Later that night, as I was preparing for the ball, Darcy told me he needed to talk to someone back in the human realm as well as get a message to Eva and Ash about the humans attending the ball.
“I’ll try and return as fast as I can. I can’t wait to dance with you,” he said with a wink and then a kiss. Then he leaves the castle for the portal back to the human realm. Phones won’t work here, so he needs to go there in person. And then I was alone with my thoughts. But not for long. There was a knock at the door, and I scrambled to make sure I was covered. I realized I was still standing in the middle of the room in my towel.
“Uh… just a minute!” I called out. Shit. What if it’s my father? I looked around for something to put on but had nothing but the clothes I had on this morning. And the pink dress from the night before.
Thankfully, a woman’s voice halted my panic.
“It’s just me, sweetheart. Your mother. Can I come in?”
I certainly wasn’t expecting her.
“Um… sure.” I wrapped my towel tight around my breasts and ran to the door. When I opened it, her face lit up. “Hi, Mom.”
“Emmaline… you look so beautiful. May I come in?”
“Uh… I’m just in my towel. I haven’t even done my hair. But sure. Come in.” I pushed open the door wider for her and walked to my closet. I still had no idea what I was going to wear to the ball. But my maid had placed a couple of options in the closet for me. None of them were what I would choose normally.
My mother entered the room and closed the door softly behind her before making her way over to stand behind me. She just stood there a few feet from me, not touching, just looking at me. I knew because I could see her reflection in the mirrored closet door to my right. I turned to face her. She smiled at me, and then looked down at her hands as if she were ashamed she was admiring her daughter. She also kept peering over her shoulder at the closed door, as if she were expecting my father to burst in at any moment. I stepped forward and reached for her hands.
“Mom… how are you?” I studied her sunken cheeks and eyes. Her skin was still pale and had a sickly pallor as she had in Darcy’s club when she cast a spell on me.
“I’m good, sweetheart. But I’m not here for me. I’m here to help you get ready for tonight. Where’s your dress? Oh, and let me see what I can do about your hair.” My hair was tied on top of my head in a messy wet bun, but she reached for it and pulled it down, then began unraveling it in her hands and brushing her fingers through it, turning me around in the process.
“Mom, stop.” I stepped out of her grasp, and she immediately pulled her hands back and bowed her head. I instantly regretted telling her to stop. “I’m sorry. I’m worried about you, Mom. Dad has you under his thumb. He’s still controlling you. You have to learn to stand up to him.”
“I’m fine, sweetheart. You don’t need to worry about me. Let’s get you ready.”
“No!” I can’t handle it anymore. She is in complete denial. “Snap out of it! Don’t you see? He is controlling you! He made you cast a spell on your own daughter, for crying out loud!” I had grabbed her by the shoulders and hadn’t realized I was shaking her when she pulled back, and her eyes started to glow white.
“I am not under his control. I am only pretending to be.”
“What? What do you mean?” I said, scrunching up my nose in confusion.
“The spell I cast over you was only temporary. Your supernatural senses should return by midnight tonight. I did it to make your father think he was in control. But he never was.”
For the first time in a long time, I felt hopeful. I smiled and threw my arms around my mother. She began to laugh, and when I stepped back to look at her, I saw she looked healthy again. Her hair and coloring were normal and brighter, and her eyes were no longer sunken. She really had been faking it. I sniffed and wiped my eyes. They were happy tears.
“I can’t believe it. But what are we going to do about Father? He’s bound to find out sooner or later.”
“You leave that to me, sweetheart,” she said, patting me on the arm. “You concentrate on dancing with your handsome King and having fun tonight. Speaking of, I saw him leave. Where did he go?”
“He had to sort out some emergency business things. He’ll be back.”
My mother stood behind me and turned me around so we both stood in the mirror. I was a mirror image of her. I smiled, and she kissed my cheek before whispering, “Wear the red one.”
I smiled and looked at the red dress hanging in the closet. It was perfect. And Darcy’s color. He would love it on me.
After my mother helped me into the floor length tulle and silk gown, she did my hair, pinning it up with my old tiara. As I looked at my reflection in the mirror dressed in my tiara and ball gown, I realized I looked like an actual princess once more. If all went well tonight, if we could prevent my father from finding out my mother had been fooling him the entire time, and as well as preventing any humans from killing any of the supernatural creatures, then I felt I could do this. I could become queen.