In a land of magic on the brink of war, three stories are fated to meet.
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Lilac is being forced into a marriage she never wanted, for the benefit of her kingdom.
Lily is trapped in a life of servitude and endless poverty after her mother dies...
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"There! He lives right there!" Caleb shouted in my ear over the roaring wind.
I looked to where he was pointing, squinting through the fierce wind, and saw a desolate shack sitting outside a small village. The wind hinted of snow, and I thought I saw a few flurries, but they whirled by before I got a good look.
Celeste began to loose altitude, circling around to land near the shack, her wings slicing through the wind. Caleb instinctively held tighter to my waist as we dropped, a natural reaction for anyone who hadn't ridden a Pegasus before.
My stomach swooped in an uncomfortable way. And it had nothing to do with us landing.
Celeste touched down, folding in her wings and walking a few steps to work off the momentum.
"Does it ever get any better?" Caleb muttered, his breath tickling my ear.
I surprised myself by chuckling a little, "Yes, but only after years of riding."
He groaned and released my waist, dismounting and unknowingly giving me much-needed space from him. I followed after him, easily getting off Celeste's back. She changed in a flash of light, her human form looking pale and drawn. Her body looked almost see through.
"I won't be able to go much longer." She warned, almost fainting when she took a few steps.
"Celeste!" I lunged forward and caught her before she went down, afraid she might just slip through my fingers and alarmed by how fragile she felt in my arms.
She held gratefully to me, "I'm... I'm fine."
Caleb wore a deep frown, "No, you're not, Your Majesty. You need to rest. We need to find shelter."
"No!" Celeste's dimming light flared up, blinding for a moment, "No, we must keep going. Lilac must succeed."
Caleb and I exchanged worried looks, but there was nothing we could say or argue. Celeste had her mind set.
After a few moments of rest and rechecking everything was secure, we trekked towards the shack. Even from this distance, I could tell it wasn't a respectable sort of place. The whole thing listed to the side as though it had given up standing against the rough weather of the looming Skeleton Mountains.
"Caleb," I said cautiously, "are you sure this man is... trustworthy?" Trustworthy was as polite as I could manage without sounding snobbish.
Caleb didn't face me, as he normally did, as he answered, "We'll be fine."
He had avoided my question, a sure sign that he didn't want to tell me the answer. It was disheartening, especially since I was putting my trust in Caleb to help me.
The closer I got the shack, the more I felt this was a horrible idea. Something nagged at me from the back of my consciousness, a knowing that didn't want to reveal itself.
