Chapter 4
My mother pulled me toward a small door behind the altar, leading to the passage the priests used during ceremonies. The space was empty, as were the castle corridors.
“Listen to me, Fiona,” she began, tugging me along, ignoring the fact that I was taller and broader than she was. “You have to leave. What happened today wasn’t a coincidence.”
That much I already knew. After all, how could Merith have breached the castle wards so easily? And besides, who the hell was she? Why was she so intent on seeking vengeance against my father?
I didn’t have time to ask because my mother continued:
“I can’t explain everything now, but know that enemies surround us.”
The air grew colder the deeper we went into the castle.
"Here in the castle?" I asked. She nodded with a resolute gaze. "Are you talking about treason?"
"That doesn’t matter now. They managed to strike our family where it hurts most, but that was only the beginning."
Fear and indignation waged war inside me.
“I can’t go, Mama. I can’t leave you to face them alone.”
My mother stopped and cupped my face with both hands. Her eyes, which had been burning with fury, were now filled with cold determination.
“You must.”
She resumed her pace, leading me away from the echoes of screams drifting from the main hall—a reminder that the world I knew was crumbling stone by stone. I fought the urge to pull back, to wrench free and run back to the hall. The thought of my family fighting alone made my stomach turn.
We slipped through another secret passage, but this time we weren’t alone. To my shock, Kristan was there, clutching a bag and a dagger.
“Kristan?”
My best friend’s green eyes filled with tears, and she threw herself at me, hugging me hard. With my new height, she could only wrap her arms around my waist. My own eyes stung at the feel of her love—the one person who had always stood by me, no matter what.
She clung to me like I was the only anchor left in her world, or maybe she was mine. The tears she tried to hide soaked through my ruined dress.
Instinctively, my hands rose and wrapped around her.
“Kristan…” My voice broke, and she only tightened her grip.
She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself, but her words came out shaky and thick with emotion.
"I'm so sorry, Fiona." She tilted her head up, her green eyes shining like fireflies in the gloom. "This isn’t fair."
Before I could respond, my mother closed the small door behind us with a soft thud, isolating us from the rest of the castle.
“Kristan, did you get what I asked for?”
She nodded quickly, swallowing back her sobs as I watched in confusion. When had my mother found the time to ask Kristan for anything?
"Yes, my Lady. I brought everything I could without drawing attention." She lifted the small enchanted bag. “Supplies and…” she hesitated. “A dagger.”
She handed them to me, but my eyes stayed locked on the dagger.
Forged from gnome steel, its white marble hilt veined in gold gleamed in the light.
At the pommel, my mother’s family crest—a delicate oleander flower set in a pink diamond—lent it a distinctly feminine touch.
It was the very dagger I had commissioned as a gift for the completion of my secret training when I turned fifty.
It seemed I would finally get the chance to use it.
My mother touched Kristan’s shoulder affectionately. "You did well, my dear. Very well." She shifted her gaze to me and sighed. "Fiona, from this moment on, you’ll carry on alone."
My vision blurred. “I can’t go, Mama. I can’t leave you alone now.”
My mother’s eyes filled with tears, too, and she pulled me into the kind of tight hug only a mother could give. I sobbed into her shoulder, bending like a bow to reach her. Her scent—jasmine and sandalwood—was comforting and so nostalgic it hurt.
She smelled like home.
She ran her hand over the back of my head, just as she had when I fell and scraped my knee, gently stroking my hair.
“My love…” she whispered, holding my face between her hands, forcing me to meet her eyes through the haze of tears. “If you stay, they’ll try to kill you. And if that happens, your father and I will tear this kingdom apart with everyone in it. Do you understand?”
“I know, Mama,” I whispered, feeling the weight of my new appearance. “But where am I supposed to go? I don’t even know what to look for.”
Her fingers traced my face, wiping away tears I no longer cared about. All I wanted was to cry and be held.
"You’re going to the only place where you’ll be safe from all of them," she said, her voice low but heavy with meaning. “To Oksha.”
My eyes widened in disbelief.
“Oksha? Mama, that’s madness! They’re our enemies—the most feared orc clan in all of Ceilte!”
"But now you look like one of them." She didn’t blink, and the steel in her gaze made it clear this was no suggestion, but an order. "You’ll be safe there."
I swallowed hard, trying to process everything. Going to Oksha was like signing my death warrant in another way. It would be easier to face the Fae of Ceilte than to expose myself to the wrath of an orc clan.
