ONYX

Chapter Sixteen

Elizabeth had been executed for a crime that she tried to cover up for her daughter. In the end, Elizabeth didn’t even try to hide the fact that she did it. How could she? All the evidence had pointed to her and there was no way that Alessandra could save her.

Alessandra tried to count out the people she had lost and count those she still had. On only two fingers she named Theresa and Greer.

“I am grateful to both of you.” Alessandra croaked, her voice unrecognizable.

“Of course, we are here to serve you.” Theresa said.

They’d been so good to her, but she didn’t want to taint their lives with her troubles. She needed time to mourn yet again and she wanted to do it alone. “I’d like for you two to do me a favor.”

“Anything,” They said in unison.

“I need you to go to my mother’s room and find some books for me, please.” She instructed them to look specifically on her bookshelf because she needed the books that her mother had talked about before she was taken away.

She didn’t want to read them at first, but anything that distracted her was welcome. The ladies bowed before they quietly exited the room.

Alessandra sighed when they walked out because she’d only had a limited amount of time before they came back.

It was difficult to dress, especially when she expected her mother to aid her. Only she never did. So she began to get into the dress and tie it the best she could. While she found that the first dress she tried on was a blue mess of tangled lace, she settled for the second dress, which was a soft silver dress.

It was a slip over gown, one that shaped over breasts curve, and the slim but round tone of her wide hips. It slender down her thighs, and pooled around her feet, while the sleeves came as points that had an inside clasp to tie around her middle finger to keep the sleeve in its place. She decided she would wear a simple pair of white gloves laced with intricate sparkling silver patterns that matched the dress itself, while underneath she wore her corset and garments. 

She braided her hair in the same style that she learned to do on her own from her mother. When she finished she sat before her vanity looking in the small mirror of her pale ghostly reflection. Her hands trembled as she kept her tears at bay. Looking at the necklace before her, she naturally went to reach for the same flame shaped pendant of blue gems that she had always chosen in time of comfort but her mind began to wonder. Who had given it to her? Her mother claimed she knew nothing of it, but when she finally told her of the deal she made with 'Hades' things had not been clear.

So many questions filled Alessandra's mind as she struggled to fill the void her mother had filled when she been alive. Her death had registered but the loneliness behind it didn’t. She has never been without her mother.

Never. 

She laced the silver chain around her neck and let the pendant fall across her chest before she decided to face everyone today. Although it was soon, she had to face another death on the horizon: Prince Daniel.

It was morning, which meant he’d be dead by now. Alessandra couldn’t say she was sad about that, but still, she had to play another role as the unaware Princess.

“Alessandra?” Greer knocked before she peeked her head around the door. “I may have found what you were inquiring for.”

“Please, enter.” Greer, followed by Theresa, walked into the room with a stack of books in each of their arms. They placed them on her bed and waited for her next command. “That is all, you may go.”