“We need to get you ready,” Agathy said, her voice floating closer to me.
“Can’t I pretend to be sick? I really don’t want to go.” I looked up and gave her puppy eyes, and pouted my lips. Agathy just rolled her eyes.
“No, you have to go. Up, up, up.” Agathy went to the bathroom that was adjoined to my room, and I could hear the water turn on in the shower. “Mia!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” I sighed and moved slowly toward the bathroom. I loved Agathy. She was our chief maid—more like a mother to me—she had practically raised me. She was the only one who gave me birthday and Christmas presents; of course I would have just been fine with spending time with her. She took care of me after my father had a round with me, she held on to me when I needed a shoulder to cry on, and she was there for me whenever I needed her. If it meant living on the other side of the wall, I would have done it if it meant I could live with her.
Steam was already filling up the bathroom by the time I walked in. The mirror was fogging up, but I could still see my reflection: my strawberry-blonde hair was high up in a ponytail, my soft, clear water-blue eyes staring back at me, and my thin pink lips frowning.
“Such a beautiful girl,” Agathy said, coming up behind me. She was the same height as me, but a little on the plumper side. Gray streaks swam throughout her hair, and her eyes were dark blue, like the color of a storm brewing.
I shrugged my shoulders. “If you say so.” I didn’t believe it. My sister had been the beautiful one. When she was still alive. She’d had perfect, curly blonde hair and deep brown eyes, she’d looked just like our mother, except for the eyes—my mother had midnight-blue eyes. There had been this delicate and precious look about my sister. She'd always been able to talk her way out of trouble and get people to do her work. But she had always been kind. Never hurtful.
“Come on, come on. We need to get you ready.” Agathy squeezed my shoulders and led me over to the shower. She left me alone, closing the door behind her as I undressed and stepped in.
The hot water felt amazing on my body after being out in the cold. My toes burned, but I didn’t care. It was the good type of burn. I lathered my hair up with coconut shampoo and rinsed, repeating with the conditioner. I covered my body in bubbles with strawberry shower gel, wincing when my knee started to sting from the cut. After I rinsed off, I just stood in the downpour, shutting my eyes: green eyes materialized in front of me. I wanted to see a smile. Or a grimace, for when you kick him where it hurts. Since, I don’t know, he was kind of a dick to you. I nodded my head. He needed a good kicking.
“Mia!” Agathy banged on the door, and my eyes flashed open. “Are you finished yet?”
“Yeah,” I yelled out. Why couldn’t I stay in the shower longer? Like an all-night type of deal? Watch my fingers prune along with my body type of shower. I shut my eyes, imagined myself kicking the dude where it hurts, and turned off the shower. Pulling open the glass shower door, I grabbed a towel and wrapped it snugly around my body. Making my way over to the door, I grabbed the handle and held in a breath: this was it. No backing out of it. Like I had any choice to begin with. I wanted to shut myself in the bathroom, but I didn't. Letting out the breath I was holding, I opened the door to see Agathy arranging the different dresses on the bed, with matching shoes. I bit my lip. Tonight was going to be a long night.
“Mia, stand up straight,” my mother slurred in my ear. I could smell the alcohol roll off her tongue; I grimaced from the burning smell. I rolled my eyes but straightened my shoulders back.
After I was finished getting ready, I had walked downstairs and my brows disappeared into my hairline. The house had been transformed, and it looked ridiculous. The place was decorated in gold and silver: gold balloons bobbed up and down from the ceiling while silver streamers surged out of every available nook. Confetti was thrown all over the floor and tables. It honestly looked like an angel had walked into the house, glanced around, and decided to throw up on everything. Guests didn’t seem to mind the obnoxious display. They mingled and crowded the once very empty house. So many people littered the rooms. If I were claustrophobic, I would probably have passed out. But at least I got to stand next to the door all night greeting people. The downfall: standing next to my already drunk mother and listening to my father drone on about how grateful he was that Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so shown up. Did I have better things to do? Probably, like read a book or file my nails. But did I have a choice? Nope. I was itching to move around and eat. The only good thing about these pointless parties was the food; I usually stuffed my face and packed a plate full to sneak up to my bedroom.
