by Casey Bond
I couldn’t stop the blind jealousy that bubbled up. I snarled, “If I was with that girl all night, who kept you company? Rule?”
“Yep.”
I snorted. “Of course he did.”
“You have no right to be jealous,” she snipped, whirling back around to face me.
“We’re heartmates,” I argued.
Arabella rolled her eyes and sneered, “That certainly didn’t mean anything to you last night.”
Unwilling to let her off the hook that easily, I dug in my heels. “Did it still mean something to you while you were with him?”
“Yes!” she shouted, regaining her composure with some effort. “Even when our tether was cloaked, I could still feel the tug between us. But it was like you completely forgot about it and me. You moved on to the first fae who caught your eye without looking back.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I argued. “I didn’t even know it had been cloaked! What does that even mean? Who cloaked it?”
“Rule.”
“Again, of course he did. He wants you!”
“The Queen made him do it!” Arabella fumed. “She ordered him to hide it so we would know what it felt like to be… no, so I would know how it felt to be betrayed by the one I loved.”
My stomach dropped. I’d done just that. Just ogling that fae woman was hurtful to my heartmate, and anything beyond it was unforgiveable. I just wished I remembered what happened. I didn’t wake up feeling anything but a splitting headache, one that had been fading, but intensified when Rule entered the room, escorting his mother.
“This is their game, Arabella. Theirs. Remember that. I’m on your side.”
She refused to look at me, instead focusing on Rule, looking at him like he was her lifeline. Like he would jump in and save her, when deep down, we all knew he wouldn’t. Everyone here thought Rule was loyal to his mother, the Queen. Everyone but me was fooled. I had a peculiar perspective that led me to understand Rule was only loyal to Rule, and he wanted the crown and kingdom for himself.
“You do have a tether to him…” I breathed.
“Yes,” she admitted. “It’s not nearly as strong as ours, but it’s there.”
Through the bond, I felt her aching sadness, her indignant anger, and how exhausted she was. I felt her determination to make it out of this place alive or die trying.
“Today will be harder than yesterday,” I sighed.
“Infinitely,” she finally agreed.
“Whatever happened with that girl, I’m sorry,” I started.
“Doesn’t matter anyway,” she interrupted, abruptly ending the conversation.
The clock began to cry out. Rule gave me a knowing grin before the floor fell away and
Down…
Down…
Down…
We fell.
A blinding flash made me close my eyes. When I opened them, we were back in the throne room in front of the clock. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she breathed, hands on her knees. She blinked a few times to orient herself. The fall was one of the least dangerous things we faced each day, but still something I dreaded. I think Arabella felt the same way. “Why is it doing that?” she asked, standing up straight and staring at the clock’s face.
The hands were moving backward.
“I’m not sure, but it can’t be a good thing.”
Something clinked as it hit a square of tile located farther into the room. Arabella walked slowly toward the sound and crouched to pick something up off the floor. When she turned back around, she was holding a golden band. “It’s a ring.”
“We both know that’s not just a ring.”
A familiar ping came from behind me. Another ring, this one silver and thick, rolled against my toe and fell over. I had a bad feeling about these rings, and from the look on Arabella’s face, so did she.
Pings echoed across the room. It was raining rings. Rings of every shape and size. Plain ones and elaborate ones set with every color stone imaginable. We covered our heads and waited for the torrent to end, all the while rings piled around our feet.
“What is this?” Arabella screamed.
“I don’t know!”
When the flood of rings reached my thigh and was almost to Arabella’s waist, they stopped falling. Arabella uncurled her fingers, revealing the golden ring that had fallen first. “Rings were meant to be worn, right?” she asked warily.
“Wait.” I waded through the heavy metal. “I’m going to hold onto your wrist in case something happens.”
“Something is definitely going to happen,” she said ruefully. “Coeur doesn’t do anything without a purpose.” With that, she slid the ring onto her finger and disappeared.
I grasped at the air, but was too late. “Arabella!” I screamed. I had to find her. Sliding the silver band onto my finger, I was sucked into a different world. My body, bones, and sinew were stretched, compressed, and stretched again, but it only took a second to cross over.
I was home…
My chamber was cold. A winter wind bit through the window slit and swirled through the room. The fire had nearly died overnight. If someone didn’t stoke it soon, it would go out entirely.
A groan came from the bed. I walked on the tips of my toes, careful not to make any noise.
Lying in my bed…was me. I hid near the wardrobe, sucking in my stomach to fit within its shadow on the wall, cast by the earliest rays of morning sunshine. I watched as the other me rose from the bed and quickly dressed, adjusting the crown to sit comfortably on his brow.
When he left the room, I followed him to the Great Hall where he broke his fast. No one could see me. Not a single servant looked in my direction. I was invisible. Unseen…but hopefully not Cursed.
“King Carden, a moment of your time, Sire?” a plump man wearing a too-tight waistcoat asked.
King?
“Of course. Please sit down.”
