Queen of Shattered Dreams

10 - A Lamb Surrounded by Lions

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Instinctively my hand touches the jewels around my neck. I don't have to ask whose necklace she means, clearly the former queen. Her dead mother.

Hassiba's wide eyes confirm it. "Denny." Her voice holds warning but Dendrite seems to find it encouraging.

"And the dress looked better on her."

Doubtful. I looked amazing in the mirror.

I can't say I'm particularly surprised by the revelation, at least as far as the jewelry. But it does explain the too tight dress. Everything I'm wearing belonged to the dead queen. Just as the husband, castle, and marriage bed did.

I raise my chin, determined to be the better woman. Shouldn't be too hard. "Your mother's passing must have been difficult for you."

Dendrite shrugs.

Shrugs! That could mean anything.

"There have been more difficult things since." She stares at me from beneath long, dark, eyelashes. For all the beautiful features that surround those eyes, they can't hide the nothingness inside of her.

What conditions in a child's life removes the light from their eyes? Is Feodor cruel to her? Were her eyes different before her mother died? Her look isn't a pleading one, she's not sending me a message that she needs help. She's accusing me.

I shrug back. If the girl can't be bothered to show emotion over the death of her mother, I won't show any for the death of my hopes and dreams. I suppose we could commiserate on our lives not going quite as planned but I'm just a small hurdle that won't stop her desired future, while she and her father are the full stop to mine.

She huffs.

"Denny, I really must ask you to leave us now." Hassiba's stony face locks eyes with the princess. Without another word spoken, Dendrite huffs again and leaves the room.

Hassiba closes the door behind her and slides the lock into place. My heart quickens. She's either going to teach me some magic or explain that it was a mistake to say she would.

"You'll have to forgive Denny's coldness toward you. It's a characteristic bred into her from birth, made worse by the sheer fact that nothing has ever been denied her." She glances toward me. "Until now."

I'm not sure if she means this moment, where Dendrite lost the time with Hassiba, or if it has to do with my wedding. But my marriage to Feodor doesn't change Dendrite's future.

"I take no offense. It appears she's just as cold toward the memory of her mother."

Hassiba's lips waver, a sad smile. "The death of Queen Catherine was the first passing with any permanence for the young princess."

"I've seen her at executions-" I begin.

"Executions of people she knows nothing of. These are people who didn't exist before that moment, and then didn't exist after. She has grown up not realizing what it truly means for someone to die." Hassiba rubs her forehead as though there's more she wants to say.

But I think I understand. I think it's macabre, but it makes sense in a way. I lost my own father when I was a little younger than her. I kept expecting him to return home. It was beyond my comprehension that he was simply gone from my life. My grandmother, his mother, moved into our home after the funeral and her presence distracted me. But there were still moments where I wanted to see him and was struck with the realization that I never would again. Yesterday should have been one of those moments. Had it been a happy wedding, I would have missed him as I walked down the aisle, alone. Fear and dread proved good distractions though.