two days had passed. I hadn’t cried much, really. Seth and I had practiced what we were going to say, and I made sure he would change the color of his eyes to something less… unnerving. I stood behind him at the mirror as they darkened into a warm honey-brown. I wanted to make sure he wouldn’t try anything too strange.
When he’d finished, we gathered what little we’d brought with us. I was still wearing Seth’s cloak, so he was wearing a black button-up shirt and black pants. He looked like someone you might meet in a bar. Or a brothel.
“okay,” he sighed, looking at the pink bundle that was my old, muddy dress. “That’s all we have?”
I grabbed the small clock off the nightstand. “We’re taking this, too. There’s only two clocks in that whole place and only one of them works.” I rolled my eyes. “It’s ridiculous, really.”
Seth shrugged. “You’d think that a place owned by royalty would have better upkeep.” He noted. I nodded as I tucked the clock into the bundle of fabric. “You’d think they’d have a better chaperone, too.” I snorted.
“what’d he do?”
“he hates me, just because I’m from the village.” I told Seth. He tilted his head. “Doesn’t want you mixing with his pure royal nobility, huh? Well, there’s always a chance you won’t be the one to marry Prince Marcus.” Seth leaned back lazily.
I blushed. “Hey, I might! You never know!”
Seth smirked. “Hold up… do you want to marry him?”
My face started blooming redder and redder. “... n-no. Maybe. I don’t know.”
“does he like you?”
I looked down trying to hide my tomato red skin. “He kissed me.”
Seth nearly fell off the bed laughing. I glared at him and grabbed my pillow, ready to throw it at him. “Shut up!” I cried, hurtling it at him. Seth caught it in the air, and sat down again, still grinning.
“Liliad, I’m a seer, okay?” I wrinkled my nose. “I’ve seen that guy in his room, practicing over and over what he should say to you, what he should do…”
“ugh, you’re a creep.” I snorted, but a smile was tugging at me. “Stay out of my business, won’t you?”
“don’t be ridiculous. Why would I?” Seth laughed. “Relax, you’re my spirit sister, remember? Anyway, you’re going to want to pay attention to dancing classes. Ready to go?”
I winced. “Dancing. Jeez.” I picked up my bundle and followed Seth out the door. He took my hand and told me to close my eyes and picture the castle.
my stomach jerked forward and I screamed. Light flashed in front of my eyes, shining red and stinging. My eyes flew open.
it was dawn. The rising sun beat down on the back of my neck. I gaped at Seth.
“You could’ve warned me, you jerk!” I yelled, punching his arm. Seth yelped and jumped back. “Hey, I got us back, didn’t I?” His eyes flickered back to their original color. I glared at him. “Fix your eyes!” I hissed.
“LILIAD!”
I turned around. Everyone was in the garden. Gwen was the one who screamed, running towards us at break-neck speed. She tackled me to the ground.
“Gwen!”
Guinevere hugged me tightly, both of us spilled over in the lush green grass. “Oh Liliad I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry! I shouldn’t have argued with you, Liliad. Did you leave because of me?”
“technically she was kidnapped,” Seth interrupted. I looked around Gwen’s curly hair. “Technically, you kidnapped me.” I reminded him.
“I was forced to!” Seth cried defensively.
“you kidnapped her?!” Cass yelled, stomping over. Rune, Valentina, Grace… Everyone was running behind her.
Seth put up his hands in surrender. “Umm, kind of?”
Cass stopped in front of him with a huff, her curly pale hair bouncing. She looked him up and down, nodded to herself, then slapped Seth across the face.
“oh!” I exclaimed, scrambling to my feet. Seth was doubled over, clutching his nose. I put my hands on his shoulders. “Seth! Are you okay?”
He glanced at me, trying to hide the blood behind his hand. “Is she always like that?” He muttered.
“I’ve seen her throw potted plants at daemons,” I breathed. “So… yeah.”
“yeesh,” he cringed, but turned to Cass with a big, brilliant smile. “Hey. I’m Seth.”
Cass popped her hands on her hips. “I don’t care! You don’t get to just kidnap my friend like that!” Seth still had a hand over his bloodily nose. I wrenched his hand away and ripped a shred of fabric off my bundle. I tried to wipe the blood, and he batted my hand away.
“stop it, sis!”
I punched his arm lightly. “I told you not to call me that!”
Seth flicked his eyes to their normal color and I glared at him. “Seth,” I growled he sighed and leaned back on his heels. I wiped away the rest of the blood and turned back to Cass and the others.
