Shadows and Stars

by Becca Fanning

  “Thank you,” I replied and smiled at him.

  He put on the white gloves and then bent his elbow towards me. “Shall we go?”

  “Still no sign of him?” I asked sadly and put my hand on the inside of his arm.

  “No,” he replied and I could hear the concern in his voice.

  We walked down the hallway which was filled with rushing servants and stopped at the doors that opened to the ballroom.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “No.”

  “You’ll be fine.”

  “He could be hurt or—”

  “Or he could be right here,” Eoghan said from behind me.

  We spun around and he walked up to me wearing an outfit that made him look like a fairytale king and a warrior at the same time.

  “You’re here,” I said in relief.

  He held out a rectangle box and after I took it kissed my cheek. “Happy birthday, Alyssa.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a wide smile. I opened the box and gasped. It was a diamond necklace that was no doubt worth a fortune. “This is too much,” I whispered.

  He took the necklace out and secured it around my neck. “You are worth far more than these diamonds.”

  “It’s beautiful,” I whispered appreciatively.

  “You’re far more beautiful,” he whispered back and kissed me lightly.

  Padraic cleared his throat. “I hate to interrupt, but you should enter.”

  “You’re right,” Eoghan agreed and smiled, but there was something tense about him. His body seemed more rigid than usual and the smile looked forced.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked him softly.

  “Of course not,” he whispered back.

  Lie. There was definitely something wrong. I looked over at Padraic, but he just shrugged and opened the door for us.

  “King Eoghan of the Southern Court and his guest, Princess Alyssa,” Martin announced in a booming voice to the ballroom full of people.

  They wore brightly colored dresses and suits, had more jewels than a dragon’s horde and clapped and smiled as we entered.

  Eoghan raised his hand in greeting to them with a wide smile on his face and I followed suit with a wide smile on my own face. He took me to the center of the dance floor and the musicians began playing a tune similar to what chef had sung last night while we had practiced. Eoghan took my hand, bowed over it and kissed the back before placing one hand on my waist and holding the other. “Ready?”

  I nodded and he led us into the dance. We danced around the room and despite all of the unfamiliar people watching us and the strange way he was acting, a smile spread across my face and I forgot about everything as we danced together. His smile turned genuine and everything faded into the background like in the movies when the camera focused on one couple.

  “You truly look beautiful in that dress,” he told me in a whisper.

  “Thank you. You look very handsome in your attire as well,” I replied.

  “I’m glad that I made it back in time to dance with you,” he told me and just for a second his smile slipped, but it was back in place just as quickly.

  “Me too.”

  The song ended and I curtsied to Eoghan while he bowed to me, just like Padraic and I had practiced. The shock was evident on Eoghan’s face and he pulled me close to whisper, “You practiced last night, didn’t you?”

  I nodded, but said nothing as the closeness of him made my breath catch. He spun me into another dance and we didn’t stop until it was time to cut the cake. Everyone sang me ‘Happy Birthday’ and I blushed fiercely the entire time. I blew out the candles and admired the gorgeously decorated cake one more time before it was cut.

  “What a fantastic birthday celebration,” a familiar female voice said over the noise of the guests. The guests parted and I stared in disbelief at Queen Pella.

  Padraic appeared at my side and I realized that Eoghan was gone. Where had he gone?

  “What are you doing here?” Padraic demanded, hand on his sword’s hilt and a half step in front of me.

  “I came to wish Alyssa a happy birthday and to take her back to my castle.”

  “Never!” Padraic growled.

  “Oh, but it isn’t up to you, elf. Your King has agreed to give me the girl so long as I return what was once his,” she said with a sneer and lifted her nose to look down upon us.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked nervously and searched the crowd for Eoghan again.

  She snapped her fingers and a girl no older than fifteen, bound in rope and with hair the same color as Eoghan’s, appeared on the floor between us.

  “Anastacia!” Padraic gasped and took a step towards her.

