Halia: Daughter of Cinderella

by Armitage, J. A

  After being cooped up for the whole day in the dark kitchen without any sunlight, I decided to wander the streets of Arcadia before going to Daydream. Plus, if Tia and I were to sleep at the bar, we would have to wait until the last customer left, which was hours away.

  I headed toward the night market. It always cheered me up, not because of the countless goods one could purchase, which were interesting to look at, but unaffordable for someone like me, but because of the artists congregating there.

  Tonight, there were several painters, caricaturists, and pottery makers at one end of the market. I walked between their displays, enjoying the beautiful views they had captured. Some of them had painted the king’s castle with its high turrets, heavy gate, and dark-blue roofs. Others had painted beaches and seas, or mountainous and forest landscapes.

  Those that could afford the paintings probably didn’t find any of the depicted places exotic, but I found them fascinating. I had never ventured outside of Arcadia. All I knew was this city and the outside of our castle, never having been allowed to step foot past the gate.

  I had never felt the sand between my toes, swam in the salty sea, or hiked through a luscious forest.

  Would I ever get to see other kingdoms? Arcadia was gorgeous and my home, but suddenly, the need to see the world overwhelmed me. And then loneliness hit me. If I wanted to see those places, I would have to go on my own.

  With a bit of luck and convincing on my part, I could join a traveling group of musicians, but Tia wouldn’t come with me. As a bartender, it was best for her to stay in one place and establish herself.

  Could I leave my best friend behind? She was like a sister, and we had spent every day together in the eighteen years of our lives.

  “What about Lorenzo?” a quiet voice inside my head asked.

  I wanted to snap back at the voice and say he didn’t matter, that I barely knew him. Yet, even though I had met the teleporting demon less than a week ago, he did matter, and I didn’t want to leave him. Lorenzo brought out the best in me, my playful, carefree side. He helped me believe in myself. He supported my singing ambitions.

  I had never come across anyone like him. I wasn’t ready to leave him. I wasn’t ready to throw away whatever was growing between us. He made me feel alive. With him, I was the best version of myself.

  “Let me go! Let me go!” A boy’s screams pulled me back to the present. I scanned the market to find a scrawny boy who couldn’t be older than ten years of age cuffed and being dragged away by none other than Victor, my ex-boyfriend and one of the patrolmen of Arcadia.

  I didn’t want to talk to Victor. We hadn’t exactly parted on amicable terms, but I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing while he dragged a young boy to prison. Whatever the kid had done, it couldn’t justify getting a mark on his record.

  I pushed past the market-goers until I reached Victor and his partner Thomas. Thomas, with his wispy brown hair and average height, looked like a friendly schoolteacher compared to Victor, who was very tall and all sharp angles. As luck had it, Thomas noticed me first. I nodded at him in acknowledgment.

  “Why are you arresting this boy?” My question was directed at Victor since he was the one holding the boy.

  “He’s a thief.” Victor showed me a loaf of bread.

  “He was probably hungry or trying to help his parents.” I leaned down to the level of the boy. “Who do you live with?”

  “My mom, but she’s been sick lately and unable to work.”

  I straightened to my full height. “See,” I said. “He didn’t do it out of ill will; he was simply trying to provide for himself and his mother.”

  Victor’s jaw locked. “Maybe the circle you run in nowadays permits stealing, but it is still illegal in Arcadia, and it is my job to uphold the law.”

  “He’s just a boy.”

  “If I allow him to get away with stealing, others will soon follow suit.”

  Anger simmered within me, but before I could reply, Thomas stepped in between us. “He’s right, Halia. Where are we supposed to draw the line? Is it all right for a twelve-year-old to steal? Is it all right for a fifteen-year-old girl to steal because she hasn’t found a position of employment yet? And what about the old people. Do they get to steal as well because they’re too old to work, and their pensions are meager?”

  I bit the inside of my cheek. “I’m not asking you to abolish rules, but there has to be a way to uphold the law without letting our citizens starve or throwing them into prison.”

