Before the Dawn by Kristal Lim

free
you?" she asked. "What? You're a slave?" It was ridiculous. He
acted more arrogantly than a prince.
    "No, I am not!" he snapped. "I am simply
bound to the Prince's service and I wish to be free of it."
    "The two of you seemed pretty close when I
saw you together," she observed. "Can't you just ask him to free
you?"
    "Don't be absurd." He looked irritated at the
suggestion. "One does not ask one's bond master to release one from
a bond."
    "Then what does one actually have to do to
make that happen?" she copied his tone exactly to mock him.
    Instead of answering her, he sighed
dramatically and plopped down on another boulder that had appeared.
"I was quite mischievous in my youth, you know," he said with an
air of embarrassment. Aline realized that he was about to make a
confession and she groaned to herself. This had better be quick.
"Of course, I am still considered quite young among my people, but
in the first few centuries of my life, I was a complete scoundrel,"
Raven continued. "No decent House wanted me befriending their sons
for fear I would lead them to ruin." She decided to ignore the
centuries part of his story for now. She didn't want her head to
explode.
    "I was very fond of making mischief," he went
on, "and, one day, I thought it would be very amusing if I placed
an enchantment on the daughters of a mortal king whose lands
bordered our own secret passages to the world." Her eyes widened in
question, and he nodded. "Yes. My request and the truth about your
past life share a connection."
    "Go on," she told him, totally consumed by
curiosity now.
    "So I enchanted the princesses of that mortal
kingdom. There were twelve of them born of the king's two
wives—"
    She couldn't help it, but she had to
interrupt him. "He had two wives? That wasn't in the story."
    His eyes flashed. "Yes, two wives.
When the first one died, he married another. Now can I please
continue?" He looked very annoyed now.
    "Oh," Aline nodded, feeling slightly
embarrassed. "Oh, yeah. Sure. Go on."
    "As I was saying," he gave her a look that
warned her not to interrupt him again, "I enchanted the princesses
and spirited them away to the Strangelands every night so they
could entertain us with their dancing. My companions and I enjoyed
making those girls dance and dance until their shoes were filled
with holes." He chuckled at the memory but sobered immediately when
he saw Aline give him a murderous glare. "But then, something
unexpected happened. The Prince, that fellow who’s inexplicably
obsessed with you, heard about the enchantment and he invited the
princesses to his castle so he could see them dancing for himself.
And—he fell in love with one of them, the eldest."
    Raven continued to speak, and his voice wove
its own spell around Aline. It was the oddest sensation, but she
could hear and see what he was narrating in her mind while feeling
like it was all happening to her as he described it. And, slowly,
she began to understand the mystery of it all.
    ***
     
     

Chapter 11
     
     
    She was dancing with the Prince. No. No, it
wasn't her. It felt like it was her, but there was a difference.
Rosamund. She was Rosamund in this story, or memory. And she was
dancing with the man she loved.
    "How is your father?" the Prince asked her
politely as he twirled her round the ballroom. His pale eyes never
left her face. No one had ever looked at her with such intensity
and longing before. She felt completely vulnerable and desired at
the same time under his gaze.
    "He is well," she replied. "But he becomes
more upset by the day that my sisters and I will not tell him what
magic works on us. He has taken to placing soldiers outside our
chambers to guard us, and he even ordered one to sleep within our
rooms!" Rosamund became quite incensed when she remembered the
soldier who had been chosen to stay in the chambers she shared with
her sisters. The soldier was recently returned from one of the wars
her father always seemed to be waging against some