Changed

Snow White and the Hungry Wolves

"Vanessa, I thought the nightmares would end in a few days or so. But being woken up in the middle of the night for a week straight is irritating." Professor Marda rubbed his temples as he referred to the guilt that was gnawing at me. Ever since I had found out that I was, well, royalty I have been waking up from nightmares in a cold sweat and screaming. The guards, Professor Marda, and even Luca were all becoming sick of it. "Our only options are to put away the necklace or to try something else and see if that works," He proposed.

"Putting the necklace away won't help. I'm telling you, all I need to do is find a way to remember the dream. Once I remember, we can figure out what the fear is and see what we can do to stop it." I leaned forward in my chair as I tried to persuade him.

"Fine. Luca, Vanessa, you can leave. I think I know what needs to be done." Professor Marda frowned. We haven't exactly seen the dazzling smile of his for a while now.

Luca and I left the office. "Don't you find it odd that your mom disappeared ten months before you were born? It's like she disappeared once she found out she was pregnant," Luca thought aloud.

"Are you implying that she had an affair and abandoned me so that no one would know?" I rose an eyebrow and he thought about it for a minute.

"If you weren't your fathers daughter, you wouldn't have the royal crest and if that is what happened then she could have just returned afterward. She would have had to come up with an excuse but it could have worked." Luca shrugged it off.

"What if she just got pregnant and didn't want me so she left me somewhere? That could have happened." I tried to hide the sadness in my voice but a little bit of sadness must have slipped through. The idea kind of hurt. Sure, I said I didn't want to meet my parents and that I didn't love my biological mother but... the feeling of not being wanted was just-- I didn't like it.

"If that is what really happened..." Luca turned to me and looked me straight in the eye. "It's her loss. She doesn't know what she's missing out on." I felt my cheeks turn a little pink and I felt the atmosphere grow tense. His skin was hot on mine and we were close enough that I could see every strand of color in his eyes.

"Let's head to practice." I cleared my throat and began walking ahead of him so that I could leave some of the awkwardness behind.

Starting in December, there would be a game of MCM so everyone was readying themselves for it. Thanks to Brutus, school, Luca, and the boys I knew tons of different spells so now I can play like the others. I also learned how the game works, which was probably one of the biggest helps of all. Each player is duplicated; the real bodies are locked away for the game (or at least until they are killed) while their duplicates are sent into the game to fight. Whichever players, one Seelie and one Unseelie, seem to be... better are sent to the championships. In the championships they go up against the other players from the smaller countries of the kingdoms (since there is more than one school).

As Luca and I made our way outside, a slight breeze swept over my skin and I shivered. Forty five Unseelie fae and forty three Seelie fae sat in the stands, waiting for instructions, but together they caused the weather to be a breezy day that a simple blue dress wasn't helpful for.

Professor Darby had us line up and one by one he would cast the spell on each of us, then stamp the clones hand. "Dupliadix," He stamped my duplicates hand and we went on our way. Whoa, I thought. My dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and, if I hadn't been Changed, my blue dress would have matched my eyes. I was paying too much attention to my clone and not enough to what the professor was saying to everyone.

"Vanessa, you're number thirteen," Professor Darby instructed.

"Thirteen what?" I asked just as he moved on to Luca.