Princess Shaina knows that she is cursed. If she falls in love before she's sixteen, she'll fall into an everlasting sleep that will last until her body decays -- because curses always come exactly true. Because of this, Shaina is never allowed near...
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The room had a dangerous still, then someone spoke up at the end of the table, breaking Shaina's held-in breath. "A curse?"
Shaina knew it was Sir Max DuPont, Aimee's bearded father, and he was asking, not believing the words she had spoken for a second. Shaina was glad for that, but she still stood up hastily, ready to leave if that was necessary to take back what she had dared to breath outside of secrecy.
"Children are so foolish," she heard Alec say in a dark voice, but masked from disapproval. She stood near her seat, unsure what to do, and gripping the back of her chair. Shaina glanced over at Alec, and saw he was playing with his food, using his fork, and acting like nothing weird had happened at all -- only, she knew he thought she had acted ridiculous.
"I'm sorry --" she said, expecting her mother to strictly send her to her room for the night, stopping any more of this silly -- but completely dangerous -- behavior.
Queen Jeann merely gave her a deep-eyed look, then stood up swiftly, making her big skirts rustle as she reached out and took Shaina's arm. "Come, dear," she said, her interior emotions hidden from Shaina also. Shaina felt like her world had just disappeared, then she saw her father appear beside her, and his strong, tanned arm came under hers.
"Dear, its alright," she felt more than heard his deep voice rumble above her head. No one came after them as the king and queen led Shaina out of the Dining Hall. Shaina felt the shame as they left, how much this must have cost her parent's images to their close friends. Their daughter was being ridiculous, saying things that weren't laughing matters, and acting like she believed them.
Shaina managed to twist around just before the servants closed the Dining Hall doors behind them, and caught a glimpse of Dastif, talking to Aimee, and he was obviously very alarmed. Shaina thought maybe the frown was of concern, but then she thought that of course Dastif had no feelings for her, so why would he ever care?
The whole Great Hall was full of dim-lighted lamps, mostly near the Front Doors, so the royal family ran up the Grand Staircase in darkness. Shaina tripped on her dress as they hurried her, and she like she was a stranger in this big place that wasn't even her home anymore.
"Where are we going?" she asked, started to get scared at how fast her parents were moving her. They got to the top of the Grand Staircase in half the time it took Shaina to run up them.
"To your room," King Ricard said, but he didn't sound like himself, and his wife seemed more quiet and resolved than Shaina had ever seen her. She was suddenly afraid of what the punishment would be, and felt terror shake her body.
The hallway to her room was empty, but there was a guard, a very tall Arab with smoldering-black arms, standing near her bedroom door. He was holding a large sword in his massive left hand, resting on the floor near his black, sandled foot.
"What is he doing here?" Shaina said before she could think about the question, and her parents quickly opened the door and pushed her in.
"Shaina!" Queen Jeann said, closing the doors closely behind her and leaning against them. "You said something back there that was not wise! You could have let the whole kingdom know what has happened to you!"
