Read Before the Dawn Online

Authors: Kristal Lim

Tags: #romance, #love, #fantasy, #young adult, #dark fantasy, #fairy tale, #curse, #spell, #enchantment, #dark fairy tale

Before the Dawn (7 page)

BOOK: Before the Dawn
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He just looked at her for a moment as if he
was judging the sincerity of her apology. He did not move at all
and only the light breeze playing with his silky hair betrayed the
fact that he was made of flesh. If it weren't for that one detail,
he might have been a statue in his perfect stillness. Then he
stirred, his movements as graceful and liquid as water, and he held
out his hand. "Come dance with me," he invited.

As soon as she placed her hand on top of his,
he swept her along and they were suddenly in the dark ballroom she
remembered from her dreams. He led her round and round the dance
floor until she thought she saw stars circling them and, all the
while, she lay completely pliant in his arms. Through her
half-closed eyes, she thought she caught glimpses of Meran dancing
with the one called Raven. Cassie and Sam had their partners, too,
and her friends all looked as dazed as she felt. She didn't see
Gracelyn dancing though, and she vaguely wondered where the other
girl might be. Gracelyn would not have missed this, not when the
rest of them were here. Then she remembered that she hadn't spoken
to her friend, so she hadn't gotten the chance to tell her about
any of this and maybe the others hadn't told her anything, too. So
Gracelyn could be at home right now, sleeping, while they were all
dancing in this beautiful place.

"No. She's here," the Prince assured her
though she had not spoken her thoughts and her worries out loud,
and he pointed to a dim corner of the ballroom where she saw
Gracelyn lying down on a pile of cushions while she kissed a
handsome older man with a passion Aline had never imagined her
friend was capable of.

Her body stirred as she watched them and he
pulled her even closer against him. However, she fought against the
urge to just melt in his arms again, and she frowned at him
instead. "How old is that guy she's with?" she asked. "She's
underage, you know." She was suddenly very worried for her friend.
Gracelyn usually never let a guy get that grabby with her. Maybe he
had given her something—

"Lord Lir has not held her in his arms for a
long time," the Prince told her. "Let them savor the moments they
have." He smiled and she found herself nodding in agreement. Yes,
let Gracelyn enjoy herself. They were at the ball surrounded by
people. Nothing bad could really happen without anyone noticing. As
she let her worry about Gracelyn slip out of her mind, he spun her
faster around the room.

During the many revolutions of the dance,
Aline caught flashes of what was happening to the other people
around her in frozen moments. She saw several kids she knew from
school dancing with strangers, their eyes dreamy as they looked
upon the beautiful faces of their partners. The man Cassie was
dancing with was kissing her reverently on the shoulder while Sam’s
partner was whispering something in her ear that was making her
giggle. Meran and Raven had their faces close together, close
enough to be kissing, but they seemed to be arguing instead,
judging by the intense look in Meran’s dark gaze. To her surprise,
she also saw some familiar people from town in the ballroom: the
new English Literature teacher was curtsying to a tall,
aristocratic-looking man; the pimply kid who worked at the gas
station was offering a black rose to a lady in a lace mask; the
priest from the local church was covered with a cloud of smoke as
he played a metal violin; her old next-door neighbor was dressed in
a clown costume while he tried to teach his numerous cats how to do
a pirouette; and several others were all caught up in their own
little worlds as they enjoyed the various amusements the ballroom
offered to them.

Then, one face captured her attention above
all others in the crowd. Trevor was standing near the great doors
that led to the room. Unlike the other dancers and guests, he
wasn’t wearing fancy clothes. Instead, his appearance was the same
sloppy one she saw when he came to visit her in her house. There
was a disbelieving yet fascinated expression on his face as he
stared at the scene before him, and Aline noticed that his hands
were tightly curled into fists. The right one was bleeding, the
blood slowly dripping to the black floor where it seemed to
disappear as if absorbed by the stone. His eyes searched the
ballroom sharply until he caught sight of her. "Aline." She saw his
mouth shape the sound of her name, and he started to make his way
to her side. But dancers kept getting in his way and, soon, he had
to forcefully push them out of his path so he could take one step
after another in her direction.

