Legend has it, if you stand in front of a mirror, shuffling an enchanted deck of cards, you can open a doorway between dimensions.
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Prince Teodric of Springport remembers the promise he made his father: to *not* try to reenact the legend of dimen...
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No matter the sheet's thread count, the luxury, the comfort, I fought to rest. Astrida's refusals were pronounced, and they bothered me upon falling asleep; but my dreams were filled with something else.
Longing. For my bed, my room, the castle left to me by my deceased father. The familiarities of the place I was born, raised in, was set to rule over. I missed my life, mundane as it was without the magic and the thrilling adventures.
This bed was adequate, and should have allowed me to sleep like I was on a cloud. But it wasn't mine.My bed was perfect, tailored to Father, reminding me of him. With its velvets and satins, its hard mattress and squeaky springs. And the bedroom with its angry paintings, the ocean scents and early morning fishy stenches that woke me with a frown; ah, but I missed that frown.
Would I ever be home again? Surrounded by normal people and regular horses and ceilings that didn't drip diamonds and blankets that didn't prompt erections every time they shifted against my skin?
I groaned, moving the current thumping between my legs so it wouldn't be so visible beneath the comforter. The last thing I needed was for some innocent serving girl to come in and notice the lump in the sheets and assume the worst. I doubted the serving girls here were as easy to please and seduce as the ones back in Springport.
I stared at the wax spiraling down the silver candle on my bedside table, wondering how I'd ever sleep peacefully again. How I'd rid my mind of the anxieties plaguing me; the fear of magic, of its effects, its consequences, its intensity. What it all meant. And—
I gasped as I sat up straight. Someone else was in Eroa, in my bed, my room, my castle, and about to assume my role. About to be crowned in my place.
I panted. Had my staff noticed? Had my people reacted? Had they postponed the events while they searched for me? Did they search for me? For all I knew, this Jack fellow hadn't told them the truth. He hadn't informed them of where I was. Did he...even know? He belonged to Acewood, to Efura and its magical rules; would he have understood what happened to us, that we'd switched places? Could he live without the magic he thought was natural?
I lay back down, setting a hand atop my lower belly, taking deep breaths. There was nothing I could do about any of it now. Not while I was in this diamond-infested castle, nor anywhere else in this world. Until I aided the mages in bringing the princess-queens home, I'd be stuck with them. Stuck with him—the purple-eyed man who struck cords in me, woke things in me I didn't understand.
Feelings? Attraction? Both? Something else? I couldn't tell the difference between them and normal admiration, like what I'd felt for my guards back in Springport.
My eyes closed as I continued my steady breaths to calm my racing heart.
I heard his voice as if he were there. Soothing, melodic. It took flight inside me, like delicate butterflies flapping about, their wings caressing me, lessening my torment. I heard his jingling bells that comforted my aching eardrums; admired the patterns on his leggings that slowed my pounding heart. And his gaze, so sweet yet stimulating, like a faraway purple galaxy sprinkled with stars and sparkling planets galore—
