**DAPHNE**
After the banquet, Klyesque and Dionie escorted me down a glowing blue hall toward a pair of golden doors. Ash stayed behind to attend the council meeting in which the rest of us were not privy to.
“He will join us shortly,” Klyesque says, opening the doors and ushering me inside.
A glance about the room tells me this is Ash’s study. A stone desk graces one corner, piled high with what appears to be scrolls. Some unrolled, some tied closed. A large black settee covered in silver and gold pillows sits against one wall next to a miniature waterfall crested with glowing white rock. Straight across from it is a dark rounded hearth, chiseled into the rock and kindling with amber fire. The remaining wall boasts a floor to ceiling bookshelf, stuffed from end to end with leather-bound tomes. Some titles are scripted in gold and some in shimmering silver ink. The stone floor is covered in a plush gold carpet so soft - my footprints remain with each step. Torches grace each end of each wall, alight with glowing fire casting a soft golden light about the room.
I spin in a circle, taking it all in before joining Klyesque upon the cushioned settee. “I love it here,” I say. “I wish I could read.”
Klyesque smiles, “You cannot?”
I shake my head miserably. “No. Where I come from, only nobility is ever taught to read.”
“Perhaps I shall teach you,” she grins, and I smile brightly in answer. “I’m sure I can find something to start with.”
I nod, thinking of the book in my cloak pocket upstairs in the Lavender Chamber. “That would be perfect.”
“All you really need to do is remember the sounds of the letters,” Dionie encourages. “And I’m sure you’ll do that just fine. We can both teach you.”
“In fact-” Klyesque leaps from her seat to pull one of the smaller volumes from the shelf. “We’ll start with this one.”
“What is that one called?” I ask as she hands it over and I run my fingers across the strange title.
“It is called *′A Sparkle in the River’,”* Klyesque informs me. “It’s a short tale of love between a selkie and a mortal. One of my favorites. Strangely enough.” She points to each letter, sounding each for me slowly. “A-ssss-ppp-arrr-kkk-lle-iii-nnn-”
“-the river,” Ash completes, coming through the doors to interrupt. “You two, go to your chambers. You need to rest.”
“Hold onto that Daphne,” Klyesque instructs with a wink. “We shall begin our lessons another time.”
“Sleep well, Lady Daphne,” Dionie bows, lifting my hand to place a chaste kiss upon my knuckles.
Ash glowers at him, “Get out.”
Once they are gone, the room fills with tension. Ash remains standing, glaring into the fire. “You wanted to slap me. Now that we are alone, you may.”
I clutch the book close to my chest and sigh. “I don’t want to slap you,” I whisper. tears filling my eyes. “I-”
“Stop!” Ash hisses, sitting next to me and grabbing me into his arms. I fall against him in a heap, pushing the dreaded tears back in favor of his comfort. “Don’t cry. Slap me if you must, but do not cry. Please.”
“I want my sister, Ash. I have to rescue her. Please!” I beg, pulling away from him as his body tenses. His silver gaze is troubled, and I shiver with worry that he will refuse.
He sighs, leaning back to stare into the fire of the hearth. “I sent messengers to north over a fortnight ago. When I first realized she’d been taken. They still have not returned. We will wait a few more days. Should they not return by then, I will go after her.”
Wait a few days? Is he insane?
So much can be done to a person in a matter of days!
“Days?! Must we wait so long?” I complain.
“The Winter Queen has not made contact with me yet. Trust me when I say, she’ll not be harming your sister until she can sport of it.”
“I will go with you when you go,” I whisper, fisting my hands against his shirt.
He shakes his head, “Absolutely not. No.”
“Yes! You cannot stop me. If you leave me here - I will follow you,” I seethe, shoving him.
His eyes snap to mine. “You do not understand.”
“I don’t care! I will go with you! I have to! I-”
“NO! You are the one she wants!” Ash shouts, leaping from his seat to glare down at me. His hisses, “You are the one the Winter Queen thinks that she has! You will not be going anywhere near that bitch.”
I gasp, “Wh-what? Me? Why me?”
“There are so many things that you do not know, Daphne. So many years of plans that I made against Hadimere. Against the Winter Queen. Plans that involved taking a mortal - sacrificing a mortal. The only thing I did not plan on was caring about-” He stops, his jaw clenching. Turning away from me, he sets his hands upon the stones of the hearth.
“Caring about what?” I prompt him. Yet somehow, I know. “Are you saying you didn’t plan on caring about me?” I shake back the absurdly timed tingles of pleasure his statement brings. I ask him, “Why are your nobles not bothered by my presence?”
He shudders, his eyes becoming veiled. “What?”
“Why did they not seem surprised that I am here? As your honored guest?”
He growls, “Why would they be?”
“That is not an answer and you know it.”
“They have been expecting you for quite some time.” he says softly, his eyes swirling with power as shadows of energy coil around him.
“Have they?” My eyes narrow at him. “How so?”
“They believe you are an answer to a problem once deemed unsolvable. They are mistaken in their beliefs and I will discuss no more of it tonight.”
“What problem?” I push on, knowing that I should not when his magic begins to crackle with electric charge.
“Daphne, not now,” he pleads. “I do not want to hurt you.”
I use every fiber of my will to voice what it is I am truly thinking. “Had you planned on sacrificing me?”
His eyes fill with sadness, gaze dropping low to somewhere just beyond me. “It didn’t have to be you - and yet- I guess it did have to be at the same time.”
My body goes cold at the realization. I gasp, my eyes blurring, not truly seeing. The nausea I am so often plagued with roiling in my gut. “You are going to sacrifice me. That is why your Elite Council is unbothered by my presence here. They have been expecting me.”
*Oh God.*
*I am going to be sick.*