Arabella sucked in a breath. Fear shone in her eyes, and it was rightfully placed. I’d never been so scared in all my life; not for me, but for her. For us. She brushed dark strands of hair out of her face and then suddenly, the pale green irises of her eyes changed. Peeking through the unusual hue were the numerals of a clock, with two hands swirling in impossibly fast circles.
Her mouth parted. “Your eyes,” she gasped.
I pressed them closed. “Yours are the same.”
Guards approached and began to pull her away from me. Not one to go willingly, she struggled until they removed their hands, and walked proudly out the door by herself. I still couldn’t hold up my own weight and was dragged back to my room, body screaming, bones on fire, but all I could worry about was where she was and if she was safe for now.
The guards carelessly tossed me onto the floor. I tried to raise up, panting through the pain, but my legs were too weak. I heard the creak of the door behind me open and a small, emerald-colored glass bottle floated through the air. Someone I couldn’t see took my hand and opened my palm, placing the bottle into it. My fingers tightened around the cool surface.
“Drink, drink, you see. It heals,” a weak, male voice ordered.
“Who are you?”
“I am here to aid you. Drink the tonic,” the disembodied voice insisted. “You must dress for dinner, which is in twenty minutes.”
“Are you fae?”
“Not fae, but cursed. Cursed and Unseen, that’s all. Now drink.”
I swirled the liquid around in the bottle. “How do I know it’s not poison?”
“The Cursed cannot lie.”
Unless that’s a lie, too… But I had to risk it. If I started the game in this shape, I was as good as dead already. And if Arabella was forced to go to this horrid dinner, I was going with her. Resolved to whatever elixir awaited me, I worked the cork out of the bottle neck with a pop and sniffed the contents. The magic inside stung my nose and a cloying odor filled the room. Placing the bottle to my lips, I gulped it down and waited.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. I looked from the bottle to the spot I thought the Cursed man occupied. “It will work,” he reassured me.
Taking this opportunity to survey the room around me, I saw that it was far grander than the dank cell I’d been locked in for the past few days. Teal and turquoise vines crept up the walls, coiling and crawling and so vivid they looked real... right down to the little creeping hairs that held the vine to the tree trunk and wall. The bed was enormous, covered in the striped fabric that matched the walls.
The more time passed, the better I felt. Breathing became easier. The pain in my ribs ebbed and then faded entirely. I held up my arm to the light and watched as the patchwork of blue, purple, and yellow bruises faded before my eyes.
“See? It works,” the invisible man crooned.
“How long have you been Cursed and Unseen?” I asked.
Footsteps trailed toward a large, gilded wardrobe and the doors parted, revealing an array of clothing in every color. “Tonight, the color is teal. You must dress quickly.”
Teal, like everything in this room.
I stayed on the floor. Nothing hurt or prevented me from rising and walking over to the man or taking the clothes he held out, but I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Did she have someone Cursed and Unseen assisting her? We needed answers, and there was only one way I knew to get them. No one wanted to disappoint the Queen. No one wanted to be tardy for her events, either.
“Come along now. We must be quick,” he insisted.
“How. Long?” I insisted stubbornly.
“One hundred eighteen years, six months, two days, and fourteen hours,” he gritted. “Now, get dressed, or you’ll be preparing yourself alone. I know better than to be late. I will not die for you.”
“Wouldn’t dying be easier than living this way?”
“No, it would not,” he countered simply. The clothes floated across the room and landed gently on the bed. His footsteps strode across the room, where he poured water from a carafe into a basin. “Use the cloth to clean your skin. Then I will assist you in dressing.”
“Why does the Queen insist on these color themes?”
“Queen Coeur prefers color to gray,” he answered, not elaborating further.
I washed quickly and let him help me dress, wondering what I’d gotten me and Arabella into, and whether I could get her out of this mess alive. Arabella. The Queen gave me her name before she arrived at the castle. Since the day outside the tavern, I’d wondered what name could possibly match her beauty. Arabella suited her perfectly.
“The guards will take you now,” the man spoke quietly.
My stomach fluttered with anticipation and dread. “What is your name?”
“I cannot speak it. It is forbidden,” he responded sullenly.
“Can I speak it? If I knew it?”
My unseen assistant paused, thinking. “That is not forbidden.”
I nodded. “Are you fae or human?”
“I was human, sire. Now, I’m Cursed. Now, I’m Unseen.” He opened the doors and the guards, now dressed in suits that matched my own with thick, teal goop slicking their hair back so their pointed ears showed, leveled glares at me. Spears in hand, one led me out of my room while the other followed closely behind.
ARABELLA
The guards left me in a bedroom four times the size of my father’s shack. It was even larger than the room I used to have in our manor house, before we became destitute. The walls were painted a pale blue green, and each boasted a mural that depicted the four seasons. There was a tree with plump branches laden with Springtime blossoms; followed by a tree whose leaves reached out for the sunlight above them and whose branches were so full, not a branch could be seen; and on the third wall, there was a tree whose branches were nearly bare, its leaves raining to the ground below. But it was the Winter tree that broke my heart. Cold and alone, it stood bereft and solitary, withering in despair.
Breaking me out of my quiet inspection, the door unlocked by itself and footsteps trailed across the floor, stopping directly in front of me. I expected someone to materialize, but nearly jumped out of my skin when a disembodied voice came from less than a foot away. “I’m here to serve you, Miss Arabella,” she greeted in a sweet, almost child-like voice. From the angle of her voice, I deduced she must be taller than I was.
“Who are you?” I scanned the air to see if I could catch even a glimpse of her in front of me, but only found the four walls with their trees, the door, and the furniture that was made to fit such an expansive room. The bed could easily hold twelve adults.