A formal invitation to a tea party was the last thing I needed. I had a hunch that my stepsisters didn’t find my punishment for my tussle with Marielle harsh enough and wanted to take justice into their own hands. A few days ago, I would have been overjoyed by such an offer. 

I entered the boudoir, which was blooming with garlands of begonias and tables of exquisite cakes. My stepsisters welcomed me warmly. 

“Thank you for accepting our invitation!” Athenais beamed. 

“We want to offer a truce,” Georgina added. “Plus, there is a new court dance you just must learn.”

Their bubbly demeanor didn’t bode well. I examined the three of them closely, unwilling to let them take me by surprise this time. 

Over the years, I had constantly compared myself to them. They’ve always been so impossibly skinny and diaphanous. 

From my human side, I had kept a milk white complexion, although the first rays of sun turned my skin an amber color, matching my eyes. My waist was skinny like my sisters’, but my hips were round. In the winters, my curves made me spill out of my dresses and draw extra attention, which they shamed me for endlessly. In the summers, when I spent more time outdoors, I'd quickly put on muscle that made me look strange and menacing. I was never able to fit in, and another tea party wasn’t about to change that, yet here I was.

After sharing delicately flavored cups of tea with my step-sisters, and discussing the latest court trends, they were ready to show me the dance. Athenais clasped one of my hands while Georgina grabbed the other. Their hands were softer than mine, but I didn’t like feeling their skin. Olympia hesitantly closed the circle. She had always followed her sisters’ cruelty rather than instilled it, so through the years, I learned to identify that a reluctant Olympia was a bad sign. 

Athenais started spinning us all in a circle, and swiftly, we were exchanging partners. My skin prickled as I noticed Georgina and Athenais sharing knowing glances. 

I must stay in control of this situation.

I was passed around from Athenais to Georgina to Olympia, and even Marielle. Suddenly, my eye caught an odd flash of gold behind me. A lock of my silver hair dropped to the floor. Marielle giggled as Georgina held on to my hand, tightly. Someone was holding scissors. 

“This is all part of the dance!” Georgina exclaimed, her eyes narrowed into two evil slits. 

The air was thick with the sugary smell of flowers and wine. My head was spinning. As they took turns clutching my hands while the others snipped shreds of my dress or strands of my hair, I once again felt helpless…until one of them slapped me. I was unable to tell who it was, although I suspected Athenais or Marielle. My cheek burned hot, more from the building humiliation than from the pain. It was soon replaced by a new blaze, rising from the anger in my stomach. 

If they wanted to dance, so be it. Demons could dance too. I had read about their dances in one of the books I used to squirrel away from the castle library. I was so terrified to find out that the sickening stories Franco would tell me about them were true. That the odd bonds we shared with animals was due to the fact that we, too, were brutal beasts. That our unnaturally colored eyes were the sign of the devil. That our nails were sharp because we used them to tear through flesh. I became obsessed with knowing whether or not I was going to become a monstrous, bloodthirsty creature. 

I plastered a smile on my face and redoubled my step, clutching Athenais’s hand. She tried to wriggle it free of my grasp, but demon women are stronger than their frail human counterparts. 

“Let me show you a dance I know,” I told them coolly. 

As they went to pass me around once more, I raised my elbow, hard. It connected with something. Marielle screamed and doubled over. 

“My nose!!” Marielle held her reddening face in pain. 

I waltzed around swiftly, and before my step-sisters could tell what was coming, I threw my hands up, as if to clap in rhythm. But instead of clapping, I slapped both Athenais and Georgina at once, delighting in the sharp sound of my hand against their cheeks.  

My stepsisters stared at me, wide-eyed, faces red and hair dishevelled. Athenais’ gossamer dress was torn where I had stepped on it, and Georgina’s silky bow was lopsided atop her head. I could have sworn I saw the shadow of a smile on Olympia’s lips as she looked at her sisters. 

“How oafish of me!” I apologized. “It must be my demon side. We can be terribly clumsy.”

And with that, I spun around and left them to the rest of their little party. 

Rage burned my cheeks. My decision was made. I would find a way to leave this noxious castle. I stormed back into my bedroom, resolute. I had to put as much distance as I could between these monsters and myself. 

Frantically, I pulled the few useful possessions I owned out of my drawers and gathered them on my bed. A few dresses, a leather pack, and my childhood treasures. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do. 

I examined myself in the mirror. My silver hair fell over my shoulders in unkempt curls, one side longer than the other. I tended to the few cuts on my neck and arms, from when my sisters grazed my skin with their sharp scissors. 

This will actually work better than a letter…

The brazen eyes staring back at me in the mirror, unblinking, didn’t feel like my own. A potent, fervent determination made me grit my teeth and harden my jaw. 

All I needed now was a map and some documents. And I knew just where to find them...Duke Franco’s office.

The particulars of my strategy were coming into clearer focus. I was going to steal diplomatic documents from Franco’s office in order to prove my good faith. With those, plus the cuts on my neck and arms displaying my adoptive family’s abuse, I had a shot at convincing Spendios to rescue me. When translating the negotiations in two days, I would ask him for help. It was riskier than a letter, but I had no other choice...