*Maddy*
There isn’t much to say about the grand dinner thrown in honor of the Alphas who’ve brought their warriors to slaughter. Dressed in finery, they grovele at the feet of the Alpha King, praising the strength of his royal army that now numbers in the tens of thousands.
I sit in a gown of red silk that flows over the new curves several weeks of food have afforded. I eat the extravagant food and sip the expensive wine without tasting it, and once dinner is over, I allow Isaac to help me from my seat.
The Alphas boweto their future queen, and I watch from the second floor balcony as Isaac and his subjects walk into a sitting room to talk more about the impending war over glasses of whiskey, the door shutting behind them.
I remain on the balcony overlooking the grand foyer. I watch the silent guards by the door as they do their best to remain alert and awake. Other then Isaac, the only other royal family member to be at dinner tonight was Maddox. I’d been told by Hannah that the women–Isla, Ella, Trinity, and Rosie–were at the temple doing last minute wedding preparations and would be home very late.
So I’m alone.
What an awful day. From the events at the temple, to now. Knowing Elodie and Louisa are here somewhere makes my skin crawl, and the fact that a guard is standing only six feet away from me ready to defend me from them and their schemes doesn’t make me feel any better.
If anything, I’m angry. Furious. I grip the banister and contemplate throwing myself over, wondering how quickly the tile below would put my out of my misery.
Why had Maddox and Isla wanted my stepmother and stepsister here for the wedding so badly? Isla had mentioned it shortly after I met her and told her my story, but I didn’t think she’d actually invite them.
I let my hands fall from the banister and turn to the guard, nodding to show I’m well aware of his presence. He walks a few yards behind me as I walk to my room, the castle cast in shadow and the only sounds that of the maids readying all of the guest bedrooms for the night.
My fury blossoms into a sense of false confidence as we turn down the corridor where my room is situated, and I turn to face the guard so abruptly he nearly walks into me. “Where are Lady Louisa and her daughter staying?”
“On the third floor.”
“Where, exactly, on the third floor?” I’ve explored the third floor in length and know the rooms by heart. There are several bedrooms there, none of them as nice as the rooms in the guest wing on the second floor, but nicer than anything Louisa and Elodie have seen in years, that's for sure.
The guard looks conflicted, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “I’ve been instructed not to let you wander–”
“That’s not what I asked. I asked to know which rooms they’re staying in.” I give the guard a look that makes his eyes drop to the floor.
“The lilac and alabaster guest rooms in the west wing.”
“Thanks.” I turn and walk the rest of the hallway alone, closing myself into my room. I know the guard is meant to watch my door all night, but I need to find a way out. I need to face Louisa and Elodie, and make sure they’re not scheming to ruin my wedding day, despite how angry I am with Isaac.
Anger is the only thing I’m okay with feeling at the moment. I don’t want to think of anything else. Not the old woman, not the priestess, not the temple or my wedding and especially not Isaac.
So, I wait. I sit on my bed and watch the clock, its hands showing me it’s near midnight. Finally, I hear voices in the corridor–another guard coming to relieve the first one of his post.
Stepping out into the hallway, I say, “Has Princess Ella returned from the temple yet?”
“She has,” the new guard says with a nod.
“Perfect. I need to see her before she goes to sleep. But, I believe there might be a bat, or something of that size, in my bathroom. It’s making an awful racket, and if I’m to be married tomorrow, I need to be able to sleep tonight. Could you take a look for me? It could be nothing. I can wait here with him until you get to the bottom of it.” I glance at the guard who’d walked me back to my room earlier in the night. He looks tired, which is perfect, and the new guard looks smug as hell as he squares his shoulders and bows to me.
“I’ll take care of the pest for you, you have my word.”
“My knight in shining armor. The king will be very pleased.” I bat my eyelashes at the young guard, who is beaming with his cheeks tinged pink at my attention. Turning with a determined look on his face, he walks into my darkened room and disappears right into the trap I’d set.
A few silent moments pass before a crash sounds from my room, and a muffled yelp of alarm drifts through the air. The poor man has slipped on the shampoo and conditioner I coated the floor with and knocked over a broomstick I’d arranged to fall in front of the door, closing him in. I imagine him flailing in the dark, unable to find his footing as he gropes for whatever has locked him inside the bathroom, and bite back a smile.
The other guard looks toward my room with concern etched into his face as another cry for help cuts through the air. “Stay here,” he says sternly, pulling a knife from his belt and charging into the darkness.
I brush my hands over the red silk gown I’m still wearing and walk away, humming to myself and ignoring the trouble I’ll be in for this later.
