The Fae Princess' Hidden Fate

8.

"Are you sure about this?" Abigail asked as I stood in front of the mirror and looked at my reflection. 

The sun had set about an hour ago, and I was feeling jittery and nervous all of a sudden. When I stared at my face again, I thought the dark circles around my eyes were getting more prominent with each passing moment. I stared down at my dress, trying to distract myself. 

The dress was a crimson, strapless one, with a short slit up the side. The color highlighted my dark skin that shone under the candle light. Lace patchwork were sewn across the entire neckline, and black trimmings lined the bottom part of the dress. It was beautiful, and far too formal for a casual dinner with my family. My hair had been done up as well, and it was twisted into a messy bun with a few strands falling so they framed my face. With how curly my hair was, it made it seem like I hadn't put much effort into this look, when in fact I had spent the last three hours trying to get ready. 

And I certainly do not know why I was doing all this for a family dinner and nothing more.

'You do know why,' was the thought that crossed my mind, and one I chose to ignore and focus on something else.

"I'm sure," I said, willing myself to be confident. Tonight had to go perfectly. And I would do whatever I could to ensure that it did. Sebastian was a part of me now, no matter how the idea might upset everyone around me. If we were going to make this work, and hopefully find a loophole which would allow us to break the law, then I needed him close and I needed him to trust me. 

"But what if he destroys everything?" Abigail asked with a concerned look in her eyes. "What if he disrupts dinner, and he infuriates your father so much that he decides to have him executed right on the spot?"

"Father would never do that."

"Why not?"

"Because he knows it would hurt me as well."

She stepped back, and this time she looked at my face through the mirror. "Do you care about him?"

I had to think about the question properly. Did I care about Sebastian? Surely it would seem strange if I did. I had only just met him after all. So how could I care about someone who I had known for less than a day?

"Yesterday, at this time," I said, "I didn't even know he was existing. So I think it's a bit of a far stretch to assume that I care about him after only just meeting him."

But even as I said that, the thought of something happening to him left a bitter taste in my mouth. It left me feeling as though someone had stabbed me in the chest with a very blunt and rusty old blade, and I felt like my soul was caving in. I supposed that was just the spell doing its work. 

Was this how it would always be? Would I always feel this attachment which threatened to tear me apart?

I stepped away from the mirror, and I drew in a slow breath. Dinner would be fine. It had to be. My parents would just have to learn to accept Sebastian, the same way I had learned to accept him. 

"What do humans even eat?" Abigail asked as we stepped out of the room. The guards immediately bowed, and they fell into step on either side of us. 

"I'm not sure," I replied. "I'll just have to ask him, won't I?"

"Right," she said, biting her lip hesitantly. We made it to the dining room, where mother and father were already seated. I was surprised to find Antonio sitting there as well, and he looked up at me, his mouth falling open at the sight. Mother briefly glanced at me before she turned away, and father smiled encouragingly. 

"Ah, there you are Layla," he said. "We were beginning to wonder if you had changed your mind about dinner."

"I was just getting ready," I replied with a brief smile. "Sorry for keeping you all waiting."

As I approached the table, Antonio rose from his seat, and he inclined his head towards me as a show of respect and adoration. I scoffed at the gesture. I didn't want him thinking that he could win favours with me anymore. He had chosen his path already, and now destiny was taking me in an entirely different path. 

"You look absolutely ravishing, Princess," he said. "Your beauty is as radiant as the sun, and as enchanting as the moon itself. Mere words do not do justice to you. You are just so..."

"Thank you, Antonio," I cut him off, smiling weakly at him. From the look on mother's face, I could tell that she was the one who invited him to dinner. She would know how much I despised his presence, and she would decide to use it as a way of spiting me. She was furious with me, but I wasn't about to crawl back to her in apology. I would allow her some time to work through her anger before I made an effort. 

I had just sat down when the doors swung open and Sebastian walked in. My eyes widened immediately, and I was stunned to see how transformed he was. Even though he was now leaning heavily on a cane, he still looked very handsome. 

He wore a black tunic over a white shirt, with black trousers and black boots. His hair was washed and pushed back, and his face seemed to shine with a light of its own. 

"Your majesties," he said, pausing at the end of the table and attempting a careful bow without toppling to the ground. He managed a half-decent one before father raised his hand and stopped him. 

"That's alright," he said. "Please, have a seat."

"Forgive me, but I got lost on the way," Sebastian attempted to smile as he took his seat beside me. "You have a very beautiful home. Everything is so grand and stunning."

Father merely smiled. Mother, who was sitting to his right, did not even look in Sebastian's direction. She instead focused on her plate, while the servants stepped forward to serve the food. As they opened the dishes, the smell of smoked ham, mashed potatoes and my favourite chicken broth suddenly wafted in the air, making my mouth water. I couldn't take my eyes off the food, while my plate was being filled. 

