Blood & Cinders- Choose your Own Adventure Story

12. C

"Oh, I'm going to turn in early. I'm not feeling very well," Isabelle lied as she walked up to the group of girls, clutching her stomach for emphasis when in reality, she should have been clutching her heart where the real pain festered.

Truthfully, she just wanted to be alone. Socializing had become stressful and she was tired. She'd spent the night wishing it had all been a terrible nightmare and that, perhaps, she would soon wake up from this horrible dream.

Ah, if only wishes like that came true.

"Fine," Jacqueline pursed her lips in frustration, rolling her eyes as though Isabelle's words had just ruined the evening's plans. Isabelle was not at all sorry for it.

"What a bore." Jacqueline whirled on her heels, blonde hair whipping sharply across Isabelle's cheeks as the haughty girl walked off leading the others like a mother hen towards a nearby stall to survey the limited selection of clothes and trinkets. Isabelle could hear the girl's snarky comments squawking even from a distance. "Bet she's just embarrassed at having uncrossed her legs so early."

Indignation coursed through Isabelle at the implied idea that she had done anything of that sort with the king. And even if she'd had... the mere thought of his claws on her churned her stomach. Perhaps her feigned illness wouldn't be a lie after all.

The other girls let out giggles in response, as disgust rolled around with her dinner.

Good riddance. She was glad to be free from Jacqueline's piercing stare and her little cluster of followers.

Liberation lifted the weight of fear and loneliness from her chest and she reveled in her moment of false freedom. If only for tonight, she could pretend that her life was her own, as though her choices were her own, at least until the gray dawn rose and she was pulled back to the palace once again.

Isabelle took her time as she meandered through the web of people, waiting until she was sure that Jacqueline and her crew had gone away before continuing on her own way through the night market. It was the liveliest affair she had witnessed in quite some time.

Lamps hung from every stall corner, illuminating the stalls and all their goods, while the lampposts erected in the square shed a warm glow, seemingly to drive away the darkness and all that lurked within it. Isabelle spotted a few horned heads, and caught a glimpse of a tail or two, but it appeared that most of the crowd were human. The smell of fried bread and sweet cakes mingled in the night air, mixing in with the scent of damp earth.

Stalls were set up in a large circle surrounding the plaza and peddling their meager wares of rusted trinkets, jewelry, and moth-bitten clothes––probably scavenged from the abandoned homes in the lower city. Although, none could hold a candle to the jewels that adorned the creatures that called this place home.

As she browsed through the stalls, a glint of silver caught her eyes. It was a beautiful silver chain, delicately made, with a single rose dangling as a miniscule pendant.

Rosie.

Without thinking, she reached out to brush her fingers against the delicate rose, her heart constricted with the thought of her friend still trapped in the clutches of the beastly King. She only hoped his interest towards the small mouse had not yet waned.

"Would the pretty miss like a necklace?" An old woman sitting to the left of the stall asked, flashing a gap-toothed smile at her. "Two Francs a piece."

Two Francs? The carefully crafted necklace was worth a little more than just that. It wasn't a thing made of true craftsmanship to capture the interest of nobles, but Isabelle could tell that it must have been made earnestly out of love.