Equinox (Book One of the Firebird Chronicles) WATTY AWARD HIDDEN GEM WINNER 2015

Chapter Thirty Nine: More than She Bargained For

Red swirled from my hair, the magical dye lost as Sakura helped me rinse it out. The glossy, black shade returned, but the amount of hair I had was unbelievable. Sakura needed two arms to hold onto it all, and she looked sadly down at it.

'We need to cut it,' she said. 'Aster's hair is much shorter than yours.'

Aster and her sister, Azalea, were two young angels supposed to be attending the Equinox Ball tonight. Somehow, Morwena had managed to procure their invites, and neither Sakura nor I had the courage to ask how.

Instead, the fierce woman had left us the morning after our meal in the tavern, and came back that evening with the tickets in hand, and a sketch of each of the girls.

'Just in case anybody does know them, you should at least resemble them,' she suggested. 'I will follow you as your servant; it's not uncommon for the rich to do so. I'll be shown into the servants' waiting rooms, I imagine, unless you call for me.'

So we'd all begun to prepare, knowing we had to look presentable in less than two days. There was no way around it; both Sakura and I had to wear dresses, and fancy ones at that. Morwena dragged us to seamstress after seamstress, with the same story that we'd ordered dresses and they hadn't came, but none were available.

It was the evening before the ball, and we still hadn't found dresses. It was irking; in reality, we should be preparing for a fight-- if things went awry-- but no, we were going through bust measurements and shoe sizes. Finally, Morwena had left us behind, insisting that we should work on the rest of our "disguise", our hair and face powder (also apparently expected, to our dismay), but really I think we were just too unenthusiastic to be of help.

Luckily, the ball was a masquerade, which meant a lot of our facial features would be blurred beneath a silver or black mask. Aster's features were similar to mine; she was small and curved, with dark curling hair to her shoulders.

Sakura was harder to assist. Her skin colour was different to Azalea's, for one. Her only option was to bathe in a salt magic which temporarily turned her skin to pearl. A strange sight hit me when she came out from the bathroom, her white blonde hair turned to brown, contrasting iridescent, pale skin.

'I prefer your normal skin tone,' I admitted, 'but you suit peachy too. And brunette...think you're more of a blonde.'

She gave me a toothy grin. 'It'll be back with the next wash.'

'Could be a while then, if we end up in a prison cell,' I said, half-joking, half catching the dreaded reality in Sakura's expression.This party could well be our last, and our ruin.

And most people just have to worry about getting intoxicated and doing something stupid.

'Positive thoughts,' Sakura replied, drying my hair with a towel. She sat me down in front of the mirror, and began to meticulously comb out the tangles of my hair. I peered out at my reflection.

Compared to the girl I had seen in the mirror in my old bedroom-- it seemed like years ago now-- I looked a lot healthier. My complexion was no longer sallow or gaunt but filled, having eaten well and trained hard. My cheeks were a rustic pink, my eyes a vibrant amethyst.

But there was worry that hadn't been there before, and a tiredness which now filled my expression.

At that moment, the door slammed open, and Morwena stormed in, utterly empty handed.

Her expression was furious.

Sakura and I exchanged a very brief look of terror before facing the woman stomping around the room.