Halia: Daughter of Cinderella

by Armitage, J. A

  Years passed, and the girl only shared her voice with her closest friends, only shared her voice when it was lost in a choir. Then you came along, and you challenged the girl, you told her it wasn’t right not to share her blessing, you gave her strength, you gave her confidence. You allowed her to lean on you, and she became the queen of song, she became the queen of song.”

  The swinging made butterflies erupt in my stomach, or perhaps it was the aftereffect of my lips brushing against Lorenzo’s. Either way, singing on a swing was challenging, but also invigorating. I belted out the melody, dangling my feet as my hair bounced against my back. A few minutes of freedom, of weightlessness, of pure bliss. Too soon, the song was finished. Lorenzo helped me off the swing, then took it down. The forest disappeared just as he had promised.

  “Thank you, Halia!” The assistant manager scribbled down notes, making it impossible to read his face. Confident I had given it my best, I walked off the stage and through the auditorium with Lorenzo by my side. I tried to spot Tia and Mikka in the rows but couldn’t find them in the sea of barely illuminated faces.

  Once Lorenzo and I were outside the auditorium in the marble hallway, I turned to him, a jolt of electricity darting through me just by looking at him. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  Lorenzo glanced around, then leaned his ear toward me. “Yes?”

  My lips hovered above his earlobe, making it impossible not to think about the earlier kiss. Not ready to deal with it, I told him about the boarding house and Queen Ella.

  “We need to get her out of there,” Lorenzo said once I was finished.

  Why hadn’t I considered this earlier? People were disappearing without a trace from the boarding house. Nothing was stopping Madam Fontaine from making Ella disappear as well. “We have to hurry.”

  Lorenzo shook his head. “It’s not safe for you. I’ll go alone.”

  Before I could protest, the door of the auditorium swung open, and Mikka and Tia stepped out.

  Their wide smiles vanished as they took in Lorenzo’s and my solemn expressions.

  “Wait for me at Daydream,” he said to Mikka. Then he was gone, vanishing into nothingness.

  Tia put her arm around my shoulder. “What’s going on?”

  “Lorenzo will retrieve Queen Ella,” I said even as my gut told me it was too late.

  Continue the story in Throne of Symphony

  Throne of Symphony

  1

  29th July

  Lorenzo stood behind me as I knocked on the old door, it’s peeling green paint revealing a white layer underneath. After a few seconds, footsteps thudded toward us, followed by the door creaking open.

  “How can I help you?” the elderly man asked, his gaze scanning over me and the demon behind me, who looked like a human save for his violet-green eyes and silver hair.

  “Have you seen this woman?” I handed the man a sketch of our missing queen. It didn’t depict Queen Ella in all her queenly glory, but rather showed what she had looked like when she had worked as a kitchen maid at Madam’s Boarding House.

  The man shook his head. “No, I’m sorry.” He coughed. “But there’s a lot of strange stuff happening. A lot of people are disappearing or getting sick.” He glanced upward. “Whatever luck the gods have once bestowed on us, it is no longer with us.”

  I agreed with him, partially. Whatever had kept Arcadia safe was broken, but I doubted it had anything to do with the gods. Everything had gone belly up when Queen Ella had disappeared. “Thank you,” I said as the man closed the door.

  I turned to Lorenzo. “We’re too slow. We need to split up. Otherwise, we’ll never cover the city in time. Why don’t you use your teleportation to—”

  “And leave you here by yourself? No.” Lorenzo’s gaze drilled into me. “If whoever kidnapped the queen realizes that you know Cinder is the queen, they’ll come after you as well. I need to stay with you so that we can teleport away in case someone comes after us.”

  I sighed. He was right, but I hated how slow we were going. The longer we failed to find Queen Ella, the higher the chances that something bad had happened to her. Even if she hadn’t been kidnapped, but disappeared of her own accord, it wasn’t good. With her gone, Arcadia was falling more and more into chaos with each passing day, and our king wasn’t doing anything.