  Victor glared. “Yes, and it’s called work.”

  “He’s too young!”

  “Then he should go to an orphanage. They’ll take care of him until he’s eighteen.”

  I shook my head. No child would willingly go to an orphanage if there was another option. “He has a mother. He can’t just leave her.”

  Victor shrugged. “If she can’t provide for him, she should give him up. It would be in everyone’s best interest.”

  The boy started to shake, and a sob escaped him.

  I knelt in front of him and wiped away the tear from his cheek. “It will be all right.”

  I wasn’t crazy enough to think I could overpower two men or outrun them with the boy. I couldn’t take them with brute force, but I could bring them to their knees with my wits.

  Using the trick from earlier, I began singing:

  The sun is out; it’s summertime. Let’s come together, in this beautiful weather; let’s have some fun. Throw away all your worries; let’s have some fun.

  Fun, fun, fun in the sun. The days are long; the nights are even longer.

  Forget your worries and come out with me to have fun, fun, fun in the sun.

  I glanced around myself, smiling at the people nearby and motioning for them to join in. Some were already humming or tapping their feet and heads rhythmically. With my encouragement, the crowd joined in, one by one. By the time I repeated the chorus, half of the market was singing and dancing, inching closer toward our foursome.

  “Stay back,” Victor yelled while Thomas looked torn between admonishing the citizens and joining in.

  With the patrolmen distracted, I whispered to the boy, “Grab his key. It’s on his belt buckle.” Victor was busy swinging his baton, yelling, “Stop it; stop it right now!” and the boy was able to grab the key undetected and hand it to me.

  Still continuing to sing, I unlocked his shackles. I motioned for the crowd to come closer, then grabbed the boy’s hand and ran.

  “Hey, where did they go?” Victor’s voice thundered behind us, but he wasn’t able to see us through the thick crowd, and technically, he couldn’t prove that it was I, who had taken the boy.

  We ran to the edge of the market and down a side street.

  “Where does your mother live?” I asked the boy, gulping down air into my burning lungs.

  “I’m not allowed to bring strangers home. Thank you.” With that, he took off, his soles flashing as he disappeared into another side street.

  I gazed after him until I realized the singing in the market had stopped. I needed to leave before Victor spotted me.

  No longer in the mood to stay outside, I headed toward Daydream. With it only being eight at night, the place was still fairly empty. Tia stood behind the bar next to Mikka, a white-haired bartender with black eyes whose childlike features—tiny nose, wide eyes, round cheeks—made her look much too young to tend a bar. Despite this, she seemed to know her stuff and appeared to be teaching Tia how to mix a martini.

  I approached the bar, and Tia’s face lit up. “How did your last shift at the boarding house go?”

  I shook my head. “Not good. I didn’t get Doris to talk. Madam threw a fit at me for quitting and refused to pay me the money for my last shift.”

  Tia’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll go over there right now and demand she give you the money.”

  “It’s not worth it.”

  “But—”

  “We have bigger problems to think about, like where are
we going to sleep tonight.”

  She hesitated, and I knew she hadn’t thought this one through. My friend was great at taking the initiative, but she wasn’t exactly the practical type.

  I turned to Mikka. “Is Lorenzo in his office?”

  “Yes.” Mikka made no move to let Lorenzo know that I wanted to see him, so I simply stepped behind the bar and knocked at his office door. “It’s Halia.”

  “Come in,” he called.

  Lorenzo was sitting at his desk, his silver hair flowing like silk onto his shoulders, his violet-green eyes brighter than gemstones. “Stressful day?”

  Did I look so bad that he could tell that after a quick glance without me opening my mouth? I sat down across from him. “You could say so.”

  He waited for me to continue.

  “Since Tia and I are no longer working at the boarding house, we can’t stay at our room there. I was wondering if we could perhaps spend the next few nights at the bar until our earnings allow us to rent a room somewhere.”

