chapter 9
1585 Words
Chapter 9: The Princess Arrives
Alex
I was deep asleep, curled tight beneath my thin, scratchy blanket, when the knocking started.
It wasn't a normal sound. It was sharp. It was violent. It felt completely wrong. I jolted upright in my small cot, my heart slamming hard against my ribs like a trapped bird. In this palace, no one ever knocked on a slave’s door. Not ever. If the guards or the masters came for you, they simply kicked the door open and dragged you out by your hair or your arms. A knock meant something different, and in my world, different usually meant dangerous.
The knocking came again, much louder this time. The wood of the door rattled in its frame.
Before I could even swing my legs off the edge of the mattress, the door burst inward with a loud crash. The heavy wood hit the stone wall with a bang that echoed in the tiny room. Cold air from the hallway rushed in, bringing with it the scent of the winter outside. Along with the cold came a woman wrapped in thick white fox fur and shimmering silver silk. She looked like she was made of moonlight and money. Her hood fell back as she stormed inside, moving with a fast, confident stride like she owned every single stone in this room.
She didn't hesitate for a second. She didn't speak a word of greeting.
She reached out and shoved me hard in the center of my chest.
I wasn't prepared for the force of it. I stumbled backward, my heels catching on the uneven floor, and I crashed down onto the hard stone. A sharp pain shot straight up my spine as the impact knocked the air right out of my lungs. I sat there, gasping for a breath that wouldn't come.
“What—” I managed to gasp out.
Before the word could even finish leaving my mouth, her hand cracked across my face.
The slap burned like literal fire. My head snapped sideways from the force, and my ears began to ring with a high, steady hum. My cheek felt like it was blazing hot. For a heartbeat, a wave of pure rage flooded through me. It was hot, blinding, and violent. I wanted to scream at her. I wanted to stand up and hit her back. I wanted to show her that I wasn't just a piece of trash she could kick around.
Then I saw her eyes.
They were cold. They were sharp. They were unmistakably royal. I had seen that exact look before—it was in the painted portraits that lined the great hall upstairs. It was a look of total power and total lack of empathy. My stomach dropped into my shoes.
No. It couldn't be her. Not here. Not now.
I pushed myself up slowly, my movements shaky. I kept one hand pressed to my throbbing cheek, feeling the heat pulsing against my palm. I forced my voice to stay as steady as possible, though my insides were shaking.
“Excuse me,” I said, looking her in the eye. “But who are you?”
The woman didn't answer right away. Instead, she laughed. It was a high, light, and cruel sound that made my skin crawl. The two maids standing in the doorway behind her laughed even louder, as if they were on a timer. They looked at me with smirks on their faces, enjoying my confusion and my pain.
One of the maids stepped forward into the room, her lips curled into a smug grin. “A low-born maid like you doesn’t even recognise her superiors?” she sneered. She looked me up and down with disgust. “No wonder you dared to pretend to be the Alpha’s daughter. You’re as slow as you are filthy.”
The woman in the fox fur raised a gloved hand. She didn't even look at the maid, but the girl went silent instantly.
The woman glided closer to me. Her expensive boots clicked against the stone floor with a deliberate rhythm. As she got closer, her perfume hit me. it was sharp and sweet, a cloying smell that made my throat tighten. It was the smell of someone who had never had to work a day in her life.
“The king did the right thing,” she said softly. Her voice was smooth, but it dripped with poison. “The moment that filthy black mark appeared on your skin, everyone finally saw the truth about you. You were a lie.”
Her gaze swept over my ragged dress and my messy hair like I was something disgusting she had scraped off the bottom of her shoe.
“Without that mark, you’d still be playing the part of a fake princess,” she continued, her voice rising slightly. “You would be fooling decent people. You would still be wearing silks you didn’t deserve to touch.” Her lips curved into a tiny, mean smile. “But that’s not the only reason I am here.”
She tilted her head to the side, studying me as if I were a strange insect. “Even the lowest slave in this kingdom knows my face. Yet here you stand, pretending you don't know me.”
She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Pathetic.”
Something ugly and hot stirred in my chest. For a moment, my anger pushed past my fear. I was tired of being hit. I was tired of being insulted in my own space.
“I don’t care who you think you are,” I snapped, my voice louder than I intended. “Breaking into someone’s room and hitting them is a crime. Even in this palace, you could be jailed for doing something like this.”
The maids burst into another round of loud laughter. They looked at each other as if I had just told the funniest joke in the world.
The lead maid, the one who had spoken before, wiped a fake tear from her eye. “She still doesn’t know,” she said between giggles. “Gods, she’s slow. She really thinks the law applies to her.”
The woman in the center smiled. It was a slow, vicious movement of her lips. “Don’t waste your breath on her, Vera. She’s clearly an i***t. She doesn't understand the world she lives in.”
My hands clenched into tight fists at my sides. My nails dug into my palms so hard it broke the skin. “Calling someone an i***t on Christmas Eve is a low thing to do,” I shot back. “Are you hoping for bad luck in the new year?”
The woman threw her head back and laughed. The sound echoed off the cold stone walls of the cellar. “I have never met anyone this stupid in my entire life.”
She stepped forward again, moving so close that the soft white fur of her cloak brushed against the fabric of my ragged grey dress. I could feel the heat coming off her, but she felt like ice.
“Fine,” she said, her voice dropping and sharpening like a knife. “Since you insist on playing clever and acting like you don't know your place, I will introduce myself to you.”
Her voice became a whisper, but it was a whisper that felt like a threat.
“I am Princess Seraphine.”
The name landed like a physical blow to my stomach. I felt the blood drain from my face.
“I am the daughter of Alpha Wrich of the Cross Moon Pack,” she continued calmly, as if she were reciting a list. “The strongest ally of the Frostfall kingdom. The woman who will soon rule by Kaelan's side.”
Her eyes bored into mine, searching for any sign of weakness. “Your type bow their heads when I enter a room. They moved out of my way immediately when they saw me.”
She reached out with a lightning-fast motion and grabbed my chin. Her fingers dug into my jaw hard, forcing my head up until my neck ached. I could feel her sharp nails through her gloves.
“And you,” she whispered, her hot breath hitting my face, “a filthy little slave with traitor's blood, dared to raise your voice to me. You dared to speak to me as if we were equals.”
The fear finally hit me then. It was cold and absolute. My knees began to tremble, and I had to fight to stay standing. I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly feeling as dry as dust.
She smiled when she saw my reaction. She liked seeing me afraid.
“After today,” Seraphine said softly, her eyes glinting with malice, “you’ll wish you were back in the kitchen scrubbing pots. You'll wish you could still work at all.”
She released my chin with a rough shove. I staggered back a few steps but managed to stay on my feet. My heart was pounding so loud in my ears that it drowned out the silence that followed her words.
The maids looked pleased. They looked hungry, like they were waiting for me to be torn apart.
I stood there alone, shaking uncontrollably. My cheek was burning, and my chin ached where her fingers had bruised the skin.
What the hell have I gotten myself into?
- Writer
