dresses and it would be good enough. I carefully folded my three least-worn dresses and laid them inside.
Next, I moved to pull out my sewing kit from under my bed, along with my bag of medicines. Under my slightly sloping bed, I had quite the collection of books on charms, spells, dead languages, herbology and, of course, a fey tale or too, but I couldn’t take them all. What if my future husband didn’t want a wife who could read? Running my fingers over the leather-bound beauties, I picked out my herbology text and left the others, although it pained me to do so. I felt like I was saying goodbye to my children. Who knew after I was gone if my sisters would care for them the way I did? Probably not, for none loved to read as much as I did, and none loved flowers like me.
When I had finished packing my trunk and changed into a traveling outfit with skirt and cloak, I cast a charm to make my trunk lighter. It floated down the stairs after me like a kite on a string. I was ready. Mother had sent for a carriage, and her trunk was already loaded. She had only packed one traveling bag, which meant she wasn’t planning on staying long, wherever we were going.
After my trunk was secured, I turned to say goodbye to my sisters. The departure felt sudden and unnatural, more like a dream. I would wake up and everything would have been a mistake.
“Where are you going, Rosalie?” Aura asked.
“I’m not sure, but don’t you worry. I can take care of myself.”
“Who will take care of us?”
“You will, of course,” I chastised.
Aura pouted, her bottom lip sticking out. “Ugh, that’s too much work.” But her pout wasn’t real and was followed by a wink. “What if you marry an ugly man?”
“Then I pray he has a beautiful heart,” I said.
“What if he has a beastly heart?”
“Then I pray he is handsome on the outside.” I pinched her in response. “’Cause I’m not sure anyone could ever really love a beast.”
I hugged each of my sisters goodbye, and though tears fell from their eyes, none fell from mine. I was cold inside, not one to let my feelings show, other than my anger.
I sat silently next to Lady Eville as we sped along the dirt road. The streets of Nihill weren’t cobbled or paved, and there were a few potholes big enough to swallow a small child and injure horses. I used to sneak out in the middle of the night and use my power to fill the holes back in so no one would be injured. I wondered if anyone would do it once I was gone.
After an hour on the road, I gathered enough courage to ask her, “Where are we traveling to?” I knew better than to ask who my future husband was.
“Baist” came her curt reply.
One of the seven kingdoms that had scorned her years ago. I knew then that this had nothing to do with a marriage of convenience and everything to do with her revenge. My heart sank a little at the thought, but I quickly pushed it aside and wondered how my marriage could possibly affect the kingdom.
Baist, from what I remembered of my studies with Lorn, our fey tutor, was antiquated in their views and behind the other kingdoms in magic use and scientific advancements. They had driven out much of what they didn’t understand, or shunned what scared them. The streets were not lit by mage lights but by oil, and their crops were grown by the sun and rain, not magically modified. Their produce was highly sought after by those who had developed reactions to the other six kingdoms’ MMPs—magically modified produce.
There were a few healers in the land—after all, the royal family needed to be protected—but medicine was outlandish. Magic mirrors, steam engines, and moving picture boxes were unheard of, and foreigners were unwelcome. The whole country was pure in its views, untainted by outside influences of magic, for magic was bad, used for manipulation and deceit, and nothing good could come of it.
“It’s essentially trapped within the past.” Lorn had drawn a circle around the country of Baist, and I shivered at the thought of having to live in a country without magical necessities.
“Why is that so?” Aura had asked.
“Because there are no key ley lines of power under the country.” Lorn had pulled down an enchanted map of