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CHAPTER TWO

CHARLOTTE

" W ho are you?" I asked the man of my dreams.

"I'm yours," he told me with a cheeky smile before he disappeared under my skirts.

I squirmed in my seat, letting my thighs fall open wide, wider for him to fit his whole face in between?—

"Charlotte, sit up straight. We are not wilting vines on the side of a butchery."

I blinked out of my daydream and sat up straight. Not because my mother told me to. Because my brain strained to work out what she meant. Queen Indira had never once been to a butchery in her life. She wouldn't know if it had vines on the outside walls or not.

The carriage jostled again. I felt the familiar prickle of discomfort between my shoulder blades.

My wings were folded tightly beneath the fabric of my dress, pressed so firmly that I could barely draw a full breath.

The binding wasn’t meant to keep me in line.

It was meant to protect others from the sight of me.

A fairy’s wings were a weakness for most males.

The sight of them bared was apparently too much for their fragile wills.

A man might drop his trousers and commit fornication at the sight of them.

All of which would be the fairy's fault, of course.

Not the male's. It was always the damsel's fault that she stepped into danger by moving through her ordinary world.

I hated my ordinary world. But I knew better than to fall back into my daydream under my mother's watchful eyes. So instead, I pressed my forehead against the cool glass of the window and watched the landscape blur past.

Fields of wildflowers stretched out to the horizon, golden under the light of the mother-daughter suns.

Solara bathed the earth in her steady, maternal warmth, while her daughter Lyra cast her fiery red glow over the edges of the sky.

I envied Lyra's freedom. When her mother's back was turned, she could burn as brightly as she wanted .

“Charlotte, fix your posture. You’re slouching like a common kitchen maid.”

Another reference my mother had no clue about. But that was my mother. The Fairy Queen of Evermore often spoke of things she had no direct knowledge of.

Charlotte, you are the luckiest girl in the world to be marrying the prince of Solmane. But did she know all the girls in the world? Had she or anyone from the land asked any of the other girls if they wanted to marry a prince?

Charlotte, why are you wearing blue when you know that Prince Adom's favorite color is red? Was it red? Not that I actually cared what my betrothed's favorites were.

The point was my mother had never actually asked the prince. She'd never met him. Neither had I. That would all change tonight. Not that I had a say in it.

“When we get there, you will not say anything unless asked by the prince. You will sit straight. You will smile. You will charm your betrothed.”

How was I supposed to charm someone without saying anything to them? Oh right, my mistake. Once again, I thought someone might want to know my opinion. Only one person in this world had ever asked my opinion.

"What do you think of this thread, your highness?"

Okay, two people. Belle, the seamstress, had asked about my likes for each stitch of the wedding dress she was making for me. The problem there was that I didn't care about the dress. I didn't want to get married. Not to the Beast Prince, anyway.

Not because he was rumored to look like a monster. I wasn't one to judge. I just wanted to be asked. Had I been asked, I would've told everyone with ears to hear that my heart had been stolen when I was just nine years old.

"I defer to your opinion, Belle. You know more about such things than I do."

Belle offered a smile. It was a smile that said she wasn't buying it.

But she didn't voice her concerns. There were times I wished I could count her as a friend, that I could tell her my opinions.

That I could tell another soul that I'd lost my heart, but I had a plan to get it back.

Just a few more hours, and I'd enact my plan to find my lost heart and make all right in my world again.

"We could let the pegasuses fly instead of walking on land like common steeds," I suggested. Anything to get us to Pridehaven, the capitol of Solmane quicker.

"If we flew, then we would not be seen."

"That makes no sense, Mother. We don't want to appear like peasants, but we want the peasants to see us?"

"Exactly. We are to be seen and heard, like any good little princess. "

Both Belle and I bit our lips. We didn't get many visitors in Evergrove.

This would be both mine and Belle's first adventure out of our small municipality.

Like me, Belle had big plans. When I wore the wedding gown in front of all of Solmane, she would become a fashion icon.

It was too bad I was going to ruin those plans for her.

“Relax, Belle. The Beast Prince won’t care if there’s a wrinkle in the gown. He’ll be too busy ripping it off me on our wedding night.”

“Enough, Charlotte.” Mother snapped her lily-white fingers in a controlled gesture of disapproval. "You have been training for this since the day you were born."

“You know who else trains since the day they're born? Warriors in the Convergence Games. Except if they don't pass muster, they die."

"You won't die. Not if you behave yourself."

I had been behaving myself for the last three years.

I'd had no choice in that matter, either.

There had been a contingent of Sky Keeper guards living at Evergrove manor to ensure my safety.

The truth was, they were ensuring I didn't make a run for it.

Had their eyes not been on my every move, I would've made my escape far sooner than my latest plan.

"Charlotte, fix your dress. Your wings are showing. Do you want Her Lioness to think you're some flaming Ember Fae? ”

“Yes, Mother,” I replied, my voice flat. I did want the Lioness to think I was some Ember Fae. Then maybe she would think I wasn't good enough for her son.

The carriage jerked to a halt, throwing me forward. My hands flew to the window, bracing myself as I muttered a curse under my breath.

“What now?” I hissed, craning my neck to see outside.

The golden fields that had blurred into oblivion moments ago were now still, stretching endlessly beneath the two suns. The faint sound of voices reached my ears. The carriage door opened. Sunlight spilled inside, momentarily blinding me.

A man stood there, tall and poised, the very embodiment of servitude carved into flesh.

His face was all sharp angles and precise lines, as if sculpted by someone who valued utility over beauty.

High cheekbones gave him an almost regal air, but the severity of his expression undercut any warmth.

Pale blond hair was pulled back with meticulous care, each strand so perfectly in place that it seemed almost unnatural, as though his appearance itself was a performance.

But it was his eyes that held my attention—gray as storm clouds, cool and unreadable.

He was a man who understood his place and played his role with precision, never saying too much, never doing too little.

The kind of person who could anticipate needs before they were spoken and quietly act on them without drawing attention to himself.

“Greetings, your royal highnesses. I am Colson, Chamberlain of Pridehaven Palace. Prince Adom has charged me with escorting you to the summer castle.”

"The summer castle?" said my mother. "We were told to arrive at the palace."

"Yes, Highness. However, the prince is waiting inside the summer castle, which is just down this road. He wishes to greet his bride in private before entering the palace grounds.”

A private meeting with the Beast Prince. The words churned in my stomach like spoiled nectar. That was not how I'd planned for this to go. I had planned never to set eyes on the Beast Prince.

"Princess Charlotte would be delighted to have a rendezvous with her betrothed," my mother was saying.

Chamberlain Colson gave a polite bow. The door to the carriage shut, and we were moving again. The moment we were out of hearing distance from the Chamberlain, the queen's calm facade dropped.

“Fix her. Now.”

I ignored my mother as she hurled commands at Belle. I ignored Belle as she got to work on me. The seamstress was handy with more than clothes. Her magic could also trim nails and remove dirt from the body or clothes .

Belle and my mother could remove all the dirt they wanted. I was busy working on another plan.

I had known this day was coming all my life. My twenty-first birthday was in just two days on the Hunter's Eclipse. That was the day the death blow would strike and my life would be over.

I had been waiting for this day. The anticipation of it had been the worst thing. Now that it was happening, I was pure reaction.

My initial plan had changed, but not my goal. I was closer to the city. I was closer to him. I just had to get free of my mother and this carriage, not go into the summer castle where my betrothed was waiting for me, get to the Convergence Games, and find him.

I'm yours , I heard him say in my ears, in my head, in my heart. It was the only truth I knew. He was mine, and I was going to get him back.