Glimmers of Glass (A Glimmers Novel #1: Cinderella)

Chapter 16

The waterfall rumbled as though from a great distance. That was the only noise except for our breathing, which I could suddenly hear as clearly as I'd heard Queen Amani's voice a moment ago.

I blinked. My eyelids came down slow and heavy. The world seemed to have slowed down to accommodate the vast weight of her words.

"Me," I repeated. The word felt tinny and weird in my mouth, like it wasn't a real word at all. "You want me to be your heir."

I waited for someone to jump out from behind a hosta and shout "Just kidding!" or for her to laugh and tell me the real reason I'd come here. But she looked at me as intently and nervously as I'd been looking at her a moment ago. It was as if, for a moment, I wasn't looking at the Faerie Queen at all, but into a mirror where I could see myself: An uncertain girl, too young and clueless for the gravity of what was going on around us but hopeful that it wouldn't all come crashing down just yet.

"You want me to be your heir," I said. The words took on shape this time, solid and thick like wood. I let them come together in my mind, forming from disjointed sounds into concepts that meant unbelievable things. "You're going to have to back up a little."

"I figured," she said. "I thought I'd just get the punchline out there first."

"Interesting tactic," I said.

We stared at one another for a long minute. My mouth was dry as summer dust. I licked my lips. It didn't help.

Suddenly, Amani was all movement. She reached out for a jug and poured me a glass of something sweet-smelling and orange. "Mango juice," she said, handing it to me. I took a tiny sip. The cold sweetness was better than rain on my tongue.

"Okay," Amani said. "We got past the worst part. That's good, right?"

"Worst part for you, too?" I said.

"Oh, yeah," she said. "Nothing against you. You're going to be amazing. I'm just getting really clear vibes off you that you do not want to be any part of this."

She'd checked in with my feelings faster than I had. I took a moment to be silent and figure out what I was feeling.

She was right. I didn't want any part of this. A substantial part of myself, in fact, was panicking.

"Again, nothing's going to happen unless you want it to," she said. "That's the first rule. If you're going to do this, you have to take it on yourself."

That wasn't how the stories went. The stories said being the Faerie Queen was a sacred calling, and that if you were chosen to be the Queen's heir, that was it. I set the juice down and folded my arms across my chest, wishing I knew how to rein in my emotions as easily. But she'd read me already.

"I know that's not how it sounds," she said. "From where you're sitting, it's probably all pomp and circumstance and ancient legends. I remember how it was when I was chosen. I thought I was going to have to commit a human sacrifice or something."

The laugh that followed reassured me a little. I'd heard that story too.

"What about stealing a human to be your lover and keeping him for seventy years?" I said.

She made a face. "Nasty. I want more from my relationships than Stockholm Syndrome. And I don't capture people in faerie rings unless I really need to get in touch with them and they won't answer my calls, and then you've got to do what you've got to do. And I don't replace people's babies with changelings, because I'm not a douche, and I don't make everyone's milk go sour. I don't even know what the point of that is supposed to be."

"I thought house sprites made milk go sour," I said.

She raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "Who knows," she said. "Glad that rumor's moved on. They're all rumors. Well, maybe not everything. But most of it, it's rumor. Especially any part that says you don't get a choice right now. This is completely up to you."