Daughter Of Thorns

Chapter One

"Tighter Cenna! I need to look ravishing tonight!"

Grunting with effort, her flaxen haired hand maiden and good friend pulled the strands of her corset as tight as she could. Gasping for air, Delia felt blood flush to her cheeks and she looked at herself in the mirror. Her big grey eyes were sparkling in excitement, the diamond pins in her black hair twinkling in the light and only adding to the magnificence.

Tonight her family was throwing a ball for her seventeenth birthday, and she was to finally see the outside world. Something she'd only been dreaming of since she was small, but she was kept in her room under lock and key, without hope.

Her mother had fallen ill after thier first daughter died in the Trial- Ambria, and since then her and Feyra had been locked in thier rooms. Delia had never known Ambria well, but she'd heard the story of what happened to her sister many times in her guilded captivity.

"Delia?" Her head snapped up and she saw in the mirror that she was frowning, the sides of her mouth pulled down at the edges. She shook her head and laughed. "Oh Cenna... this is my first time out.. in forever. What if I make a fool of myself? I'm sure if I do, the nobles will be talking for ages about every mistake, scrutinizing every emotion.. I do so badly want to make a good impression. Father has not been forthcoming with information, and I can't help but think something will go wrong and it will be all my fault-"

"Darling Delia, cages do not not make the woman. The other nobles know you haven't been out, and if even one says a harsh word about you, I will trod on thier shiny stupid foot and blame it on the horses." Her stern cinnamon brown gaze stared into Delia's in the mirror, burning passionately with her uttered words.

Delia's stomach fluttered at the fierce attitude of her friends speech, which shot a rush of courage into her heart and bolstered her mind, calming her spirit in the process.

I will never need alcohol with this girl by my side, thats for sure.

She stood up and curtsied as best she could while being weighed down by several layers of petticoats and chiffon, "You have been the truest friend I've ever known Cenna." Smiling brightly she kissed the girl on the crown of her brow and walked away, visions of dancing couples and the dizzying scents of fine plum wine on her mind.

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I didn't want to come.

I never wanted to be here, in the home of the family that killed my younger sister, but my mother decreed it. "How are you ever to learn that it was no ones fault that Emery died?"

I was there, and I saw what that bloody shit crowned bastard did to her.

I felt a muscle in my jaw tense as I fingered my glass, the decorative frost on top of the smooth surface lightly cracking under the force of my hand.

A ruined glass is nothing compared to what I wanted to do to them..

Just as I dashed my glass to the floor, a bright light startled my eyes as I watched the youngest woman of the household gracefully curling down the stairs like a vine of roses.

Her eyes twinkled, and her visage sparkled like stars, her smile dazzling.

I hope one day I can watch the sins of the past dig into her throat and make her bleed.