“Can I go now?” I asked my mother. I smiled sweetly at her, hoping her uncaring, drunk personality would decide I could leave. She narrowed her eyes at me in response. So that’s a no.
“Aedan! How are you?” my father asked. I tried hard not to glare at my mother before turning my attention to the man standing in front of my father. The man was a little on the short side with light peppered hair and dark blue eyes. Wrinkles appeared at the sides of his eyes and mouth. Standing next to him was a tall, slim woman, who I assumed was his wife. White streaks flashed throughout her long brown hair as if lightning streaked through sand. As she looked at me, her soft brown eyes warmed the way a mother’s eyes should when looking at their child. Except I wasn’t her daughter, and the only temperature in my mother’s eyes was ice cold.
“This must be your beautiful daughter, Mia,” she said, her voice flowing like honey. She stepped in front of me and clutched my hand, covering it with both of her soft ones. “I’ve heard wonderful things about you.”
I tried not to roll my eyes. I knew for a fact that no one talked nicely about me, except for Agathy, but no one ever talked to Agathy like she was an actual person. It would have been more realistic if she’d said, I’ve heard you’re such a disappointment, or I can’t believe they spawned you than I’ve heard wonderful things about you. I stretched a fake smile across my face. “Hello.”
“Mia,” my father said, “this is Aedan and Aileen Wibert. Aedan, as you know, is the Ambassador of Inonia.”
The fake smile stretched even further on my face. “It is nice to meet you both,” I said, finishing with a curtsy. I kept my head bowed and counted the long ten seconds before I could get out of the godforsaken position. I didn’t work out. I hated working out. And when one curtsied, one was doing a type of squat. I didn’t do squats. Beads of sweat started forming on my temple and my legs started to buckle. After ten excruciating seconds, I stood straight back up. Don’t forget to push out and flaunt your boobs so your back is straight.
“Right, right,” Aedan said, without breaking eye contact with my father. “Andrew, we have to talk. Things are getting dangerous with the rebels. They are out of control. People are start—”
“Aedan,” my father chided, as though he were talking to a child. “We’ll talk later. For now, let’s just enjoy ourselves.” He patted Aedan on the back. “Now, where is your son?”
Aedan glowered. He wasn’t happy with my father’s dismissal. “He’s back home. He’s buried in coursework. You know how it is.”
“That’s too bad,” my mother chimed in, her words slurring at the end. “I would have loved it if Mia and Jake had gotten together.”
Still holding my hands, Aileen slightly squeezed my fingers at my mother’s comment. Clearing her throat, Aileen smiled at my father. “Would you mind if I took Mia with me? I don’t have the first clue of where to go in this massive place.”
“Of course,” my father said. My mother mumbled something but it was so incoherent I figured it was because of the alcohol. My father shot her a look and she pressed her lips together. Looking back over to Aileen, my father faked a smile. “Mia, show Aileen around.”
“Yes, Father,” I said. “Would you like to see the Great Room?
Aileen smiled. “I’d love that.” She let go of my hands, and before I had a chance to move, she looped her arm with mine. I smiled
dutifully at my father and dropped the smile the moment we were out of sight.
Aileen walked slowly as she murmured her approval of all of the decorations. One. Two. Three. Stop. One. Two. Three. Stop. One. Two. Three. Stop. Aileen kept stopping us after three steps. At this rate, we would get to the Great Room by midnight. Of course, Aileen never noticed my irritation. That or she didn’t care. When the Great Room came into view, I almost jumped up and down but I didn’t get the chance, as Aileen kept walking past it. I looked back toward the Great Room as we walked farther from it.
“Umm…we passed the Great Room,” I said.
Aileen smiled down at me. Thank you, height, for making me so short. “I figured when you slowed your steps as we walked past.”
