One
Aledwen studied the ornate staircase with a look of intense distaste on her face. It was too garish, and too gold for her liking, but then she didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter. For the moment, this was someone else’s palace.
“You’ll enter up there, and descend down the stairs, where your mother will meet you,” the Master of Ceremonies instructed her. Aledwen grimaced. She didn’t like the sound of what he was suggesting at all.
The problem wasn’t that she had to do something formal. She was a Princess, she’d been doing these things her entire life, even if her mother did keep her hidden away from everyone else. No, Aledwen’s problem was this particular ceremony, otherwise known as the Birth of Spring. Her family had been performing it for millennia, with each Princess taking over from her mother when she reached eighteen. Aka, Aledwen’s age.
Which was all very well, but Aledwen’s magic didn’t work right. Or at all.
“Got it,” she muttered to herself. She’d been thinking and dreaming about this day since she was a child. Though the dreams had turned into nightmares more recently. Around the same time she realised her magic wasn’t just going to miraculously arrive one day. Not without her doing something to help it. And while she’d scoured the book shelves in the palace library, and some in the local settlement too, she’d yet to find anything that could help her. It was beginning to get highly frustrating to say the least.
“Then you’ll walk over to her Majesty the Queen and you’ll...”
“Thank you, I know what I need to do,” she interrupted, holding up her hand to stop the man from saying the words that would just make everyone in the room awkward. No one needed to remind her she had to take off her robe and...
She didn’t want to think about it. Without magic, there’d be nothing to shield her from the Court’s gaze. They’d all be able to see just how naked she’d be. Exposed and ready to be ridiculed by them all. She’d love to be able to say none of them would act like that, but what did she know? She wasn’t even allowed around people most of the time.
At least with the Birth close, Aledwen was able to spend time actually in her mother’s Court, and not just observing in secret. If anyone found out she’d been doing that then there’d be hell to pay, she was sure of that.
From afar, it had always seemed interesting, far more so than the countless balls and parties the other fae seemed to enjoy. She’d far prefer to be embroiled in the politics of the world than to be stuffed into a ball gown. She guessed now she’d be both.
“But, Your Majesty...”
“That’s fine, thank you, Carter. I’ll be okay from here.” She smiled at him to soften the blow, but from the conflicted look on his face, she didn’t know whether she’d actually managed. Insulting the palace staff, accidentally or not, wasn’t in her daily plan. After all, one day she was going to have to rule here. She didn’t want them hating her even before that day came.
She watched him leave, taking the last of the serving staff with him. Good, she was better off alone to coming to terms with what she had to do.
Going back to the start, she serenely walked the path she would for the Birth, conscious that she needed to get it right when the time came. If she was going to end up naked and ridiculed, then she was going to do everything else right before hand. She wasn’t going to be known as the fae princess who really messed it up.
“So you’re the one they’re all talking about.” A smooth male voice made her jump out of her skin, and she turned to see a man leaning against the door frame of the room. There was something about it that sent a thrill through Aledwen, even if she knew she shouldn’t feel that way.
“Whatever do you mean?” she asked carefully.
“The fae are all talking about you,?
?? he replied, completely unhelpfully.
“Do you have a name?” she tried instead.
“Dreyfus, but everyone calls me Drey.”
“No wonder,” she muttered under her breath. But a low chuckle told her he’d heard. Damn. He probably was something other than a half-fae then. At least for him to be here it meant he was some kind of paranormal. If not then...well she didn’t actually know what happened. She knew a lot of human men were brought here for the night. Her father had been one of them. It was just how the fae worked if they never found their fated mate. She hoped she wouldn’t end up like that. Kidnapping a human man just to have a child seemed callous at best, down right wrong at worst.
“What do they call you?” he asked, not at all phased by her muttering.
“Dwen.”
He raised an eyebrow, and had every right to. Why had she said that? No one had ever called her Dwen. Ever. Not even her mother.
“Aledwen,” she corrected herself.
“I think I prefer Dwen. It suits you.” He smiled widely, lighting up his face as he pushed away from the door frame and stalked towards her. Despite herself, her traitorous heart fluttered.
“No one calls me Dwen,” she stuttered pointlessly.
“Now I can.”
“Who are you?”
“Drey.”
“Not what I meant,” she pointed out, trying to use as much of her royal bearing as possible to get him to listen to her, but she was pretty sure it was wasted on him.
“That’s not going to work on me,” he replied, proving her point. “I’m not the kind of man easily swayed when he’s decided on something.” The glint in his eye suggested he was on about more than just telling her who he was. She pushed those thoughts aside. She wasn’t used to having them, and even if she was, she shouldn’t be having them about strangers.
“What are you doing here?” she tried changing tack.
“I wanted to see the girl everyone was talking about. I must say, I’m surprised to find a beautiful woman in her place.”
Aledwen’s heart fluttered, and she tried to dampen it. She couldn’t be having this behaviour, even if no one but her knew about it. Even so, the compliment was doing funny things to her. She’d long since accepted that she wasn’t ugly. But she also wasn’t stunningly beautiful. Though it hadn’t been too hard to accept that once she’d realised fae weren’t the ethereal beings from the human’s stories. It’d taken her far longer than she’d have liked to come to that conclusion. She’d been a very sheltered child, and it hadn’t been until a few years ago that she’d thought about sneaking about and learning more about her people. The real side. Not the pretty picture her mother wanted her to know.
It had always baffled Aledwen why her mother wanted to keep her so in the dark. She was the future leader of the Spring Fae, so why wasn’t she in the loop about...well, what it was to actually be the leader of them.
“May I have a dance?” the man, Drey, asked suddenly.
“There’s no music.” She frowned. He’d seemed so normal, if a little intrusive. It wasn’t every day that people walked in on her while she was alone. In fact, that never happened. Unless the someone was her mother.