The queen touched my back, pushing me toward the dance floor. Everything around me disappeared as I focused on the Lord and his incredible blue eyes. At first I was awkward but then I followed Lord Trevor’s lead as we flowed in and out of other dancing couples, gracefully, almost like butterflies.
After a while, I asked for a break as my beautiful shoes were causing my feet to ache. Lord Trevor and I took two seats at the long banquet table that lined the room.
He took a large swig of wine and flashed those beautiful eyes at me. “Lady Ella, tell me about yourself.”
Where could I even begin? I couldn’t tell him the truth—that I was born to a poor family. My mother had died from and illness and my father had been slaughtered by a witch. A strange wolf with glowing eyes was the only thing that kept me from meeting that same fate. Merna found me in the woods and brought me to the palace where I became a servant. I’m now living in the room of the missing princess pretending to be something I’m not.
No, I couldn’t tell him any of that. I wasn’t good at making up stories, but I did the best I could. “As Queen Angeline said, I’m from the Kingdom of Aurora. My mother and the queen are very close friends. My parents would have come but they’re traveling abroad. They’re courtiers. I myself am studying art. That’s about it.”
The Lord raised an eyebrow but he didn’t seem to detect any of my untruths. “That’s interesting. Very interesting. How is it that an educated, intelligent beauty like yourself hasn’t been snatched up yet?”
I gave him a sly smile. “I haven’t met the right man . . . yet.” My face warmed and I looked away from Lord Trevor.
We partook in the feast, danced some more and then Lord Trevor asked me to accompany him outside to the balcony. There we talked for hours, mostly about his life and riches, until the ball was over and the servant girls came looking for me. Lord Trevor gave me a sweet peck on my cheek. “It was lovely to have met you tonight, Ella. Hopefully I will see you again soon.”
I nodded. “I hope so.” I went back inside, touching my cheek.
The ballroom, the dancing, the food, Trevor. This had been the best night of my life. I longed for the life of true royalty—people who got to experience this all the time.
In Snow’s room, I changed into her bed clothes and prepared to climb into bed, exhausted. Before I could get comfortable underneath my covers, Queen Angeline entered dressed in a long, flowing black robe. Her face was still painted the same way it had been at the ball. I sat up when she perched herself on the edge of my bed. “How was tonight?” she asked.
“Oh, it was magical. Thank you so much for allowing me to go. I had the time of my life.”
The queen’s deep red lips spread into a smile. “I’m so happy to hear that, Ella. And what did you think of Lord Trevor?”
My heart leapt at the sound of his name. “He’s wonderful. I do hope I get to see him again. I mean, if that’s okay with you.”
Queen Angeline pushed a lock of my hair behind my ear. I shivered underneath the chill of her touch. “Of course, it’s fine with me. I want nothing more than your happiness and Lord Trevor is a good man. As a matter of fact, before he left, he asked if it would be okay for him to come for a visit with you tomorrow during lunch time. I told him it would be fine.”
I wanted to squeal but I maintained my composure and pretended to be a mature young woman. “Thank you.”
She leaned in close to me. “What do you want?”
I was tempted to back away from her but I didn’t. “What?”
“What do you want out of life? What is your dream? If you could have anything what would it be?”
I was weary of spilling my heart to the queen but the darkness of her eyes was mesmerizing. “I want what I had tonight. I want to wear beautiful dresses and go to fancy balls and to find love. I don’t want to be a servant anymore. I want to have my own servants while I spend my days reading and riding horses or painting or doing things I enjoy.”
Once I was done I expected her to scold me for being selfish and self-centered but she didn’t. “What if I told you I could give you all that right now?”
I frowned. “How could you give me that?”
“I’ve given it to you over the last few days, haven’t I? I could give it to you for a lifetime. But as I explained to you before, nothing in this life is free, so I will need for you to do something in return for me.”
My stomach twisted in knots. She was going to bring up Snow.
“What do you want?” I asked.
She looked down at her red painted fingernails. “I want to eat the heart of my stepdaughter.”
What? My blood went cold waiting for her to show any inkling that she was joking, but she didn’t.
“Your Majesty, I get that you hate Snow for whatever reasons, but she’s gone. There’s a good chance she will never come back. Why can’t you just be happy with that?”
The queen sighed and leaned away from me. “Because she is out there somewhere. I just know it. I can feel it in my bones. She’ll pop back up and destroy my life and I can’t have that. I have worked too hard to let that girl take it all away from me. I need her dead and I need to know for sure that she’s dead.”
I gulped. What could Snow possibly have done to her to inspire this type of hate? “I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I appreciate all you’ve done for me, really I do, but whatever problem you have with Snow, I can’t get involved with that and whatever you want me to do to her, I won’t be able to.”
The queen stood abruptly, wrapping her robe around her slender body. “That’s not the answer I wanted to hear. I’ll give you the night to sleep on it. You’ll give me a proper answer in the morning.”
With that she stormed out of the room.
11
The following morning, I awoke wondering if the night before had been a dream. I’d almost forgotten about the strange conversation I’d had with Queen Angeline and her insistence that Snow was still alive and she needed to be found and killed.
