by Shelby Hild
A woman’s silhouette nodded to the man before she turned and walked away.
One of the Chosen is a traitor was the only thought that went through Vivilyn’s head before she fell into a deep sleep without any other dreams.
Chapter 18
“How was your date?” Darissa asked as soon as they both awoke the next morning. She had kindly waited until Vivilyn began to move and sit up before asking anything. It was obvious Darissa had been waiting since she was already showered and dressed.
Vivilyn sat up with the blankets still over her shoulders. The cold had seeped into the walls of the manor through the night despite the lit fireplaces, causing the whole room to be cold enough she thought she could see her breath.
Her eyes felt dry and swollen, probably from all the crying she’d done the night before. She had gone through so many emotions in such a short amount of time, she was surprised she’d slept at all.
When she looked up at her roommate, all of those feelings came rushing back.
She told Darissa everything.
Not just about the date, but everything she’d been feeling since arriving at the manor, the fear, the doubt, the discouragement, feeling as though she was a fraud. Everything.
With each expression of her feelings that she gave, Darissa smiled wider and wider.
When she finished speaking, ending with the long talk she’d had with Maxwell just outside their rooms, Darissa sat next to her on the bed and gave her a tight hug.
“Thank you,” Darissa said as she released her from the embrace.
“For what?”
“For finally trusting me enough to tell me what you were feeling.” Darissa hugged her again in her excitement.
“What do you mean?” Vivilyn held her hand up to her mouth to hide a yawn.
“It has been obvious you’ve been struggling with something,” Darissa said as she stood back up. “To be honest, I wanted to confront you about it ages ago, but Papa told me that wasn’t a good idea and that when the time was right, you’d open up to me. And you finally told me about it. Friends tell friends things, but more than that, admitting to things makes it easier to heal from them.”
“I guess,” Vivilyn said, with a heavy sigh.
“Viv,” Darissa replied firmly, looking back at Vivilyn again, “I know you probably can’t see it right now, but people here do think you belong. But until you believe it, then it won’t matter what we say.”
“How can you be so sure?” she asked as she pushed the blankets off herself to start getting ready for the day.
“Although there’s a lot I still need to learn,” Darissa said as Vivilyn moved over to the wardrobes, “I do know that even as I’m growing, I have to accept all of me. The good, the bad, the light, the dark. All of it. If I don’t, then I’m just a shell of a person and I can’t grow into who I can become.
“It’s the same with you. You’re doubting different aspects of yourself and that’s hurting only you. You have to accept all of you to be able to accept any of you.” Darissa shrugged. “At least, that’s what Papa always tells me.”
She pondered what Darissa said even after her roommate left the room for breakfast.
It took Vivilyn thirty more minutes before she was ready to go face those in the dining room. It was mid-morning when she made her way down the stairs.
As she stepped into the room with food, the only person who remained was Brayleigh and a few cameramen, including both Maxwell and Ally.
Although her plate was empty, Brayleigh seemed to be picking at crumbs frustratedly and Vivilyn noticed dark shadows moving sluggishly across her face. Brayleigh didn’t look up as Vivilyn moved through the buffet, collecting some eggs and toast.
That changed when Vivilyn sat down.
Brayleigh stood up and grabbed a muffin from the buffet before she sat right next to Vivilyn.
“It has been brought to my attention,” Brayleigh said, looking directly into Vivilyn’s eyes, “that perhaps something I have said to you caused you some internal conflict and I apologize for that.”
“What?” Vivilyn asked, shocked, with a mouthful of scrambled eggs.
“Rissa talked to me this morning.” She said it as though that explained everything. When Vivilyn continued to stare confusedly, she eventually elaborated, “I might not know a lot of things, but I do know if Rissa is enough upset at me for something I have said or done that she actually mentions it, then I have screwed up.”
“Why?” Vivilyn said before she shoveled more eggs into her mouth.
“It’s Darissa. You’ve met her. You’ve spent time with her. That woman has the heart and soul of a… there’s nothing even to compare her goodness to, she’s got that kind of heart.”
Vivilyn nodded. The woman’s aura gave nothing but positive and calming effects.
“She told me how my words earlier may have had more of an effect than I intended them to. I apologize.”
Vivilyn wasn’t sure how to take what Brayleigh was saying. She nibbled at a piece of toast as she considered how to respond.
After pondering it for a few moments, just long enough for Brayleigh to start shifting uncomfortably in her chair, Vivilyn looked over at Maxwell and nodded for him to come a little closer. Brayleigh stiffened slightly as both Maxwell and Ally approached from different angles.
Vivilyn knew she had done herself and everyone who supported her a disservice while here in Crysteal, and she needed to be as honest with them as she could.
After seeing all the people who supported her on the screen, the main thing they all seemed to have in common was they loved how real she appeared. Ever since she changed her hair, she’d been trying to change who she was. That wasn’t real. That was probably the most insincere thing she could have done.
Now, she needed to explain what happened. And although there had been cameras around when Brayleigh had spoken to her, the people deserved to understand where her mind had been at.
