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The late glow of the sun leaked over the wooden floors, slowly chased away by the growing shadows.
I didn’t light the lanterns nor the few golden sconces on the walls.
Upon the bed, I stared at that beautiful trunk, wondering how I’d gotten here—a prisoner and a murderer. As the moon formed the shape of a scythe, I surmised an ending of this nature was only fair, and perhaps this was exactly where I was supposed to waste my final days.
In a crimson and gold cage.
Beneath the low-lying arched window, the trunk mocked me—sang of promises I couldn’t see myself keeping and finding a way out of. For even if I could summon the energy to do as I’d been tasked and weave gold thread into the garments inside, they would still not allow me to leave.
My mother would need to send for me, but that would require an army, of which we were now lacking with the remaining soldiers needed to protect our kingdom.
The room had grown dark by the time a servant knocked on the door, then opened it to deliver a tray that shook in her hands. Young and pale, the woman stuttered, “P-princess, it is awfully dark in here.”
Before her next breath, sun-captured flames danced within the sconces on each wall, revealing her frightened blue eyes. I might not use magic to escape, but I’d use it as I would every other limb. It was a part of who I was, as necessary and vital as breathing. “Just leave it on the trunk,” I muttered. “Thank you.”
She did as requested, hurrying out of the room as though I would eat her for di
I ate nothing, but I opened the window above the fish stew before flopping sideways over the bed to stare at the night sky.
The stars still twinkled, the moon still shone, yet it now felt as though they too mocked me from where they sat so high above us all—a foolish golden princess who’d fallen for a known enemy’s tricks and had brought ruin upon all.
Morning brought with it a visitor. My eyes fluttered open when the door did, a near-silent creak of the hinges and a familiar scent alerting me to the prince’s entry.
“Opal,” he whispered as though I were asleep when he could see my eyes upon him. Closing the door, he leaned against it and brushed his hands over his cheeks. “I don’t even know what to say other than I’m sorry.”
“Did you know?” I asked, sitting up and pushing my hair back from my shoulders. “Did you know this was their plan for me all along?”
Toying with the hem of his shirt, he took a cautious step forward, gleaming boots meeting the soft red carpet. “Opal, you have an incredible gift. One that could help us turn this nightmare around…”
“My mother will be very displeased.” I said the words with a low vehemence.
He received them for the warning they were, swallowing as he nodded. “I understand, truly.” I scowled, twisting my legs away from him as he came to the bed and dared to take a seat beside me. “We will marry, okay? We will make Nodoya the great realm it once was, but to do that, we need your help first.”
“Agreeing to marry you was help enough,” I said before I could think better of it, my eyes widening at my own arrogance. “But you humans never are content with all you’ve been given.”
A lilting smile shaped his lips, but it failed to fill the dark eyes that stared back at me. “True, but you must believe me when I say that if I thought any harm would befall you, I would not have gone ahead with this.”
“Liar,” I hissed, rising and taking the tray from the trunk. It clanged to the floor as I flung the wooden lid open, revealing rivers of color. “You’d have agreed anyway because you are no king. You are a prince, and you’ve little choice.”
His jaw clenched, teeth gritted.
I sat upon the floor, tugging a velvet-lined cloak from the chest and spreading it over my lap. “Leave me, for it seems I have miracles to tend to.”
“You did it before,” Bron said with a forced, grating laugh. “Can you not just do so again?”
“If it were that easy, these garments would have been replaced with others by now, wouldn’t they?” I knew I should have watched my tone and chosen my words more carefully, but I’d spent most of my life doing just that, and in the end, it had done nothing good.
Not for me nor those I loved.
“You can do this. I know you can. I’ve seen it.” The prince stood. “And then we will have our revenge, Opal, this I swear to you.”
Revenge.
The word had never sounded more attractive, had never caused my heart to refire in such a violent, deafening way. I wanted it more than I remembered wanting anything—knew that I would need it. I stared down at the rippling fabric. “We will die trying.”
Bron’s footsteps halted halfway to the door. “But try we must.” He hesitated, then murmured, “I shall return tomorrow if that is okay with you?”
I said nothing, knowing that was his way of saying the time for lamenting my fate and dawdling had come to an end.
Once the door closed, the latches clicked on the other side, and I willed my heating blood to calm so I could try to focus.
There was nothing else I could do. I wasn’t leaving this castle alive unless I’d given them what they wanted, and even then, the chances of that happening seemed slim. Still, it was all I had, and though I was tired, so stars-damned tired of being told what to do, I’d learned that doing what I wanted led to far graver fates.
Hours sped by, the sun dragging toward the bottom of the sky as I sat with that first cloak, now spread before me over the floor. Tears threatened, but I knew they wouldn’t fall. Instead, they left an ache in my skull that I tried to infuse into my unachievable task.
By nightfall, all I’d managed to do was undo the previous stitching, ragged pieces of thread waiting to be rewoven with gold.
My fingers brushed and glided over every inch of fabric, and then I moved on to the next, a tunic made from fine cotton, and willed my heart to unspool before me into the awaiting garment.
Either it refused or something was missing, something was wrong, but I couldn’t piece together what that could be, what that could mean, as I thought back to the handful of times gold had spun from beneath my fingers before.
Another tray of food was delivered, and my uneaten lunch taken away. I’d managed a few sips of water, feeling guilty when I’d remembered my mother and how she’d promised to make herself do what felt impossible when all she wanted was to fade away and allow her soul to find my father.
The door closed once more, the servant girl never once looking my way.
She’d be reporting to the queen, of that I was sure, and after tearing more clothing from the trunk and staring at it in dismay, the days spent eating poorly in my own kingdom and eating nothing here began to catch up with me. I grew dizzy, my eyelids unbearably heavy, and slumped over the clothing on the floor to stare at the filigreed ceiling.
A clack sounded upon the windowsill. I didn’t move. Another bird hoping I’d throw them my uneaten food.
“Sunshine, what in the bleeding stars are you doing in this putrid place?”