Falling Under (27 page)
They pulled me out of the chair and dragged me to a large armoire. In it was one dress. They unwrapped me from my towel and shoved a chemise over my head without touching my hair. I stepped into a petticoat and I stared at the dress while they wrapped a corset around my chest. The dress beckoned like sin. I knew it had been made especially for me; it practically called my name. Bloodred satin. Something I would never have chosen for myself, and yet it had chosen me.
Finally, the woman in the blue dress pulled out my gown. It pulsed with vitality and I realized I was bouncing a little on the balls of my feet—and standing without help. The bath’s restorative powers or the pull of a really great frock?
I stepped into the gown and they pulled it up my form. It molded to my body flawlessly. This I knew without even looking. My mother’s necklace warmed against my skin while they adjusted the gown. As soon as they were done fastening it, one woman pulled me by my wrist to the looking glass, her fingernails drawing blood.
The stranger in the glass startled me. All my wounds had somehow healed already. I had no suture marks or scars, and my face reminded me of my own, and yet it was different. I was different. I felt like I was looking at myself from the wrong side of the mirror.
But I was beautiful.
Skeletons entered the room and hauled out my tub. The woman in the yellow dress pushed me onto a velvet settee and there I was to wait. For what, I didn’t know.
I took in the rest of my surroundings for the first time, since I was no longer being poked, prodded, and lavished over. I’d grown up in a beautiful home, but I’d never experienced such opulence. Crimson, plum, and luscious gold fabrics covered the bed and windows. On the walls, tapestries of the same rich colors bathed the room in affluence and luxury. I didn’t understand why I’d been thrown in a dungeon and then hurled into sumptuousness.
I didn’t dare question my fortune.
All at once, everyone left me alone. I stayed on the settee longer than I care to admit, frightened that it was a trick, that I’d been left unattended only to secure my own misfortune. After a long while, I slowly stood up, waiting a breath before I moved. My heart beat so quickly in my chest it seemed it was going to leap ahead of the rest of my body. I tiptoed across the vast room and rested my ear against the door gently. It was too thick to hear anything, so I shored up my nerve and tried to open it. Locked, of course.
A little braver, I ran to the window, easing back the heavy drapes to find iron bars like those in my dungeon. The view from my new room was a little better, however. Outside the castle, a murky fog obstructed most of the scenery, but what I could see was alarmingly eerie. It seemed the castle perched itself on the tip of a mountain. The craggy kind. Lightning cracked open the sky just then, and the clap of thunder jolted me several feet from the window.
The thought of Haden still locked in that cell agitated me. I would have to wait until they opened the door and try to make a dash then, or sometime thereafter. As I paced, I looked longingly at the bed. The duvet beckoned me. It was a deep red velvet and so ridiculously full and downy that feathers escaped the seams. A nap would certainly be welcome, but I wasn’t sure if I should let my guard down. They had trussed me up for some reason; I couldn’t afford to dull my senses until I knew what I was facing.
The bookshelf might have served as a distraction, but each tome I opened was written in a language I didn’t understand. My stomach growled ferociously, reminding me that it had been some time since my last meal. I just had no idea how much time. Haden had told me time moved differently here.
Pacing once again, I let my mind wander to the first time I’d seen Haden in the labyrinth. How wicked and extraordinary he was in his cravat and tails. Had I known where he’d take me, would I still have embarked on this journey?
Yes.
As soon as I’d made the declaration to myself, the lock on the prison door sounded as the bolt was thrown back. I stood up straight, squaring my shoulders and determining to face my destiny with courage. My newfound pluck faltered a bit when a man with no face and a perfectly tailored tuxedo entered and crossed the room to where I stood. He bowed like a gentleman, and I returned with a curtsy and a whimper. With no eyes, how did he see? Where his facial features should have been, there was nothing but taut skin.
He held his arm out to me, and I rested my hand on it. It wasn’t as if there were many choices available. He was going to take me somewhere; if he couldn’t have handled the job by himself they would have sent the skeletons to take me.