I took breakfast in Snow’s chambers and read a few chapters of a book I was thoroughly enjoying. A little before lunch, I was summoned to the queen’s dressing room. The servant girl knocked on the door and let me inside after the queen gave her permission.
She stood in her undergarments before her full-length mirror, yawning. “Forgive me for getting up so late. I didn’t get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning and a lady needs her beauty rest. Now enough of the small talk. Did you think further on my proposition? Have you found the right answer yet?”
I straightened my shoulders and summoned all the courage I had. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty, but I cannot do what you are requesting of me. Firstly, I have no idea how I would even find Snow. If the king’s search parties haven’t been successful, what makes you think I will be? Even if I were to find her, I could never kill Snow or anyone.”
The queen clucked her tongue. “I chose you for a specific reason. Nothing drives a person more than good old-fashioned revenge and that’s what should be fueling you right now. You and Snow had been best friends for years, you even called yourselves sisters. Then she tossed you to the side and forgot all about you, or at least pretended to. After that, she rats you out for taking her mother’s earrings and making you bear that horrible punishment. You do understand that happened because of her and I was the one to heal you?”
There were so many things wrong with what she said that I had no idea where to start. I could bite my tongue no longer. “Your Majesty, with all due respect, you were the one who put that punishment on me, not Snow. She had no idea there were going to be such harsh repercussions. She even begged you not to go through with it. Remember, I was there when she was screaming for you to stop but you did it anyway. While I appreciate you healing me, you were the one who caused my wounds to begin with.”
Even though anger flashed in her eyes, I wanted to go on. I wanted to tell her that I wouldn’t hold Snow not remembering me against her because I knew about the forgett
ing charm. I stopped myself because that would only get Merna in trouble.
Queen Angeline waltzed over to her dresser and picked up a silver box. “I have a gift for you that will make this all easier. It doesn’t have to be bloody at all.” She placed it on her bed and lifted the lid. Inside were a beautiful pair of slippers made entirely of glistening glass.
I swallowed hard. There had to be a catch for this gift. “What are those?”
The queen lifted one of the shoes and held it delicately in her hand. “A glass slipper, but these are no ordinary slippers. The wearer of these shoes will experience an immediate death within moments of putting them on.”
I stepped away from her and the shoes. “That’s impossible.”
“Is not. These shoes are bewitched. All you have to do is tell Snow that you’ve brought her a gift. She’ll put the shoes on and the deed will be done. The best part is, once she’s dead, you can take the slippers back and use them again and again on anyone you’d like.”
“You keep your horrible gift. I don’t want anything to do with those shoes. And as far as killing Snow, I already told you no.”
The queen stepped so close to me we were almost nose to nose. “I will give you one more chance to give me the right answer. Here’s a hint, stupid girl—the answer isn’t no. I think you may have forgotten who you’re talking to and all I’ve done for you—why Lord Trevor is in the parlor waiting for you just now. If you play your cards right, you might receive a marriage proposal before he goes back home.”
My thoughts flashed back to Lord Trevor and I was tempted. Lord Trevor could be my way out, my ticket to the good life, but I couldn’t let the queen use me as some assassin to do her dirty work. If she wanted Snow dead so bad, she could have easily hired some evil soul to do it. Why did it have to be me?
“If I did happen to come across Snow, I would warn her about you. I would tell her that you want her dead. As a matter of fact, why don’t I warn the king right now? I’m sure he has no idea what kind of wife sleeps beside him. Once he hears how you hope to harm his precious Snow, there’s no telling what he would do. Everyone knows he loves her a million times more than you.”
Queen Angeline growled and shoved me, pressing my back against the cold stone wall. My head knocked against the hard surface and the room spun after impact. “Don’t you dare threaten me, worthless urchin. That’s all you are and that’s all you’ll ever be. Whether you help me or not, I’m going to find Snow. When I do, I’m going to put a curse on her. I already have it prepared. Since you love her so much, you can share it.”
She snapped her fingers and a tiny glass bottle filled with a dark green liquid appeared, as if I needed more proof that she was truly a witch. I tried to move away but she was so much stronger than me and had me pinned against the wall. “This curse will make you immortal, you won’t die even if you want to. Your everlasting life won’t be an easy road. Your wounds shall return to your feet and never heal. Your only way out is to kill the one who killed my sister.”
“What? What does that mean?”
The queen didn’t answer me, but she shoved my head back and poured the liquid down my throat. It burned and stung all the way down. The potion was so hot and awful tasting, I almost expected it to burn a hole in my throat.
I dropped to the ground, coughing and spitting, but it was no use. The potion had already gone down. “Why did you do that? What did I ever do to you?”
She knelt beside me, stroking my hair roughly. “Don’t be so dramatic. You were cursed the moment your father took part in hunting down me and my sisters. If he had just given you over that night, this would have all been over. But no, he had to run and then Merna had to find and protect you, that wretched traitor!”
