Page 6 of A Darkness So Sweet

On someone who was born noble, it likely would have been even more elegant. Maia’s arms were left exposed and the muscles there were far too prominent for any noble woman to have. But the dress was pretty.

They’d brought her into a back room that was just as nice as the princess’s. The bed in the corner was clearly unused, and while the view wasn’t quite as nice, it was still larger than her entire cottage and filled with fine velvet. And the smell of it. The room smelled like fresh strawberries, and she really had no idea how they were doing that.

The maid next to her tsked. “It needs more lace.”

“I don’t understand why I need more lace at all. I’m going to be standing up there next to the princess. Shouldn’t I look... plain?” Maia snapped her mouth shut as the maid started snickering.

Apparently, no one was concerned that Maia would outshine the princess. Honestly, she wasn’t all that concerned with it, either. But it was awfully strange to be wearing a white gown next to the woman of the hour.

She should say something. She knew she should. A part of her screamed to just open her mouth and say she wasn’t going to do this.

Maia could figure things out if the royal family pulled out of the flower contract. But they wouldn’t. Anyone with their head on straight would know it was far too close to the wedding—less than an hour away—for any contract to be dissolved.

Unless they didn’t want flowers. But that would be the scandal of the next ten years if they didn’t have flowers at the princess’s wedding.

Maia talked herself out of arguing. Saying anything would just make her look even more foolish, and she didn’t want to look foolish in front of these people. So she wouldn’t. She would keep her mouth shut. Even if it made her very uncomfortable. Even if alarm bells were screaming in her head that this wasn’t right and she should be looking at the finer details.

Like that veil they were carrying to her.

“Oh, no.” She put her hands up and backed away from the mirror. “No, I don’t need that. That’s...”

“What the princess asked. When the trolls enter the room, she has decided she would like your face to be covered. It only makes sense that they should see her features and not yours.”

But that wasn’t a face covering. It was a veil. Like the kind a bride would wear.

She was in white. There was a veil. Something was definitely wrong with this situation and she didn’t like where it was heading. She just needed a few seconds to get her head on straight and then she could confront everyone in this room.

All it would take was for her to say that something felt wrong. The maids here weren’t paid well enough to lie for anyone, after all. They were cut from the same cloth she was. Maia wasn’t born into this life of riches and wonderful things. She was like them.

But then the maid shook her head and sighed. “What do you think is happening here, flower girl? You’re just lucky the princess even looked at you. Who wouldn’t want this opportunity?”

“I suppose,” Maia murmured, but she still didn’t let them walk toward her with that veil. “I don’t expect anything to be happening. It’s just all rather odd. Don’t you think?”

“Rude,” the maid said. “You’re ridiculously rude. This is the opportunity of a lifetime. You want a contract with the castle that never ends? You put on the veil.”

It would be life changing if the castle signed a contract with her that declared her the official florist for every function that they had. The castle had more money than they knew what to do with. If the princess liked her, then they might do just that.

Still, this was all too odd. The warning bells going off in her mind wouldn’t let her agree to all this without pushing back some. “I just don’t think?—”

Her stomach interrupted her complaints. The angry growl filled the room with an embarrassingly loud noise.

Yet again, the maid looked at her with pity. “We’ll get you some food once the ceremony is over, too. We’ll do something about that hair of yours, and then you can head out to be with the princess again. Yes?”

She tried. She really did. The words were right at the tip of her tongue, and a part of her screamed to stand up for herself. All it would take was a single word. But they were all staring at her. They all had expectations, and they were, unfortunately, in a position of power. These maids knew the royal family better than anyone else. They were the ones getting her dressed, and she had to listen to them.

Even if it felt wrong.

So she nodded and let them work on her hair. They curled it, coiled it, made it look entirely unlike her. All her curls were smoothed out and piled atop her head. They were so pretty and she wasn’t... that. Winged eyeliner made her eyes seem bigger. Bright red rouge burned when they put it on her lips, making them so red it was almost comical to look at. When they were done, they had created a different person.

She bit her lip, horrified at what she saw. This wasn’t her. It wasn’t even remotely her.

“Stop doing that,” one of the maids said before smacking her shoulder. “Now we’ll have to fix your teeth.”

Baring said teeth, Maia realized she had gotten some of that rouge on them. The bright red streak seemed like an omen for what was about to happen, and she had no way of stopping it.

They scrubbed the three teeth affected by her mistake and then covered her hair and face with the veil. Why now? She had no idea. All she knew was that they were then tugging her out of the room and down the halls again.

All she could hear were the repeated clacks of their heels on the stone floor. She could barely see at all through the veil, just shadowy figures behind the white that all moved past her. Even then, it was distracting to feel her own hot breath pressing back against her face. Her breath puffed the veil out and still, she couldn’t see anything until the maids suddenly let go of her hands and then she was... alone?

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