I tilted my head to the side. “I thought you wanted to see the Great Room?”
Aileen waved me off with her free hand. “I’ve been here plenty of times before. I know how to get around.”
That was news to me. I’d never seen her before, and I had lived here for almost eighteen years. “Okay. So where are we going?” There were only two more rooms down this hall: the kitchen and the library.
“I was thinking the library would do just fine.” We moved our way around guests and into the library. Only a few people were mingling in the room. Aileen kept moving toward the back of the library, dragging me along with her. Unease tickled at the pit of my stomach.
Aileen let go of my arm the moment we were out of earshot. She walked toward the last bookcase, gliding her fingers across the books. “It has been so long since the last time I was in here.”
I stood there awkwardly. Scratching the back of my neck, I wondered if I could sneak out before she noticed.
“But I remember it just like it was yesterday,” she whispered. I started to tiptoe backward until the next words stopped my progress. “Your mother and I were in here looking for a book on magic. Of course, we don’t believe in magic. We just wanted to see if others believed in it. Anyway, we were all the way back here, searching through books endlessly. Your mother had to eat and pee a lot.” Aileen smiled over at me. “She was pregnant with you. And your sister kept running up and down the aisle, giggling.”
My heart throbbed at the mention of my sister. “You knew my sister?” I tried to keep my voice neutral, but it ended up coming out wobbly.
Aileen nodded her head. “I did. She was a wonderful child. She was always happy. Of course, this was years ago, way before the incident.”
I flinched at the word incident. Slight tremors started to swim up my body. “I don’t remember you.” It was true.
Aileen kept her attention on the books. “That’s because the last time I saw you, you were only four.”
“Oh.” I walked over to the only empty wall in the room and leaned up against it. “Why’d you stop coming over?”
“Your mother and I had a falling out.” Aileen shrugged her shoulders. “But that was years ago.” She pulled out a book and started flipping through pages. “So, Mia, how’s school going?” Closing the book, she put it back and pulled out another one.
I shrugged my shoulders. “School is school.”
“Do you like school?” Aileen flipped through the book slowly, making sure she went through each individual page before she closed it, returned it, and took down another one.
I nodded my head. “It’s okay, I guess.”
“Why would you guess? I bet you’re a bright student.” Aileen closed that book and started another. I furrowed my brows as I watched her. What the hell is she doing? I watched as Aileen did her routine on the next book, and then the next one. “Well?”
I shook my head out of the daze of watching her. “Huh?” I asked. I could hear other voices, but they were all the way down at the other side of the room. The library was enormous. It was a two-story library accessible from three entrances and was approximately twenty-nine feet by twenty-seven feet. One way to enter was the way we came in, from the Grand Hallway. Another entry point was on the second floor, which enters into the upstairs landing. The third entryway was through a hidden bookcase in the middle of the library. At least that’s what I’d read about. Of course I’d never actually been able to find that last entry point. The central part of the room had a seven-foot fireplace with a mirror sitting above it; reflecting the staircase. The entire room was surrounded by bookcases on both floors.
Aileen chuckled. She closed the book and repeated her system with the next one. “Why wouldn’t you like school?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it. I love to learn. I just don’t really have many friends, and a lot of the kids don’t like me.” I rubbed my hands over my arms. “Lunch can be lonely.”
“That’s great that you love to learn. And don’t worry about having friends. Once you run Lorburn, you will have many friends.”
I gritted my teeth. Because having friends only because you run something is so cool. “I don’t really see people sucking up to me as friends. If I did, then I would have friends now.”
Aileen cursed as she put the book away and grabbed another. “You’ll find having followers will come in handy one day.”
I bit my lip to stop myself from commenting on that. I watched, as though I were mesmerized, as she went through three more books. Getting more frustrated, I finally asked, “What are you doing?”
“I’m looking for something I hid a very long time ago.” She fumbled through two more when she let out a disgruntled sigh. “It’s not here. How is it not here?” She walked back and forth, scratching her head.