The man pulled out a chair and sat at the table, where the men started to discuss travel plans. “Do ye think it’s wise to go on this trip to the country, Sire? What with Queen Arabella being so far along?”
My heart leapt at the sound of her name. Queen Arabella. My queen.
“She and the babe are well, and according to the midwife, there are still many weeks left,” the other Carden answered confidently.
Arabella entered the hall, her belly swollen beneath the fine, black gown she wore. Her skin was glowing and she looked like an angel. “I’m starving,” she groaned.
King Carden rose to kiss her and helped her into the chair at his right hand. He called for a servant to bring a portion of food for his wife and an extra bit for the babe, too, earning an answering chuckle from the man and queen.
Feeling a cold swirl behind me, I turned to see Queen Coeur walk into the room. She strode across the chamber and ascended the dais, standing behind the King, who remained blissfully unaware of her presence. Her hands rested on his shoulders and she met my gaze unflinchingly.
“I could give you this life,” she began. “All this could be yours. Your kingdom. Your home. Arabella. A perfect family. A long and prosperous reign.”
I swallowed. I wanted it all, so badly. But not at the price she would demand. Instead, I asked, “Where is she?”
She smiled, though there was no kindness in the gesture. “Busy at the moment, but let’s focus on you. Isn’t this what you want more than anything in this world?”
I shook my head. “I don’t care about a crown or running a kingdom, but I do love Arabella. I want you to release her from the game. Let her go home. Erase her memory of me and this place.”
The Queen tsked. “So sacrificial of you. A noble gesture, but against the rules.”
“What rules?” I yelled.
“Mine,” she replied.
King Carden and
Queen Arabella stood as the man left their table to prepare the horses for the journey ahead. The royal family looked so happy. So in love. So perfect.
Too perfect.
Life wasn’t like that. It was messy. If it were real, Arabella would complain about her swollen ankles and slap me for laughing at them when she lifted her skirts.
“Please,” I begged. “Please let her go.”
“I’m afraid I can’t, Prince. The game has begun,” Coeur maintained, feigning sadness.
“You’re the game master,” I challenged. “You can do as you please. Can’t you?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Of course I can. I simply won’t.”
In a flash, she was gone. I removed the ring and was pulled back into Coeur’s castle, where Arabella waited, her skin pale. “Arabella? Where did you go?” I reached out for her, but she pulled away.
“I thought she wanted me to leave.”
“Who?”
“My mother,” she whispered. “When you and I saw her outside her house, it was real. I thought she didn’t want me there, but that wasn’t it at all. She didn’t believe what she was seeing. When I walked away, she ran after me,” she rambled. “She didn’t care that her new husband was watching. He followed her, you know. She didn’t even bother putting shoes on, she just ran out into the storm, crying my name.” Arabella looked to the ceiling, tears shining in her eyes. “She sat on her knees in the mud and cried until she couldn’t anymore. And I couldn’t tell her it was okay. I couldn’t… She couldn’t hear or see me.”
“She loves you,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around her. The rings shifted around our legs as I held her and she clung to me. “She’s always loved you.”
“I didn’t think she did.” She accepted my comfort for a moment before pulling back. “Where did you go?”
“Wait – did you see Queen Coeur in your vision?” I asked.
She shook her head no. “Did you?”
“She… she showed me what she thought I wanted most. Me, reigning over Tierney as its king, with you by my side, pregnant with our child.”
“Oh, I can see why you wouldn’t want that.” She turned away from me.
“It’s not what you think, Arabella,” I pleaded. “I don’t need Tierney or a crown to be happy. All I need is you.”
“That’s a very sweet thing to say, Carden,” she whispered, steeling her back but refusing to meet her eyes.
“It’s the truth, Arabella.”
She argued, “No one needs me. I’m completely expendable. But if something happened to you, someone would take notice. Because you matter, Carden. No one would care if something happened to me.”
“I would care,” I protested. “Oryn would care.”
She shrugged her shoulder. “Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn’t. He saw me as a nuisance most of the time. A burden.”
“If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t be out there looking for you.” I glanced around the room at the mountain of rings. “Do you think we have to try on all of these?”
She shook her head and spread her arms out, encompassing the room. “That would take forever. We should only try on the ones that call out to us.” She began raking her hands through the sea of rings, careful not to let any accidentally slide onto her finger.
I wasn’t sure any would call out to me, but I began doing the same. She was right. There had to be something to distinguish which ones we were supposed to try. Nothing really stood out to me, so I continued sifting. My mind kept wandering back to last night.
“So, what did you and Rule do last night?” I asked, trying to be nonchalant, but failing miserably.
The noise of metal on metal stopped for a moment. “If you’re asking whether I woke up in his room, I did not.”
I bit my tongue. I wanted to tell her nothing had happened between me and that woman, but could I really assert such a thing when I didn’t remember?
She blew out a tense breath after a minute. “We had dinner with the Queen. You took off toward the girl, and I asked Rule to escort me back to my room. He sealed me in it with some spell and then went… wherever he goes. I don’t know what he did after that.”