She suddenly felt herself being pulled
through a small door that led to a long corridor. Their footsteps
clinked like pebbles against glass as she and the Prince ran down
its length, the white moonlight decorating the floor with odd
patterns of illumination as it shone through the ornate designs of
the windows. She glanced back once or twice to see if Trevor had
followed them, but the corridor was so long she couldn't quite see
the end of it. Then they turned a corner and she heard a door shut.
A small flame leaped to life in a lamp set in one part of this
strange new room, but before she could take in what her
surroundings looked like, she was in the Prince's arms once more
and his mouth had swiftly claimed hers.

He kissed her so slowly that it felt like
sweet torture when each of her senses caught on fire. She had never
been kissed like this before. It made her want to be consumed
completely by the heat of his mouth and she wanted to consume him
in turn. Nothing else mattered except being possessed by this
passion between the two of them. His hand then slowly worked on the
ribbons and buttons of her dress and she did not resist at all when
his touch became bolder against her bare skin. There was a dim
corner in her mind that tried to tell her this was not something
she should be doing, that this was something she did not truly
want, but the velvet feel of his tongue seduced it into silence and
acquiescence. So she continued to let him kiss her and touch her,
and she followed quite willingly when he began to lead her to the
bed.

He stopped kissing her for a moment so he
could stare into her eyes and ask, "Do you love me?"

"Yes," the answer came easily from her lips,
and she did not doubt the truth of it at all. However, that dim
corner that had been silenced earlier stirred again. How could it
be true that she loved him? She did not even know him. She wasn't
the sort of person who went around thinking she was in love with
someone just because he had a handsome face. She had never been
that kind of girl. So what was she doing letting him kiss her like
this and saying that she loved him? Once these thoughts took root
in her mind, she found herself distracted by others. This, all of
this, did not feel right. It seemed too perfect, too arranged. This
was just some crazy dream. Wasn't it? She suddenly became very
confused while she tried to remember how she had gotten here, and
when he tried to reclaim her lips with another kiss, she pulled
away.

"No." She shook her head. "No. What’s
happening here? This can't be real. I was somewhere—" She stared at
him with something like fear. Who was this man before her? What was
he doing to her?

A look of alarm flashed in his eyes.
"Please," he begged. "Don't doubt this. Don't doubt me. Stay."

But she began backing away from him. "What
are you doing to me?" she demanded, and she sounded scared now.
"
Why
are you doing this to me?" She suddenly noticed for the
first time that there were wet tracks on the floor. In the low
light, most were only dark smears that dully reflected what
illumination there was in the room, but one was in the shape of a
small foot, and it was in the exact spot she had stepped on just a
moment earlier. Aline then realized to her horror that her feet
were bleeding, and the pain almost overwhelmed her for a second.
However, she struggled against it valiantly and managed to remain
upright.

"It is nothing," he tried to reassure her,
but she heard the lie in his voice. "Just stay and I will answer
all your questions. Please." He tried to reach for her and she
shied away from him in a panic. He looked stricken. "Rosamund, stay
with me," he pleaded.

She froze. "I'm—not Rosamund," she said in a
whisper. "And I don't even know who you are."

He said nothing, all emotion gone from his
face now as he regarded her coldly. "Yes," he finally admitted,
standing straighter as his handsome features took on a harsher
cast. "You are not Rosamund. But her heart sleeps within you, and I
will have her back!" He suddenly lunged towards her, hands
stretched out to grab her and prevent her from leaving. But she got
lucky and evaded him, then Aline kicked out wildly and managed to
make him lose his footing. While he was busy getting back to his
feet, she threw open the doors and ran for her life.

The corridor seemed longer than it had been
before and her heart was pounding hard in fear as she prayed she'd
be able to make it to the ballroom without getting caught. Then she
could ask her friends and the other people she knew there to help
her get away from the Prince. The fear she felt provided her with
the speed she needed to practically fly down the corridor.