Sebastian was looking at me the whole time, his mouth slightly parted. I could tell that he wanted to talk to me, but he didn't know the right way to do that, or if he was even allowed. I decided I would pretend I wasn't looking at him, just to make him even more uncomfortable than he already was. 

"So," father said as we began to eat, "Layla tells me your name is Sebastian, isn't it?"

"Y-yes, your majesty," he replied immediately. 

"And how were you able to remember your name if you can't remember anything else about yourself?" mother suddenly asked in a very harsh tone. 

The clattering of spoons against plates stopped immediately. Everyone froze immediately, and I got the strangest, sinking feeling. 

I knew things were going to go badly, but I hadn't expected them to go so horribly right from the start. I had assumed that everything would at least run smoothly for a little while, before they would begin to attack him. But it seemed I wouldn't even be spared a single minute of decency before the chaos ensued. 

I looked up at mother, and saw the almost cynical look in her eyes. She wanted to make this difficult, and she knew just the right thing to say which would cause as much problems as she would like. 

Sebastian, however, didn't seem bothered by it. He merely sighed, and he looked up at her like she had merely asked him how the weather was. 

"I'm as surprised as you are, Your Majesty," he said with a smile which seemed too good to be true. "Believe me, I have tried everything I can to see that I recall some remnants of my past life, because I am even more desperate than you are for the truth. But I cannot remember anything."

"Nothing at all?" Antonio suddenly asked with his eyes narrowed, as though he was a high-ranking member of the family who could also ask any questions he wanted. I gripped my fork tighter, as my anger began to grow just beneath the surface. If this continued, then I did know how long I could continue to keep my anger in check. 

"Well, there is one thing," Sebastian said, which immediately caught my attention. Everyone looked up at him, and even mother couldn't contain her curiosity as she looked up at him. I was practically on the edge of my seat, waiting to listen to whatever he had to say. 

"I remember a voice," he said, staring down at his plate with a blank expression on his face. "It was a woman's voice, but I can't quite figure out what she was saying to me. Her voice sounded familiar, though. And I think she was a stranger I didn't know when I met her. She was talking to me, and the words she said are nothing but a jumbled mess in my head. I can hear two other women's voices as well, but these two were screaming. There was a fire, so hot that it felt my my skin was being burnt from the inside out. And the women screaming are the only sound which occupies my thoughts. They were in pain, but not as much pain as I was in. I don't remember where it was, or what exactly had happened. But the voices remain, and I feel like a part of me is dying every time I hear their screams."

He looked up then, and saw that all of us were staring at him, fully immersed in what he was saying. He tried to smile, but the silence persisted, and if it wasn't for the crackling in the fireplace, not even a pin drop could have been heard. We were all so stunned by everything he had said, and I couldn't shake off the sense of dread which settled on me. I saw that mother and father exchanged quick looks out of the corner of my eyes, and I wondered what that meant. Perhaps there was something they weren't telling me. 

But then father cleared his voice, and as he stabbed his steak with a fork, the spell was broken and everyone except me resumed their eating. 

"Well," he said, "it sounds like perhaps you witnessed a village being raided. Sometimes, these things are so horrible to witness that our mind, wanting nothing more than to preserve itself, will choose to forget everything it saw. In your case, this sounds like it was so brutal that you lost your entire memories."

"Or maybe he is lying, and trying to throw us off his trail," mother said scornfully. 

"And why would he lie about that, mother?" I asked bitingly. 

"How would I know the answer to that?" she snapped back at me. "Shouldn't you be the one to tell us the truth, if he is lying or not? Both of you are practically the same person now."

I pushed away from the table angrily, slamming my hands on it so loudly that it caused Sebastian and Antonio to jump. Anger rose to my mind, and as I looked at mother, that anger threatened to take control of me. But I kept it in check with great difficulty, and I looked at father with the rage still building up inside me. 

"I want Sebastian to be given a room here," I simply said. "And he will need something to keep him busy until his wounds heal."

"Of course," father said, coughing awkwardly. "Perhaps he could tend to the horses. The rooms outside the stables should be enough for him, I assume."

"Thank you, Father." I said with a forced smile, stepping away from the table. "Now if you'll excuse me, I don't see the point to this dinner anymore."

I walked away, and I could feel their eyes on me. But I didn't stop until I reached the door, which I threw open myself without waiting for the guards. 

As soon as I stepped into the hallway, I felt a sudden sharp pain in my chest, and I had to hold the wall before I was able to steady myself. A sharp throbbing started in my head, and it was like a wild animal had been let loose in my head. 

And then I heard the screaming, exactly how Sebastian had described it. And in the middle of it, the woman's voice came to me, a cold and deadly voice which made me tremble all over. 

"The darkness shall take them all," she whispered.