  I had entered the royal singing competition for a chance to speak with him. However, today while I had been delivering mail in the morning, I had heard several rumors that the king was considering canceling the competition this year even after all the participants had gone in for their initial recordings.

  I didn’t care about winning, even though it would’ve been nice to make a name for myself as a singer. What truly troubled me was that if the king canceled the competition, my chance of talking to him would vanish. As a former maid and now employee of the post office, there was no chance I would get to talk to him unless I got to the finals. Earlier today, Lorenzo had gone to the castle, trying to use his demon and business owner status to get an audience, but the guards had turned him away, stating the king was too busy to see a commoner.

  This didn’t sound like the king I knew, who always had an open ear for his subjects. He, like the rest of Arcadia, had been impacted by the disappearance of our queen and fallen into a deep pit of grief or indifference. His passivity, coupled with the unrest that seemed to have invaded every citizen in Arcadia, spelled trouble.

  “I wish we knew how Tia and Mikka are getting on,” I said. My best friend Tia had recently started dating Mikka, a half-ice demon after the two had met working behind Lorenzo’s bar, Daydream.

  “That I can do,” Lorenzo said with his usual easy confidence.

  How did one learn to become so comfortable in one’s skin? “You know where they are?”

  “Demons can sense each other in close distance, and I know that they’re in the old town district. Once we teleport into the area, I’ll know exactly where they are.”

  Lorenzo opened his arms, and for a moment, I froze, replaying the peck I had given him on the lips last night before my recording.

  “Are you ready?” His violet-green eyes twinkled with mischief, and only then, did I realize that he had hadn’t said he would teleport, but we would teleport.

  “I can’t teleport.”

  A boyish grin spread across his features, making it nearly impossible to remember that he was a two hundred and seventy-two-year-old demon, powerful enough to have mastered a glamor that concealed his demonic features. “You won’t have to do anything,” he reassured me.

  I stepped closer, my body wanting to be pressed against his as my mind played horror scenarios. “What if I can’t? What if my heart gives out or something like that?”

  He chuckled. “It’s safe to teleport. I promise.” His eyes softened. “I would never put you in danger.”

  “I know.” Soon, we would have to talk about the kiss and the one before that that he had rejected. I needed to know where Lorenzo stood and whether he felt the same way I did. I would figure it out. Soon. After we spoke to Tia and Mikka.

  Lorenzo’s arms closed around me, his scent of grass and lemon enveloped me. I wanted to press myself into him like a stray kitten. I wanted him to kiss me. I wanted him to tell me that what I was feeling for him wasn’t one-sided, that he too was interested in me.

  But before I could find the courage to open my mouth, the ground underneath my feet vanished. My stomach dropped, and the air was knocked out of my lungs, the feeling similar to being on a really tall swing. I squeezed my eyes shut, petrified, expecting pain. It didn’t come. The rising and dropping sensation remained for a few more seconds, and then it too was gone, and I was standing on solid ground.

  I opened my eyes to find Tia staring at me in wonder, Mikka next to her, smirking.

  “First time?” the white-haired, black-eyed, half ice demon asked nonchalantly.

  I nodded and stepped away from Lorenzo. I didn’t need Tia and Mikka asking me about
my relationship with him when I hadn’t figured it out myself yet.

  “Did you find anything?” Lorenzo asked.

  Tia and Mikka shook their heads.

  “There’s no trace of the queen.” Mikka pointed north. “We do still have a few streets left.”

  I doubted the queen was hiding in the old town district. It was pure elegance filled with imposing buildings, the most impressive being the gilded Royal Opera House, which featured tall columns on the outside and plenty of marble and red velvet inside. The richest district was right next to the castle, making it likely that someone might recognize Queen Ella. The only reason I could think for her to return here was due to feelings of nostalgia. If she had them. I sighed. If only I knew why she had left the king and worked in the boarding house kitchen of Madam Fontaine, her evil stepmother, it would be much easier to find Ella.

  Mikka’s clipped voice interrupted my thoughts. “We need to head back to Daydream after dark. It won’t run itself.”