"Aline!" She heard someone shout her name,
and she almost cried in thankfulness when she saw Trevor making his
way towards her from the other end of the corridor. He was here. He
could help her. "Where were you?" he wondered. "I couldn't find you
and I just kept running and running down this place." She noted
that he seemed sharper than everything else in this place, more in
focus, more real. His eyes also didn’t have the glazed cast that
she was sure hers had possessed earlier.

She reached him just as she heard the Prince
command them to stop. She didn't even bother to glance back. She
grabbed Trevor's arm and pulled him after her. "Come on! We have to
get away from here!" The fear she felt must have transmitted itself
to him because he didn't waste any time by asking her to explain
herself. He just ran by her side. They soon spied the small door
that led to the ballroom and they burst through it in relief. They
were almost safe. Aline began to call for her friends, but no sound
came out of her mouth when she saw the scene that awaited her in
the ballroom.

The music had stopped playing and the dancers
were still. Those who belonged to the castle, the Prince's
subjects, were arrayed in positions where they could easily
surround her and Trevor, while keeping her friends within easy
reach should they require hostages. Her friends and the other
townspeople, meanwhile, were standing completely limp and
motionless with blank eyes, like puppets waiting for their strings
to be pulled. Then, weaving through the eerily silent throng on
light feet, Raven slowly approached them with a twisted little
smile on his perfect face.

"Your Highness," he said to Aline in his
smooth voice, "must you leave?"

"You stay away from me!" she told him as
fiercely as she could. Trevor didn't say a word, but he stepped in
front of her protectively.

Raven looked amused by this display. "Ah,
yes. The soldier is here, too, of course. But I doubt you would
receive any help from a meddlesome witch this time."

Aline had no idea what he was talking about
and she didn't really care to figure it out at the moment. "Just
let us go," she demanded. "And release everyone I know."

He shook his head. "I am afraid I cannot do
that. The enchantment has been invoked. It has to take its
course."

"What are you talking about?" Trevor
asked.

Raven's smile grew smug. "You puzzled it out
before. Let's see if you can do it again."

"Rosamund." The Prince stepped out of Raven's
shadow. The coldness she had seen in his face earlier was gone and
he now looked conciliatory. "Please let us discuss this. We do not
have to fight."

"Says the guy who almost brainwashed me," she
snapped. The harshness of her tone made him flinch. "Yeah, but
you're right," she went on after a beat. "We don't have to fight.
Just let us all go and we'll forget about all this."

"I would give you anything you ask for,
except for that." He actually looked sorry about it. "I can't ever
let you go. I've tried, but I cannot." He took a step towards her,
and his subjects moved closer, too. They all started to approach
Aline and Trevor and circle them in. Aline knew that if the two of
them would let the Prince and his people get any nearer, she and
Trevor wouldn't be able to leave the ballroom. The only possible
means of escape was to jump out of the nearby balcony, and that
wasn't really an option. "Please, Rosamund," the Prince went on
speaking. "I already lost you once. But we have found each other
again after I have waited and searched for you for so long. So,
please. Stay."

Trevor then reached for Aline’s hand and gave
it a squeeze. She looked at him. The glance he threw her way was
significant and, even without words, she understood what he meant.
There really was only one choice left to them.

She met the Prince's beseeching eyes with a
defiant glare. "I am not Rosamund," she said.

Then Trevor tightened his grip on her hand
painfully, and she felt the thin edge of the silver leaf she gave
him cut into her palm.

She woke up gasping.

***

 

 

Chapter 8

 

 

The first rays of the morning sun were
starting to shine through the window, and Aline could not remember
the last time she had felt so relieved that it was daytime.
Daylight meant that the night was over, that those who threatened
her in the dark could not harm her and she was safe. But was she
really safe? She unclenched her hands and saw that the right one
was bleeding from a cut. The wound was where the silver leaf from
her dream had sliced through her skin as Trevor tried a desperate
gamble to get them away from the Prince and his dangerous Court. As
these memories came to her mind, she suddenly became incredibly
worried about what had happened to Trevor. But, almost as soon as
she thought of him, her cellphone rang and she let out a sigh of
relief when she saw his name and number flashing on the screen.

BOOK: Before the Dawn
8.46Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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