16. Fairytales Only Soften Reality
Persephone Flores
“I heard you got kicked out of dinner like a badly behaved dog the night before last. What’d you do, beg for scraps or something?” Katrina said, stepping in line with me.
“What?” I asked, stopping and turning to her, shocked.
“I said, I heard you were kicked out of dinner, the night before last, when the Ardens councillors were here,” she said.
“That’s none of your business,” I replied.
“I think it is,” she said.
I didn’t respond, simply continued walking. I was trying to get the lay of the mansion. It was larger—larger than the mansion that held our home while at the academy—but it wasn’t castle-sized. Still, I wasn’t familiar with the place yet, and I wanted to be.
“She can’t put on such a display in front of us and you expect no one to talk. Then she followed it up with what I’m told was a very steamy spanking.” She slapped her hand against her thigh for the dramatic effect of the sound.
I spun to her. “What is your problem?” I asked her. “Why are you behaving like this? What have I ever done to you?” I questioned.
Her face soured and she pursed her lips, looking away from me, but still walking beside me.
“I don’t know. I think… I just don’t like the way she treats you, and that you let her, is all,” she replied after a moment, and she sounded sincere. “You shouldn’t accept treatment like that. It’s not right,” she continued, looking up from the ground to make eye contact with me.
“It’s not what you think,” I told her.
“How is it then?” she demanded. “It’s pretty clear from what I see—and what everyone else sees.”
I bristled. I had been here only a few days and already the servants disliked me.
“She doesn’t treat me badly,” I defended. “I was rude,” I added. “I behaved disrespectfully and was punished,” I explained.
“Like that Lady Aquilae was punished? For speaking her mind?” Katrina asked.
“No,” I said. “She would never hurt me,” I told her. “Lady Aquilae was different. You weren’t there. You didn’t hear what she said or how she said it,” I defended Selene’s actions.
But truthfully, I hadn’t even thought about whether she was right to kill the woman or not—not until Katrina had brought it up.
“What, so you have the privilege of questioning her, and you get a sore bottom, but the rest of us get chucked in the maze? Is that difference?” she countered, spite in her voice.
“Look, Katrina,” I said, turning on her again. “I don’t know what you want from me. It was a different situation. She’s fair, and just, and she treats me well.”
I tried not to be overly concerned with the talk of my bottom—I didn’t want this girl to know how much it embarrassed me for fear it would become a taunt.
“Treats you well? Do you hear yourself? From what I heard, you were offering to help Clifwind—a village that’s almost starving, offering to do what your kind are meant to do, what they did for centuries—and she wouldn’t let you. And you weren’t happy with that. Why would you be? You want to helppeople, right? You care if people are starving and would do something about it, if you could, right?” She asked.
“Well, yes, but it’s more complicated than that—"
“But not miss princess, no. She doesn’t care. All she cares about is having her toy with her. That’s you. You’re the toy, in case you’re too dense to realise it. And she’d rather have you to play with than care to lift a finger to help her people—by House and by Kingdom—from starvation,” Katrina finished, her mouth rising in disgust and her nostrils flaring.
I opened my mouth to reply.
“Don’t even argue it—not if you can’t give me, or even yourself, a proper excuse,” she said.
I shut my mouth.
It sounded all wrong, the way Katrina put it. It made Selene sound like a monster. But that wasn’t the way things were. Selene didn’t refuse because she wanted me as a plaything. She refused because she cares for my safety and needs to keep me close, and there is a schedule, and the Royal Conference, and there just wasn’t time.
But that doesn’t sound good enough—not to anyone that doesn’t know I’m not just a pet, that I’m Selene’s soul match, that it’s dangerous for us to be apart.
