7. Chapter 7
7
Zara
I cy fear prickled my skin, though my blood was still pumping quickly from the dance.
The lone sound of a chair scooting backward across the wooden floor rose over the polite applause. Casimiro stood, so close that I edged away from him. He lifted his hands and began to clap, his applause continuing long after everyone else’s had stopped.
Every eye in the room stared at him. His sweeping dark hair was slicked back, revealing his pointed ears for all to see. On his head was a crown that appeared to be made of onyx.
When his applause ended, heavy silence filled the room. No one moved.
Except Casimiro, who bent at the waist, his eyes still on me, and said, “A most moving performance. Do me the honor of dancing with me tonight.” He straightened.
The wedding ceremony was to begin directly after my performance. We didn't have time to dance beforehand. My heart fluttered nervously as I glanced to Papá to give a reply, but when I spotted my father, his face was frozen in open-mouthed shock, a visible sheen of sweat twinkling on his brow as he stared at the fae prince. My knees almost buckled beneath me.
I cleared my throat. "There is no time, I'm afraid," I replied, hoping my voice sounded calm and confident despite my rushing pulse.
The fae prince sneered. “There is time if I say there is. We shall dance," he announced, lifting a hand to the musicians. "Though I believe your first dance is already taken by that gentleman over there.”
Casimiro turned toward Lord Montrose, whose pale features stood out in the room full of dark-haired Avencians.
“Indeed,” Montrose said, rising from his seat. He bobbed a polite bow to Casimiro, who did not return the gesture. A few people gasped at the impropriety. Others whispered the word fae loud enough that the prince’s lips curled into a smile.
Lord Montrose walked toward me with a stiff frown, his eyes cutting toward Casimiro twice, but still no one else in the room budged from their seats. My cheeks heated as I took Montrose’s hand and stepped back onto the dance floor, away from the fae.
This wasn't how the evening was supposed to go. We were supposed to join hands and exchange vows after my dance. But Lord Montrose didn't know why the timing mattered. Avencian parties never started until all the hues of sunset were gone, which in the summer was not until after ten o'clock. We had less than one hour to be wed before my time was up.
Casimiro sat down, but the tension in the room only amplified, as everyone launched into furious whispers, forgetting, perhaps, that the stories all claimed fae had excellent hearing. My pulse remained high while the music started again. As Montrose swept me into the first steps of the dance, I caught sight of the fae prince sipping my father’s prized wine, a bored expression on his face.
Lord Montrose asked me something, but my brain hadn’t stopped thinking about Casimiro’s request for my next dance. I responded with a half-dazed hmm .
“I look forward to getting to know you better, tonight,” he said in his heavy accent, offering me the slightest ghost of a smile. This was the man I was to marry, and I should look at him as my savior, my ticket away from the Shadow Court. Instead, my eyes raked the room for Casimiro. Was he about to snatch me right this minute? Did I even have time to hug my father one last time?
My shoulders tensed a little when I realized Papá wasn’t sitting where I’d last seen him. The fae had indicated that my father would die if the bargain was broken…I nearly lost the contents of my stomach on Lord Montrose’s shined shoes.
No, Papá was fine. Likely speaking to someone on the terrace, that was all.
“Thank you,” I said to Montrose, unsure if this was the right thing to say in the moment. My mind was spinning faster than my shoes. The wedding was about to take place, as planned. We still had time.
My future husband spun me around and gripped me with a featherlight touch. His light skin and freckles certainly stood out against my darker tone, but he was pleasant to look at and not yet thirty-five. I should be pleased with my father’s choice. Love was meant to surmount all obstacles, after all. Perhaps, in time, I’d find love with Montrose.
The dance ended, and I stared blankly at the table of mantecados , hoping to have time and appetite enough to enjoy them later. It was time for the wedding ceremony. Montrose bowed and I curtsied, my heart in a frantic tangle of emotions. For a brief moment, my eyes glazed over and I pictured Talia the last time she’d been in this ballroom. How I longed to see her again.
But when I blinked, I saw another face before me.
Casimiro.
He snapped his fingers at the musicians, and their strings slid seamlessly into a fast tune. The prince didn’t wait for me to take his hand. Instead, he swept me into a dance as the music began.
