Ophelia's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Ophelia slipped through the back door at dusk, her boots still wet from the forest. The woods were the one place her horns drew no stares. Deer let her touch them. Owls landed on her arm. She wanted what she saw in those paired creatures: someone who would stay near her without flinching. She reached the stairs and froze. Candlelight glowed at the table ahead. Her mother and father sat there. Between them lay a scroll with a broken wax seal. The shadow beast at Ophelia's feet growled low, a sound like wind in a chimney. She touched its black fur to quiet it. "Come here, child," her father said. Alaric pushed the scroll across the table. His dark red hair was tied back in a bun. His horns caught the candle's light, twins to her own. He did not flinch at her the way others did. "The king is holding a ball. Every unwed woman is called to attend. He seeks a match." Ophelia's heart jumped. A room full of people. Music. The chance, at last, to be seen and chosen. "I'll go," she said. "No." Her mother rose from her chair. Morgana Ravenwood's black gown swept the floor, silver thread glinting at the hem. White streaked her dark hair. She had raised Ophelia behind locked doors her whole life, always calling it protection. "They will not see a bride. They will see horns and a beast made of night. They will scream." "Then let them scream," Ophelia said. Her voice shook. "I am tired of hiding. I want someone to look at me and not turn away." Morgana crossed the room and gripped her daughter's wrist. "I kept you safe. You don't know what they do to things they fear." "You kept me alone." Ophelia pulled her arm free. The beast stood, teeth bared, shoulder pressed to her leg. Morgana stepped back from it. Alaric set his hand flat on the table. "Let her go, Morgana. She is grown. We cannot cage her for a lifetime." Morgana stared at him, then at her daughter. Her jaw tightened. "If you walk out that door, you walk out against me." Ophelia picked up the scroll. The king's seal was cracked but the words stood plain. She folded it and held it to her chest. "Then I walk against you." She climbed the stairs without looking back. In her room she pulled out a satchel and began to pack it. The ball was three nights away. The forest could not carry her to the castle. But something else could. Ophelia looked at the beast and knew she would need more than fur and teeth to cross that distance. She would need her own strange power, the thing people would call a curse, but for Ophelia that power was part of her. She would step outside her comfort zone to a new world.