A Cursed Gift

Chapter Four

I can't breathe.

My airways close, not allowing any of this stale indoor air in or out. I see darkness creeping at the edges of my vision, threatening to strangle me with its jaws of shadows.

I feel Aaron's hands on my waist, and faintly hear him asking, yelling if I am okay, but it feels as if it is all happening to a different person, in a different time, in a different world. As if it's all happening on one side of a glass wall, and I'm on the other side. On the outside looking in.

I can't feel anything anymore. Not my arms, or legs, or my face. Anything except my traitorous heart, ripping to irreparable shreds.

And then everything stops. Time, feeling, my fighting soul. I let the darkness take over.

I am numb.

—

I gasp awake, my head spinning and throbbing. I hear a muttered "Thank God" before everything hits me like a wall. The betrothal. My best friend is getting married to that witch.

My head is spinning, my guts turning inside out. I lean over the edge of the pallet I lie in and retch.

I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, smearing spit over it. A relieved sigh fills the room, and I look up.

Aaron runs a hand through his hair and down his face. I stare at him, waiting. Waiting for him to tell me that it was all a cruel joke. That he's not really engaged to Annette at seventeen years old. That he's chosen someone else, anyone else. I knows it's a stupid hope, but is all I have.

The apologetic look he gives me says it all. He starts forward, toward the pallet. Toward me.

"Cellie, listen, I—" he tries, but I'm not in the mood for an explanation.

"You could have said something, you know!" I shout. Aaron flinches. "But no, you had to wait for the freaking steward to announce it to the entire party! And you even had the gall to invite me as your 'date'. You let me think that nothing was wrong, and then you spring this on me! Could you be any more cruel?"

Aaron stares at me in stunned silence. For a fleeting moment, I wish I could take it back, but I steel myself and school my features into a hard expression. I am not going to let him shatter me again.

"I-I didn't want to have to be the one to tell you. You know I can't stand her, but my mother just told me two days ago and I knew I wouldn't be able to stand the look on your face. I just wanted one more night as your date. I'm sorry, Cellie," he tells me with a broken look on his face. I want to say that it's okay, that I forgive him, but I can't. Nothing is okay when he was getting married to her.

Instead, I avoid looking at him and stand up so I could storm out of the room before my legs give way under me and I collapse to the floor, head spinning.

"Celeste!"

"Don't touch me! I'm fine!" I yell at him, feeling my cheeks redden. This time I get up slower, not wanting to embarrass myself in front of him again. This time I make it to my feet and take slow, unsteady steps toward the door of the pavilion. I want to scream and yell my frustration, but that will alarm someone so much that they might think that we're being attacked and backfire completely.

When I manage to stumble out of the room, I find myself face-to-face with the twin princesses, Emmaline and Kiera.

"Celeste! You're awake! Oh my God, we were so worried about you!" Kiera gushes. I smile at the fraternal princesses. They are as much my sisters as Aaron is my brother. I love them both so dearly, that it if anything happened to them, I wouldn't be able to live with myself, regardless if it was my fault or not.