  “I’m not letting you stay at the bar.”

  I blinked, surprised by the firmness in his voice. Lorenzo had been nothing but kind in the past. Was my request that unreasonable?

  “I have a spare room upstairs in my apartment. You can stay for as long as you want.”

  “That’s very generous of you, but I doubt we could afford the price.”

  “You and Tia are working for me. It’s only fair that I take care of your accommodations, and it’s convenient for me to have my employees nearby.”

  I shook my head. “We wouldn’t want to impose.”

  “Nonsense.”

  I opened my mouth again, but he stopped me.

  “Stay for a week. If you don’t feel comfortable, we’ll figure out something else once the week is up.”

  All right. I supposed we could do that. “Thank you.”

  He tilted his head, studying me. “Now that this is out of the way, would you like to tell me about the stunt you pulled at the market?”

  I cringed. “How did you know?” It never failed to surprise me how quick news traveled in Arcadia.

  “A little birdie told me that two patrolmen lost a boy because somebody started singing and used the crowd to get the boy out.”

  “He was so young. They wanted to throw him into prison for thievery. It wasn’t fair.”

  “I agree, but what I’m more interested in is how you managed to control the crowd.”

  I shrugged. “It was nothing special. I started singing a popular song, Fun in the Sun, hoping the market-goers joined in. And they did.”

  “You don’t find it strange that they flocked to you, heeding your call?”

  I shifted uncomfortably in my chair. “I had good timing and luck on my side.”

  Lorenzo pressed a slender finger to his lips. “It was magic.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t have any magic. I’m human.”

  “Is that why you go to see the fae, Acacia, twice a week?”

  I jumped up from a chair. “How do you know that? Have you been spying on me?” Unable to contain the adrenaline rushing through me, I paced the room.

  “I saw the amethyst protection stone in your bag, and I knew immediately it was from her. I was concerned about your well-being and what you were doing with her, so I went to ask her what kind of relationship you two had. She told me you come to her twice a week, and that I would have to find out the rest from you.”

  I crossed my arms. “My business with Acacia is personal.”

  Lorenzo brushed a hand through his silver mane. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “Then you should’ve asked me directly and not gone behind my back.”

  “You’re right, but I needed to be sure you weren’t addicted to fae dreams before I offered you this.” He pushed a few pieces of paper stapled together across the table.

  I glanced at the papers, realizing they were a contract. “You want to manage me? Why?”

  Lorenzo didn’t reply immediately. Finally, he said, “Because even in good times, it’s best to have an agent, somebody who is willing to negotiate on your behalf, do the business side so that you can focus on the creative stuff. Given the recent happenings in Arcadia, you need someone to keep you safe. As your manager, I would be able to come with you to auditions and performances and protect you.”

  Warmth spread through me at his words, but I wouldn’t agree before I knew all the facts. I had made that mistake with Victor once, not realizing that his support came with strict control. “Do you know who’s behind the issues in Arcadia?” Images of a couple disappearing from the inn, and a woman aging overnight flashed through my mind.

  “No, but whoever they are, I think they’re responsible for Queen Ella’s disappearance.”

  I fought hard to keep my face neutral. I couldn’t reveal my suspicions until I knew what his interest was in this. “Why do you care about our human queen and king?”

  “Because every kingdom needs a ruler. Someone who is smart, strategic, and good. I believe our king and queen have all of those qualities.”

  “Wouldn’t you prefer a magic wielder on the throne?”

  A feral grin spread across Lorenzo’s mouth. “Just because I’m a demon doesn’t mean I believe in the supremacy of our race. I don’t think magic wielders are special. At the end of the day, we all have magic; some of us simply have way more than others.”

  His words were an echo of what Acacia had said to me a few days earlier, the fae claiming that every person had a drop of magic and that I had more, which made me an asset and a target.

  “What makes you think I have magic?”

