Two girls. Two secrets.
Only one can survive.
Years before Nelle Wychthorn plans her escape, Tabitha Catt may unearth something in a Horned God's lair that is the key to freedom.
Desperate to save her beloved aunt from a dark curse, Tabitha is out t...
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The curtains in the bedroom were pushed to the side and I'd opened the window a crack to let the boisterous music of the Servant's Dance seep into the room. A joyful melody wove alongside a pounding drumbeat that came faster and faster, encouraging the dancer's footwork to move swifter with each rolling beat.
We couldn't see the dance from the position of our bedroom in the northern wing, but the autumn sky glowed with a halo of light-tinged blue from the wildfyre that had been lit in tall bamboo torches encircling the festivities. My aunt was in the bathroom getting ready, humming along with the music floating inside, and while I was alone in our bedroom, I knelt down, the coarse material of my skirt's hem brushing the carpet as I dug under our bunk and dragged out my battered trunk.
Quietly, I lifted the lid—there was a squeak of rusty hinges as it settled ajar—and started rummaging around inside. There was something I wanted to do while I still had a small amount of time to myself. This occasion warranted a look through the past I couldn't remember.
My rifling stilled when I came across the Jackie Collins novel I'd stuffed in here near the false bottom of the trunk. I swiped my fingertips over the innocent dust cover and the edge of its pages, tempted to find another dog-eared section of pure dirty-heat Beckah had left for me. But there was little time, and no doubt all it would do was light me on fire with an unfulfilled need I couldn't dampen, as the earlier passage had done a few hours back.
I wanted a distraction from my worries that frayed my mind and set my teeth on edge. I knew logically there was no point worrying. The best thing to do was pretend, illogically, that it wasn't going to happen. To push my fearful thoughts aside and forget about them altogether. Which was much easier said than done, because, in a few hours from now, I was going to sneak into Laurena's bedroom and steal the Crown of a Princess. I'd either get away with it, or I wouldn't.
Right now, I just want to live, really live, for a few hours, if it so happened that these were to be the last I'd ever have. And Tomas, I was sure, could do that for me.
Tomas had no idea the kind of girl I was. He thought, like everyone else did, that I was prim and proper. Well, yes, that was the impression I gave because I pretty much held to the same ideals my aunt did...to a point...
But tonight, Tomas was going to discover the other side of me.
The side that was going to kiss the hells out of him!
I pushed the book away; the oversized black tracksuit pants and hoodie too; as well as the football shoulder pads, and thigh and knee protectors. I dug deeper through the special things I kept in here, like the blanket in rainbow colors I'd crocheted with my aunt, and the silly bits and pieces I'd collected during my walks in the forest: feathers and oddly shaped twigs, dried husks of iridescent scaled-skin that the otherworldly Drossane creatures shedded like snakes.
My fingers curled around the small rectangular bundle I'd unearthed near the false bottom of my trunk.
There was always a despairing pang in my chest when I thought of momentous occasions like this one. I imagined my mother would fuss over me, help me get dressed to attend the dance, and we'd both share the excitement in anticipation of meeting the one.
