curse was testing him, as if...it wanted to see if she would accept him after they hit it off and after he announced that the was a royal. But then again, we were on a time limit. Whenever the plant's petals had completely fallen off and died. When it dies, we die. As. A. Beast.

Emmett's love would fall into a deep sleep when she discovered her fancy towards him. Which is why he was trying so hard to find her.

My fate was quite different. I'd have to be in love and she'd have to be in love with me as well. I can't just kiss who I think will be my love. I needed a sanctuary within a person first—which I thought was Amy. But she'd have to be in love with me first. She'd have to make the first move. She'd have to see me for who I really was. Which isn't looking so good now.

I was tempted to jump out of the window and call to her, but...I was a beast, I couldn't imagine how things were at her house...I knew she wouldn't like me...and I knew she wouldn't care.

o9a