“Your majesty, please! You’re hurting me!” I tried to peel her grip off me, except she held on too tight. Panic settled in my gut. The mad queen was going to hurt me. She might not even realize she was doing it. The look on her face held no malice or kindness, but she continued to drag me with her diamond strength and ignored my pleas to stop.
“Please—” She walked into the river with me, water filling my nose and mouth as I struggled to stand above the current. I gurgled a scream as the queen pushed me farther into the river toward the falls. She was going to kill me. I wasn’t Fae and couldn’t handle the pressure of the falls on my body.
I didn’t want to hurt the queen but I couldn’t let her drown me. I fought back, pushing my hips up to get me closer to the surface and out of the water. My lungs burned. I managed to come up for a second only to be pushed down by a hand on my head and dragged farther into the river.
My fingernails dug into the queen’s forearms. My feet kicked and I tried twisting my body. She was strong. So strong. The beating drops of the falls in the water were close. I sobbed but did not see flashes of light to the afterlife or my sad life reeling in front of me. It was a simple acceptance that I was weaker, and there wasn’t anything I could do.
Her fingers that had dug into my skin so harshly vanished and I clawed my way through the water. I pressed my hands against the stone riverbed, pushing myself up. The first gulp of air hurt. There was too much water in my chest. I swam and fought the current of the river to the bank, coughing and, struggling to find my bearings, as I barely made it the river’s edge.
“I’m so sorry. Are you all right?” A warm hand brushed against my face, pushing my hair away as I tried to catch my breath, coughing up water with every exhale.
“What’s your name, little gem?” The male voice crooned in my ear, like I was a child in need of coddling. I had an invasion of emotions I didn’t know how to handle.
“Sapphira,” I managed to bark out toward the stranger.
“Such a pretty name, little gem.” The man helped me to my feet like I weighed nothing, his hands moving to my face.
He was a tall Fae with pointed ears, long black hair, and golden eyes, bright and beaming. He had sharp features and medium brown skin, a shade darker than mine, and wore a golden crown with a black obsidian stone resting in its middle on top his regal head.
“King Lachan.”
The king had saved me from death’s embrace.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“I can’t believe the queen tried to drown you and the king saved you. I mean talk about a wild tea party.” Dris played with my hair, trying to make it look halfway decent for tonight.
Once the king had hoisted me to my feet, he looked at the queen in a way a father would look at his troubled daughter. His pursed lips indicated disappointment, but she wouldn’t face any repercussions from her actions. I was a human, and she was the queen.
The whole thing made me feel so much, and yet I tried to close the memory off like it hadn’t happened two days ago. The king had patted me on the back like I was a small child and invited me to the welcome home ball that night in his honor. She stood behind him, soaking wet, her face impassive. I wanted to shout at her, to shake her, and ask her why. But I couldn’t and my mind had trouble accepting the fact there was nothing I could do to reach her.
I didn’t have anything to wear to a Fae ball, although Dris said she would find me something and help me do my hair after I was done with my servant’s duty.
A green dress rested on my bed waiting for me. It looked nice, and it fit well when I’d tried it on when Dris first came to my room. It wasn’t as extravagant as some of the dresses I’d seen before at the other ball, but it was nicer than anything I’d worn in my life.
“Well, no matter what the queen did, I’m glad you are here, and I’m super excited you’ll be at the ball tonight. Maybe I’ll go with you so you can have a buddy, though I normally don’t go to those types of parties.” She pulled on the tender hair at the nape of my neck, making me hiss though I didn’t tell her to stop. I trusted she would make me look beautiful, so I could bite back every sensitive pull of hair as she designed.
“I’d like to have a friend there, but I understand if you don’t want to.” I spoke through clenched teeth. Messing with curly hair was not relaxing, and it felt like she was trying to rip it out.
“I will. It won’t take me long to get ready. I’ve had to do it a time or two.”
Someone knocked on the door, and Dris jumped up to answer it before I could speak. “I’ll get it.” Dris patted my head, and I stayed as she opened the door and peered from side to side. No one was there, but a box sat on the ground.
“You’ve got a present!” she exclaimed, her pointed fingers grasping the edges to lift it with ease.
“Is there a note or anything?” My chin lifted, hoping I’d see more of the box and a piece of paper stuck to it somewhere, though after a minute of looking I didn’t see anything.
“Maybe it’s from your general.” Dris winked and I scoffed, partially regretting that I’d told her about our little moment. Since I had been emotional about the queen trying to kill me, I’d let the other frustrations in my life slip out.
Rune hadn’t been the one to train me lately, although I’d seen him talking to guards and the king.
Ever since the king arrived, people were caught in a whirlwind of chaos, working harder, cleaning with more precise movements, and making the palace more alive than it was with the queen. Everyone knew the queen was mad and thought they could slack off and she wouldn’t notice. With the king back, everyone was thrown into a tizzy. He could see if they weren’t working and decide their fates.
In the moments I’d been in his proximity, he seemed relaxed and easygoing. His golden eyes lingered on my face and clingy wet clothes for a moment longer than necessary. Although I’d read in human history about kings who had many wives and never stayed true to their queen, the thought was gross. Hopefully, if all went according to plan, I was going to avoid King Lachan’s lingering gaze as much as possible.
“Open it!” Dris’s excited demand brought me back to the current situation. The mystery box. My eager fingers touched the seam of the lid and pushed up. A collective gasp echoed around my tiny room.
“I don’t care who sent it, you are definitely wearing it.” Dris’s hand reached out like she wanted to touch the soft, white fabric but stopped, then as if being pulled, her fingers moved over the dress lightly as a feather. The dress had a black line tracing the sweetheart neckline, then fading into off the shoulder straps.
Dris helped me gently lift the dress out of the box and hold it up for a better look. I couldn’t fight back my smile. It would hug my every curve, then flare out slightly at the knees. A black sparkling tree design spread on the right side all the way up to the breast segment. Against where my ribs would be were two gems that had a sheer black train that would follow in the wake of my every movement.
It was a dress of dreams . . . my dreams.
“Is this real?”
“It looks like the forest after a winter’s storm. You need to put this beauty on, like right now.”