His hand was tighter on my waist than Lord Montrose’s had been, forcing me closer and moving me faster. Instantly, my body responded, heating as I realized I danced with someone who matched my skill and passion. My blood flushed with anger and fear and the twisted desire to outdance this fae, to prove that I was not some toy for him to toss around.
I pushed against his hands, testing the strength of his lead in the dance. He matched my aggression and soon my arms burned as they pressed back into his hold. His lips held the faintest curl at the edges as he charged across the dance floor with the precision of a marching soldier. Confined in his grip for the duration of the dance, I allowed myself to really look at him. His features were as precisely shaped as the stone of his crown, chiseled and smooth as if age did not touch him. He stared at me with deep-set eyes the color of fresh coffee. My stomach flipped over inside me. If it weren’t for the fact that he’d only come to steal me away to the Shadow Court, I might have wanted to dance with him again. The dance raced toward the first dip, and my body moved on its own, lost to the rhythm.
He held one strong arm under my back and leaned forward, pressing me down toward the floor with such grace and gentleness I let out a small gasp. As he bent forward, his entire face fell into shadow, lit from above. This close, the spark in his eyes was undeniable, though I couldn’t tell if it was simply because he’d beaten Montrose by proving his superior skill or if he truly enjoyed dancing with me. As he pulled me back up, a shiver interrupted my next move, and his grip tightened, as if to remind me who was really in charge here. Angry at my slip, I stormed toward him, commanding the dance as my own once again.
“You think getting married will break the bargain?” he asked, his voice low and threatening.
At that moment, he released me into a spin. When I slammed into his grip once more, my heart drummed against my ribs. “Yes,” I spat back. “The stories all say love breaks curses.”
Without missing a step, he tilted his head back and laughed. Doubt clamped around my lungs, pushing out all my air.
“Getting married will not save you from your fate. It will only leave that man a widower. For I will take you, married or not. Better to let him avoid that, don’t you think?”
The word widower sat heavy on my chest, making it difficult to breathe. My feet missed a step of the dance, and Casimiro’s chest bumped against mine.
“Will your father kill me?” I managed to ask.
Casimiro’s eyes darkened. “No. That is not his job.”
As my fear rose, the prince’s hold on me tightened, not allowing me to miss another step. And it seemed that no one in the room—my betrothed included—felt bold enough to cut in on my dance with the fae prince. “But you said—then whose job is it?” I blurted out.
“Mine.”
My gasp was covered by the final crescendo of the dance. Shock caused me to go limp, and I felt my body falling to the floor.
No, I was being lowered, carefully, in a set of strong arms, into a deep final pose.
Casimiro stared down at me with blazing eyes, his crown somehow not falling off his perfect brow. When he lifted me, he maintained eye contact, drilling in the last word he’d spoken.
It was his job to kill me.
While our faces were still close, he whispered, “If you do not want to die, then choose wisely.”
“Choose? What do you mean?”
But Casimiro’s hands let go, and he stepped back.
My gaze shifted to Lord Montrose. He seethed with envy or anger or both, his jaw flexing and his lips pinched.
“It is time,” the prince muttered.
“Wait!” I stepped toward the fae prince, and the entire room sucked in a scandalized gasp. I ignored them. “It's not eleven o'clock yet!"
"We have to be in the Shadow Court by the hour of your birth, or your father dies."
His words hit me like a volley of arrows. This was it. We really were out of time.
"I will say goodbye to my father.”
Without waiting for permission, I stormed away from him. Sweat poured freely down my chest as I marched through the crowd toward the head table, decorated with a heap of white and purple flowers. Papá was standing, gripping the back of his chair, his eyes on me. Every eye in the room was on me.
As I edged around an older couple, the pair’s clasped hands briefly stole my attention. I blinked down at them, overcome with a pang of jealousy. They were entering the last season of their lives and were well wrinkled with age, but still, they clung to each other.
I’d never have that chance.
I readied myself for my stepmother’s attack regarding my dancing with the fae, but my shoulders eased as Papá swept me into a tight embrace.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said against my hair.
A half-laugh, half-cry sounded in my throat. “I’m terrified.”
