Happy eighteenth birthday

—Lily

On the eve of my 18th birthday, Mother had decided that she had had enough. She didn't ask Father about anything to do with what she did next, and she kept the secret so well that it was amazing.

Our mansion had been locked down from any and all visitors since I had been born and my 18th birthday just so happened to fall on a Saturday, so that Friday evening, while Father was gone and working, decorators started to show up.

Mother directed them with such dominance and haste that it was kind of amazing to watch. She was normally such a gentle soul, but she turned into a mama bear that day.

There were crews and florists who turned one of our party rooms into a ballroom while I watched and laughed.

Mother winked when she saw me and whispered, "He won't be back until late, and I'll deal with the fallout, Lily bug. Mary is going to take you to get dressed, to do your makeup and hair before your party guests arrive. Go on."

I went. I hadn't fought my imprisonment for 18 years, it was true, but when faced with the concept of a party, a real-life movie ball? Well... I didn't mind a little bit of rebellion after all, as it turned out.

It was the perfect night, and everything was designed to make me feel like a princess, everything.

Mary had been my nanny all my life, but now she felt like a lady in waiting, and even she was having so much fun.

"Close your eyes," she said with a grin, and I laughed when she fitted a blindfold over me, a silky one. At her commands, I lifted my arms, and she dressed me, fitted my shoes.

When she took the blindfold off, I almost cried. The dress was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, almost like a wedding dress.

The sleeves were both off my shoulders, and flower designs were laced up my torso. At my waist, it flared out like a dancer's outfit, and my shoes were these delicate things.

Mary started on my hair, laughing at my expression. "I can't take credit for any of it, love. Your mother chose everything as she thought you would love it best."

"She did amazing!" And she did. It was something I could have only dreamed of.

She tapped my hair with the comb she had, straightening my locks out and fixing my hair back in a simple style.

One side was pulled back, but it was pulled back and held with a comb that had diamond butterflies. "Now you can do something tonight besides reading those trashy paranormal romance novels you hide under your bed."

I blushed. "Thanks for not telling Father on me. He doesn't pay much attention to things I order from bookstores."

Which was true. If I out and ordered something from a more questionable site, he would have totally noticed that, though.

Mary shook her head. "Books never hurt anyone. Just, for heaven's sake, tell me you are at least reading actually decent material every now and again, girl."

I laughed. "Of course I am. You don't think I'm always reading about vampires and werewolves fu-"

"Ah ah!" She swatted my mouth so that I laughed all the harder. "Watch your language when wearing a dress like that. You're a lady at the end of the night."

"But not yet!" She shook her head and did my makeup, tsking.

"If you were even slightly more rebellious, you would be a problem."

But I wasn't a problem because I wasn't rebellious in the slightest. The prince in my dreams commanded me to obedience, calmed me with his reassurances, and as I grew older, I discovered that his words compelled me to obey him.

When he commanded, I wasn't necessarily forced to obedience, but it was extremely difficult to go against his desires.

I simply very much wanted to do as he said. He had commanded me to obey the strictures of my life, and whenever some new change took hold in my being, like the obedience to his orders, he commanded me to not fear those changes.

I was supposed to enjoy them as they happened and to be calm in my cocoon until that phase ended.

But if one parent commanded me to a party that the other didn't know about, that didn't seem to go against the desire to follow his orders. I laughed along with Mary and followed her out of my rooms down to the party.

Where there were guests, for the first time. Mother waited for me at the foot of the stairs. "Come here, Lily bug. Let me introduce everyone to you."

I grinned and pranced to her, talking with all of my party guests, who all seemed excited to meet me.

There were work friends of my father, friends of my mother, family members, friends of friends, and their children. There were so many people, and I got to talk to all of them.

___

Everything was perfect, magical. I got to dance in the ballroom, and it was to my favorite classical songs and my favorite pop songs.

I got to sip champagne, even which I instantly put down because it tasted horrible. Father still hadn't gotten home when the clock was nearing midnight, which was...

Okay, I was a little scared for when he would come home, but the party was dying down anyway, and nothing bad had happened.

After introducing me to everyone, my mother hadn't hovered and had let me mingle as I wished.

But then I heard the voice. It was his voice, except it sounded like the whispers that came from the forbidden glass case. The veil grows weak as the witching hour approaches.

I couldn't resist that voice when I heard it in my waking hours. For so long, I had only heard him in dreams, and my heart thundered to the sound of him speaking in my head.

I left the ballroom, quietly skirting my mother so she wouldn't see me sneak out of my party, where I could speak back to that voice. The brand on my shoulder seemed to burn. "Who are you?"

There was a soft chuckle in my head. Go to your room and I will show you soon.

My feet followed his command even before I stopped and thought about it. It was the strangest feeling, and I was convinced there was some magic, one I didn't know, being used on me.

"Okay." I said it when I was in my sprawling bedroom, with its rich and pampered decor. "Okay, I did."

Lock the door.

I obeyed that as well, and by the time I was finished, I felt the chill run up my spine. It was as if the lights in my room suddenly dimmed or as if all light was suddenly oppressed.

It was as if the temperature got a little colder, as if my entire being turned cold. I turned slowly, fearfully, to face my balcony even while I felt the draft that came from the doors being opened.

There he stood. He looked exactly as I had seen him in my sleep, except now he wore a masquerade mask and a tux with a strange type of decorative sash around his waist.

But he didn't cross the balcony doors. He merely stood there and watched me.

My heart thundered and cold sweat broke across my body. I shivered in my dress and approached him slowly, warily.

"You're real," I whispered. "But what are you? Why do I see you when I sleep?"

I stopped without crossing the balcony door, and I don't know why that was the case, only knew that something in me was afraid to cross the rest of the way to him.

Something in me thought I was safe so long as I stayed in my princess' tower. He smiled at me. "Your father made a deal before you were born, and he gave you to me.

I hope the outfit is to your liking. I didn't have much time to choose something fitting for your party."

"It's beautiful, more perfect than anyone else's here, even mine. But how did he give me to you? What does that mean?"

"You should not fear me," he said softly, instead of answering. He held up his hand when I opened my mouth, shaking his head and cutting me off. "No harm will ever come to you, but listen. Do you hear it?"

He touched his ear, smiling at me. "Can you sense the shiver in the air?" I obeyed him in the manner that magic seemed to make me obey him. And I listened.

The sound made me shake in fear and anticipation, made me both dread whatever was approaching and yearn for it to take me. "I can hear it." My voice was breathless, and I shook even while I wrapped my arms around myself.

His smile deepened. "The veil is about to fall." He lifted a hand and pressed his fingertips against the air between us.

It was almost as if something shimmered at his touch. It was fitting that he called it a veil, for the gossamer shadow that blocked his touch looked exactly like one.

I stared up at him with my lips slightly parted, unable to look away, unable to run. He held me thrall with his eyes, black as coals stone cold in the hearth.

The air became unbearable, almost as if there was the sound of a thundering heartbeat going faster and faster, or maybe that was just my own heart.

Everything around us seemed to vibrate while we waited together, or maybe that was my own body shaking with such terror.

My breath quickened to soft little pants, and I took a single hesitant step back, and the heartbeat sounded like it would burst and a bell tolled in the distance and-

The shimmering sheet appeared once more, then fell while he watched it with a smile. Slowly, he looked back up at me and inclined his head. "Happy 18th birthday, little one."

And then he walked over the balcony line, with nothing to stop him.

***