  Pella made a slashing motion and a white translucent wall appeared between Padraic and the girl. “No, no,” Pella chastised. “Give me Alyssa and then I will give you Princess Anastacia.”

  Princess? What was going on?

  Eoghan grabbed me by the upper arm and drug me forward. He shoved me hard until I fell through the wall and to my knees in front of Pella. “I’ve met my end of the bargain, now give me my sister,” he growled.

  I turned and stared at him in disbelief. He was giving me to Pella?

  “Was this whole thing a rouse?” I asked him. “Was everything a lie just to keep me here until you convinced Pella to give you back your sister?” Fat tears slid down my face and plopped into my lap as I stared at him and waited for his answer, but he refused to look at me or even acknowledge me.

  “Eoghan,” Padraic whispered. “This isn’t right. You can’t let Pella take Alyssa.”

  “I am King here!” Eoghan bellowed. “And you will do as I command.”

  Padraic shook his head and whispered, “There must be another way.”

  The wall disappeared and Eoghan picked up his sister who cried into his shoulder. He lifted his eyes to meet mine and I saw the pain and sadness there, but I knew he would not take me back. He had lied to me to save his sister.

  “Come, Alyssa. I have much planned for you. First will be a trip to the dungeons to punish you for escaping and running from me,” Pella said with a wicked sneer.

  “No,” I whispered angrily and stood up.

  Eoghan stopped and turned to face me with wide eyes.

  “No? You dare tell me no?” Pella demanded and struck me across the face. My head whipped to the side and I gasped from the pain, but I did not fall.

  “You lied to me,” I whispered to Eoghan. “You told me that you cared for me.” My anger grew and with it my body began to burn with power. I screamed, “You told me that I could live here, with you, the rest of my life! You told me that you wanted me to stay with you and never leave your side again! You asked to court me!”

  “Calm down,” Eoghan ordered me, “before your accidentally hurt someone.”

  “Did you ever care for me? Did you ever feel anything for me? Or did you steal me from Pella just to use me as a bargaining chip?” I demanded and felt my power building even more.

  “She’s had my sister for five years!” Eoghan yelled. “I thought she was dead until that night and then I saw you and knew I could rescue her. I did what I had to for my sister.”

  I sobbed and then broke the diamond necklace off from around my neck and tossed it towards him. It slammed into the ground and slid across the tile until it hit his boot. He stared at it in dismay and looked up at me nervously.

  “You could have told me,” I snapped. “I would have given myself up for your sister.”

  His eyes widened and then he put his mask back on, looking as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “This was the only way.”

  I shook my head. “Just tell me, did you ever care about me? Did you ever feel anything for me?”

  He averted his gaze and I put a hand over my mouth to keep from sobbing. Fury built within me. Pella grabbed my hair and I released the anger I felt, and punched her stomach like Padraic had taught me. Fire punched out of her back and she fell to the ground, e
yes wide, with a hole through her stomach. Blood pooled out from beneath her body and women screamed around us.

  “She’s dead,” Padraic whispered in shock.

  Eoghan took a step towards me and I held out my hand. “Do not take another step.”

  “Alyssa, listen to me,” he whispered.

  “I’ll never listen to a word you say again,” I growled. My arm became covered in fire and he stopped walking.

  “Please,” he whispered.

  “Alyssa,” Padraic whispered.

  I closed my eyes as fresh tears spilled and then snapped my fingers. Neither knew that Eddore had taught me how to teleport, so they would have no idea where to look for me. I teleported myself to Eoghan’s room with Pella’s body, packed my bag, including taking the bow Padraic had made for me. He could have been lying to me this entire time as well, but I doubted it based on his reaction when he saw Pella. I closed my eyes and pictured Pella’s chambers and just as Eoghan threw open his door, snapped my fingers, and teleported myself to her chambers.

  “Alyssa!” Eoghan’s cry echoed in my head as I teleported.

