Mariko

v

─ CHAPTER FIVE

MARIKO PAUSED. IT was midnight; now was the perfect time to go ask her sister for help.

Ashryn had agreed to cover for her should anyone seek her (though Mariko doubted anyone would, unless it was Diana seeking to break her nose).

After two hours of switching between a thousand different plans, she had decided on telling the truth. Although she was half-faerie and able to lie, she was terrible at keeping a straight face when lying. She tended to burst into hysterical laughter.

Mariko took a deep breath. It was time.

She twisted the faerie ring on her pinky and teleported into the faerie realms.

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MARIKO ENTERED THE Queen's chambers, where her sister's handmaiden was tending to her. She felt repressed as soon as she breathed in the familiar orange blossom smell. Here, she was constantly reminded that she was the second-born, and inferior to her peers. Here, she was sneered and jibed at, for being a royal and yet having no magical prowess. Here, she was no one.

Queen Cassiopeia was dressed in a diaphanous gown of silver satin, stretched across her enormous canopy bed. There were dead butterflies dangling from the ceiling, and as Mariko watched, a phantom breeze blew so that the corpses brushed the Queen's bare shoulder. A few live butterflies fluttered frantically, as if knowing their ends were near.

"Leave us," the Queen said to the periwinkle-skinned girl tending to her impeccable corn-silk curls, and the girl obliged, curtseying before scurrying out the door.

The Queen finished braiding the circlet of flowers into her hair, and there was a second of silence as the two sisters looked at each for a moment.

"It pains me to see you feel so repulsed by your homelands, sister," the Queen said, holding out a delicate finger for a butterfly to land on. The butterfly obliged, but Mariko knew it was pure magic that held the tiny insect there.

"You know I am not disgusted by your interactions with the butterfly itself, Cassie, but by what you do to them after you are done amusing yourself," Mariko said.

Cassie smiled. Her fingers were lightning-quick as she ripped off one of the butterfly's brilliant orange wings. The insect fluttered frantically for a moment, off-kilter, before drifting to the ground like a speck of dust.

Mariko remained expressionless.

"Are they not like mortals, Mari? In the first stage of their life, they are ugly little things, crawling around, doing nothing and taking up space. Then they wrap themselves in a cocoon, wallowing in their own pity -"

"Butterflies don't feel emotions, Cassie," Mariko felt compelled to point out.

"Quiet. Then, they burst out of their own little home, a brilliant, beautiful thing, to brave their chances in this cold, cruel world. They flutter around, flashing their beauty, living a few moments of joy before getting swallowed up by an animal or harsh weather conditions. Mortals," the Queen sighed, her lush, painted lips opening in an O shape. "So quick to blossom, then to wither. Like a spontaneous burst of flame. But the brightest flames never last long."

Dramatic bitch.

"Much obliged, my Queen. But I'm sure entomologists would appreciate the information more than I ever will, for I hate insects and bugs of any sort. I do understand that you had waited for the appropriate person to spill your innermost thoughts and desires, and I am most honored that that person was me, but I have more pressing matters to inform you before I retire," Mariko said sarcastically.