“Actually,” Vivilyn said as she sat her toast on the plate in front of her, “I’ve been meaning to thank you.”
“Thank me?” Brayleigh scoffed. “What are you talking about?”
“When you called me a fraud in front of everyone like that, honestly, it shouldn’t have affected me as it did. But the woman I interacted with before we got here had also claimed I was a fraud. Apparently, I’m being shown to the people as being one of them, but there is so much they’ve gone through that no matter where I come from, I haven’t had to experience.
“I tried to grapple with the fact that I’m not ‘of the people,’ but as you so often point out, I’m also not of Rank. I’m nowhere near being considered ‘above the people’ as you are.
“So since I’ve been here, I’ve been struggling to figure out who exactly I am and where I fit in all of this.”
Vivilyn shifted her attention between the cameras and Brayleigh.
“If it hadn’t been for you, then I wouldn’t have struggled so much.”
“And you’re thanking me for that?”
“If I hadn’t struggled so much, then I would never have come to the realization that I don’t need to be either of or above the people. I just need to be me. And if you don’t like that, it doesn’t matter. We don’t have to be friends. I’d prefer us being able to be civil, but I’m not here for you. I’m not here because of you.
“I’m here because the gods have granted me this chance. I may not win this thing, but I won’t let people like you make me feel the need to change any more. This is the biggest chance I’ll possibly ever have at growing into the best me I can be and if I happen to fall in love and win this, then great. But I’m not going to crawl down a path someone else deems for me.”
When she was done, Brayleigh didn’t speak for a few moments. The woman did let the corner of her mouth raise into an almost smile.
“Maybe you have more backbone than I thought,” Brayleigh replied. “You’ll need that at court.” She nodded to herself before nibbling slightly at her lower
lip. “Is there any chance that we could try this all again? Restart? I’ve not been fair to you at all in any of this. In fact, it has been made abundantly clear to me that I have been downright cruel.”
Before she could respond, the air in the room seemed to grow heavy. Vivilyn’s lungs felt as though she were under an entire lake’s worth of water. Darkness grew all around her.
Something was wrong.
“Can you say something? Anything?” Brayleigh asked. Her voice sounded so far away and muffled, almost as though Vivilyn was trying to hear her through water.
“We have to go,” she said as she stood up quickly. Her legs started moving her towards the big library in the building before Brayleigh had a chance to argue or question her. Surprisingly, Brayleigh ran with her. The cameramen sprinted to keep up behind them.
“What is going on?” Brayleigh asked as Vivilyn tried to open the library door. It was stuck closed.
“Something bad is about to happen,” Vivilyn said. “We have to stop it.”
She didn’t know what, but everything in her said she needed to get into the library. Shadows seemed to be growing all around the two women.
“Like what?” Brayleigh sounded nervous, almost as though she could sense the darkness rising as well.
“I don’t know, but we need to get in here.” Vivilyn pushed at the door again. It still didn’t budge. Her hands began to shake as her nerves grew more unsteady.
“Well, step one is unlocking the door,” Brayleigh said as she flicked a button above the handle. The door clicked and she pulled it open.
After both women entered the library, a strong wind blew through the room and forced the door behind them to slam, locking both Maxwell and Ally outside. They tried reopening it, but the door was firmly stuck.
Brayleigh gave up on letting the cameramen in moments before Vivilyn and turned to face the room.
“That’s new,” Brayleigh said, as she walked further into the library. Before Vivilyn saw what Brayleigh was talking about, her breathing grew rapid with dread. The bookcase Vivilyn and Prince Aiden had knocked over was not in front of the hidden doorway any longer. And the no-longer-hidden doorway was wide open.
“We’re not going in there, are we?” Brayleigh asked. She shook her head and tried to step away from what felt like a gaping maw to the stomach of a giant mass of anger and hatred.
“I don’t want to,” Vivilyn replied quietly.
“But we are going to, aren’t we? Whatever is happening is in there and since you like running toward danger rather than away, we’ll be going straight into the mouth of it.”
Brayleigh sighed.
At Vivilyn’s nod, she waved her hands in an “after you” motion.
From the moment Vivilyn stepped into the hidden hallway, every instinct tried to convince her to turn around immediately. The pressure of the air seemed to grow heavier and heavier until it matched how it felt near the dark mass in the old throne room. Her heart hammered and it felt as though the walls were closing in on her.
Brayleigh constantly whispering that she didn’t like this and they shouldn’t be there did not help calm Vivilyn’s nerves at all.
They rapidly walked and sometimes even ran through the dusty, claustrophobic hallway. Although it didn’t turn or curve in any way that they could perceive, they did notice it sloped steeply downward.
“Come on, Prince Aiden,” Marisol’s voice echoed through the hallway. “I’m not having fun anymore. Whatever this is, I don’t like it.”
The sound of panic in Marisol’s voice caused both Vivilyn and Brayleigh to speed up.
After they went through an archway, Brayleigh froze.
