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One week ago I became Amacia: a cheater, a liar, a traitor, a witch - and worst of all, a bad friend.

She was the villainess in the worst webnovel I'd ever read, and now she was me. I didn't know this could happen in real life. Obviously - who on Earth would?!

I knew where we were at in the novel, roughly. It had been a pretty generic read, so I only remembered the big plot points. One of those big plot points was the heroine Giselle being chased out of her homelands after they accused her of being a witch. She escaped to the castle of her childhood friend Amacia, aka me, now Crown Princess of Alevia, who let her freeload in her castle. A fun fact about that plot was that it was actually my body that orchestrated that. After all, I was the true witch. I manipulated the people to think she was a witch so she'd stay with me, so I could take her power for myself.

Also I maybe already seduced her fiancé. That was about a third of the evil deeds the villainess Amacia was executed for at the end of the novel.

And Giselle was smiling at me from across the breakfast table.

Giselle had the face of a heroine. She had fluffy pink hair that curled at her chin, with bangs that fell cutely over her guileless gem-green eyes. She caught me staring and waved her fingers at me, winking.

I tried to smile back. I didn't think it came out right. Compared to Giselle, Amacia was shaped like a villain. My nose was straighter and longer. My hair was darker. My body was taller and more angular. I was pretty, though. Pretty in an almost threatening way, which was how you knew I was evil.

It wasn't just us. Everyone was more obvious here, in novel world. The good guys had light and colourful hair, the brooding men had black hair and red eyes. Children were mini clones of their parents (I found that particularly disturbing.) The background characters all had brown hair and brown eyes, and indistinct expressions. It made things easier to navigate. After all, they aren't real people. That's how I knew I could get through this.

I was sweating. In the week after I woke up as Amacia, all I'd been able to do was get my bearings. Amacia didn't have a bad life. I wondered why she needed to be so ambitious, when she already had everything. She was dressed by servants, in fabulous silks and jewels. She ate breakfast with her mother, the Queen of Alevia, her brother Derek, the Prince of Alevia, Giselle, exiled Saintess of the North, and Duke Ewen, her fiancé. Giselle and Ewen sat side by side. Sometimes he would hand feed her pieces of toast and I wanted to die. Then she would smile at me and I would realise how much I didn't want to die.

I couldn't keep floating along. I had to change the story. I had to reform Amacia.

I stood up. "Excuse me," because that sounded proper, and then I sped towards my chamber.

"Where are you going so fast, Macie?" I stopped dead. It was Ewen.

The fact that Giselle kept smiling at me meant that I hadn't been caught yet. But that didn't mean I hadn't already seduced Ewen. I was avoiding him for that reason. I didn't really want to find out by him trying to kiss me or something.

I just had to make it clear I wasn't into him in the slightest.

"Feels like we haven't talked in ages."

"Ahaha. It doesn't feel like that to me."

"Really?" His answer was too intent. His creepy red eyes bore into me. I tried not to squirm. "I suppose in a way it is like no time has passed at all for me, too, Amacia."

Urk.

"I'm sorry," he continued, quietly. "I know I left things - "

"Macie!" I whipped my head around, crushing my guilty feeling for the millionth time that day. Giselle came running up behind me, circling her arms round my shoulders. I could feel her smiling again. "You two are getting along again? I'm awfully glad. I much prefer when my best friend and betrothed are friends."

I laughed, ears hot. Ewen didn't laugh. he only smiled with something halfway between wistfulness and regret. Oh god. Was this how I changed the story. Getting caught out cheating even earlier than before???

"Darling Macie," said Giselle, intimate and unconcerned as ever. "Won't you come with me? I'm going to the market to buy some ribbons."

"I'd love to, Giselle," I said, still sweating. "Sadly, I have official duties until lunch."

She lowered her pretty, earnest eyes. "Oh. That's right. See you at lunch, then."

"See you, darling Zella." That was what Amacia called her in the novel. I'd just remebered.

Giselle smiled at me, again, over her shoulder as she skipped away. Then I realised I was alone with Ewen again.

"Official duties!" I blurted out, then ran away, in the wrong direction I soon found out.

There was a big sheet of parchment I kept stuffed under my mattress. It had the whole timeline of what I could remember from the novel, and where I thought I was up to on it. I unrolled it, and dipped my quill.

"Darling Zella," I wrote, under Giselle's name. Under Ewen's name, I wrote "maybe not just a one-time thing?" He'd taken what I said to be romantic, even though I hadn't meant it like that at all. I couldn't remember. Why had Amacia seduced him? It was definitely for evil purposes, but by then Amacia had already dissolved her engagement to him. What had he gained, that she wanted so badly? I needed to figure that out next, so I could thwart at least one of my own evil plans.

I told the servants I had a headache, and they brought me lunch in my chambers. The food here was deeply unhealthy and very delicious. The kind of food to spark a revolution against you. Luckily there weren't any revolutions in this story. There weren't even any commoner characters, except for the occasional maid. Giselle started off as a commoner, but later it turned out she was secretly royalty, on top of being a saint, so...

Giselle was in my room, again. She hadn't knocked. She was kind of starting to annoy me. "I heard you had a headache," she fluttered, all worry. "I brought you some herbs, from my little garden."

"Thank you. You're too kind."

"I'll make them into a tea."

"Oh, you don't have to."

"Nonsense. You clearly haven't been well lately. I've hardly seen you all week, I started to think you were avoiding me!"

"I'd never do that, darling." I was getting better at slipping into Amacia's voice. She was all honeyed words with a hidden sting. I might take the sting out, and just be sweet.

Giselle gave a little yelp from the fireplace. Something crashed.

"Are you all right?" I asked, stumbling across the floor to her side.

"I touched the kettle with my bare hands. How silly of me!"

"I'll get the servants to handle that. Let me look at your hand." I took it, creamy-white and soft as it looked - well, no, the palm was rusted over with calluses. She snatched it back.

"There's no great injury. I'll not have you worry when you're supposed to be the invalid. Besides, haven't you forgotten? I'm a saint." She touched my face with her good hand, rough against my cheek. Held my jaw firmly, so I'd look her in her eyes. They began to glow, and her gaze never left mine, resolute, and not exactly kind. Golden light began to rise all around us, and I felt its warmth. I'd never seen anything like it. It was like I was electrified; hairs stood on end all along my spine and I felt a buzzing at the base of my skull.

The light began to fade, and her eyes went back to normal. Her hand still gripped my jaw. Her gaze slid across my face, briefly, never landing on anything, before she pulled away. "There!" she said brightly, flashing her smooth palm at me. "All fixed!"

"Amazing! It - never gets old."

"That's right. Now, let me see to your tea."

It was long after she left before I remembered. No one was supposed to know she was a saint yet. Not even her.