In the House of Wind
THE DOCKING WAS A SHORT, SIMPLE CEREMONY. With Mina following a few paces behind, Callisto descended the stable gangway, ignoring the cheers from the crowds. Callisto was relieved when it was over, when each sister was escorted through the thick crowd to a safe place to stay. But, she was glad to be given a chance to evaluate her sisters. Callisto watched each of them silently, not daring to make eye contact.
Selena was frail, her casual dress hanging off her thin frame. She carried no weapons, though a dangerous looking leopard was trailing behind her, growling at anyone who looked at Selena the wrong way. A genuine smile was plastered on the dark-haired girl's face, and she beamed at the crowd. Somehow, people flocked towards her. Though there was a thick crowd surrounding her, there was no trace of power lingering around Selena.
No trace of the power that allowed Selena to surround the entire Kingdom in water.
The mere sight of it had left Callisto's mouth impossibly dry. She was dumb-founded as the water rose high above her boat, high above the towers of the Kingdom. Selena was supposed to be the weak one, the first to be slain in the bloody path to the throne. And then, she displayed more power than what Callisto possessed. But the confusion had then turned to anger, and Callisto destroyed the dome with a single wind.
But Callisto was terrified. Terrified of the power that Selena's sweet face and cheerful disposition hid. Terrified that, despite all of Callisto's experience and strength, she would not be the one walking away alive from the Queentide.
Nova was equally as powerful. She managed to light water on fire, and keep the flames burning in a straight line. Another impossible task accomplished with no difficulty. But Nova, at least, was not walking around and speaking with the people of the Kingdom. And she was carrying a weapon; a golden sword hung by her side. Her dress was magnificent, the most beautiful of all the sisters. Callisto herself was wearing a billowing black cape and a regal black dress, but it paled in comparison to Nova's fire-like one.
But as dangerous as Nova appeared, Cressida was the one Callisto feared the most. It was not because of the snarling wolf walking beside her, or the dagger strapped to her arm, or the wooden staff in her hand. It was the crown of thorns resting on her head, the flowers woven through her hair, the way all eyes trailed after her, even far after she had passed by.
The casual weapons. The natural beauty and charisma. The crown. She, out of all the sisters, looked the most like a Queen.
Callisto's beautiful, doe-eyed sister who would ensnare her at the first chance. And then kill her. Cressida was nothing short of deceitful perfection hiding a fanged-monster that would tear Callisto to shreds.
Callisto forced herself to look back at Cressida. She dragged her eyes to fall upon her golden-haired sister.
And instead found a beast wearing claws and teeth, both dripping in blood.
Her heart stopped beating. She stopped breathing. The people milling around her simply froze in place. The waves stopped crashing against the docks. The sound of sea-birds ceased.
All that existed was the terrible monster that was her sister.
Blood dripped off the fangs, the color so dark it was closer to black than red. Cressida stared at her with the same bronze eyes, but there were now staring at her from the body of a monster. Callisto tried to call upon her winds, but where power used to be was now a dry, barren well. She searched desperately for a scrap of power, scraping against the walls of her dark soul.
Cressida stared at her, smirking with her bloody maw. Smirked at Callisto's powerlessness, her incapability to do anything.
"Callisto?" asked a familiar, calm voice. "Are you alright?"
The image shattered. The monster disappeared, and was replaced with a beautiful, curly-haired girl.
There was no blood. There was no monster. There was just a girl.
Callisto shakily released a breath she did not known she had been holding. Mina placed a steady hand against Callisto's shoulder, and squeezed.
Acknowledging Mina's presence would be weakness. So, Callisto looked back at Cressida.
To her horror, Cressida was staring right back at her with a smirk on her full lips. She cocked her head slightly to the right, like a grinning wolf pondering whether or not to pounce, and met Callisto's gaze.
It might have been her imagination, but Callisto could see a smear of blood on her lips.
Then, Cressida looked away to address another one of her endless admirers, not sparing Callisto another glance.
Callisto burned the image of a five-year-old Cressida from her mind, destroying any love she might have possessed. The ghost of the girl hissed in her ear, even as Callisto walked through the crowd, stone-faced. The little girl screamed in agony as Callisto forced Cressida out of the darkness of her twisted mind.
Forced her out, and locked the door behind her.
She could have smiled. There was no room for love in this competition. Only blood, and betrayal, and death.
Callisto would spill blood. She would betray those foolish enough to trust her. She would bring death. No, she would be death.
She would bring her sisters to their knees.
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"Do you want to talk about it?" Mina asked quietly from her seat by the fireplace. It had only been an hour since the docking was finished, but Callisto insisted on retiring to her chambers early. Mina had followed her without asking for an invitation, and to say that the young Queen was angry would be an understatement. "The Queentide officially begins tomorrow, and you will not have much time to talk then."
"No," Callisto hissed in response, defiantly staring out the window, "I do not want to talk about it."
Mina glanced over at her. "I'm worried about you, Cal. Your...episodes are happening more and more frequently."
"Worry about someone who cares," was Callisto's one response. Her blood was boiling in her veins as she glared at Mina with her black eyes. "Get out of my chambers, and do not even bother coming back."
Mina flinched at the venom in Callisto's voice, but she stood up and walked to the door. Callisto's eyes tracked her movements.
The girl stopped before crossing the threshold, and turned back to Callisto. "I may be the only person in the entire world who cares about you, Callisto," she said softly, not quite meeting Callisto's gaze. "But you insist on making it difficult to. Next time, when you believe that you are seeing a monster, or Death itself is choking you, I will not be there to convince you otherwise."
Every word was like a thorn in Callisto's heart. This was weakness; letting another person understand you so well that they know exactly what to say to make you ache, to make your heart bleed. This was the weakness she would have to cut off to become Queen.
Part of her wanted to kill Mina. As she said, Mina was the only person that gave a damn about Callisto. Killing her would give Callisto the fuel and energy that could only come from hatred and self-loathing that she needed to kill her sisters, and win the Queentide. The stain of Mina's blood lingering on her hands for eternity would haunt her enough to burn any regrets.
It could destroy whatever scrap of her dark soul Callisto still possessed.
It would be so easy, the cold voice in her mind crooned softly. Halt the air flow in her lungs. It would look like an accident.
Wind swirled from her outstreched fingers, a small tornado created on her fingertips. Mina eyed it, but kept her mouth shut.
"There will not be a next time," Callisto said. It was a promise. An oath. A threat.
Callisto meant to stop the air around Mina. She meant to have the other girl, her oldest and only friend, suffocate while Callisto watched. She meant to kill Mina to punish herself.
But no matter how hard she tried, she could not do it. Somewhere, in the depths of her dead, black heart, Callisto felt something.
So, instead of killing her, she merely said to Mina, "Leave."
And Mina did. She left, alive. A cold shame did not flood Callisto's veins. A numbing anger did not cloud her thoughts. A monster did not appear in front of her.
Callisto was left with weakness surging through her body with every damned heart beat.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Taylor Swift's new single "Look What You Made Me Do" describes this book, and matches the aesthetic, perfectly. Especially the part about kingdom keys, and, well, all of it, actually. It will really come into play later on in the book when the characters make certain decisions because of something someone else pushed them to do.