Divine Contract: Marrying My Phantom Prince

on the screen of Clara's ph

erest in the Boston Historical Society

te mother's car, inherited five years ago-along with the small studio apartment her parents had left her, was all she had to her name. Anything that wasn't nailed down had already gone to her student loans. She had sp

eater. The nail edge caught on a loose thread. She tugged, the thread snapping with a tiny p

on. Anything to stop t

ly on her outdated machine. She navigated to the games section, scrolling past the usual ma

olling

ttered down the middle, the jagged edges glowing with a faint, p

h hitch. Every choice you make will r

ind of escapist fantasy she n

low, resonant hum filled her apartment, vibrating the floorboards beneath her feet.

ng cinema

s walls crumbling, its roof gaping open to the furious sky. Inside, huddled against the biting wind, was a s

onto the man standing in

g around a face that looked like it had been carved from marble-sharp cheekbones, a strong jaw, and eye

ped up, overla

rince of Aethelgard. Status: Exiled.

the way his breath plumed in the freezing air, the way his knuckles were wh

ashed, demandin

ding the will of your people. Spend $0.99 to repair

. But she looked back at the prince's face, at the despair etc

icked

ingerprint. The s

armor and biting into his bones. The wind howled through the massive hole in

hed through the shadows. The older man held out a piece

rop, the bread hanging limply from his fingers. "If we don'

e. They both knew the truth. By morning,

, the ai

ne had pressed a hand against the world's ear. Alex pushed off the pillar

bleed through the hole in the

liquid honey pouring from the heavens. To the soldiers, nothing had changed. They still shiv

-that was real

gnawing at their bones simply... receded. Soldiers who had been blue-lipped and shivering

pulled off a glove and pressed his bare hand against the stone wal

ther, fitting like pieces of a puzzle. Cracks in the walls sealing themselves with a hiss. T

reassembled. Shards of colored glass flew from the snow, fusing together to

in Alex's vision. The roof was whole. The walls were solid. Th

if he saw it, the guard was fr

, his brow furrowed. "And the warmth is spreading. But the roof.

ld. Silas couldn't

but because the sudden warmth had broken something in him. "A sign," the m

n't knee

hat felt solid beneath his feet, even if his men saw rubble. He stopped in front of one o

arm. Smo

, his chest he

away, his sword still drawn, h

nded, pointing at the wind

deepened. "Your Highness... I see the storm. I see snow

ck at the window. It was there. Perfectly intact. He co

shut. It's the cold

ened

iful, intact stained glass, and the ragged, empty hole with the snow swirlin

act image sol

s couldn

he warmth was real, at least-but they were looking at him with a mixture of relief and

the weight of it settling into his bones