Cinderella Dreams of Fire (Fairy Tales Forever #1) (14 page)

B
eset by bright
, shining colors and decadent foods all around her, Kiyara could feel a dark war raging inside. As she smiled and twirled next to her sister Malina, she could sense all the pain, anguish, and grief that her mother had channeled into her on one side of her mind. On the other side cowered the goodness and love that desperately clung to her soul. On the inside, she knew which side was the real her, but it was trapped in a mental prison.

She no longer looked at her sister as one of the scariest people she knew, but as a rival for the prince's affection. When she laughed with incredible confidence, she was fixated on how the other women at the party looked at her with envy. It made the new additions to her personality crave the adoration and jealousy of others. It was a feeling that was completely insatiable. As her spine stood straighter than it had ever been, Kiyara moved to the music of the violin and saw Prince Braedon from across the room.

The timid parts of her that remained on lockdown were absolutely terrified. They compelled Kiyara to step away and hide herself among the gathering's wallflowers. Instead, she stuck out her chest and strode in a straight line toward her prey. She could feel her mouth curl in a smile that was nearly too perfect to be believed. She watched the prince dance with another woman. She had dark hair and looked about the same age as Kiyara and her sister. To the new, darker parts of Kiyara, the girl was nothing but a rival to be torn down and thrown to the wolves. While a small part of her could detect the deadness in the prince's eyes, the majority in control chose to ignore that fact.

She expertly spun close enough to the prince's dance partner to smell the girl's skin. With one twirl, a sharp diamond from one of the rings her mother had given her made contact at the exact right moment with one of the straps of the girl's dress. Nobody saw that Kiyara was the cause of the garment tearing apart. The girl shrieked so loud it pulled Braedon out of his stupor. He jumped back as his brunette partner clutched at her dress and turned red. She walked away in utter embarrassment, with partygoers laughing and gasping at her.

One down. A few dozen to go.

Kiyara twirled until her hands were in the prince's. He was shocked by the quick switch, until he recognized the girl before him.

"Kiyara. Thank the gods. Someone who probably wants to be here just as little as me."

She smiled an immaculate smile and pulled herself closer to him. “I can't believe you remembered me. I was a mess at that party."

The prince backed away slightly to provide a bit more space between them. “You were real.” His eyes scanned the rest of the crowd. “You weren't hiding your emotions like most of these people. Some of them are even betting their lives on being able to romance me."

Kiyara let out a flighty laugh, a sound that had never before exited her mouth. “Romancing doesn't sound so bad, with the right person."

Braedon turned his attention back toward her. He had a confused look on his face. “You seem different. Are you okay?"

Kiyara wanted to press herself into him and take him away from all of these awful people, her sister included. She also knew in the darkest parts of her that she deserved to be the future queen.

"Everything has changed. I'm not the girl who cried all over you just a few days ago.” Her fingers pressed into him. “I'm a woman who's willing to take what she's earned."

The prince started to let her hand go. “You don't need to be different. Seeing your emotions open up like that made me know who you really are."

Undeterred, Kiyara tightened her grasp on the prince. “This is who I am. The girl you saw in the garden is gone forever."

The prince wrenched himself free of her and politely moved to the side. He shook his head. “It's a shame you felt the need to change. Showing who you really were was all that made you stand apart from your sister. All that made you stand apart from everybody else here. Excuse me."

She watched the prince's back as he left. After the wave of confusion subsided, hate and anger bubbled to the surface. She looked down at her dainty, pale hand, and saw the sharp metallic claws begin to extract themselves from her fingers. She was about to let them all the way out in the midst of the crowd, when Armenia took her hand and begin to soothingly rub the palm.

"My dear, dear girl. He doesn't understand who we are and why we must be loved."

Kiyara couldn't let the rage subside so quickly. “He said I was better before. He said I wasn't being real anymore."

Her mother hushed her. As she continued to stroke her palm, the claws retracted back into her human fingers. “His poor judgment of your character will be the beginning of his downfall. Failure to choose either you or your sister has made quite a different choice for him indeed. Tonight is when it ends. Tonight is when we reclaim all that we deserve."

The silent part within Kiyara screamed and pounded to get out. It was no use.

The dominant persona smiled at the thought of retribution. “I feel like I should already start calling you queen."

The glow of a burning ember lit up Armenia's eye. “Soon enough, Princess. Soon enough."

Kiyara noticed several guests around her turn their attention to the top of a tall marble staircase at the other side of the room. She watched her mother's eyes stare in a curious manner in the same direction. She followed the path to the topmost step, and her jaw began to drop. A graceful, golden young woman with matching glass shoes took her first step toward the party. The dress was truly captivating, and Kiyara wondered how easily she could kill her own dressmaker for failing to match the sheer beauty of the outfit she saw walking toward them. Even the music stopped when the girl reached the halfway point, her eyes fixed forward into the middle of the crowd.