  “You do that,” Lorenzo said. “We’ll look in the other quarter.”

  I turned to him. “What quarter?”

  Lorenzo’s face was sober, and I knew I wouldn’t like whatever he said next.

  “If the queen is still in the city but not in the market or the old town quarter, she’ll be in the Faustus quarter.”

  Goosebumps exploded on my skin. After living in the Faustus quarter for eighteen years, I had vowed to never return there. It was on the southern edge of the city. In addition to being home to the orphanage, it housed other institutions filled with Arcadia’s unwanted citizens. There was the mental institution, screams echoing from its tall walls, a place for the elderly that smelled of piss, and a rundown, gray woman’s house that saw random male visitors after dark.

  I hadn’t been in Faustus for months, and I had never planned to return, but if there was a chance that the queen might be there, I had to go.

  “Are you all right?” Lorenzo’s gentle voice pulled me back to the present. “You don’t have to—”

  “I’m coming with you.” I was done standing by, letting others do the hard things. I was done thinking of myself as weak or incapable. Yes, going into Faustus made my stomach cramp, my head spin, and my lungs constrict, but I could do it. I was stronger than my fear.

  I waved goodbye to Tia and Mikka. Lorenzo’s arms wrapped around me once more, and the ground disappeared as we teleported.

  This time, the sensation in my stomach was much stronger. It no longer resembled swinging, but was more like tumbling down from the cathedral’s bell tower. I didn’t think that it was due to Lorenzo’s teleporting technique, but rather, was due to my nervousness about returning to Faustus.

  My feet slammed against the ground, the impact reverberating through my spine. My new surroundings came into focus. Gone were the tall buildings, white columns, and beautiful spires, replaced by houses with peeling paint, rusty door handles, and smudgy, broken windows.

  I wrapped my arms around me, feeling cold despite the warm, summer night.

  “Are you all right?” Lorenzo asked.

  “I will be. It’s just not easy to return here.”

  He nodded. “I wouldn’t have brought you here unless I thought there was a high chance of the queen being here.”

  “I know. Do you think the stepmother and stepsisters put her in the asylum?” I glanced at the tallest building two streets away from us. The mental institution was a dark column of four stories, the central point of the quarter.

  “Only one way to find out.” Lorenzo strode toward the asylum, and I followed him, each step heavy, my legs leaden.

  “What was it like growing up in the orphanage?”

  Lorenzo’s question took me off guard. Nobody had ever asked me. Tia knew what it was like since she had grown up there as well. My ex, Victor, hadn’t cared about my experiences, his mind made up that orphanages were the best place for orphans or children of disgraced or poor mothers who couldn’t afford them. Besides him, I hadn’t told anyone that I had spent my childhood at the orphanage, uninterested in their pity or disgust.

  “It’s probably what you would expect it to be,” I said. “No luxuries, strict rules, best to keep your head down.”

  “That’s the way you chose to survive.” Lorenzo scrutinized me. “That’s why it was so hard for you to stand up to Madam Fontaine.”

  I’d never thought about it like that, but I supposed it made sense. The orphanage had been my last resort. I had nowhere else to go unless I wanted to be on the streets. I kept the same mentality when I started working for Madam Fontaine. I had escaped the orphanage only to get myself under a new tyrant’s thumb.

  “You are very strong,” Lorenzo continued. “I hope you know that.”

  I snorted. “Why, because I kept my head down and stayed out of fights? Tia was the strong one. It was because of her that the other girls didn’t dare to mess with me.”

  “She kept the bullies away, but you protected her in your own way.”

  I supposed he had a point. “Tia’s fiery temper got her into trouble. I made sure she cooled off before she said something she would regret and get us kicked out or fired. Because if Tia had to leave, I was going too. My life wasn’t always easy, but it doesn’t even come close to what you went through. I might’ve never known my parents or any other extended family, but at least I didn’t have to watch them get killed.”

