The whispers followed Princess Evangeline like a shroud. They were in the throne room, in the corridors, and in the gardens she was no longer allowed to roam. The people didn't speak the word, but she saw it in their eyes: "Monster."
It was a word that had clung to her ever since she saved that child. A wild horse had broken loose, its hooves a thunderous beat against the cobblestones. Evangeline, just a girl then, had seen the fear in the child's eyes and the terror in her parents'. In that moment.