VILLAIN

Chapter 1

"Villain."

My eyes snapped open, and I sucked in a breath, my brain slow to take in my surroundings. The drab, gray walls. The hard table I was laying on, a pathetic cloth sac that could hardly be considered a pillow under my head. The smell, sterile and unearthly, unlike any other smell: the smell of magic.

I exhaled slowly, trying to calm my racing heart. It was a dream. It had all been a dream.

But no, I realized, a wave of nausea washing over me. It hadn't all been a dream. Not really.

Sure, the dead girl on the floor and the knife in my hand had been a dream – nothing more than a nightmare. But the last word she said still rang in my ears, and it wouldn't go away like the rest of my silly nightmare. I was a Villain. And I was going to be one for the rest of my life, whether I liked it or not.

The nausea turned to fear, and I curled my legs up to my chest, feeling very much like the innocent little girl I'd been only a few short months ago. I wished for Peter, for my mother, for anyone who could hold me and tell me that it had all been a ruse – that I wasn't really sitting on a table in a room made of stone, and that the High King had never said that awful, cursed word.

Villain. I hated that word. Because I wasn't one, not really, not deep down. But one look at me and the King had decided that I was. One look, and he had opened his mouth to say that horrible, heinous, wicked word. One look, and he had sealed my fate forever.

Tears burned my eyes, and I forced them back down. I couldn't cry now. Not when they were watching me. And not when my eyes weren't even my own.

A new, hesitant desire to see my new eyes came into my mind, but at the same time part of me was scared. I wanted to see my eyes, my warm, brown eyes. They had been the only thing I'd ever liked about my appearance. And now they were gone. I'd lost them today, and with them the very last chance I ever had at a normal life.

But I didn't lose them, I reminded myself fervently. Not really. They were still mine, and they'd still be the same nice almond shape, the same big eyes that seemed too big for the small, bony nose that divided them. They just wouldn't be brown.

I guess it made a little sense. They couldn't very well be brown anymore. Brown was the color of Peasants. And I wasn't just the daughter of a Peasant anymore, hadn't been for nearly four months. No, I was a Villain, as much as I hated it. As much as I really, really wasn't, to them – to everyone else – I was. And now my eyes just proved it.

I swallowed, pushing myself up off the table and dropping my feet carefully to the floor. It had been a while since I'd last been on my feet, and I had to grab the edge of the makeshift operation table to steady myself while they adjusted to my weight.

After I was certain my legs would hold me up, I released the table, squaring my shoulders and sticking my chin in the air. I may have lost the last piece of my family today, may have watched the distant dream of freedom fade away forever, but I was strong. And they couldn't take away my stubbornness, not even if they tried. Moira Queenston did not let people see her defeated.

With that in mind, I walked as confidently as I could to the old wooden door, pulling it open and nodding to the sentry, who had been stationed there in case I "got any ideas".

It was really quite unnecessary, because, despite my tendency at trouble-making, I was almost never the one with the ideas. That position had always belonged to –

"James," I said, my face breaking into a smile.

He grinned back, his front teeth jutting out over the rest as if fighting for the attention of whoever he was smiling at.