Chapter 28
DAHLIA
The guard goes still. His hands drop from my waist, and a vacant look washes over his eyes.
“You want to go for a walk,” Blossom says again. “A nice walk outside would be lovely. Don’t you think?”
“Yes,” he slurs. “A walk would be lovely.” With that, his gaze drops to the floor as his legs carry him out of the room.
The second the door closes, I’m shocked by my own scream.
“It’s alright.” Blossom throws her arms around me. “I’ve got you. You’re safe.” I inhale the comforting scent of rose shampoo and perfume. It’s only when she steps back and I take in her curly black hair and pink gown that it hits me.
“What are you doing here?” I sob. “How are you here? How did you make him leave? This can’t be real!”
“It is.” She squeezes my hands. “Stars, I’m so happy we found you.” She hugs me again. When I feel her tears on my shoulder, I can’t help but hug her back.
“I’m so glad you’re safe,” she squeaks. “That foul lord kept telling us that he’d let us see you, but then he always made excuses. We were so scared something had happened. We—”
“We? Who else is here?” I pull back to search her gaze, but when I catch sight of movement over her shoulder I scream again.
“Eden!” I launch myself at her. The two of us tumble to the carpeted floor, a mess of white and yellow gowns. I can barely see through my tears. “I can’t believe you’re here!”
“You too! Stars, we were so worried, Dahlia. Don’t ever run away from us again!”
“Run away from you?” I pull out of her hug.
Blossom places a hand on my shoulder. “I think there’s a lot we need to talk about.”
“Yes, I think there is,” I say.
Helping Eden up, I take both the girls over to the huge bed, and we all sit down. Hugging my knees to my chest, I lean against the headboard. “What did Father tell you, then?”
Eden fidgets with the buttercup embroidery on her gown. “Not a lot,” she sighs. “He said that you fell in love with the man who…”
“The man who forced himself upon you,” Blossom finishes for her.
I roll my eyes. “He didn’t force himself upon me. But yes, anyway, I suppose he said I ran off with him?”
They both nod.
“But we knew that was a lie!” Eden throws her hands down. “You’d never leave us without saying goodbye, and Father was being so strange. He wouldn’t let us talk about you and he wouldn’t even give us an address so we could write to you.”
“He wouldn’t give you an address because I’d tell you it was all nonsense.” With a huff, I explain what really happened. Everything from the party, to Father having me thrown into an old carriage, to being captured by the stranger at the party who turned out to be a demon lord.
“Demon lord?” Eden pales. “Demons are real?”
“Very real.” I nod. “But they’re not as bad as our books make them out to be. Tauren is… well… Tauren can be sweet.”
Blossom scoffs. “So you did fall in love with him.”
“Love is a strong word,” I snort. “We’re just…” I pause. This isn’t going to go down well.
“What?” Blossom urges. “You’re lovers?”
“Hah! He wishes. We’re married.”
“Married?” Eden looks close to fainting. “Y-you married a demon?”
“Yes. Happened about a week ago.” I shrug. “My husband and I weren’t really on the best terms then so I couldn’t grab you a wedding invite. Sorry,” I giggle.
Blossom’s eyes narrow. “If it happened a week ago, why are you still wearing a wedding gown?”
I glance down at my dirty dress, chuckling.
“This isn’t my wedding gown. My real gown still smells like a river,” I laugh, but the girls aren’t laughing with me.
Sucking in a breath, I gather myself enough to say, “I wore this to make it look like I ran away from Tauren. But I didn’t, of course.
He even helped me get dressed up this morning.
” It took us a while because my gown kept coming off, but I decide not to share that detail.
“Why, though?” Blossom frowns. “None of this makes sense. If you married a demon, why are you here now?”
“I could ask you both the same thing! How did you decide I was here and get away from Father?”
Eden glances nervously at Blossom.
“We… we ran away.” Blossom brings her knees to her chest. “Once I figured out Father was lying, I spoke with all the girls and told them I’d come and find you to make sure you were safe. Eden wouldn’t let me go alone.”
My heart swells. “You came after me?”
“Of course we did,” Eden cries. “You’re our sister. We’d never let you be stolen from us.”
I don’t know what to say, so my tears reply for me.
“I snuck into Father’s office and found letters from Lord Elheart.” Blossom shudders. “The way they spoke about you… It was like you were cattle. I knew right then that you couldn’t have consented to being sent away. So I found out where Lord Elheart lives and Eden came with me.”
“How did you get out of the palace?” I press.
“Well…” She fidgets. “My um… my gift came in handy.”
“Gift?” I scoff.
Eden takes my hand. “We’ve only spoken with the older girls about it so far, but we think we’ve all got one.”
“Got one of what?”
She lowers her voice. “A magic gift.”
I spit out a laugh. “You’ve been reading too many fairy tales.”
“She’s not,” Blossom says seriously. “Don’t you remember that night in our dance circle? With that moon?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie. But with both girls narrowing their eyes at me, I can’t help but remember. The tall hedgerow. The tapping of our pointe shoes against our stone. The…
…night air is cool as I lift my thigh into another arabesque. My sisters are practising with me, fluttering around our dance circle. The older girls work on variations while the younger girls twirl in their pastel dance gowns.
