Eternal Flame

~23~

Focus. Focus. Focus.

Tara repeated the mantra over and over in her head as she stood in the middle of her room early that morning, the sun not even risen yet, and tried to shift into something--anything.

So far, she had zero luck.

Before, she could shift into an animal with her eyes closed, but ever since Amelia forced her to shift back into a human when she'd shifted into a bird and tried to fly away, she hadn't been able to shift since.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she concentrated on shifting once more. Still nothing. The air shifted around but other than her body feeling strained and sore, nothing happened.

Tears threatened to spill through her eyes as frustration made her want to scream out loud. Raking a hand through her hair, she tried to think of something, anything to fix this, but nothing came to mind.

She couldn't shift right away after she was let out of the cell due to her injuries--it was dangerous to shift if you had any type of injury because it could damage your body further--and thought once she was fully healed, she could wait until Amelia's guard was down, shift into something deadly, and take Amelia then and there.

But at the moment, that wasn't the case.

She didn't know how much longer she tried before a brightness caught her attention. She looked at the window and saw the sun was rising.

She sighed and sat down on the bed. She rubbed her eyes, feeling exhausted. She hadn't been able to sleep after seeing Amelia outside her window and after trying to shift left her so tired she wondered if she'd be able to make it through the day.

She barely managed to stifle her groan when she heard a knock at her door. The door opened and Amelia poked her head in. She beamed when she saw Tara and said cheerily, "You're up early! Excited for today?"

"Absolutely," Tara said, forcing a false smile and cheer to her voice.

Amelia stepped in and clapped her hands together like an excited child on Christmas morning. "Excellent! We have so many fun activities for you to do, you'll love it. I have an outfit picked out for you that I hope you'll like."

She stepped out and a few seconds later came back with a ocean blue sundress with white polka-dots decorated on it. She gently laid it down on the bed beside Tara and asked, "Do you like?"

The dress was actually pretty. Tara couldn't fault the woman for having good fashion taste.

Tara nodded. "Yes, it's very pretty."

"Perfect! Now, go ahead and get dressed. I'm having Violet arrange breakfast for us. Let me know if you need anything, okay?"

Tara nodded and watched her walk out the door. She stripped out of her pajamas and slipped on the dress, which fit snugly on her body. She brushed the knots out of her hair and tied it back with one of the elastic bands she found in one of the dresser drawers.

She found Amelia in the kitchen. Plates of waffles, pancakes, small fruits, bacon, eggs were sitting in front of her with glasses of milk and orange juice.

"I wasn't sure what you liked so I had Violet make everything for you," Amelia said. "Come. Sit."

Tara sat down across from her, eyeing the food suspiciously. She was putting on the act the best she could, but she remembered reading in the textbooks her parents had given her about how unwise it was to eat or drink something offered by a fairy/pixie.