My escort’s gait was smooth and he led me gracefully through the halls of the castle. The keep was both magnificent and garish. Fine furnishings and tapestries lined the corridors, yet there were macabre touches interlaced with the luxury—a crystal bowl of eyeballs, human joints lacquered into wood, portraits of death, chilling in their intensity, hanging in gilded frames.
I had to stop looking. I kept my gaze on the floor, trusting, I suppose, that my guide would not allow me to falter. Voices grew louder as we walked, accompanied by laughter and the sound of utensils and plates. Suddenly we stopped at an archway, and all the noise diminished at our entrance.
A banquet of splendor covered the long wooden table. Guests lined only one side; on the other there were just two table settings with empty chairs. Candelabra glowed brightly, shining on the heavy china and polished silver. Enormous fruit spilled from baskets, and pitchers of beverages glistened with condensation.
I was led to an empty chair. The faceless man pulled out my seat while the rest of the guests whispered in hushed tones. I’d interrupted their merriment, but judging by the stillmoving entrée on a silver platter, the dinner party had just begun. My stomach curled at the sight of an animal I didn’t recognize squirming against the ropes that held it to the table. My gut wrenched even more when I met the gazes of my dinner companions. The same hideous dancers I recognized from my earlier trips Under ogled me like I was an iced cupcake in a bakery window.
My pulse raced. I should have tried to run away before I sat down. Every nerve in my body signaled danger. The hairs on my nape rose, urging me to run. I tried to swallow, but fear clogged my throat, gagging me until I nearly choked on it.
“Everyone, please welcome our much-honored guest, the delectable Theia.”
I turned to the speaker at the head of the table. She was gorgeous and very, very evil. I had no doubt that under her beautiful facade she was the most dangerous of all predators. And humans were her chosen prey.
Her onyx hair fell straight to her waist and looked shiny enough to see a reflection in. Her dark eyes pierced me while she smiled with no joy from her overly red lips. The resemblance to Haden shimmered beneath the surface. It was there, but fleeting. She was obviously his mother, but she was something quite a bit different from him.
A rustle at the doorway brought our attention to another guest being escorted in roughly by three skeleton guards. He fought fiercely, but they dragged him in anyway.
“Haden, what have I told you about roughhousing at the dinner table?” his mother asked.
He brought his head up sharply, and I gasped his name.
His eyes flashed and he stopped struggling when he saw me. He closed his eyes, as if he were in pain. “Mother, what have you done?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
H
aden’s mother smiled without joy. “Now that both our guests of honor have arrived, we can begin the festivities.” She spoke each word with the confidence of someone whose every whim is catered to.
aden’s mother smiled without joy. “Now that both our guests of honor have arrived, we can begin the festivities.” She spoke each word with the confidence of someone whose every whim is catered to.
Haden still fought to shrug off his guards, but stopped short, a new fear in his eyes. I followed his gaze to the head of the table, where his mother had picked up an imposing knife while she looked directly at me with a gleam in her eye.
“Haden, do sit down. I’d hate for a vicious accident to happen to your fiancée.”
Fiancée?
When he was slow to move, she added, “She’s such a lovely, delicate young thing after all.”
Fiancée?
When he was slow to move, she added, “She’s such a lovely, delicate young thing after all.”
Her words, though polite and formal, were as effective as razor wire. The guards brought Haden to the table without further incident. He sat in the chair next to me but didn’t look at me, and suddenly I felt more alone than I had in the dungeon. Below the table, he reached for my hand. His fingers, strong and sure, wrapped around mine briefly, squeezing a short burst of comfort before he pulled back again.
His message was clear. He didn’t want his mother to know how he felt about me. She was peril in a long black dress.
“Mother, I do not wish to marry. Locking me in the dungeon didn’t change my mind; neither will parading trollops in satin in front of me.”
