“B-but… the wedding…?” I stammered, clinging to a stupid scrap of normal that no longer existed.
My mother looked at me with a hardness she rarely aimed at anyone, least of all me.
“The wedding’s over, Fionnuala,” she said. “We need to go.”
My heart wavered, but I obeyed.
Behind us, the murmurs started up again, like a hive coming alive. And then someone shouted:
“Orc!”
The word landed like a sentence. Instantly, everything changed.
Chairs toppled, guests stumbled over each other to get away, and mothers yanked children behind their skirts. Males reached for daggers, even as their legs shook under their fear.
“Don’t look at them,” my mother murmured, unshaken, though tension pulled tight in every muscle of her face. “Just keep walking. Can you do that for me?”
I tried—I really did. But when I lifted my eyes, I saw horror stamped onto every face around me.
They weren’t just startled.
They were afraid of me.
The wordorcfelt like it had been spat in my face. My stomach clenched, and my breath caught in my throat. The people—the same ones who minutes earlier had looked at me with a mix of admiration and envy—now pointed at me like I was an abomination.
Instinctively, I looked for my father, expecting him to calm them, to defend me, but he only stood there, frozen, his face drained of color. His silence was worse than any insult hurled at me.
“Papa…” I whispered, my eyes burning.
That seemed to jolt him out of it. But instead of offering a word of comfort or an explanation for the nightmare Merith had unleashed, he turned his back on me and faced the crowd, raising his arms.
“Silence!”
The command rang through the vaulted hall, and the room fell silent, though their eyes stayed fixed on me. For thefirst time in almost a century and a half of life, I didn't want the spotlight. I wanted the floor to swallow me whole.
My father took a deep breath, bracing himself before he spoke again. He scanned the crowd before finally turning his gaze on me. His mouth trembled, and for a heartbeat, I could have sworn tears swam in his eyes, though just as quickly, he replaced them with the mask of a lord—cold and impenetrable.
“Everyone, remain calm,” he ordered, his own voice sounding brittle. “The magic… it can still be reversed. The priests will investigate immediately—”
“My Lord, with all due respect,” the priest who had almost married me stepped forward, his expression grave. “What Merith did was no simple magic trick. It was a curse.” A collective gasp rippled through the hall. Even I shuddered, the word settling in my chest like a block of ice. I could barely remember what she had said before I passed out from the pain. The priest continued, his deep voice ringing through the hall like a funeral bell. “A powerful, ancient curse.” He looked at me for only a second, and in that glance, I felt not just pity, but something worse: caution. “This isn’t something undone with simple prayers.”
Several people nodded. My mother’s hand squeezed mine tight enough to bruise, her nails biting into my new, thick skin. A deep crease formed between her brows, her lips pressed into a hard line, her eyes glaring at the priest, trying to silence him with sheer force of will.
My father stiffened, his hands clenching into tight fists at his sides.
“There’s no danger,” he insisted. “She’s not like the others. She’s still my daughter.”
“Not anymore, my Lord. Look at her. She’s one ofthem.” The priest shook his head, his expression hardening into one of accusation. “An orc.”
“Watch what you say,” my father growled, letting the mask slip just enough to reveal the protective father beneath.
The priest didn’t back down. He straightened his robes and, with the weight of the entire hall behind him, delivered the killing blow.
“Unfortunately, my lord, Lady Fionnuala must find a way to break the curse, but she cannot stay here.”
My heart skipped a beat, then hammered against my ribs. They wanted to cast me out? Out of my own home?
The High Fae of the court—the very ones who had watched me grow, who had bowed to me for a century—now stared at me as though I carried a plague.
