To Love A Villain

(In this story, Amber was born with high magical power and Hael grew up a commoner but with a loving family)

>>Amber

I slipped out of the Tower like a criminal using the teleportation spell, so that no one would spot me.

I didn’t want anyone to come to me for a while. I wanted no fanfare. No apprentices stumbling over themselves to greet me with dead-eyed questions.

Just a silence spell and my own two aching feet carrying me around the city.

It was past midnight, and even the stars felt tired. The streets were washed in that pale yellow glow of magic lamps, softened by fog. Somewhere far off, someone was laughing too loudly, and someone else was playing the violin like they hated it.

I kept walking. I didn’t know where I was going, only that I couldn’t stay.

The Tower had pressed its fingers into every corner of my spine. I could still feel them—paperwork waiting on my desk, potions boiling in the lab, the soul-forsaken Mirror waiting for me to finish shaping it into something that could find people their "one true love."

As if that’s how love works. As if that’s how magic works. But it was an order from the king and I couldn’t refuse.

And gods, the princess. Her obsession clung to me like perfume—overripe and suffocating. Every day a letter. Every day a summons to the palace. I was either the world’s most respected mage or its most resented mistress, depending on how lonely she felt.

But whatever the reason, she wanted me there, in front of her. I could smell her obsession with me and it was very tiring.

I let out a sigh