Chapter Three

I was lost. Lost in a jungle of flowers and trees and bushes that shouldn’t have been past that door. But they were.

As if meeting the Crown Prince of Aria wasn’t enough to run my nerves through molten lava and immediately submerge them into a bucket of ice cold water.

Fate had always been rather cruel to me, but this was ridiculous.

Immediately after I had entered through the door, I was met with a garden. An unnaturally thick garden that bustled with movement. I went left, as the prince had instructed, and found the path. Unfortunately, the garden wasn’t all that it seemed. The wide leaves of several plants made it difficult for me to follow the path and I ended up getting lost in the flora.

This was why I never left my house.

I trudged through the dense undergrowth, avoiding a three-foot tall mushroom blocking the way. The telltale sign of violet veins coursing through the mushroom indicated that it was bioluminescent. It was like many of the plants in the garden, and I wondered briefly what this "jungle" would look like at night.

Sweat made the hair on my back sticky, and I cringed, remembering the prince’s words regarding the duchess: At this rate I was going to be extremely offensive.

The prince… It made me want to crawl in a hole and die just thinking about him. I had actually been saved by a royal brat, and now I was indebted to him. I wondered what he would ask of me in return. I shivered, silencing the terrible thoughts going through my head. I had more pressing troubles on my mind right now.

I checked the position of the sun. Fifteen minutes left until the meeting. Odd numbers meant good luck. At least something in my life was going right.

I ducked beneath a plant with exceptionally large leaves, and a groan escaped my throat when I saw what was on the other side. More plants; this time, a barricade of high-reaching mushrooms stood in my way. Didn’t the prince say that the door led to the castle grounds? isn’t The sudden thought made my bones grow cold. Maybe he was simply playing me? If he was, this garden could become dangerous quickly. Then again, he certainly looked like the prince… His amber eyes were what all of the girls in the Lower Quarter fawned over. Not that I payed any attention to those girls.

Once I passed through the mushrooms, all of my suspicions came to an abrupt halt. The castle lay before me, massive in size and grand in appearance. Colorful banners flew atop turrets that seemed to reach to the sky. It was made of an oddly gleaming dark stone; the castle, with its precious building materials imported directly from Balua, was the pride of Aria’s famous architects.

The walls surrounding the castle were on either side of me, encompassing the garden. An empty bridge led to the castle door, spanning a placid lake. Given its small size and ordinary appearance, this must have been a back entrance to the castle.

As I exited the garden, I spotted the path I had originally been following several feet away from me. My mouth dropped open as I stepped back to examine the garden. It was, in reality, smaller than what I had thought it to be. If I had been able to stay on the path, it would have been a thousand times more easy.

I shook my head and turned back to the castle, making for the small bridge. Despite the fact that this was a castle, there were no guards or servants on the bridge. The silence I met as I trotted across the walkway disturbed me. Even the lake below me was deathly silent. Was I supposed to be here?

A splash to my right made me jump. I glanced over the edge of the bridge to see a ripple. Then an aquatic hand. A nymph popped her head out of the water to stare up at me, a curious expression on her exquisite features. I inhaled sharply as we studied each other. She tipped her head as a bewitching smile crossed her face.

Before she could coax me into hurling myself off the bridge, I jerked away from the edge and continued walking.

That may have been the reason there were no guards out here. They didn’t need human guards when they had murderous naiads residing in the water.

I forced myself into a quick jog across the stone bridge, cupping my ears and ignoring the alluring calls that started to emanate from the residents in the lake. Although the naiad’s calls were low and barely understandable, it didn’t make them any less dangerous.

My mother had taught me many things, but the rules she had laid out for me concerning nymphs always struck fear into my heart whenever I thought of them.

I was panting by the time I reached the stone steps that led to the castle door. The calls of several naiads echoed in my head. I thought, wheezing hard,

I removed one of my hands from my ear to open the wooden door. The stupid thing barely budged an inch, despite the brute force I put into yanking it. The cacophony of songs behind me was growing stronger, and it was becoming difficult to keep my focus on the door.

All of a sudden, a low, mournful wail pierced through every thought I had, making me freeze in place. My brain told me not to turn around. My heart told me not to turn around. My body said an entirely different thing as I turned around.

A dark-skinned naiad was leaning on the edge of the bridge, singing softly.

It was a song of pain, a song of wanting, a song of despair. It was beautiful.

I let go of the door.

“No you don’t!” A hand clamped over my shoulder and dragged me into the castle. The door slammed shut, promptly cutting the naiad’s tune short.

“What do you think you’re—” I stopped when I saw who I was talking to.

Prince Titus frowned. “Sorry,” he said, “I didn’t see you in the castle after I led the guards away, so I figured you must have been here. To think they’d sing to you…and that you’d be susceptible enough to fall for her song…”

I stared at him. Wasn’t it nearly impossible to avoid a naiad’s tune? “Well, excuse me for trying to get over a bridge of killer nymphs that directed me to…Your Highness.” I winced. If I was rude to him, he could probably have me hanged.

The light of torches in the dark hall shed a gentle light over us. A sheepish smile crossed the prince’s face. “Yeah, sorry about that. Usually they don’t sing to invited guests.”

“Are you saying that I’m not really invited?” All this work to get to the castle for something I probably didn’t even want to do and I wasn’t officially ?

“No, no,” he assured me. “The duchess did invite you. It’s just that the naiads…” The prince glanced at the closed door behind me. “I don’t know. They’ve never done that before. I apologize for directing you here, Ms. Brackenbury.” He bowed to me with a flourish of his arm.

I sighed and rubbed my temple as he rose. “No, I— Really, it’s not—” I couldn’t think of what I wanted to say because, frankly, I was still angry with him. I couldn’t tell him that it okay, because it wasn’t. And “sorry” didn’t account for nearly getting me killed. Instead, I asked, “Where is the duchess’ meeting place…” For the life of me, I couldn’t remember how to address him properly, so I added, “Your Highness?”