  “What’s this?” a male vampire asked when I appeared in Pella’s chambers with Pella’s dead body. There were six people in the room, one leader from each of the clans, save Eoghan.

  “From this day forward, I am your new Queen,” I told them with my head raised.

  “You can’t just decide you are our queen,” the vampire said with a hiss.

  I snapped my fingers and teleported right in front of him, then grabbed him by the throat with fire dancing along my forearm. “I am Queen. I killed Pella and unless you want to die as well, you will bow before me and acknowledge me.”

  He swallowed nervously and then every being in the room lowered themselves to a bow or curtsy. I teleported back to Pella’s throne and sat down on it. “Go to your clans and spread the word. You have a new queen and soon everything will change.”

  “Yes, Queen Alyssa,” they said as one and then left the room.

  “Guard!” I called.

  A goblin entered the room with his head bowed. “Yes, Queen Alyssa.”

  “Dispose of this body at once,” I demanded.

  “As you wish, my queen,” he said and grabbed Pella’s body and left.

  I slumped in my chair and shoved the sadness down into the box where my useless emotions had lived most of my childhood. His treachery had changed me and I had never thought an event could change someone so quickly. Yet, here I sat, Queen Alyssa of the Northern Court. My heart felt shattered and hollow at the same time and I wondered if this was what a true mage felt like. Was this enormous power simmering just beneath my skin, this desire to subjugate everyone, the desire to destroy everything around me just a part of being a mage?

  I paused and wondered if this was why the witches had killed off the mages. It made sense.

  “Your Majesty,” a young human girl whispered as she entered the room. She had black hair that was matted and dirty and her dress was stained.

  “Who are you?” I asked softly.

  She curtsied and said, “Pansy, Your Majesty.”

  “Pansy?” I asked in disbelief.

  She nodded.

  “What is it, Pansy?”

  “Would you like me to draw you a bath in your chambers?” she asked.

  “Are you from the other dimension?” I asked her. “Did you come here during the Transfer?”

  She nodded.

  “What happened to the ones who didn’t have any blood from these clans?”

  “We’re all slaves, Your Majesty,” she answered.

  Slaves? They’d taken the humans as slaves!

  “Are you all here?”

  “No, each clan, except the Southern Court, took some slaves for themselves.”

  Those jerks! “How many of you are here?”

  “Maybe fifty,” she guessed. “But I’ve never counted them so I can’t be certain.”

  “Tomorrow, we will work on that,” I told her, “but tonight I need food, a bath, and to sleep.”

  She nodded and led me to my new room, a lavish bedroom twice as big as Eoghan’s decorated in deep red. After she’d brought me food and filled my bath, I ordered her to clean herself up and get some new clothes. She’d hesitated at first, but then quickly left to do as I’d said. Tomorrow I would free all of the humans in this castle and across my Court.

  “Alyssa,” Eoghan whispered in my head.

  “Stay out!” I screamed and slammed shut my shields, sealing him out.

  Never again would I let one of these beings treat me like something less. I didn’t care that I wasn’t from this dimension. I was queen now and I would right the balance in this awful place. I supposed I should thank Eoghan for allowing me to kill Pella and become queen.

  “You’re being controlled,” Eddore whispered from in front of me.

  I stared at him in shock. “Eddore!”

  “You’re not yourself right now,” he told me.

  I rolled my eyes at him. “Of course I’m not. I’ll never be that peasant striving for attention again. Eoghan destroyed that child and now here sits your new Queen,” I said and waved at myself.

  “Queen? You’ve named yourself Queen?”

  I nodded. “I killed Pella and have taken her throne.”

  “What will the clans think?” he asked softly.

  “They already know,” I told him. I stood up and asked, “Did you know about Eoghan’s plan?”

  “Of course not,” he snapped at me. “Do you think I would have agreed to let him give you to Pella after all of the help I’ve given you? I can’t believe that boy was so stupid.”

