Where there should have been happiness, there was a ball that weighed down her stomach, eroding everything it touched. Hollowness in its destructive wake. Brielle deserved better than this pit swallowing her whole.
She could be happy for her friend. It was an easy task. For the rest of her days, Luci would dye her hair black and smile every time she watched Brielle whisked away with her prince. Because that meant that Brielle was healthy, and there could be nothing more beautiful than that.
She would be happy.
The thing about the dark, though, was that it saw and understood unspoken truths even when no one else did.
Chapter seventeen
A Quest
The Princess in the Tower knew only the walls of her prison, yet she never begrudged her tower. Still, the moment her feet touched the ground, she knew her life was just beginning. A world where anything was possible if she only had the courage to take the next step.
-Tales from Meridea, Volume I
Two days blew by like an eagle soaring through the sky, the wind beneath its outstretched wings carrying it ever closer to its destination. If magic were real, then Luci would have askedit to stop time. Tomorrow, Prince Ira would leave for a half-mad quest by himself. A terrible idea in every sense of the word.
Yet Max and the prince believed in the vision of Cinderella and the vision with such devotion that they refused to entertain logic. It was a curse of privilege as far as Luci was concerned. Their whole lives, everything worked out just as they intended without consequence. They just couldn’t see that it was spoon-fed to them by their lack of title and birth.
“At least bring a few guards with you.” Gladys urged.
Her light brown hair was braided on either side, much like a crown, while the rest cascaded down her back. Her eyes locked on her twin, who sat on the floor of the library, a shaggy-haired gray and black puppy between his legs, jumping paws out in an attempt to get the ball Prince Ira held.
Like nothing was the matter in the world, he tossed the ball across the room, and the puppy took off in a blur of speed, its feet skidding across the tiled floor as he fought to reduce his pace enough to avoid the bookshelf before him. With a thump, he landed against the shelf, but his efforts were rewarded when he trotted back to Prince Ira, red ball in tow.
“The vision didn’t show other people, and I wouldn’t want to impose on them. I’m perfectly capable of surviving a week on my own, Gladys,” he said.
The princess crossed her arms and shot a glare across the room to Lucien, who sat beside Brielle in two high-backed chairs. He held up his arms and shrugged his shoulders.
“What do you want me to do? I can’t go with him, I’m the spare.” Lucien said.
A small snort broke from Brielle, though she never raised her head from the crochet of flowers she’d been tending to for the last hour of this nonsense.
Lucien leaned over and fixed her with a smile that made Luci want to stomp right over and slap it off his face.
“Imagine if you were engaged to Ira,” he crooned.
Luci stood from where she was propped on Max’s desk at the center of the library, but Brielle lifted her eyes and gently shook her head. The infernal prince spent all morning flirting with Brielle, and though she didn’t encourage it, she didn’t put a stop to it either. With her quiet smiles, Luci was almost inclined to think she was enjoying herself. As if she'd forgotten how terrible the younger prince was and the awful things he said.
Luci remembered enough for both of them. Though the slap he’d dealt her years ago faded, she remembered the sting of it just as well. It didn’t matter that he apologized and pretended all was well. It was just another luxury of privilege.
Worse, Prince Ira didn’t mind in the least. He merely continued playing with Gladys’ puppy with only the occasional roll of his eyes at his brother’s attempts to pursue his fiancée. Only Gladys was appropriately annoyed, making Luci feel like she wasn’t going completely insane.
“Lucien, leave Brielle alone,” she snapped.
“It’s not my fault she thinks I’m funny,” Lucien said.
“She’s too polite to tell you that you are annoying.” Gladys frowned.
A crash sounded as the puppy rammed into the bookshelf, knocking off several books that landed on the floor with a thump while he scurried off with his prize back to Prince Ira.
“Goodness, Ira, for the love of stories, will you please stop throwing that ball!” Gladys said. “I think I preferred when you were allergic.”
The prince in question lifted his eyes to Luci, flashing a smile that should have been illegal.
“Thanks to Lucinda, I have a lot of catching up to do. I mean, look at Bertram. He’s adorable,” he squished the puppy’s face in answer.
Drooling from his outstretched tongue, Bertram wagged his tail happily.