I was so confused and the fact that my head was spinning didn’t make it any easier. I didn’t know anything about my father participating in a witch hunt. I didn’t know what any of it had to do with Snow or me killing another girl.
I pushed her hand away. “You’re a coward. Why didn’t you just kill Snow yourself when you had the chance.”
She sneered at me. “All the princesses of the Northern kingdoms have an enchantment spell cast over them to protect them from us. All because of some blasted fairy. If it weren’t for that I would have taken care of her long ago.”
“Then why not kill me?”
She glared at me for a second before standing and smoothing out her dress. “Where’s the fun in that? Besides, death is the easy way out. You could have had it all, but you gave it up for her. Now get the hell out of my castle.”
She had the guards remove me, kicking and screaming. All I wanted was to say goodbye to Merna. They wouldn’t allow it as they tossed me outside with nothing, warning me that my return would end in my death. After that I took a job helping an old man sell toys in the marketplace.
The curse had been true to the queen’s word. Time went on and the world changed, but I didn’t. I stayed in my eighteen-year-old form while the world grew old and died around me. The people I met transformed and withered away while I maintained my youth to their surprise.
It wasn’t so hard to adjust to new world after a new world as the changes were subtle. Still I was tired and determined to break my curse. I wanted my wounds to heal and the pain to go away. There was a way to break the curse. The queen had hinted at it. But how was I supposed to accomplish the task when I had no idea what she was talking about?
Ella After
200 Years Later
Austin, Texas
12
The land of Eirwen changed. Famine hit the land and employment and resources were scarce. Everyone was telling of new opportunities in a land called America, so I saved money from my meager salary to take a ship to this promising place. I only had a week’s worth of my earnings and a small sack filled with my necessary possessions.
Starting from scratch, I did everything I had to do to survive. I worked in stores and offices in the morning and washed dishes at restaurants at nighttime. I’d lost track of all the jobs I had. Once I got tired of something, I moved on.
I didn’t remember much about my life in the palace aside from Merna and my love for reading the books in Snow’s library. I scored jobs in book stores so I could be surrounded by books. Over the past decade, even that started to disappoint me. Because of the massive eBook surge, book stores were being driven out of business. The ones that remained opened used half their space to sell toys and electronic gadgets. Many of the people who came in weren’t even looking for books.
Still, my job at the bookstore paid my half of the bills. My boyfriend Brayden took care of the other half. Neither of us had much money, but struggling together made us closer. When we were broke and close to payday, the two of us would share a pack of Ramen noodles with no complaints. Brayden promised me things wouldn’t always be this way. He was currently writing the next bestseller that was destined to become a phenomenon and take the world by storm. In the meantime, he took on some freelance writing gigs and delivered pizza. The two of us cuddled in our one-room efficiency every night without a care in the world as long as we had each other.
I’d met Brayden in the bookstore where I’d worked before I’d accepted a job at Bookington’s. He’d come in looking for a quiet place to write and some free Wi-Fi. Brayden was the most handsome guy I’d ever seen and as long as I’d lived, that was saying a lot. He was tall and lean with a perfectly chiseled face. I spent every night running my fingers through his dark curls, especially the one that was longer that the others and hung over his forehead. His warm hazel eyes were what had really won me over.
That night Brayden was typing away on his laptop. I told him he needed to leave because I had to close up, but he said he couldn’t. He was right in the middle of the most important scene in his book and if he stopped he would totally lose his vision. I told him he was going to get me in trouble. He said, “Fine, I’ll go but you totally owe me one for making me lose my inspiration. You can make it up to me
by letting me take you to the movies Friday night.”
I accepted his date and the rest was history.
Brayden and I had been together for a year. I figured I had a long while before I had to explain things to him. For now, I could be that lucky girl who just didn’t age as quickly as everyone else. I’d do what I always did. Tell people to have a good diet, drinks lots of water, and get plenty of sleep. They fell for it every time. Now if Brayden and I ended up getting married and spending the rest of our lives together, the never-aging thing would pose a problem.
Lord Trevor might have been able to give me everything in the world, but I would take true love over the high life any day. I never thought I would be completely happy living such a simple life, but I was.
I was happy and content, but my best and only friends Keelie and Jade, had a much different view of my life.
We’d only been friends for a few months. I met them when they’d wondered into Bookington’s because their GPS had told them there was a Starbucks there. A small café was located in the front of the store off to the side. The Starbucks was responsible for a lot of our traffic.
It was early in the day and the store was empty. I was in the process of putting books back on the shelves that people had put on hold but never picked up, when the two of them came stumbling into the store talking at the top of their lungs.
At first I wondered if they were drunk but then I realized they were just vapid.
Keelie cawed as she pulled Jade to the Starbucks counter. “Omg, I can’t remember the last time I came into a bookstore. Who knew these things still existed?”
Keelie was tall and slender with a short caramel bob that framed her perfectly-oval face. She wore a yellow spaghetti-strapped sundress that was much too short for her long legs and a pair of straw wedges that were so high they look painful.
Forever Ella: The Everly Girls Book 2 Page 7