  “Me neither,” I whispered.

  “What are you going to do?” he asked me.

  “Free the humans,” I said and ran my fingers across the silk sheets of the bed.

  “Will you retaliate against Eoghan?” he asked softly.

  I shook my head. “No, but he’s forbidden from entering my territory.”

  “You sealed your territory?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “Only from him.”

  “How did you do that?” he asked softly.

  How did I do that? I hadn’t even thought about it until he said something. Was I being controlled? I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just know that I did it.”

  “Don’t you see that you’re being controlled?” he asked.

  “The only one who was controlling me was Eoghan,” I growled and a vase across the room shattered.

  “He was trying to rescue his sister,” he said. “Though the idiot went about it wrong, he does care for you.”

  “Do not mention him anymore!” I screamed and my bed caught on fire. I extinguished it and exhaled. I needed to calm down.

  “Will you kill me?” he asked.

  I looked at him in disbelief. “Of course not! I can’t believe you even asked me that.”

  He exhaled and asked, “Then why are you holding a knife?”

  I looked down at my hand in shock. “I…”

  “Let me help you,” he whispered.

  I nodded and he touched my face. Acid burned through my body and then I felt something sever from me. The hate I had felt disappeared and I collapsed to the ground.

  “What was that?” I asked him breathlessly.

  He spoke a word of magic and Martin appeared in front of us with his eyes glowing orange. “Martin is a witch,” Eddore explained. “He was possessing you and controlling you.”

  “Why?” I asked him in disbelief. “I never did anything to you.”

  “That boy was falling for you,” he snapped. “If he had married you like he had planned, you would have repopulated the mage race and ruined hundreds of years of work.”

  “Why do the witches want the mages killed?” I asked him.

  “You’re too powerful,” he said bitterly. “You felt it when you announced yourself Queen.”

  He was right.

  “Were you controlling Eoghan?”

&
nbsp; He laughed. “No, he betrayed you all on his own.”

  Dammit. “What type of punishment is usually given under the circumstances?” I asked Eddore.

  “Death.”

  “Eoghan won’t forgive you if you kill me,” Martin said with a smirk.

  “Then allow me,” Padraic snarled and before I could stop him, he decapitated Martin.

  “Padraic! What are you doing here? How did you get here so fast? Why—”

  Padraic cleaned his sword off using Martin’s shirt and looked at me with pity. “I didn’t know about Eoghan’s plan,” he whispered.

  I believed him.

  “He tried to come with me, but you sealed the border so that he couldn’t cross,” Padraic said.

  “There’s a reason for that,” I whispered and turned away from him.

  “Won’t you let him explain?” Padraic asked.

  “No. I don’t want to see him or hear from him.”

  “What are you doing here anyway?” Padraic asked me and looked around Pella’s room.

  “She’s Queen now,” Eddore told him.

  “What?”

  “Martin possessed her and helped her kill Pella and then had her proclaim herself Queen. He had planned to continue controlling her, but I was able to exorcise him,” Eddore explained further.

  “You’re Queen?” Padraic asked.

  “Yes,” I answered without looking at him. It hurt so much to have him here. To know that Eoghan wanted to talk to me and that Padraic was trying to help.

  “So, you won’t come back?” Padraic asked.

  “Never,” I whispered. “I won’t let him lie to me ever again.”

  “He didn’t want to hurt you,” Padraic whispered.

  I spun around and glared at him. “Do not make excuses for him! He planned this and planned to give me to Pella! He used me!”

  “What about me?” he asked.

  “What about you?” I asked back.

  “Will you shut me out of your life?” he asked.

  “I don’t want to,” I whispered and choked on a sob. “I didn’t seal you out.” He reached out towards me and I leapt back and shook my head. “No, I can’t…it hurts too much.”

  “I have to return,” he whispered.

  “You could stay here,” I offered.

  He shook his head sadly and I thought I saw a tear fall to the carpet. “I’m his guard.”