HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY

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

Their castle had been locked down from any and all visitors since Ashen had been born and his 18th birthday just so happened to fall on a Saturday, so that Friday evening, while the king was invited to a neighboring elven kingdom, decorators started to show up.

Queen Thalia 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 their rooms into a ballroom while Ashen watched and laughed.

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

Ashen went. He hadn't fought his imprisonment for 18 years, it was true, but when faced with the concept of a party, a real-life movie ball? Well... he 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 him feel much like the prince he was, everything.

Giovanni had been his manny all his life, but now he felt like a gentleman in waiting, and even he was having so much fun.

"Close your eyes," Giovanni said with a grin, and Ashen laughed when he fitted a blindfold over him, a silky one. At his commands, Ashen lifted his arms, and he dressed him, fitted his shoes.

When he took the blindfold off, Ashen almost cried. The outfit was the most perfect thing he had ever seen, almost like a royal ceremonial attire.

The jacket was tailored perfectly, with intricate golden embroidery across the chest and shoulders. At his waist, it tapered elegantly, and his shoes were these polished, ornate things.

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

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

He tapped Ashen's hair with the comb he had, straightening his dark tousled hair out and fixing it back in a simple style.

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

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

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

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

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

"Ah ah!" He swatted Ashen's mouth so that he laughed all the harder. "Watch your language when wearing an outfit like that. You're a prince at the end of the night."

"But not yet!" He shook his head and did Ashen's hair, tsking.

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

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

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

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

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

But if one parent commanded him to a party that the other didn't know about, that didn't seem to go against the desire to follow her orders. Ashen laughed along with Giovanni and followed him out of his rooms down to the party, where there were guests, for the first time.

Queen Thalia waited for him at the foot of the stairs. "Come here, Ash. Let me introduce everyone to you."

Ashen grinned and pranced to her, talking with all of his party guests, who all seemed excited to meet him.

There were prominent friends of his father, friends of his mother, royal family members, friends of friends, and their children. There were so many people, and Ashen got to talk to all of them.

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

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

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

After introducing him to everyone, his mother hadn't hovered and had let him mingle as he wished.

But then Ashen heard the voice. It was the goddess' voice, except it sounded like the whispers that came from the forbidden glass case.

'The veil grows weak as the witching hour approaches.'

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

Ashen left the ballroom, quietly going around his mother so she wouldn't see him sneak out of his party, where he could speak back to that voice. The brand on his shoulder seemed to burn. "Who are you?"

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

Ashen's feet followed her command even before he stopped and thought about it. It was the strangest feeling, and he was convinced there was some magic, one he didn't know, being used on him.

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

Lock the door.

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

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

There she stood. She looked exactly as he had seen her in his sleep, except now she wore a masquerade mask and a gown of midnight silk with folds that shimmered like starless skies.

But she didn't cross the balcony doors. She merely stood there and watched him.

His heart thundered and cold sweat broke across his body. He shivered in his dress and approached her slowly, warily.

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

Ashen stopped without crossing the balcony door, and he didn't know why that was the case. He only knew that something in him was afraid to cross the rest of the way to her.

Something in Ashen thought he was safe so long as he stayed in his prince's tower. She smiled at him. "Your father has given you to us."

"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," She said softly, instead of answering. She held up her hand when Ashen opened his mouth, shaking her head and cutting him off. "No harm will ever come to you, but listen. Do you hear it?"

She touched her pointed ear, smiling at him. "Can you sense the shiver in the air?" Ashen obeyed her in the manner that magic seemed to make him obey her. And he listened.

The sound made Ashen shake in fear and anticipation, made him both dread whatever was approaching and yearn for it to take him. "I can hear it." Ashen's voice was breathless, and he shook even while he wrapped his arms around himself.

Her smile deepened. "The veil is about to fall." She lifted a hand and pressed her sharp fingertips against the air between them.

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

Ashen stared up at her with his lips slightly parted, unable to look away, unable to run. She held his thrall with her eyes, green as an emerald gem 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 Ashen's own heart.

Everything around them seemed to vibrate while they waited together, or maybe that was his own body shaking with such terror.

Ashen's breath quickened to soft little pants, and he 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 the goddess watched it with a smile. Slowly, she looked back up at him and inclined her head.

"Happy 18th birthday, little husband."

And then Carabosse, the elven goddess of temptation, walked over the balcony line, with nothing to stop her.

***