“You don’t have a stash of gold.”
“No, but they don’t know that.”
“You are peculiar, Daphne.”
I smile. “Thank you.”
“And now you have a line of frogs wanting a kiss from you, thinking they are the next prince.”
“Everyone knows it only works if I’m a princess, which I am not.”
“But you are the fairest in all of Far, Far Away,” the mirror shouts as we slam the door closed and step over the frogs.
Gwyneth links her arm in mine and steers us toward the town hall. Fairy folk dart all over, busy with their dreary tasks and making the best of their lives. Girls of age fall into step in front and behind us, a train of maidens being offered to Charming like a feast of feet. I wrinkle my nose, because ew—feet.
“I don’t get the big hang up on the glass shoe,” I mutter to Gwyneth. “I’m certain if Cinderella wanted to be found, she’d have turned up to one of Charming’s hunting occasions.”
A twin set of redheads glare at me over their shoulders. I wiggle my fingers at them. They blanch and move forward quicker, creating distance. The townsfolk believed my clumsiness was gifted by a wicked witch in retaliation for my father and his wayward breeches. In reality, it’s a birthright my mother bestowed upon me—maybe as a result of the moonshine she drank while pregnant.
I had finished school at the tender age of fifteen, having learned very little. Luckily, Gwyneth paid attention for the both of us. After being booted from my family home the same diurnal we graduated, we moved into the empty hut behind the crumbling tower Rapunzel had long since abandoned for a dreamy life with The Hallowed. She was one of the lucky and the few that made it out of Far, Far Away.
“Perhaps her wicked parents are keeping her captive?” Gwyneth offers.
“So, putting on a public event is going to persuade them to free her?” I shoot back. “I heard a rumor.”
“Oh Idylican,” she grumbles.
“Mary tells me his nickname at the palace is Prince Crueling.”
“Mary, the lamb lady?”
“Yes, her choice of pets is beside the point. Cinders isn’t being hidden, she’sinhiding,” I say.
We join the line leading up the steps to the brick rectangular building. “So he’s stalking her?” I nod as we inch forward. “Damn crazy prince. Just keep your head down, shove your foot in the tiny shoe and leave. Don’t look him in the eyes.”
“Why? Will he turn me to stone?” Maybe this prince is a descendant of the mythological Medusa. I don’t want to turn into stone. I imagine it’s a mundane existence watching everyone else go about their diurnal with moving limbs while you are trapped inside a casing.
“Don’t be ridiculous. How do you even come up with these things?”
My brain is a crazy place. I see the realm differently than others, and I’m not apologetic about it. We shuffle into the spacious room with wooden floors etched with the castle logo of The Hallowed. Just the blessed reminding us what we’ll never have. I sigh and keep my arm linked with Gwyneth.
The Duke catches my eyes with a pointed glare. Yeah, yeah, don’t embarrass the town. Did he think me an idiot? It’s not like I try to be clumsy.
“You go first,” I mutter to Gwyneth. That way, I can just mirror what she does.
She drops onto a chair in a row with ten other girls. There’s one more chair for me at the end. I sit on it and breathe a sigh of relief. What could go wrong now? I’m sitting down, for Blazes’ sake. Not even I could cause chaos sitting down.
The prince struts into the room carrying a goblet and wearing a daring grin. He thrusts the goblet at a royal guard, snatches the prized glass shoe off a deep purple velvet cushion, and kneels at the feet of the first maiden. It doesn’t fit—shocker. He works along the row, bypassing Gretel’s feet altogether with his lips turned up in a sneer at her grotesque appendages. Hate to break it to him, but feet are gross, period. If he was searching for the magical unicorn of attractive feet, he would be sorely disappointed by the offerings in Far, Far Away.
He shoves the glass shoe onto the feet of the eyelash fluttering females one after the other. None of them fit, they never do. This current Prince Charming went through the motions every annus to keep his meddling parents in check, when all he wanted to do was spread his mythical princely seed amongst the unsuspecting maidens across the lands. Is there a castle set aside for the mini Prince Charmings that resulted from his efforts?
He reaches Gwyneth and his hand curls around her ankle as he lifts it. He gently pushes it on to her foot and it slips on without issue.
“My princess,” he whispers. What he means is,your floof is going to get the royal treatment tonight while I figure out you aren’t my Cinderella.
“What the Hallows?” I snap. “We have been here for the last two annuses and it has never fit.”
His head snaps to me and crystal blue eyes pin me in place. He’s a fine specimen of a male with toned muscles and an air of authority as he glares at me down his pointy nose. “Are you questioning the will of The Hallowed?”