He groaned. “I know, mi cari?a .”
After a moment, I stepped back, swallowed the emotions clogging my throat, and finally mustered the courage to ask the one question I’d always longed to ask him. “Why?”
His eyes slowly closed and opened. “Your mother and I desperately wanted a child.”
I shook my head, willing the tears budding in my eyes not to fall. “No. You’ve told me that before. Why did you do it?”
My father’s shoulders sank, and he glanced at Nina before turning his attention back to me once more. “I loved your mother, and I would have given her the moon if she’d asked. But she didn’t ask for the moon. She asked for a child.”
I swiped at one pesky tear that got loose.
“And when the doctors told us it was impossible, I thought I was going to lose her to the grief. I’d heard the stories of a wish granter who walked the woods at night, so I sought him and I simply…made the deal. It sounded so simple at the time.” Tears poured freely down my father’s cheeks now, tracing the lines of the intimidating scowl that had given him a reputation as a heartless man. People were staring. “Oh, Zara, I am so sorry,” he mumbled, taking my hand with both of his.
A deep voice cleared his throat behind me. I stiffened.
“We must go,” the fae prince said in his rough voice.
Had the room grown darker when he approached?
My father did not spare a glance for Casimiro—his eyes never left my face. Nina glared at me, as if totally oblivious to the prince. She wasn’t one to be impolite to well-dressed men, so I wondered if the fae was employing some trickery that made him invisible. I grabbed a full goblet of wine from the table and took a large gulp.
A dark figure now stood before me, composed entirely of thick, writhing shadows, as if made of smoke. He still wore his fancy suit, still had all the same chiseled features, but everything, his face and clothes alike, were monochrome black and my eyes had trouble fixing on him.
“What are you?” I murmured.
He smirked. “The prince of shadows.”
That didn’t explain his current form. I tried to move away, but I bumped into the table, rattling the glasses and cutlery. Nina gasped.
Casimiro leaned forward, grasping my wrist with a strong hand. “You belong to the shadows now, se?orita Valencia. You can come willingly, or I can force you.”
I jerked my arm free, trying to calm the terror rising in my blood. “What will you do with me?” Stories said the fae stole mortals as brides or servants. One tale even claimed the fae turned humans into all manner of unusual creatures. But this prince had said he was going to kill me—and yet, somehow, I had a choice in the matter.
He lifted his elbow as if he might escort me. I scoffed at him.
“You will do what all mortals do in the Shadow Court,” he said. “You will either serve us or entertain us.”
My face twisted in disgust. “I won’t serve you.”
“Then you will entertain? How fitting.” His lips twitched.
“I will do no such thing.”
An annoyed sigh escaped his mouth. “You will serve forever, or you will entertain us for one year. My father’s bargains offer all mortals this choice.”
My spine straightened. “One year?” I blinked at his strange, shadowy form. “That’s it?”
“Oh, I assure you, it is the worse of the two options. Remember what I said. If you do not want to die, choose wisely.”
I didn’t care what he thought. “If the options are forever or one year, the choice is easy. I’ll entertain for one year.”
“That is your choice then? For it is, as always, the mortal’s choice. I cannot force your decision.”
“Who would choose forever?”
His shadowy face inched forward. “Those who want to live. I hear you mortals are afraid of death.”
I tried not to flinch. My father was still standing behind his chair, only a step away, but he was entirely still, his head hung low. Nina was scanning the room, as if searching for someone.
A shiver of unease raked down my spine. No one in the room seemed concerned with the figure comprised of twisting shadows. “Trying to scare me into a life of servitude?” I snarled at him. “Well, it won’t work. I choose one year of entertainment.” This was so much better than being taken away for the rest of my life—my father must not have known about this aspect of the bargain. I was a good dancer, and Papá had ensured I was good with a blade. I could survive a year of entertaining the fae. A year. A single year. Relief filled my lungs, though the prince’s smoke-like eyes unsettled me.
A slow nod was his only response. He again lifted his elbow toward me. For a moment, I hesitated, then I took it, trying to reassure myself that all I had to do was endure one year in his court.
