Chapter 12 #2
She droops her shoulders and drops her gaze to the floor. “I’m sorry.” Her voice is pitiful.
Willa has always been tough on me, always pushing me to overcome my weaknesses. To see her standing here now, looking small and vulnerable…
I deflate, feeling the anger physically leaving my body. I’m tired. I don’t have the energy to continue holding onto my anger toward her.
“Thank you,” I say, my voice shaky but returning to normal. I take a seat on the edge of the stage, my legs hanging off. Willa comes and sits beside me.
“I am truly sorry,” she says softly. “Your mother was my world. I was utterly devastated by her death. When she asked me to raise you, of course, I agreed. But I had no idea what I was doing. Raising you was the greatest honor but also the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
I made mistakes the whole way, but not telling you who you were born to be was my greatest one. ”
She stops to look at me and reaches her hand out. I don’t reach for it, and she drops it into her lap. We sit there in an awkward silence.
“How are you feeling about the dinner tonight?” she asks.
I shrug. “I feel fine, I guess.” But then I remember my conversation with Katze and Issa earlier, and my stomach drops. “A little nervous, if I’m being honest. I feel so out of my element.”
“Just remember that they are courting you, not the other way around.”
“If it only was that easy to remember,” I snort. “It’s hard not to be nervous around them,” I admit.
She laughs. “Yes, they’re all very handsome. Be careful with—”
“Asmo, I know.”
She looks at me, a puzzled expression contorting her features, “I was going to say you should be careful with how much you eat tonight. It’s custom to have an array of desserts at formal dinners, and you should save room for it.”
I burst into laughter. “I’ll try to remember.”
“You never could get enough dessert,” she says, a reminiscent smile on her face. I soften a bit. It feels good to see her smile. Willa was my best friend growing up. She was always the person I turned to when I had no one else, which was often.
I’ve never gone more than a few days without talking to her, even when I moved away from home. She usually stopped by the store several times a week to say hello or to bring me a pastry from my favorite bakery. I didn’t realize how much I missed her until now.
She hops down from the stage with grace. “I’d better let you get back to your coronation party.” She turns and looks at me, a smile on her face. “I’m proud of you, Mae. I don’t tell you that enough.”
She’s right. I can count the number of times she’s told me that on one hand.
My heart warms, and I can’t help the smile that steals across my face.
“Thanks, Willa. That means a lot.” I hop off the stage, too, and pull her in for a hug.
Her raven hair smells of her favorite floral shampoo, and I inhale deeply.
We let go, and she starts toward the door. I walk her to the front of the castle and give her a final hug before she joins the crowd of people leaving the grounds.
I turn back around to head inside, but Ivan stands behind me. I jump and put my hand to my chest, feeling my beating heart beneath the soft lace of my dress. I didn’t sense him behind me at all.
“I’m glad to see you and Willa have reconciled,” he says.
“Yes, me too,” I say, meaning it. I feel a little bit fuller, almost as if I had been missing a piece of me, and Willa just returned it.
“Good,” he says shortly. “It’s almost time for the coronation dinner. If you’d like to freshen up, Ruby and Nora are waiting for you in your wing.”
“I’ll be there in a moment. I just need to say goodbye to Cally,” I promise before hurrying back to the veranda.
Cally is exactly where I left her: standing at the same table, sipping on champagne and shoving savory pastries in her mouth.
“Hey, you,” she says with a smile as I approach.
“Enjoying the food?” I ask, already knowing the answer is yes.
She rolls her eyes. “No, it’s terrible,” she says sarcastically. “Who even pays for all of this?”
“Why, the citizens of the Woodland Kingdom, of course,” I say in my most haughty voice.
“Well, in that case…” Cally grabs a handful of pastries and stuffs them into the pockets of her dress.
I can’t contain the snort of laughter that comes out of my mouth.
“What?” Cally asks, eyes widening and looking around in feigned innocence.
Over Cally’s shoulder, I spot Ivan exiting the castle and looking around, presumably for me.