Several waves of realization hit Kiyara all at once. The first was that the woman in gold wasn't merely looking at just any point in the gaggle of guests. Her eyes were locked upon Prince Braedon's. The second was that the man with whom she'd just been dancing, who had shunned her embarrassingly, was looking right back. But it was the third point that stung her the most. It was the moment she finally realized that the girl was her lowly stepsister, Cinderella.

The room was so quiet, Kiyara could hear the individual breaths of the people throughout the room. She wanted to end their unimportant lives, along with the lives of both Braedon and Cinderella.

She knew that within the hour, she would have a chance to destroy them all.

P
rince Braedon forgot
how to breathe. For a moment, he'd forgotten how to walk and talk as well. The only thing his body would allow him to do was to stare slightly upward to see Cinderella descending her way back into his life. Even though her attire was a far cry from her thieving cloaks, which in his opinion looked pretty good to begin with, he knew her the moment the rest of the party turned in her direction. When her eyes connected with his across the room, Braedon felt as though the entire ballroom had frozen. As if they were the only ones there.

He wished that everyone around them would magically vanish, because being alone with her in this moment would be pure perfection. His mother had once told him that she hoped he could find both the perfect partner and someone to fall in love with. He wasn't sure if love was the combination of the fast heartbeat and locked brain that he experienced right now, but the sensation was certainly something new.

The prince wasn't sure what guided his feet to the base of the staircase, but he was there when the golden woman of his dreams reached the final step. He took her hand and guided her to the middle of the dance floor, where the rest of the crowd had created a path for them to travel. Cinderella waited until the partygoers around them formed a bit of a bubble around the two before she finally spoke.

Her eyes were locked on his. “I'm not sure how your other guests wear this stuff. It gets a lot of attention. I'm not really used to attention."

Braedon looked left and right and saw that nearly every eye in the ballroom was on them. He glanced up to the likewise staring musicians and cleared his throat.

As if shaken from a trance, the players began their music once again with a slow waltz. The prince placed his hand on the thief's lower back and gently brought her to him. Touching the dress and being so close to her shot a wave of energy through his entire body.

Braedon laughed. “There certainly are more people in here than you'd find on most rooftops. Where did you get that dress?"

Her eyes drooped down and looked at her outfit before coming back to his. “I have a feeling that if I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

The prince felt his cheeks redden. “Over the last few days, I've realized I should believe everything you say."

"And I have a feeling if you did, I would take complete advantage of you."

For the first time that evening, the prince let the heavy weight off his chest. “I'm sorry. I messed up, and then the queen wouldn't let me leave. I should've been there to help and I feel wretched for– for skipping out on you at a very important time."

The thief smirked. “You know, it's not like I haven't worked alone for a very long time. I took care of myself."

"Of course. I know that. But I don't want you to have to. You deserve an equal partner. I think maybe I could be that–"

"There she is! I have a note for you, little lady."

Both Braedon and Cinderella turned their heads at the very same moment to see a bumbling knight stomp his way toward them.

The prince's cheeks grew warmer. “Falstone! You were supposed to find her before–"

He laughed and placed his hands on both of their backs at once. “I know, I know. I got caught up with a few old friends. But now, I have the opportunity to make a new one.” He pulled Cinderella's hand from the prince's grasp and brought it up to his mouth. “Charmed to meet you, my lady."

As the sweaty knight brought her hand to his lips, the thief had her eyebrows raised and pointed in Braedon's direction the entire time. After Falstone held her hand for an uncomfortably long period of time, Cinderella withdrew it as politely as she could.

"Sir Falstone, I've heard far too much about you to kiss you back."

The man's cheeks turned as red as Braedon's as he howled with laughter, sending even more eyes toward them. “My boy, it's no wonder that you're crazy about her."

Braedon wasn't sure his face could get any hotter.

The thief smirked. “Crazy about me, eh? Can you tell me a little bit more?"

The prince stammered. “I– he meant to say… I think I need to go outside."

Before Cinderella could respond, a shriek pierced through the music. Braedon turned toward the noise and saw something that made his blood run cold. Standing beside his mother were two grotesque demons. Their claws were wrapped around her dress, poised to strike and spill her blood at a moment's notice.

C
inderella didn't hesitate
for a second. As soon as she saw the two creatures that were somehow her own stepsisters, she reached into the folds of her dress and pulled out a dagger. She used it to snip off a few threads that connected to a long, flowing part of her dress. The material fell to the floor, leaving Cinderella's legs free for combat. All around the room, women and men alike screamed at the sight of the demons, and about a dozen guards sprung into action. Unfortunately for them, approximately half of their ranks were apparently on Armenia’s side. The unluckiest among the Queen’s Guard received a sword in the back. It was utter chaos.