  Lorenzo smiled. “Isn’t it obvious? Your voice, it’s not just beautiful, it’s mesmerizing. When you sing, you compel those around you.”

  “No, I don’t.” I was not some evil mind manipulator.

  “You might not be doing it consciously, but you are doing it. Don’t tell me that today at the market was the first time. You knew, with certainty, the crowd would help you if you sang, didn’t you?”

  My cheeks heated as I thought about how I had tricked Doris into humming the tune. Had I really just chosen a popular song, or had I willed her to sing with me? And what about all the times when I had been singing while working with Tia, my intent to cheer up my friend, only to see her smile a while later as she mopped and got rid of bodily fluids on the sheets.

  “So, if I’m able to…”—I searched for the right word, not wanting to use compel or manipulate—“influence others with my singing, what does that make me?”

  Lorenzo leaned forward, his gaze boring into me. “That’s for you to find out. I’ve met fae and demons with similar skills, but if you were either of those things, I would have smelled it on you.”

  I let out a sigh of relief, glad that I was still human.

  “I strongly doubt that you come from a line of witches or anything that can be considered human. Witches need to use incantations and spell books, while your voice is an internal gift, which makes you other than human.”

  “But I am human! My skin isn’t odd, my ears are normal, I don’t have horns on my head…” I trailed off, focusing on Lorenzo’s violet-green eyes. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I could see how my blue eyes with golden rings were a lot more similar to his than the eyes of other humans. If my eyes were nothing special, Mrs. Woods wouldn’t have hidden the golden rings and told me to find a faerie to continue the masquerade after she abandoned me.

  I bit my lip, coming within an inch of telling Lorenzo about my secret. My cautionary nature held me back. There was no advantage in rushing into that, but once I told him, there was no way of taking it back.

  In fact, it would be easier to show him. By tomorrow morning, the golden specks in my eyes should be pronounced enough to show him if I chose to or for me to sneak out and find Acacia to magic away my otherness.

  I faked a yawn. “Would you mind showing me my room? I’m really tired.”

  Ever the ge
ntleman, Lorenzo nodded and led the way.

  2

  23rd July

  I woke up feeling refreshed. It had been a long time since I woke up full of energy. I’d never felt this good. Neither the orphanage nor Madam’s Boarding House had comfortable beds. Lorenzo’s furniture, on the other hand, was heavenly. The blanket covering me was as soft as a feather. The pillow had just the right amount of stuffing, and the bed was so big, I could turn over both ways without falling out.

  It was perfect. When Lorenzo had shown me Tia’s and my room, I had protested, saying it was too much, but he had reminded me that I had already agreed to stay here one week and then reevaluate the situation.

  I had begrudgingly accepted, planning to argue the next day, but now that I had slept in this bed that was like a cloud, I doubted I could ever leave. Whatever Lorenzo wanted for the room, Tia and I would pay it. Thinking of my friend, I turned around toward her bed, expecting her to be snoring softly, her body twisted in a strange position. To my surprise, Tia wasn’t next to me.

  I jumped up. Had something happened to her? Had she fallen asleep in the bar? Given the night owl she was, I was used to her returning when the sun rose. However, I found it highly unlikely that even she would choose to party after her first shift.

  I glanced at the clock. It was 4:20 am. I had slept for over seven hours, and my alarm would go off in ten minutes, which meant I only had enough time to look for Tia downstairs before I had to report to the post office for my 5 a.m. shift.

  Glad that I was an early riser, I stepped to the sink, washed my face, and glanced into the round mirror attached above it.

  The golden specks in my eyes were pronounced but hadn’t formed circles yet. I would wait until the evening to decide whether to go to Acacia or show Lorenzo my secret. Not wanting to dwell on the choice I had to make, I focused on what to wear. My wardrobe was half a suitcase, so there wasn’t much to choose from. I put on my most comfortable pants, a shirt, and my sturdiest shoes. Outside my room, I paused and stared at the door that led into Lorenzo’s bedroom.