  Lorenzo’s shoulders stiffened, and I immediately regretted my words. What was wrong with me? Why had I brought up his past? Instead of becoming defensive like my ex would’ve, Lorenzo said quietly but with steel in his voice, “It was very hard to rebuild myself after the massacre. It makes it hard to let anyone in when I know that they, too, could be taken from me at any time.”

  That was my opening. I turned around, cutting off his path. The moon illuminated his angular face that, despite its masculinity, had nothing harsh about it. “Is that why you didn’t kiss me before you left for your trip? Or is it because you have no interest in me?”

  Lorenzo didn’t reply for a long moment. Then, he finally said, “I don’t think it’s wise to get all tangled up before we know what you are and what it means.”

  Tears stung my eyes. “Does it really matter whether I’m a witch, a human, or something completely new? Do you really care more about what I am than who I am? I thought you were different. I thought you cared about me, and what’s in here”—“ I pumped my chest—“and here”—” I touched my temple. “But you don’t. You’re just like Victor.”

  Lorenzo’s features hardened into stone. “Don’t. You. Ever. Compare. Me. To. That. Monster. Especially, after what he almost did to you.”

  The memory of Victor on top of me, his pants unzipped, his leg spreading mine open flashed through me. If I hadn’t used my voice, he would’ve raped me and taken my virginity, and he would’ve justified it by wrongly assuming that I had slept with Lorenzo and deciding I was a demon whore.

  “I’m sorry. I was out of line,” I whispered. “Who told you?”

  “Mikka.”

  My neck tensed. Who gave Mikka permission to talk about my business? “She had no right.”

  “Would you have told me if she hadn’t?” Fury sparked in Lorenzo’s eyes.

  “Just because you’re my manager, doesn’t mean I have to tell you everything that is going on in my private life.”

  A chuckle tinged with bitterness fell from Lorenzo’s lips. “And that’s exactly why I didn’t kiss you, Halia. I don’t care what you are, but I’m not willing to put myself out there when you haven’t decided yet how you feel about me. You might be attracted to me, but you aren’t willing to open up to me. There’s no point in trying to have a relationship when you don’t have trust.”

  “I trust you! I told you about the golden rings in my eyes. I told you that I don’t know what I am. I told you about my voice and my dream to sing.”

  “I had to weasel all of that out of you, and even then, you stuck to fact. Just now, I asked yo
u about the orphanage, and you answered in one sentence. Clearly, you don’t trust me. If you don’t trust me, I’m not interested in having a relationship with you.”

  I raised my chin. I had worked so hard on myself. I had grown so much and overcome many fears, and yet I wasn’t good enough. Well, he wasn’t perfect, either. “What about you? Do you trust me fully? Do you really want me to believe that you came to Arcadia to open a bar because your gut told you to do so? Why don’t you tell me where you got my colored contacts and the fairy dust from? What happened to hold you up on your trip that you almost missed my recording session?”

  Lorenzo brought a finger to his lips, shushing me.

  “Don’t tell me to shut up,” I hissed as he yanked me against a wall.

  “We’re not alone,” he whispered in my ear.

  As he said that, I turned my head to find a group of four women heading toward us, their features concealed by cloaks.

  “I don’t have a good feeling about this,” one of them said. “I don’t think we should be doing this.”

  “Be quiet, Abigail,” another replied, the voice undeniably familiar. It was Acacia, the fae who knew about the strange golden rings in my eyes and who had helped the wicked stepsisters gain fake singing abilities. “We’ll vote on it on Saturday. You can voice your concerns then.”

  “That’s what the council meetings are for,” a third fae said.

  Abigail sighed, looking uneasy. “We’re playing with fire.”

  Before I could hear her reply, Lorenzo’s arms wrapped around me, and we vanished. I extricated myself from him as soon as we finished teleporting, a glance telling me we were almost at the mental institution. “Why did you do that? They were about to reveal the details of their secret meeting.”

  “We’ll get the details some other way. If I hadn’t teleported, they would’ve sensed my demonic presence. They were getting too close to our hiding space.”

  “You can sense not only demons but also fae and vice versa?”