▪︎ A month later ▪︎

I could've sworn the gown I wore weighed half my body weight. A heavy corset the colour of sparkling gold decorated with white laces along the neck and bodice snug to my body like a fitted glove.

The shimmery ivory silken material of the lower skirt flowed from my waist down to the very tips of my toes and lower. It wasn't a surprise it would sweep along the floor as I walk.

I couldn't understand the reason for such an extravagant dressing. And perhaps old. Who even wore corsets these days? No one except Layla and her somewhat of a court.

I took a look of myself in the mirror. My hair was a wild mess atop my head and no matter how much I kept them tamed, people would always stare. Sighing, I gathered them from the sides and clipped them with gold oyster shaped clips.

Without sparing my reflection another glance, I rose from the chair in front of the dressing table making my way outside the room.

There wasn't a single person in the corridor. Just a dreary poorly lit hallway with grey walls consisting of few rooms and a path that led to the stairways.

Music buzzed downstairs, loud and clear and eerie. Something about the screechy violin and the echoing piano didn't seem quite right. If not anything, it sounded like a melody from a haunted lore.

I took a deep breath prepping myself one last time before descending down the stairs step-by-step, my footsteps leaving a click-clack sound behind.

Music ceased. People stopped in their actions to glance up my way. Their blank, hollow stares were unnerving but I'd lived here long enough to be not affected anymore.

My gaze did a quick sweep over the ballroom taking in the well-dressed nymphs and merman and mermaids.

All of them abducted and glamoured to only listen to Layla's commands and do nothing of their own.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and raised my chin high. When I got down the last step, that was when I looked to the center of the ballroom, the attraction of the event, the cause because of whom I was here in a castle faraway from my kingdom and in the cursed Black Sea.

Layla sat in her full glory dressed in a gothic emerald silk gown with tiny pearls belt holding the snug off-shoulder top of her dress and the champagne skirt in place. A diadem of pearls adorned her hair and a similar beaded pearl necklace was hooked around her neck. She looked like a beautiful nightmare. And a beautiful nightmare she is.

Something tugged at my heart as I took in how her eyes were fixated on the man beside her dressed in a similar emerald coloured tuxedo with his raven hair gelled away from his eyes to stay perfectly over his head.

Despite having his 'to-be-wife's' full attention on him, I saw how Zander's gaze met mine. Those grey eyes seemed to soften and I saw a flicker of hurt in them or maybe I just imagined because the next moment, they were blank as he looked away.

Layla caught on the action and finally decided to look at me. Her silver eyes shone under the overly bright ballroom lights and a smile that was nothing sweet pulled on her lips.

Hooking her right arm with Zander's left one, she raised her other hand holding a wine glass in a toss,

"Ladies and Gentleman," Layla said, "Welcome my lovely little sister, Marilla, on the eve of my and the demon king's engagement. As well as Marilla's engagement to Derek Hernandez, my to-be husband's second-in-command."