“did he just call you sis?” Velma asked. “I didn’t know you had a brother.” I rolled my eyes. “I don’t. Seth’s just weird.”
an uncomfortable silence settled over us.
“sooo… how exactly do you two know each other?” Rune piped up. I gripped Seth’s arm tightly. No talking, I thought loudly, hoping he was listening.
“the weird ghost people forced him to take me and locked us up together for two days.”
“three days,” Gwen corrected. “You’ve been gone for three days.”
I tried to look surprised. We’d planned that.
“three days,” I muttered. “Right.”
Kai pushed his way through the crowd and nearly fell into me. His hands were warm on my back. I closed my eyes and sunk into him.
“I was so worried,” he whispered.
“me too,” I murmured. My heart was pounding. I could barely breathe, he was squeezing so tight.
“leave a little room for Jesus,” Velma snapped, pushing Kai away. Kai glared at her. I didn’t even know where she came from.
Everyone turned to go inside the Castle. They’d been out in the garden, around the back. Seth leaned in to me and whispered, “so was that the prince?”
I gave him a funny look. “Who?”
“You know, the guy who was acting like you died.”
“What? No, that was Kai. He's an old friend of mine.”
Seth smirked. “Friend. Right.”
I wrinkled my nose as everyone dispersed up the stairs. I stopped him at the base of the staircase. “Oh, what now you cosmic snoop?” Seth laughed. “Nothing, it’s just… oh come on, sis. I saw the way he looked at you. The way you looked at him…”
“I told you not to call me that,” I growled, stomping up to my room. Seth followed right behind. “Are you sure he’s not the prince?”
“Aren’t you a damn seer? Go find out for yourself!” I snapped.
Seth’s eyes flickered back to their normal color. “Oh, nope. You’re right. However, there is an alternate dimension where the prince is his half-brother.” he considered as I opened the door. I turned back to him. “Wait, really?”
“Yeah-”
“Liliad!”
Marcus came puffing up the steps, out of breath. I smiled at him. “Marcus!”
I ran over and fell into his arms. He clutched me tight, then pulled away to study my face. “What happened? I mean, Cass told me you were back, but… you’re wearing one of their cloaks?”
I laughed and clutched my bundle tighter. “Yeah. I'm starting to regret that I went back for the dress.” Marcus grinned, and I noticed there were bags under his eyes. Had he even slept at all?
“Hey, listen, they’re doing this whole match’s ball at the end of the month,” Marcus blurted. “They’re bringing some of the boys you got matched with, and a few extras to even it out. So… dancing lessons and stuff. They were going to cancel it when you disappeared but... “ he shrugged and started backing towards the stairs going to the third floor. “Just thought you might want to know!” he dashed up the steps.
I turned to Seth, my eyes wide. “Dancing classes. You told me to pay attention in dancing classes.” Seth smirked and pointed to the door. “Are you going in or what?”
*.*.*.*.*
“I’d like to say something,” Seth stood up, tapping a spoon on his glass like he was making a toast. Everyone looked up from their dinner- boiled peas and roasted pork for the most part, along with soup, bread, and all kinds of things i couldn’t pronounce.
“Liliad and i were talking today, and we would like to offer up an… opportunity of sorts.” seth glanced at me before continuing. “We recognize that you all have your own lives and stuff, but we would like for you to help us fight back against the Boreads. We can trigger your magic, if you will help us. You don’t have to answer now-”
“I’m in!” Cass declared, jumping to her feet. For once she wasn’t laughing-her face was hard as stone.
“I’ll do it, too,” Kayla said.
A few other voices followed- Gwen, Undine, Selene, Grace, even Agatha. After a pause, Marcus agreed, then (somehow) Edda, Lavinia, Acosta, Kai, Therressa… until even Velma had chimed in with, “well, if all of you are doing it…”
Sir Abdalah looked aghast. “This is… this is outrageous! I’ll call the king at once!” he dashed out of the hall.
“Cool! I’ve kinda missed having dad around!” Marcus called. “Tell him to bring Cece and Maya, would you?”
“Who?” Rune asked.
“My baby sister’s name is Cecilia. Maya is my cat.”
I giggled. A few eyes turned to me.
“Okayyyy,” Seth muttered. “That aside, I’d like to do this as soon as possible, so we should have some place to meet tonight…”
“The library,” Valentina offered. “That’s where we had the seance.”
“Great memories,” Gwen winked at me. I blushed.
“Cool. library at midnight, everyone?”
“Why midnight?” Cass asked. Seth shrugged. “It adds some mystery.” Cass rolled her eyes. Seth grinned.
This was going to be a long night.
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