“What was it?” I asked.
Aileen stopped suddenly and looked at me. She looked like she had aged ten years just by flipping through books. She shook her head. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” Walking over to the two armchairs that faced the back bookcase, Aileen sat down. She patted the seat next to her and I reluctantly took it.
“Have you been mated?” she asked.
Worry seeped in and out on her pale face, and I tried very hard to not think much into it. “No, not yet.” Or at least I didn’t think so.
“I’m surprised,” she said. “You turn eighteen in just a few months, don’t you?”
“February fourteenth.”
“Three months away, and you don’t have anyone to mate with?” She tried to act surprised, but I didn’t believe it.
“My father hasn’t told me if I’ve been mated yet or not.” I wasn’t looking forward to that talk. I didn’t think it was right that my parents had free rein over whom I was to marry. My father had passed a bill the day I turned thirteen: parents of any child born into the council determined whom the child married. The child had no say in it at all. It was a way for my father to make sure I didn’t marry someone he didn't approve of. I was seventeen and in three months, I would be eighteen and would have to present the person I was mated with to the people of Lorburn. Of course, we'd wait to get married until I was twenty, and in the meantime I would learn everything there was to learn about Lorburn and its regions—it wasn’t like I didn’t already know most of it. I would never have a day to myself again. So I was looking for these next three months to go as slowly as possible.
“That’s a pity,” she said, except she didn’t sound like she thought it was a pity at all.
“What were you looking for?” I blurted out. Aileen kept glancing from bookcase to bookcase, tapping her finger against her lips.
Instead of answering my question, she leaned into me and lowered her voice, “You need to be very careful.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“There is a movement happening. Terrible people are trying to take over. They will come after you. I promise you that. And there will be nothing you can do to stop them. Trust no one. Rely on no one. Be vigilant. And whatever you do, listen to your gut. If it is telling you to run, you run.”
Goosebumps trailed up my spine. The uneasiness was back swimming in the pit of my stomach. “What movement?” I tried to keep the skepticism out of my
voice.
A small, sad smile formed on her lips. “I can’t tell you. I wish I could. I wish I could have helped both you and your sister long ago.”
My body stiffened. “How could you have helped? You don’t even know what happened.”
She continued on like I hadn’t said anything. “Thankfully your sister is at peace and is happy. But you—” she reached up and cupped my face “—things are about to happen, and you’re going to experience more pain than you ever have felt before.”
I cleared my throat. Anger bubbled up in my chest, and I wanted to shove her hand off of me. “You’re crazy.” I moved my head away from her soft hand and stood up from the chair. Rushing out of the library, I could hear my name being called, but I didn't stop until I had made it through the kitchen and out onto the back patio. I hurried down the stairs and made my way to the back alley, slamming the metal gate closed and sliding down it. Blood pounded in my ears while black dots danced in my vision.
I buried my head into my hands and tried to breathe in and out, but my breath kept catching. I willed the tears away. I was not going to cry over something that had happened in the past, no matter how much it pained me. I knew better than to cry. If I showed weakness in front of my father, he would make it that much more painful.
I lifted my head and brought my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around my knees and setting my chin on them. A cold breeze blew by, causing me to shiver; goose bumps covered my arms. I should have brought out a coat. My dress didn’t cover much of my upper body. I was wearing a long, silky denim-blue dress. It clung to my hips and breasts and dropped down to my feet. It was a halter dress, exposing my entire back and stopping at the top of my butt. The front covered from my neck down, so my breasts never showed. I loved it. I was wearing four-inch silver heels to help make up for my height. My hair was up, and a thousand curls cascaded down my back like a waterfall.
A pair of old boots appeared suddenly in my vision. I looked up, my eyes connecting with a pair of green ones. As gracefully as I could, I stood up, holding on to the metal gate for support as I teetered. Green eyes raked over my body, and my body shivered from the intensity of the stare. As his eyes reached mine, I could see the heat coming from them.
The Divide (The Divide Series Book 1) Page 2