The prince's head darted from side to side to try to keep track of it all. He saw the nearest sword from one of the fallen guards and made a run for it. Cinderella caught his arm before he could take a single step.

Braedon growled. “I need to stop them from killing her."

Cinderella's eyes fought to grab his attention. “Don't think about her right now. We will save her, but we need to get through these guards first. Focus will keep you from getting knifed."

Even amid the wild screaming and dashing around them, the prince nodded his understanding.

The thief nodded back and let him go toward the sword. She had enough time to glance up to see the demons scurrying the queen off to another room. She was not surprised to see Armenia behind the trio, a glowing red fireball in her right hand.

"I hope we'll all have our vengeance tonight."

Cinderella kicked off her glass slippers and went running for one of the turncoats. One of Armenia’s men laughed when he saw her coming, which gave the thief just enough time to slice his wrist to lower his sword hand and kick him right in the throat with the ball of her foot. Two additional fake guards approached her. Before she could plot her attack, the prince held a new weapon and stood by her side.

He winked. “Shall we let the real dance begin?"

The thief licked her lips. “I lead."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

When the guards were but a few feet away, Braedon and the thief easily rolled beneath their swinging swords. Braedon whipped his weapon back around and slammed the attacker in the head with it, while Cinderella spun her legs back and heard a crack from the back of the other turncoat's kneecap. Both of Armenia's men crumpled to the ground in pain.

Cinderella and the prince only had a moment to smile, before she saw a man approaching behind his shoulder. “Duck."

The prince complied, bending at the waist while the thief dove over him with her legs extended. The man had no chance to draw his weapon as she kicked him so hard in the sternum that he lost his balance completely. The spy slammed his back on one of the hard wooden tables and clutched it as he fell down.

When she turned back toward her dance partner, she watched him easily avoid half a dozen swipes with a sword using his newly enhanced agility. With moves so quick she could barely make them out, he used his own weapon to knock the sword out of the spy's hand before he roundhouse-kicked the man's nose, bending it sideways and causing it to spill out blood.

The thief rushed to his side. “You're quick."

"You should see my tango.” He pointed to the other side of the room. “Will you look at that?"

Cinderella watched with a smile as the drunken knight Falstone swung a leg he must've ripped off a table into the heads of two unsuspecting spies. Falstone screamed in victory after knocking them both out.

Cinderella shrugged. “Never get between a man and his party."

She watched the prince's eyes shoot upward to the place the queen had previously been standing. “They're headed to the throne room. We need to move quickly."

Cinderella nodded, and they dashed up the staircase together. The prince and the thief easily dispatched the trio of guards that stood between them and the royal hostage. Cinderella used momentum to toss a couple of them over the railing, while Braedon’s speed was too much for the third one to handle. She could still hear his string of curses tumbling down the stairs as they reached the second-floor hallway. The prince waved her ahead and they sprinted toward the sound of two gurgling monsters and their fiery leader.

She'd never seen Braedon look so serious.

"If they harm a single hair on her head–"

She stowed her dagger in mid-stride and prepared to reach for the jeweled sword. “She's going to be fine, Braedon. I'll make sure of that."

Braedon stopped them at the beginning of a short hallway lined with ornate decorations and paintings. The thief had no time to admire the beauty, as there were six more guards standing between them and their objective. They all wore thick armor and were starting to move toward them.

Cinderella grinned. “You go low, I'll go high."

The prince returned a smile and prepared his weapon. That's when the thief began sprinting.

Cinderella waited until exactly the right moment to take flight. The outstretched swords of the heavily armored men merely grazed her dress as she leapt high into the air. All six of Armenia's guards watched her as she somersaulted through the air. The thief made her best effort to hover as long as possible. She didn't even need to look to know that Braedon would have all the opportunity he needed.

Cinderella heard the Prince of Loren run at top speed with his weapon drawn. Braedon blazed through a half-dozen spies with the side of his sword, easily tripping all of the men with his incredible momentum. They yelped, and shouted, and cursed, as the armor that made them nearly invulnerable became their downfall as well.

Cinderella landed on the other side of the now-harmless knights. The prince took a leap of his own and landed beside her. She smiled at the sight of the pinned men, who reminded her of turtles stuck on their backs.

Braedon raised his eyebrows. “That was a nice plan, Elle."

"Speed trumps armor. Let's save your mom."

Braedon nodded and they rushed through the open hallway into the throne room. The room was just as intricately decorated as the hallway had been. Paintings and jewelry from every corner of the world covered the walls and ceilings above. Cinderella thought it was no wonder that the queen had been after the Heartstone. It probably would have gone on one of the corners of the window. But Cinderella didn't have much time to admire the artwork.

She could see plainly as day that her two demon stepsisters continued to hold the queen hostage. That didn't surprise her, but the thing that did was that Armenia herself sat upon the throne. A throne that was covered from top to bottom in terrifying flames.