So though I had no real set destination in mind, I headed off in the general vicinity, following the directions Millicent had innocently let slip earlier. The day was perfect, and everything seemed brighter, more alive as I passed them by. My senses were awakening more and more the more time I spent here and it was a completely different experience than the one I’d got living on earth.
For some reason it was beginning to feel like home, like I belonged here, no doubt this is partially because of the baby. Speaking of which, it’s a good thing the ceremony will be held soon because I don’t think my robes and gowns will be able to hide my growing baby bump for much longer. He seems to be really growing in there.
I smelt the fruit trees before I saw them and of course my fairy nose started to sniff the air. Then I heard the slight ding of music which seemed to get louder the closer I got to the place where I was sure the scent of fresh fruit was coming from.
No sooner had I turned the corner into yet another garden, this one more wooded than the others when I saw the little bursts of light that seemed to float through the air. I became distracted, mesmerized even as I followed the lights deeper into the trees.
I wasn’t as drawn in as I would’ve been had I been in true fairy form, but because my nymph was in attendance today I felt the sudden unease in the air. There was an unnatural stillness to the atmosphere that didn’t belong, as if I were standing in a different time and place. Too late I realized I was caught up in some kind of mirage and started to retrace my steps before I turned and saw her standing there blocking my way out.
SABRINA
I no longer care about the outcome. I’m no longer worried what might happen to me if I were to be found out. There was only one thing on my mind and that was getting rid of her and to seek revenge.
The hag, who until now I’d believed had come to me out of our shared dislike and disdain for the union between Lucien and the fairy had waited until now to tell me the whole truth.
A truth that until now had been hidden from me; the truth about my parents’ deaths, about why they had to die. The hate I’d felt before paled in comparison to the rage filled hate that now burned in my bosom.
I’d spent the whole of the next day after that ill fated dinner reliving the words she’d whispered in my ear as the mix of emotions I already felt grew into something darker, much-much darker. Now for the first time in my life my mind was filled with something more than winning Lucien’s heart.
Now I have even more reason to hate her and her kind and what this union represents. The thing that had caused my parents’ demise must not be allowed to succeed, not as long as there’s breath in my body. I cannot live with such failure, to lose to her even in this.
It didn’t matter that what they’d tried to do back then had been wrong, that they’d been vilified by the elders for taking part in the rebellion that had brought about disaster to all involved. What mattered was her ancestors’ part in it. I will not lose to her again, not this time.
I was still finding it hard to accept but there was no way for me to verify the truth of what had been said. If I went to my foster parents they will of course realize that I’d invited the hag here, an infraction punishable by death.
It’s what in essence had happened to my parents, according to her. Back then there was an uproar, an outcry that the son of the sky monarch one of the high princes would be marrying a fairy princess. She didn’t go into all the reasons why, but it seems there were not too many who agreed with the union at the time and had risen up.
My parents for whatever reason had been numbered among the naysayers and had foolishly joined the coup that had ended with their executions along with many others. It was my first time hearing of it. No one had ever yet tried to explain this to me.
I’d always been under the assumption that they’d rebelled over something more far reaching and had never brought it up in the past because I never wanted the reminder that I was not part of the family that had taken me in.
I’d always felt that the more I distanced myself from my true heritage, the closer I would become to my foster family, but now I know that it was just wishful thinking on my part, that it was never going to be. Now all I feel is hate, hate for her and for the ones who’d chosen to give him to her. It was like a slap in the face, as if my parents’ demise meant nothing.
I knew there was more the hag wasn’t telling me, it was only now that I was facing the fact that Lucien might never be mine that I saw things more clearly. But the time for questions was long behind me, I’d come this far and there was no turning back now.
I’m sure she’d only told me about the death of my parents and what lead up to it as a last ditch effort to get me to carry out her bidding, but I didn’t care about that either. It was just the push I needed to carry out my plans after being so thoroughly gutted at that dinner table a few nights ago.
Since then I’ve felt like a completely different person, as if I were looking in on myself through different eyes. I saw now how stupid I’ve been all these years. There was never a chance that Lucien and I would ever be together. Not only because I was way beneath him in status, but because of what my parents had done, what they had been a part of.
I know now too in the back of my mind, that the hag played a big part in that as well, though she didn’t share those details of course, but I wasn’t as interested in gaining retribution from her as I was the other.
And so I set my plan in motion, carefully and meticulously. I’d waited until Lucien had finally left his palace, after days of not showing his face, to spring my trap. Where before, just a few short days ago in fact, I would’ve lamented the fact that he was ignoring proper protocol to spend his every living moment with her, I was no longer so focused on that as I could see an end in sight.
If I couldn’t have the man of my heart I will live knowing that the woman he’d given his heart to was no more. She cannot be allowed to live, to be happy, while I suffer a life of loneliness and misery. Cursed to live without the man I’d vowed to make mine. That fate is indeed worse than death.
I felt no pity, nothing, as I walked towards her now in the place where I’d lured her. I was relying on the fact that she was not as yet familiar with the kingdom and so wouldn’t know where she was going.
I’d cloaked the location under a spell, something that won’t last long once it was discovered, but long enough for me to get the job done. As I moved forward she took a step back a look of confusion on her face.
How embarrassing that the future empress of the immortal world had been so easily lured by a false display. That she’d followed something as infantile as the scent of fruit trees and the dancing lights I’d made appear just for the occasion.
She wasn’t looking so smug now here alone without Lucien to protect her. “Hello Natalia.” I said her name with a sneer, as I got closer. She looked and acted more like she had that first day we met and nothing at all like the self-confident beauty, who, had sat at Lucien’s side.
It was the hag who’d explained that to me as well after I calmed down enough to listen. Among other things, not only is she an inferior fairy, she’s also mixed with much lesser blood. No wonder Lucien had been taken in by her wiles, not many can resist the lure of a nymph.