* * *
The third floor is quiet as I slowly walk through the narrow hallways made of stone. This section of the house hasn’t been renovated in a long time, and the stone is cool to the touch as I fight to keep my head on straight. What could I possibly say to Louisa? All I really want to do is hit her, which I’d be well within my rights to do. Elodie, well, I’d be better off picking her up and throwing her through a window, ridding the world of her altogether, than trying to have a conversation with her about anything that doesn’t have to do with clothes or jewels.
I turn the final corner in the left wing of the third floor and don’t have a chance to linger over my decision to come up here any longer.
“You don’t deserve any of this, you know.” Louisa says in a cool, shrill voice. Her pinched mouth curves into a smile as she steps out of the shadows, towering over me. “And look how he’s dressed you tonight. Red silk. How fine it is. This dress must have cost a fortune.” She reaches out to touch my dress, but I step away, turning my expression to steel.
“Ah,” she laughs, shaking her head. “I always wondered what kind of life you’d lead one day. I imagined you dead in a snowdrift or in pieces in a gutter outside a brothel. Not this. Perhaps I put my stock in the wrong daughter.”
“None of this was because of you,” I say in my native tongue, tilting my chin. “And I am not, and never have been, your daughter. You have no claim to me.”
“Well, neither did your parents,” she snorts, rolling her eyes. “Little bastard orphan your whole life. How does that feel now, knowing you’ve outdone us all and will be seated on a golden throne with a diamond and moonstone diadem on her forehead come this time tomorrow?”
“I’m not a bastard nor—nor an orphan.” It’s only half true. My parents are dead. Louisa should have been the mother I needed growing up, but instead she acted like my master.
She grins maliciously at me, shaking her head. “They haven’t told you, have they?”
“Who hasn’t told me what?” I sneer, but a cackling laugh somewhere below us drifts through the loft-like space toward the domed ceiling that encompasses the grand foyer and its view of the stories above.
“Go to sleep, my darling. Tomorrow you become a queen, and I’ve worked too hard to let this moment slip through my fingers.”
“You will not be there. You will leave at dawn. I will see to it myself–”
“You will see to nothing. Don’t you get it, you stupid, insolent bitch? You are nothing but the king’s whore, a pawn in a game of chess with the other Alphas. What do you think will happen to you if he doesn’t come back from the war? You really believe the Alphas will allow you to remain on the throne? They will not. And you will be a prize of the civil war coming this kingdom’s way when the royal family falls. He dressed you for it tonight, didn’t he?” She looks me up and down. “Like a bow on a Winter Solstice present.” Her snickering laugh fades, and she turns and walks into her room, slamming shut the door.
I stand in momentary disbelief.
That wouldn’t happen. Isla would protect me. Ella would take the throne if I’m not pregnant. There’d be no civil war… right?
My stomach twists painfully, and every feeling from the day I’ve been burying deep starts rising to the surface as I scurry away as fast as my feet can carry me.
This has not gone well. I’d been the one cowering, not her. I bite my lip hard as I rush down the stairs to the second floor. Dark as it is, I take a wrong turn toward my room, going right instead of left, and curse under my breath when I come upon the library and the hallway leading to Isaac’s room instead of my own.
His door is slightly ajar, light pouring into the hallway. A shadow passes, and a girlish giggle cuts through the air. His murmured words aren’t audible, not over the pounding of my heart.
I don’t realize how still I’m standing until a guard breezes past me. I hear Isaac say, “Escort her back to her room,” before the door opens fully, and Elodie steps into the hallway in nothing but a silk robe, her platinum hair tousled and falling loose over her slim shoulders. She halts when she sees me, a wicked grin on her wide mouth as she makes a show of tying her robe and smoothing the wrinkles from the soft fabric. “Goodnight, Your Highness,” she purrs, then giggles as she’s led away by the guard.
My heart quakes, skipping several beats. No. No, this can’t be right.
He must have felt my presence because Isaac appears in the doorway, shirtless, wearing nothing but the dress slacks he’d worn to dinner. Looking just as ruffled as Elodie, his cheeks stained red, he looks down at me with a cold look in his eyes.
He’s drunk. I can smell the whiskey on him from several feet away. I open my mouth, but only a strangled cry comes out before I whirl on my heels and take off in a sprint.
But he’s faster than me. I feel him come up behind me, his arm around my waist, and suddenly the air is sucked from my lungs and the warm, dry castle air is replaced by a crisp, chilling, humid spring night, and the stars are dancing over my head.
“Don’t try to stand. Just wait a moment,” he says, but his voice sounds so distant and distorted in my ears. My head is spinning violently, and I roll onto my side, pulling my knees into my chest and driving my fingers into… into grass. Into soil.
I sit up with a start and whatever air is left in my lungs leaves my lips in a silent gasp when I lay eyes on the man I’m supposed to marry tomorrow.
And the power he’d said he couldn’t show me in the castle.