“I’m giving you the chance to learn what happened to your parents.”
“My parents? You said they died from the plague when I was little.”
She shook her head. “No, Eden. I only told you that to keep you from learning the truth too soon. You were born right here in Candor. It is your right.”
The air was sucked from the room, and I struggled to breathe. My lungs burned as the room began to spin. Then Aura’s calming touch washed over me as she gently grasped my hand, steadying me as she did. The air came back. My lungs filled, and I breathed again.
I was confused. Distraught.
Lies. My life was a lie. My hands began to shake, and Aura weaved her fingers gently through mine and squeezed. She was reading my emotions, and I could feel her gentle warning to me.
“Breathe, Eden,” she whispered. I squeezed her hand back and took a deep breath.
My mother was still talking during the shifting of my world, and I had not heard what she was saying. I turned to give her my full attention, and she slowly came back into focus.
“I’m giving you the chance to learn of your past and choose your future.”
I still couldn’t understand what she was asking me to do. Go to the capital and avenge my parents?
“What does this have to do with the royal ball?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
I shook my head.
“Your mother’s life was cut short by the king of Candor in an attempt to stop you from ever being born. To stop you from attending this ball. To stop the prophecy from coming true.”
My sisters looked up at me, and I read the shock and emotion written across their faces. Only Honor wouldn’t make eye contact with me. Aura’s eyes were glassy with unshed tears. Maeve’s face was filled with disdain. Meri was nodding in encouragement. “Go,” she mouthed to me.
“As you wish, Mother.”
“Don’t disappoint me, dear.” She handed me the invitation, and I curtsied.
“Let the stars guide me,” I whispered our prayer and hoped beyond hope that I wouldn’t fail her.
Chapter Three
“She’s quite mad at you, you know,” Meri said, and I didn’t need to ask whom she was referring too. It was my younger sister Maeve. The fact that she was angry at me for no reason actually made my own temper rise.
“I didn’t have a choice. I don’t want to be the one sent out for this assignment. She shouldn’t be mad at me; she should be mad at Mother. I’d gladly trade her places.” I opened my trunk at the foot of my bed. It was going to be easy to choose what to bring, when everything I owned fit in the little carrying case. Except the windchimes. I didn’t dare bring it in case it broke.
Meri lay on my bed and swung her head over the side so she was looking at me upside down, her legs pedaling in the air comically.
“True, but she can’t take her anger out on Mother, only you.” Meri turned her green eyes up at me and blinked innocently.
I knew deep down she was probably enjoying the drama that was unfolding because of this. So many girls locked away in a tower spelled trouble and quite a few catfights. We hardly ever left the tower and, in doing so, had caused quite a few rumors. We were seven girls who desperately wanted to explore the world and carve their own mark into it, one delicious scream at a time. I glanced back to the empty bed. No, six.
“What would you have me do?” I hissed angrily as I shoved my only good day dress into my satchel. “Not go? Refuse Mother and gain her wrath? I need to find out what happened to my parents.”
Meri smiled sweetly. “Don’t be silly, Eden. I’m only warning you, so you can check your clothes for a delay trap. I’m pretty sure I saw Maeve sneak in here earlier when you were in the kitchen.”
I let out a disgruntled sigh and pulled everything back out of my carrying case and looked at the bag carefully, feeling along the seams with not only my fingers but sight. I almost missed it, but my fingers tingled and burned when they ran across a small loose button. I picked up the button and tossed it into a flower vase. The heat from the button instantly evaporated all of the water, and the daisy inside withered and died instantly.
“Looks like she wanted you to have a very smoky arrival,” Meri chuckled.
I fished the button back out of the vase and mumbled a few words to contain the spell. Having a fire charm, even one cursed by my sister, may have its use in the future. “Thanks for the warning.” I finished packing and said my goodbyes to my sisters. Aura seemed the most excited to see me off. To them, I was going on a grand adventure. It was more of a quest than an adventure.
Meri waited in the queue till last. She handed me a small object wrapped in cloth. “Open it in the transport,” she whispered in my ear. I nodded, giving her hand a quick squeeze.
Mother didn’t hug me, and I never expected her to. Her face was serious, her lips pressed into a firm line. She handed me the stolen invitation. She waved one finger in the air over my heart. It wasn’t a symbol that I knew, but she drew it with ease. “In case you lose your nerve,” she said grimly.
My heart plummeted; there wasn’t any way to go back now. I wasn’t sure what she did, but I had a feeling that it spelled trouble. I nodded but kept my eyes down. “Why am I going? Why did you choose me?”
Mother Eville’s face filled with displeasure. “It is about revenge, my darling, Eden. Your revenge this time. Not mine.”
“I—” I began, but she cut me off.
“Yes, you came to me in the middle of the night, that part is true. But I knew both your parents, and they deserve justice for what was done to them. Justice only you can provide.”
“I don’t understand.” I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach.
“This is your chance to set to right what has been wrong for the last twenty-one years.”
“How can I do that?” I whispered.
“Get close to the prince, and the one who destroyed your family will find you.”
“I can’t. I’m not…. I don’t even know their names.”
“You just need to have bravado.”
“I’m not brave.”
Mother grasped my shoulders and looked into my eyes. “I know this seems confusing since your path has been foretold. All will work out in the end.”
“I don’t know. I just—”
“Eden, you’ve always struggled with confidence and doubt. So, I will spell it out for you.” I winced at how obvious my shortcomings were to my mother. She grabbed my cheeks in one hand and said very slowly for effect, “Get the shoes, get the guy, and get revenge.” Then she gave me a soft pat on my cheek.
“Shoes?” When did shoes come into this equation? I looked down at my brown traveling boots, then back up at Mother, who loved to be cryptic and had probably spent all night coming up with that mantra to help me, but she was gone. A trail of purple smoke was all that was left after she apparated—another sign of just how powerful of a sorceress she was. It was a taunt.
Turning my back, I headed out the front gate and crossed over the bridge, making sure to stop and toss a coin into the water to appease the beasts that slept beneath the bridge and guarded our tower from unwanted visitors. Even though our tower was in the center of the seven kingdoms, we weren’t in the center of any towns or cities. Everyone gave us our much-needed space, or they feared waking up with a tail.