“Hey,” I say abruptly. “I’ve got to go get ready for my coronation dinner with the princes, so I came to say goodbye. Please feel free to stay for as long as you want, and take advantage of the free food and drinks.”
Her eyes widen. “I can’t wait to hear how it goes,” she says excitedly.
I wish I could match her excitement, but the only thing I’m feeling right now is my nerves taking flight in my stomach.
“I can,” I say with a sigh. “I promise I’ll spill the details as soon as I can.”
She gives me a quick hug, squishing me against the still-warm pastries stuffed in her pocket.
“Oh, Mae, the moment we saw you walking down the path with the stag…To die for,” Nora says, placing a hand on her chest. She takes my hair down from the bun and styles it in a half-up, half-down style with loose tendrils in the front to frame my face.
“Very Wrena of you,” Ruby says, a smirk on her face.
I tilt my head. “What do you mean?”
“Like the legend!” she says, eyes finding mine in the mirror briefly before returning to my hair.
“What legend?” I ask as I watch her wrap another piece of my hair around the metal hair rod. A curling rod, she called it. It’s nothing I’ve ever seen before, but it helps her channel her elemental magic to shape my wavy hair into loose curls.
Ruby and Nora both look at me, surprise flashing in their eyes. Ruby says, “Of the First Deer Queen. Have you never heard of it?”
I shake my head and earn a glare from Ruby, my hair still wrapped around the curling tool. “No, I haven’t. Or at least, if I did, I don’t remember it. What is it about?”
Ruby releases her grasp on the lock of hair and gently pulls the curling rod out to preserve the curl.
“It’s about how the kingdom came into existence and how the Deer Court came to be the ruling court,” she explains as she grabs a new piece of hair to curl.
“Our parents were told the story by their parents, and it just continues to get passed down with each generation. Some people believe it’s a true story that’s been altered as it’s been passed down, and some believe that it’s a prophecy.
It just kind of depends on who you ask,” she says with a shrug.
I rack my brain, thinking about stories that Willa told me when I was young, but I don’t recall anything remotely close to this. “What’s it about?”
“I don’t remember exactly how it’s told, but I remember the gist of it.
Thousands of years ago, before the High Houses even existed, the High Fae ruled over the forest. One day, the Queen of the Fae, Wrena, wandered into the forest and stumbled upon a massive stag.
Turns out,” she says, eyes brightening and smile widening, “the stag was her long-lost High Fae king. His entire court believed him to be dead, but he had been cursed by an evil Fae or a witch—I can’t remember—and forced to live as a creature of the forest.”
She extends her hand and summons a hairbrush from the countertop in front of me. She plucks the brush from the air and uses it to detangle a knot that somehow worked its way into my hair.
“Luckily,” she continues, “Wrena eventually realized who he was. She tried everything to reverse the curse and turn him back into a human. When she finally did, she transferred some of the curse to herself, giving herself deer features and elemental magic. Thus, she was titled the First Deer Queen. When the other High Fae wanted to be transformed into woodland creatures, Wrena granted this wish to four of her dearest friends, creating the different High Houses. The legend, or the prophecy as some people believe, is that one day, Wrena’s true daughter will ascend to the throne and will sit beside a great stag.
So, when you arrived with the stag, everyone was stunned. ”
The crowd’s reaction makes more sense now. “Her true daughter? What does that mean? Aren’t we all technically her daughters if she created the deer line?”
Ruby wraps the last piece of hair around the curling rod as Nora gently cups my chin and re-applies powdered blush along my cheeks.
“Well, as the story goes, Wrena never actually had a daughter of her own after she became Queen of the Deer. The king and queen had two daughters, but they were High Fae,” Ruby says.
“Do you think the story is true?” I ask.
Ruby removes the curling rod and gently rests the curled lock on my shoulder. Then, she holds up her palm and twists her hand in the air. Golden glimmer erupts from her fingertips and shimmers in the air before slowly descending, settling onto my hair and makeup.
“Anything is possible,” she says, a gleam in her eye. “Especially with magic.”