Aurora Thornwing's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

The Queen let Aurora stay, but staying was not the same as belonging. Each morning Aurora walked the halls of the golden castle, where red roses climbed the walls and twisted up the turrets. The winged nobles watched her pass. They did not hide their stares. One tipped a wing toward her horns and laughed. Another whispered the word "goat" behind her back. Aurora kept her chin high, but her hands shook. When she made her case for the crown, she would stand alone. No noble would speak for her. A friendless girl would lose before she opened her mouth. So Aurora chose a target. The nobles followed one fairy above all others. He strode through the rose gardens each day, and the others bent like grass when he passed. Black hair, a green coat stitched with gold, wings as red as the Queen's. He was Oberon Nightwing, the King. If he nodded to her once, the court would stop its laughing. Aurora waited by the gate where the roses grew thick. When the King came, she stepped into his path and bowed low. "Your Majesty. I ask for one word with you." Oberon stopped. His dark eyes went to her horns, then to the nobles gathering behind him. They were watching. He knew it. Aurora saw him weigh the crowd before he weighed her. "You are the horned girl," he said. "The one who came with a ruined book." "My mother's book," Aurora said. "I only want a fair hearing." The King touched a rose on the vine. He pulled it free and turned it in his fingers. "A king does not stand beside every stray that wanders into my court. Do you know what they would say of me?" He glanced at his nobles and smiled for them, not for her. "Earn your place first. Then ask for friends." He dropped the rose at her feet and walked on. The nobles trailed after him, and their laughter was louder now. One kicked the flower aside as he passed. Aurora stood alone at the gate. Her face burned. She had reached for the biggest ally in the castle, and he had crushed her in front of everyone. Now the whole court knew the King himself had turned her away. No noble would risk standing where their King would not. She picked up the fallen rose. A thorn bit her thumb, and a bead of red welled up. She did not drop it. Oberon had said one thing that stuck: earn your place first. She would stop begging for friends. She would find the torn pages of her mother's diary and prove her blood with something no sneer could deny. The nobles' favor meant nothing. The missing pages meant everything. Aurora turned from the gate and went to search.