“We’ll still have to get new dresses and bedding, but at least everything else is clean.” Thanks to her amethyst core, she had purified my room.
“Thank you.” I felt like I was forever thanking her for taking care of me, but she waved me off and ripped the comforter off my bed. “Don’t you want to rest?”
“What I want is to be by your side and make sure you keep being the badass princess I know you are. No buts.” She shushed me before I could retort. I perched my behind onto the seat by the vanity.
“It’s my purpose, Sapphira, and I enjoy this. I want to be here.” She looked at me sweetly and I nodded. My own emotions were a wreck and it wasn’t fair to push them onto her. I needed to deal with myself.
“Now I’ll start the bath and rally a dress for tonight. If you can’t make people see your side of things, then we will distract them with that killer body of yours.”
Minutes later, I sank into my large marble bath, soaking the soreness out of my muscles from the weight of my burdens.
Chapter Four
Sapphira
I stared at the hairbrush on the vanity while Drys and Nyx played with my hair like I was a child’s doll. I didn’t remember using the brush. I didn’t remember a lot of my memories with Rune. Having amnesia sucked. I had a few little glimpses into my past via Celestine’s dreams, like the time Rune slipped on a mossy rock by the waterfall and I laughed before jumping into the crisp water with him, kissing his wet, grumpy lips. I saw memories of how we fought the bond between us while Tor attempted to woo me. I smiled with a memory of his werewolf form nuzzling my neck and holding me. We’d walk in the Hallowstag Woods together, living in nature until the full moon shifted. But that was it. I had memories of Tor, both human and some Fae. I’d always loved him, but not like I loved Rune when I was Princess Sapphira.
Love.
I knew Rune was my mate, and I felt some of the love I had for him in our past, but I wasn’t sure I was there in the present. I cared deeply for him and wanted to be with him, but it didn’t have the chance to grow into that love I’d dreamed of before I’d been thrust back in Fae form. I craved the love we’d shared twenty years ago. But fear continued to haunt me that we didn’t love each other like we did before because we were different now.
Where did that leave us?
“You need to fix that face, Princess.” Nyx placed a sapphire-jeweled comb in the braids she’d twisted alongside my head.
I looked like a Viking princess I had seen on an old movie case years ago as a human, and the black shadow around my eyes accentuated the look of warrior princess. Both of my friends thought I needed to look the part—savior of the land—so people wouldn’t challenge me tonight.
“It’s going to be OK. Everyone will understand that you and your mother did what you did to save us. You have magic, a powerful magic that can return us back to our natural state with nature and defeat Verin. If you hadn’t devised your plan, you’d be stuck like us. We’d still be under Verin’s thumb.” Dris stared into my soul with her all-seeing, owl-like eyes.
I was glad she didn’t care that I was the princess. To her I was no different than Sapphira the human.
Don’t get me wrong I could easily appreciate the perks of being a princess who had everything she could ever want hand delivered to her. But now I see why I used to seek out adventure in the Hallowstags. When Tor and I travelled across the continent together, searching for this place I dreamed of relaxing at the human safe haven for the remainder of my years. Then everything changed. I changed. I didn’t even know who I was anymore.
“At least you’ll be able to handle the wine better in your Fae body,” Dris snickered, and Nyx looked back and forth between us, clearly missing the tease. Dris explained how trashed I had gotten the last time I had attended a ball before being kidnapped by Verin’s men.
“Oh I would have loved to see that. You never drank a lot before. You liked to keep your head clear.” Nyx chuckled and lightly ran her fingers over my hair, flecks of purple stones shimmered over my hair like amethyst dust. I reached up to clasp her hand and squeeze it. She missed a lot lying in the tomb for twenty years, and while I know to her it felt like the blink of an eye, I knew she would have troubles adapting to all the changes.
“All right, let’s get you in that dress and get you down to greet your people.” Dris carried over a wispy dress that had lots of straps. Somehow, we managed to get the dress on me without breaking a sweat, and as I looked in the mirror, I grimaced. The Fae were sensual beings, and I’d seen way more provocative dresses in the last month but never on me.
A vibrant turquoise material covered my breasts, then branched out like vines connecting to the chiffon blue skirt that flared into a red coloring all the way to the floor. The dress reminded me of a sunset, which would normally be soothing but with all the skin showing except for the material covering my breasts, ass, and sex, the dress told the tale of a confident woman of power, a princess who would one day rule all of Crysia like her mother.
“Wow. You look hot!” Dris’s eyes somehow widened.
I felt strong and somewhat like my old self. Even now in my weighted mindset, I knew I could play the part I needed. Dris was already dressed in a flowing cream gown with shimmering sleeves that came to a point over the top of her hand. It had a see-through back, and her hair was wild as smoke. She’d be my escort while Nyx finished dressing herself, claiming she needed extra time to get ready for her first big reveal in twenty years. Although she liked serving as my handmaiden, she also loved the glam of our life. Nyx loved to dress up in fashions of her own designs. She didn’t do it for the attention of the males in our city, she did it for herself which made me love her even more.
My owl friend walked with me down the familiar halls to the ball, music echoing throughout the palace, and I remembered how much I had wished to dance at them while I sat in my servant’s quarters as a human.
Thoughts of Rune dressed up for the evening and holding me close while we danced crossed my mind. However, he still had one night left in his werewolf form. At least Tor would be there, a constant comfort beside me, even as a human. Conflicting emotions roiled in my gut when I thought of our time as a couple.
“Fuck, my life is a mess,” I admitted out loud, wanting nothing more than to go back to my room and work on sorting my shit out.
“Yeah, it is, but we’ll clean it up, one dirty section at a time.” Dris’s sympathetic smile didn’t ease my stress, but her words balmed the ache in my head a little bit.
Just as we were about to reach the room where I’d have to face my first challenge, a loud howl echoed outside the palace. The moon held my mate prisoner for one more night. Maybe, the beast craved to be close to me like I was for him.
Chapter Five
Sapphira
“I knew it was you the whole time.”
“We are so glad you’re back, now we can have someone on the throne that isn’t crazy.”
“You look a little rough, dear. I can’t believe you were in the human world for all these years. Very disappointing.”
I now remembered how much I disliked the Fae elites at these gatherings. They were snobby, and only like to show off while working for their best interests. Men flocked to me, hoping I’d make them my king, saying I was the most beautiful princess in the land, and I deserved a man who would keep me pretty while dealing with ruling the kingdom himself.