His dark fingers clamped my arm to his, and he murmured in my ear, “You have made a bold choice, mortal, and my father has entrusted me with the mortal trials. If you make it past the first trial I prepare for you, I will personally invite you to dine at my table.”
The room melted away before I could so much as scream.
My hand on the fae prince’s arm tightened as the walls and the crowds dissolved, leaving us standing in a moonlit forest next to the second fae I’d seen last night.
As soon as my feet felt the solid earth and the cool night air, I leaped away from the prince, who was almost entirely invisible in the dark. The other man, Felipe, flashed me a bright smile that did nothing to ease the pounding of my heart.
“All set?” Felipe asked, tucking his hands behind his back.
My entire body began to shake, and I looked around for something to steady me, but I only saw the two fae, and I wouldn’t cling to them for support. This was what my father had chosen for me.
For love.
His words in the ballroom had carved a hollow in my chest and filled it with sorrow. He rarely spoke of my mother, and I longed to hear of his love for her. It was that kind of love I’d always hoped for. But their love had driven them to make desperate choices, and in the end, it hadn’t lasted. Death had parted them too soon.
My skin prickled, and my heart thumped loudly. These fae really were stealing me away. I could delay no longer. All my efforts to break the bargain had failed.
Deranged visions of Jorge plagued my mind as I imagined him sweeping in with a sword to battle these monsters. But he wasn’t the man I’d thought he was. No one was coming to save me. All I had was the tiny knife strapped to my thigh, high enough that it didn’t show during the spins in my dance.
“I’ll need your blade,” Felipe said.
My shoulders sank, and I crossed my arms.
“She’s a feisty one. She won’t want to give it up,” spat the prince.
His illusory form moved beside me, and I felt the hem of my dress being pushed aside.
I yelped and kicked, and the toe of my shoe connected with his temple. The shadow groaned.
“Don’t you dare touch me,” I yelled, bending to gather my ruffled hem and yank out my knife.
Felipe cackled. “Don’t tell me. She chose to entertain?” He sighed. “Cas, you’re supposed to explain it to them.”
Casimiro stood and swept dark, smoke-like strands of hair from his face. “I did.” His dark eyes glowed a faint blue-white, hot as a smith’s fire. I blinked at the alarming sight.
The other man shook his head and tsked. “I’m sorry if our prince forced you into a choice you’ll regret. He was told to explain things better, but he’s not one to listen to anyone.” The broad-shouldered immortal stepped up in front of me. “I’m Felipe.”
He reached out a hand and traced the edge of my face with a cool knuckle.
I slapped his hand away.
Felipe snorted and walked past me. “Shame. She would have made a fun servant.”
At those words, the prince’s glowing eyes flared brighter, illuminating a hard scowl on his face as he tracked his friend’s movements. Then the light in his eyes dimmed.
“Come on,” the prince said. “It’s almost midnight, and if your birthday expires before you reach my court, you will die. I can chain you if I must, but the ones who choose entertainment are always so proud of coming willingly .”
I tried to swallow, but my throat had gone dry. I stepped forward.
Casimiro chuckled and nodded his approval. “See, she’s compliant.”
I wanted to hit him, but it wouldn’t do any good, considering an arrow and a dagger hadn’t even fazed him.
“She’s also proud,” Felipe added. “Which will make the games shorter for her.” He spoke over me, like I was a child. “The proud ones never make it.” Now he focused on me as a smile played on his lips. “Remember this: it’s the ones who break quickly, accepting our help, who end up surviving.” He pinned me with a sharp gaze. “Because mortals are made to break, and the sooner you learn that, the better it will be for you.”
Before I had time to reply to his awful words, a strange hissing sound filled the night as a strange black line sawed its way through the very air, as if the world was tearing at the seams. A second later, an open doorway stood in the forest beside us, darker than the night, as if no light at all could penetrate it.
I choked on my next breath as Casimiro strolled through the archway and vanished into the dark. My hands shook at my sides, and my lungs quaked. One year. That was all. I could survive for one year. I would . And then I would return to my father. He’d lost his first love, and I couldn’t let him lose me forever too.
As if reading my thoughts, Felipe announced, “Your turn.”
My muscles clenched as I stepped toward the doorway that would take me from this world. Then, with a deep breath, I walked into the darkness.