[血の雪] Snow of Blood (The Twelve Kingdoms Backstory)

III

She blinked open her eyes, registering the softer-than-butterflies material underneath her. She looked around slowly, registering the muted neutral colors of beiges and browns. The windows on the right were arched with heavy dark green draperies, obstructing most of the golden light trying to seep in. The walls were mostly bare, a dark shade of cream. It was simple, the kind of place that made you think of home.

Shifting from her side, Lacie looked up and her breath caught itself inside her lungs. The tall ceiling was covered in hanging vines, strands of leaves intertwining with the occasional dots of flowery colors. Wisteria-like pale flowers hung closer to the walls, in full bloom.

She laid on her back, staring up in absolute wonder, mesmerized to the point of almost forgetting to breathe.

"Did you rest well?" a voice asked her from the left and she swung her head toward it.

A boy of about seventeen was standing by the door-- she didn't even hear him come in. He came closer, and at the sight of those eyes, the calm flushed itself out and was instead replaced with mind-numbing panic. Her breathing quickened and she scratched at the slippery silk sheets. Visions of red splashed through her mind and a sudden overwhelmence of despair was drowning her, forcing her to gulp for air.

A cool palm was placed on her forehead and a soothing voice told her to calm down. Lacie closed her eyes, slowly relaxing. Yuki. She wrapped her fingers around the hand on her forehead. Yuki was here. Everything was okay now. It was all just a nightmare.

Pulling him closer, she breathed in, hot air against his neck. A faint but sharp smell of jasmine filled her senses and her eyes snapped open.

"Yuki is gone," he whispered into her hair. "You slaughtered his sisters, remember? And he hates you now."

"That's not true," she whispered back, voice hoarse. "That didn't happen, you're lying to me."

His voice was a soft low velvet, earthy, like the room they were in. It never really matched his words. "And now you're in denial because you can't deal with the trauma." Slowly, he pulled away from her weakening grip. "No more Yuki. No one loves you anymore."

Lacie controlled her breathing, trying to keep her gaze steady on the boy in front of her. "Then who the hell are you?"

"Your sparkly fairy godmother," he spat with an ironic scowl.

Lacie scooted away from him, her back softly hitting the hard wooden backboard. Her hands curled into fists to control the shaking. She wanted to go back to sleep and never wake up again. Seeing Yuki in her dreams was a lot more preferable than never seeing him again.

The boy sighed and sat cross-legged at the foot of the bed, leaning back on his arms. "You can still get him back, you know."

Something tripped in her brain, arranging everything back into place, and she sat up. "Of course," she whispered. "Of course, I can get him back." Determination flooded into her veins and she felt like herself again. "I don't care what it costs me."

The boy leaned forward, clutching the silky sheets for dear life, just like she did a minute ago. "It'll cost you a lot. It'll cost everyone dearly."

"You seem to be misunderstanding something," she gritted through clenched teeth. "I. Don't. Care."

The boy regarded her with a hint of wonder. "You're insane."

"By the looks of it, so are you," she bit back. "What do I need to do?"

"Seduce my brother and then ruin him," he replied with an air of nonchalance. "He's your soulmate, by the way. I doubt you'll have much trouble."

Lacie let that sink in for a moment. She would have never imagined that she had a soulmate. And even if she did, it should have been Yuki. But then again, she didn't know much about soulmates. It was some sort of privilege that only the royal and the special seemed to have. Lacie was far from being royal and special. It didn't matter enough to ponder about now, though.

"Who's your brother?"

"King Terra of the Earth Kingdom." The boy had a sad scary look on his face that she doubted he was aware of. "How would you like to become the lost princess of the Telekinesis Kingdom?"

~*~*~

The fluid gold of the dawning sun saturated the mountains in vibrant pinks, purples, blues, while thick fog still covered the forested valleys below. Lacie sat atop a meadowed hill, twirling a dandelion between her fingers. Mell's Summer Palace was behind her, casting long shadows from the sun's angle. She's been here for barely two weeks.

The miniscule blade-like yellow petals pulled themselves off the flower in her hand and threw themselves into the light wind. Lacie focused on every petal with her mind, moving them without exuding physical force. That first night, she gave up her rights on Terra's soul and gained this. Since then, she'd been smashing every flower-filled vase she laid eyes on in the palace, strengthening the power. Deep down, there was also some kind of twisted satisfaction from mutilating flowers. She wanted everything innocent and pure to be ruined, just like her.

Sensing a presence behind her, she turned around to find a deer fawn on spindly legs, walking toward her gently. She beckoned it closer, and scratched behind its ears as he nuzzled her hair. Reaching out with her mind, she felt its rapidly beating heart and lurched it through its chest, moving the ribs out of the way with a crack. The fawn dropped over her, broken, and staining everything in ugly blood.

Mell was going to get mad, she knew. He could sense every little mosquito and weed if he wanted to, and he never appreciated her messing with it.

Yuki would be livid, if he knew she did this. She remembered how he used to always somehow find injured animals and nurse them back to health in the little cottage. He would sulk for hours, not speaking to her after she would mention that after those animals healed, they would go back into the wild and probably die from something even worse.

Thoughts of Yuki plagued her every day and every night, and she felt like she needed to hurt something so that it would overwhelm the agony of her own bleeding heart.

Just as she'd predicted, Mell appeared behind her an hour later, expression neutral, but the crush of his fingers against her arm was harsh when he pulled her up.

"The ball is tonight, Princess Cella," he enunciated her new identity as a warning. "And while blood might be Terra's favorite color, I don't think he'd appreciate it on you very much." He nudged her along toward the palace. "The dress and the maids are already waiting for you."