Lowering my leg, I ready myself for fouettés. Thirty-two of them. It’s getting late, and the guards will want us inside soon, but I still have time to go over one of Odile’s routines from Swan Lake.
Lifting my arms, I take a deep breath, then spin.
It’s like the world falls away. I’m no longer in our dance circle. I imagine myself in a royal ballroom, dressed in black with swan feathers in my hair. Everything is right. I’m spinning, smiling, turning, breathing, living—
“Dahlia, your fouettés are much too fast again.”
Somehow, I hold back a groan. “The musicians have left us for the night and now there is no music so perhaps, dear Blossom, my fouettés are in fact too slow?” I grin at my sister before abandoning all my ballet knowledge and spinning like a whirlwind.
Eden and Fern burst into giggles while the younger girls attempt to copy my new move. Unsuccessfully, of course.
I should probably be nicer to Blossom. Earlier today, I caught her with the young man who makes our ballet shoes. He had his lips pressed against hers while the pointe shoes he’d made for us were lying forgotten around their feet.
She’s lucky I caught her. Father’s guards were just around the corner. But I didn’t tell her that. I was too busy laughing at the goat-like sounds her apparently-now-boyfriend was making when he had his tongue down her throat.
Gross.
“That’s enough now.” Amaryllis steps between us. One look from her is enough to take the fight out of any of us, even me.
Most of the fight…
I’m about to ask Blossom if her boyfriend has any older brothers with better kissing technique when she jabs her finger towards the sky. “Look! The moon… it’s huge!”
I glance up to see the moon shining so bright, it lights up the entire garden.
I gasp. But it’s only when the moon doubles in size and a loud screech fills the dance circle that I realise—
“That’s not the moon,” someone shouts before we’re all thrown to the floor.
Dahlia…
It’s like I’m underwater. My eyes are screwed shut. I can’t see anything, but I can hear something. A soft growl, then a purr. Like animal chatter?
Princess Dahlia… A voice sings in my mind.
Panicking, I grab the nearest hand, trying desperately to steady my breathing.
For Princess Dahlia, the gift of understanding.
“What does that mean?” my voice swims around me. “What’s happening? Ami! Eden!”
My eyes pop open and I’m back in the dance circle, gripping Blossom’s hand as hard as she’s gripping mine…
“...Dahlia? Are you alright?” Eden rubs my arm, pulling me from the memory. “Dahlia?”
“I’m fine.” I shake my head. “It’s just cold in here.” It’s not, but I’m covered in goosebumps anyway.
“Want me to light the fireplace?” Blossom asks gently.
“No. Let’s just talk about something else.”
“Like what? Your demon husband?” Eden arches a brow.
“He’s not as bad as you think. You’ll like him. Both of you will.”
“I highly doubt that, considering he kidnapped my little sister,” Blossom huffs.
“Aw, so you do have a heart.” I clutch my chest mockingly while she rolls her eyes. But then I pause. Speaking of little sister… “Have you seen a demon girl here? Blonde hair with black horns. She doesn’t speak.”
“She’s a demon?” Eden gasps. I quickly fill them in on Maeve, how Elheart kidnapped her and then built the salt barrier.
“So that’s why I’m here,” I explain. “She was my handmaid at the inn, so I know there’s a way to get her out, but Tauren’s soldiers can’t find it. If I can find her in here, then she can show me the way out and I can take her home to Tauren, to her family.”
Blossom chews her lip, nodding. “She’s a sweet girl. We’ll help you get her out, then we’ll go home together.”
“Blossom…” A swallow lodges in my throat. “You know I can’t go home. Father will just—”
“Father will have to answer to all twelve of us.” She lifts her chin.
“I won’t tolerate what he’s doing anymore, Dahlia.
Not after what he did to Ami and certainly not after this.
There are eleven of us in the palace and Ami in Night Alley with her assassin.
Together, we will stand up to him, and you will have to be allowed home. ”
My eyes water. I don’t deserve sisters like this. I really don’t.
Still, there’s something else tugging at my heart. Something I can’t ignore. “I’m married now,” I start. “That means I should probably stay with my husband.”
“Dahlia, no,” Eden says. “You don’t have to stay with anyone.”
“Eden is right. Any vows you might’ve taken in his court mean nothing to us,” Blossom argues. “For goodness’ sake we’ll make Father build a salt barrier if that’s what it takes to keep him away.”
“Absolutely not—” Footsteps cut me off. Loud and urgent, right outside the door.
“You have to hide!” I hiss to my sisters. Gift or not, the guards weren’t supposed to leave us in here together, and if they’ve come back…
“Under here!” Eden yanks Blossom under the bed seconds before the door creaks open.
A relieved sigh escapes me. Maeve stands in the doorway, her hands clasped in front of her dainty gown. But then I choke on my sigh. Behind her, ushering her through the door, is the last lord I ever wanted to see.
“Princess Dahlia.” Lord Elheart smiles, placing a hand on Maeve’s shoulder. “It’s time we had a little chat, my dear. Wouldn’t you agree?”