“No,” she said and backed up. “We’re not back here.”
Vivilyn stepped forward to see what Brayleigh was talking about.
Although the room was dark and they entered from the opposite direction, Vivilyn couldn’t mistake the room for anything else.
They had entered the old throne room.
“Brayleigh,” Marisol called from the center of the room. “Is that you I just heard? Please come help.”
Her voice sounded strained, as though she was struggling to hold something.
Both women fought past their fear and ran to Marisol to see what was going on. She was struggling to hold the prince back from the throne. As soon as Vivilyn and Brayleigh tried helping Marisol hold him back, though, the prince stopped struggling.
“It’s just a chair,” he said, as though trying to convince himself he didn’t want to touch it. As soon as Marisol relaxed her grip though, Prince Aiden managed to escape. He ran forward quickly before anyone could stop him.
When his hand hit against the stone, the heaviness to the room grew even more. The darkness seemed to deepen. Vivilyn felt the dark mass explode from the chair more than she saw it. Something flung Prince Aiden backwards, knocking him into all the women like a ball knocking down a row of cans.
The dark mass swirled above the group. Marisol screamed. The prince tried to cover all the women while yelling for it to go away. Neither Vivilyn nor Brayleigh made any noise. Vivilyn could almost feel disappointment from the mass.
Within a few moments, the mass shot up through the roof of the old throne room. The roof then crumbled above them.
When everything around them settled, despite continually falling debris from what remained of the roof, sunlight brightly shined down on top of the small group.
As they looked up, a large bright circle had fully formed in the sky, like the comet Vivilyn had painted in the picture of the phoenix and the eggs.
It contrasted with the mass that had just escaped the old throne room.
The dark mass seemed to be floating away, getting larger as it went until it was the size and consistency of an angry, ominous cloud.
The phoenix fires burn strongly, Lady Eleanor's words repeated in Vivilyn's mind. They're rising from the sands as we speak. Perhaps they can burn the darkness before it overwhelms up. They're rising from the sands as we speak. The eyes are opening and the dragons will soon roar.
Vivilyn looked over just as Prince Aiden said, "Well, this is bad."
Next time on the Enchanted Trials:
Acknowledgement
To you, for continuing on this journey with Vivilyn, Darissa, Aiden, and the rest. I hope you are enjoying the stories and I would love it if you put a review on Amazon!
To Magen and Meri, again, for all your help with editing and shaping this book.
To my parents who have had to put up with me going on about fictional characters who were only in my head for the longest time.
To Leigh and Margaret, despite y'all being so far away, you've always been so supportive. It has been one of the things that has helped this series continue.
The Enchanted Trials
In a kingdom where magic is forbidden, Vivilyn is chosen to compete for Prince Aiden's heart in the Enchanted Trials. Despite having a remnant of magic in the form of visions, she uses the opportunity to pursue her dream of becoming a famous painter.
She never thought that by going, she'd set off a chain reaction that led to an ancient darkness returning, the same ancient darkness that caused the entire kingdom to banish magic several generations ago.
It will take wits and courage to defeat both the darkness before it can destroy the kingdom. Can Vivilyn succeed without giving herself away?
Chosen
Vivilyn has a deadly secret.
In the Kingdom of Etilidus, two things are certain:
1. Magic is dangerous and any hint of magical ability equals death.
2. Every citizen excitedly awaits the Enchanted Trials, a competition that's held when a royal comes of age and must choose a match.
Vivilyn Minette is a talented artist from the small town of Treelyn who dreams of raising her family's fortune by becoming a famous painter. So, when she is chosen to compete for the heart of Prince Aiden, an opportunity of a lifetime, she should be ecstatic. But while everyone else in Tre
elyn is celebrating her newfound fame, she is terrified that her secret will be discovered.
Magic runs through her veins.
Sight
Vivilyn is plagued by visions.
In the Kingdom of Etilidus, two things are certain:
1. Magic is forbidden and anyone discovered with it is killed.
2. Nothing will stop the Enchanted Trials, not even the threat of spies, magic, or civil unrest.
After the explosive start to Prince Aiden’s Enchanted Trials, the Trials must continue. Between mistakenly eating a fruit that causes her visions to go haywire, signs that an ancient prophecy might be coming true, and the potential of spies lurking around every corner, Vivilyn realizes even though the first ceremony has concluded, the dangers have just begun.
About the Author
Shelby Hild is a Texas Christian University alumna who holds a B.A. in Writing and has a long-standing obsessive adoration for words and stories. After graduating in 2014, she filled her life with books by taking a job at a used book store and collecting stories from conversations with patrons that she could use as inspiration for her books.
Shelby spontaneously signed up for her first trip abroad at age 26 and began collecting memories and stories of her own. The trip was so successful, it has triggered a secondary love of her life: traveling. Using her travels, dreams, and passions as inspiration, she writes tales that sweep readers to far-away lands that are unknown, with untold adventures awaiting them.
To follow her adventures, both worldly and writerly related, click here, here, and here.