"But if they find out who I am, they’ll kill me."
"Yes, which is why you’ll pretend to be a lost orc. Make up a story and infiltrate the clan. Don’t draw attention to yourself."
“But what about breaking the curse? How am I supposed to find a solution if I’m hiding in their village?”
A faint smile touched her lips. “Don’t worry about that, sweetheart. Your father and I will handle it., even if I have to pull Merith’s hair out strand by strand until she gives us an answer.”
The threat in her voice sent a chill up my spine. Facing Laurelin Kerridan as an enemy would be a nightmare. Beneath all her charm and humor, my mother could be merciless when she chose to be, as was the Fae way.
She lifted her arm and removed a small round charm from the bracelet of trinkets she always wore. It was a green emerald that vibrated with wild magic.
“This is the Orb of Caith. It belonged to your grandmother, Roselin. She used it when she fled the Autumn Court. It’ll guide you—not to where you want to go, but to where you need to be. Trust it.”
I took the Orb. The stone was cold to the touch, and the energy emanating from it made the hair on the back of my neck stand. My mother hugged me again as I tried not to think that this might be the last time we ever embraced.
“Go, my flower, and come back to me. With or without green skin, you’ll always be my daughter.”
With tears streaming down my face, I nodded.
"I’ll be back, Mama. I promise."
She nodded and stepped back, her eyes fixed on the Orb of Caith in my hand.
"It’ll lead you down the right path. Remember that."
I nodded. My mind was numb. I could no longer feel fear, only cold resignation and a latent rage I could barely contain.
"Go now, before the guards notice your absence."
I gave Kristan one last heartfelt hug and, without another word, pushed onward, sprinting down the narrow corridor, farther and farther from the great hall. The Orb of Caith pulsed in my hand, guiding me to the right place—wherever that might be.
? ? ?
As soon as I slipped out of the castle through a side door, I went down the stone-carved steps and headed toward the old gardens; once imposing, now it was a maze of vines and parasitic plants devouring what little remained.
Cool air filled my lungs and steadied my pace. My feet, huge and bare, sank into the soft, damp ground from the summer rains. The earth gave way under my weight, and, to my irritation, mud oozed up between my toes, cold and slick.
With my High Fae body, that would never have happened.
I used to move like a breeze over a lake.
Now, trapped in this massive, clumsy body, I was far too heavy.
Every step was an uncoordinated stumble.
To make matters worse, the torn dress tangled between my legs, the sleeves squeezed my arms until they nearly cut off circulation, and the corset crushed my chest like a fist.
I had the urge to rip it all off and walk through the forest naked.
I tripped over a loose stone and stubbed my pinky toe so hard I nearly saw stars. A growl—deep, low, and feral—escaped my lips before I could stop myself.
I clapped a hand over my mouth, startled, and realized that my skin color and height weren’t the only things that had changed. Two sharp fangs had appeared from my upper lip. I touched one with my finger and recoiled as a sharp pain shot through the skin.
By the Goddess… I had fangs.
My eyes burned, and my throat tightened; my body seemed to rebel against the reality before me.
Rage coursed like fire through my veins, horror froze my heart, and despair weighted on my chest with suffocating force.
Merith hadn’t just ruined my life; she had torn it apart, stripped me of everything I knew and everything I was.
Now, staring at my huge hands, I saw only this deformed, grotesque creature, the living embodiment of our deepest fears and hatred.
A cursed orc.
"You’ll pay for this, Merith!" I huffed in disgust and let my frustration loose on the ridiculous dress. May my grandmother forgive me, if she could even recognize me now.
I tore open the sides, ripped off the sleeves that strangled my long arms, and finally shoved my fingers under the corset laces and yanked.
The seams cracked and burst, the stiff fabric splitting down the middle with a sharp snap.
Air rushed into my lungs all at once, like I’d been holding it since leaving the hall.
When I was done, the dress hung in tatters.
Finally, a taste of freedom. I paid no mind to my green skin, now laid bare. There was no time for self-pity.
I tucked the magical bag Kristan had given me between my breasts and secured the dagger at my waist. With one last look at the ivory castle that had been my home for over a century, I turned and walked to the woods.
The Orb of Caith pulsed stronger with every step to the southwest, guiding me along a path of ancient trees whose twisted branches seemed to reach out and embrace the forest’s darkness.
If I had to go to Oksha, the enemy orc clan, then so be it. I wouldn’t be Princess Fionnuala. I would be just another unknown orc.