She laughed then, mirthless and cruel. “We all know she’s no trollop, my darling boy. The scent of her innocence is quite invigorating. I’m sure I’m not the only one at the table interested in a tidbit of her. But we’ve saved her for you.” Her eyes darkened until no white was visible, just inky black orbs. “If you don’t want her, I can assure you she won’t go to waste. Not a single drop.”
Coldness seeped into my pores, chilling my blood and bones, moving through my body until I choked on my icy breath. I clutched Haden’s leg under the table in terror.
“Mother, stop.”
At once the chill disappeared and I coughed. “What do you want?” I rasped.
“Only my son’s happiness, pussycat.” She poured from a pitcher into a tall goblet. The liquid was deep red and thicker than wine. “My son laments his heritage, so his human
feelings
”—she rolled her eyes in distaste—“gobble him up from the inside. He’ll never be what he wants. You and I both know that. But I can give him the next best thing. He’ll be happy here, if he has you. So you’ll both stay.”
feelings
”—she rolled her eyes in distaste—“gobble him up from the inside. He’ll never be what he wants. You and I both know that. But I can give him the next best thing. He’ll be happy here, if he has you. So you’ll both stay.”
“I don’t want her.” My hand was still on his thigh, and I pulled it away shyly as he spoke. “She was a diversion, nothing else. A human bride would be a mistake. She’d end up just like my pitiful father.”
The words were ugly and his tone sharp, cutting my heart even as I told myself he was lying. He didn’t mean it. He couldn’t. He was just trying to throw his mother off track.
I hoped.
His mother scowled at the reminder. “Your father was weak. He could have been a king, but instead he chose to be a martyr.”
“My father had very few choices, but that is beside the point. I’m too young for marriage and I don’t want a human. They’re—” He shuddered. “They’re messy. All their emotions sour my stomach.”
I blinked back the tears. I was supposed to not want to be wanted by him, but I’m afraid I wasn’t putting on a very believable show. Messy was right.
The dark mistress regarded him ruefully while she tapped her bloodred nails on the table. “Your stomach doesn’t concern me, Haden. Your lack of accountability to this realm does. You are heir to its entirety. It’s past time you stopped wishing on stars and mooning over insignificant matters of your human heart.” She sipped her beverage and watched me closely. “Theia, I’ve been remiss in my manners. You should have taken me to task for not introducing myself to you. My name is Mara. I’m Haden’s mother, of course. Since we’re to be family, it would please me if you also called me Mother.” She paused. “I see from your expression that would make you unhappy. No doubt you miss your own mother very much. Very well, call me Mara.”
“Never say her name out loud,” Haden warned me. “Names have power here. You don’t want to give up any of yours to her.”
Again Mara laughed. Her vulgar enjoyment of my naïveté washed over me. There were no safe places to step in this world. Every footfall provided me another chance to fall flat on my face or worse. I fingered my mother’s pendant—my amulet now—as it seemed the only thing I had anchoring me to reality. The stone seemed alive under my hands.
“Tell me again how she means nothing to you, Haden.”
“I’m not going to marry her, Mother.”
“Then we’ve had a change of menu,
son
. Tomorrow we’ll pick you a new one. And we will continue to
eat your rejects
until you’ve bred an heir and taken your rightful place as Prince of this realm.” Mara’s eyes glittered with malice and she licked her lips as she stared at me. “Pussycat, the smell of your fear mixed with innocence makes you the most delectable morsel we’ve had in long, long time.” She snapped her fingers at the skeleton sentry guarding the door.
son
. Tomorrow we’ll pick you a new one. And we will continue to
eat your rejects
until you’ve bred an heir and taken your rightful place as Prince of this realm.” Mara’s eyes glittered with malice and she licked her lips as she stared at me. “Pussycat, the smell of your fear mixed with innocence makes you the most delectable morsel we’ve had in long, long time.” She snapped her fingers at the skeleton sentry guarding the door.
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