PRINCESS OF SOULS #3 Selestra

The line rounds the corner opposite me, so I can't see how far it stretches, but I know how many people there are. It's the same each year: two hundred souls ready to be bargained.

I try to move past them as quickly as I can, like a shadow sweeping across the corner of their eyes. But they always see me.

Once they do, they look quickly away.

They can't stand the sight of my green hair and snake eyes. All the things that make me different from them. They stare at the floor, like the tiles are suddenly too interesting to miss.

Like I'm nothing but a witch to be feared.

I'm not sure why. It's not like I have much magic in me yet. At sixteen, I'm still just an heir to my true power, waiting for the day I inherit my family's magic.

Irenya(Fl's bff)

Would you hang on for a second?

The apprentice dressmaker.....and only friend I have in this castle.....heaves in a series of quick breaths, running to catch up with me as I finally come to a stop outside the Grand Hall.

She smooths down my dress, making sure there are no wrinkles in sight. Irenya is a perfectionist when it comes to her gowns.

Irenya(Fl's bff)

Quit moving, Selestra

Selestra(Fl)

I'm not moving, I'm breathing

Irenya(Fl's bff)

Well, stop that too, then

I poke my tongue and start to fiddle with my gloves. Pulling the fingertips up and then pushing them beck down so the fabric rubs against my skin.

The repetition is smoothing.

It stops me from overthinking everything that's about to happen.

I should be used to all of this by now. Grateful that I've been allowed to stand by King Seryth's side for two years, gathering hair and watching as people from across the islands filter in to seal their fates.

I should be excited about the festival and all the souls we'll reap. To watch my mother tell death's secrets, as though it's an old friend.

I should not be thinking about all the people who are going to die.

Irenya(Fl's bff)

We don't want you coming loose during the first prediction

She says while pulling the strings tighter on my dress and I just know that she's smiling.

Irenya(Fl's bff)

Imagine, you bend down to take a lock of hair and your chest pops out

Selestra(Fl)

Trust me

I say gasping for hair.

Selestra(Fl)

I'm not bending anywhere in this thing

Irenya rolls her eyes

Irenya(Fl's bff)

Oh, be quiet

Irenya(Fl's bff)

You look like a princess

I almost laugh at her.

When I was younger.....before my mother became a stranger..... she'd read me stories of princesses. Fairy tales of demure women, powerless, locked up in towers and waiting to be rescued by a handsome prince, who would whisk them away for love and adventure.

Selestra(Fl)

I'm not a princess

I'm something far more deadly than that. And nobody is rescuing me from my tower.