“Why’d he seal you in?”
“Queen Coeur refused to waste any of her guards to keep me safe because she and Rule were having a spat. From what I understand, Rule went for a walk and the Queen had him followed. He didn’t appreciate it, so he killed her two favorite guards.” She paused a moment, stopping to meet my eyes. “The two of them have the strangest dynamic. I thought there was a power struggle between Oryn and our father, but this is an entirely different brand of spitefulness.”
“One would think they hated each other,” I supposed.
She chuckled. “I think they might.”
“I’m sure all of us are tethered to our parents, but their tether seems unusually strong. Almost painfully so.”
“I’m sure it is for Rule,” she added.
I hated hearing his name on her lips. More than that, I hated the faery prince for also being tethered to my heartmate. If I could find a way to keep him away from her, I would.
Time, however, was running out for us. The clock hands flew backwards, around and around the face. “Do you think the clock means something to the game?”
“What?” she asked. “What do you mean?”
“If we stop the clock, does the game end?”
She froze, staring at a black ring inlaid with glittering emeralds. “Does that ring call out to you?”
Inexplicably drawn to the ebony sphere, I answered, “Yeah, but I’m afraid to disappear again. I’m afraid she won’t let me come back, and that’s the only way we can survive this. We have to play together and win together.”
“Yes, but if you notice, she keeps trying to separate us. Not only with your curse, but physically during the game. What if that’s the loophole she needs to declare our loss?”
“If that was the case, the last separation would have sufficed,” I snorted. “Maybe you should try it. I hate to even suggest it, but I don’t see another way out of this room.” The doors had disappeared. There were no windows.
“Keep looking for yours. I’ll be back soon. Hopefully,” she added, glancing up at the clock. She slid the ring onto her finger and disappeared again. My gut hurt just wondering where Coeur was sending her and what might be waiting on the other side. The first journey wasn’t a dangerous one. It was a strange and rare mercy for her to be shown that her mother still cared, still loved her. I hoped this one was merciful, too.
CHAPTER TWENTY
ARABELLA
I stood in front of a well-kept cottage. It was midday and the sun beat down on my shoulders and back. Sweat beaded on my forehead and upper lip. I’d definitely chosen the wrong outfit for this weather. Aromatic herbs grew in the window boxes, their savory and sweet scents carrying on the balmy air. The front door was wide open. I walked forward, slowly climbing the steps, cringing when they creaked underfoot. The woman who was inside might not be a friend. It might not even be a woman. It might be a human-eating monster…
Dingy white paint peeled off the door and the handle was rusted, but I peered into the dimness, straining to see inside. There was fabric all over the place, littered across every surface. Bolts of every texture imaginable were wrapped neatly around wooden planks. Most of the material was black, but some of it was tan and leathery. It looked how I would imagine human skin would look if it were stripped from a body, cured and softened, and then rolled onto a plank…
Entranced by the cottage, I didn’t notice the humming until it stopped. “Who’s there?”
“I’m sorry,” I stammered. “I think I’m in the wrong place.”
“Come inside,” the voice entreated.
Swallowing, I slowly began backing across the porch toward the front steps. There was no way I was going in there.
“Come inside now, or I will end you, human,” the voice sneered.
She was probably fae. Probably evil, by the looks of her bolts of “fabric.”
“Who are you?” I asked shakily.
The voice cackled. “You came to my house.”
“I didn’t mean to,” I tried to explain, but then an invisible force began dragging me toward her, into the house. Once I was inside, the door slammed closed behind me. I tried the handle, but it wouldn’t even turn.
“I don’t want to hear excuses, I want to know how you got here,” the woman snapped. Now that I was inside, I saw her; her long white hair hung over her face, obscuring it, but her voice sounded young. She sat on a stool in front of a long table scattered with spools of thread, needles, and measuring ribbons.
“This stupid ring brought me here.” I twisted the band on my finger, trying to remove it, but it was stuck. When I looked back up, the woman was standing in front of me. I jumped backward.
She grabbed my hand and glanced up at me, her blood-red eyes narrowed. “Where did you get this?”
“Queen Coeur,” I stammered. “I… I’m a player in her game.”
The girl made a disgusted noise and returned to her stool, picking up her needle and angrily working it in and out of a swath of dark fabric. She whistled and everything in the room changed. The bolts of fabric weren’t dark at all, though the leathery flesh-toned ones didn’t change. The actual fabric pieces were yellow, red, blue, green, and every color in between. There were colorful candles and spools of thread, and even the woman’s clothes took on a dark crimson hue.
“That is my ring,” she revealed. “Rule gave me one just like it.” She nodded to a piece of twine hanging in the window. Tied onto it was the twin to the one I wore. “She’s clever. I’ll give her that. Using you to find me.”
“You’re Esmerelda,” I breathed. “His heartmate.”
She made a noise in the back of her throat. “Was his heartmate. He cloaked the tether.”
I felt a strange kinship with this woman. “I know how the cloak works. It dulls the feeling, but doesn’t erase it.”