Between Dimensions- Chapter 7

“So the party will get over sometime around midnight. You need to stay with me, look pretty and unsuspicious until I am sure the Queen has seen you. Then you can sneak out quietly. But first I will introduce you to her. That’s important.” Logan whispers to Becca and Adrian, who are walking on either side of him.

“And what will our names be?” whispers Adrian, smiling whenever someone walked by them. Keeping up the ‘dumb act’, as Becca called it, was a little more difficult for her. She did smile but it did more to scare people than the innocent and naïve look Logan wanted for her to have. So he just told her to stop and she looked genuinely relieved.

“Adrian, you’ll be Melina, the daughter of a rich merchant, and Becca you will be her cousin, Rose. And my fiancée.”

“Excuse me?” Becca scoffs, “Your what?”

“Fiancée.”

“Why?”

“Because when I went looking for you two, I had to give her a good enough reason.”
“And this is the reason you gave?”

“Yes.”

“Why can’t Adrian be your fiancée?”

“Because she doesn’t want to.”

“Well neither do I!”

Adrian stays quiet through the squabbling, shaking her head at the two of them.

“You know you two sound like an old bickering couple. Just stop it.” She finally intervenes, losing her patience, “It’s only an act. It’s not like you will really have to marry him.”

Becca scowls and looks away, and Logan tries to hide a smile. He just loved teasing her.

Walking a little further down the extravagant corridor, they walk down a grand staircase and step into the party. Saying that the party was extravagant would be an understatement. It was nothing like Becca, or even Adrian had ever seen. The hall could easily hold four football fields. There was an elevated platform where an orchestra was playing soft and enchanting music. People in wasteful but beautiful dresses were floating around the dance floor or holding glasses of champagne, talking in hushed voices.

Becca breathed it all in. She had been to parties, of course, but they were filled with loud music, stuffy rooms and drunken people. She never liked those. She only went because her best friend, Violet dragged her. Thinking about friends and parties made Becca fill with home sickness but she stops herself from dwelling on that fact. She would get of this crazy dimension as soon as possible and back to her old life.

Adrian couldn’t help but admit that the place was beautiful. There were floor length windows from which sunlight was pouring in, covering everything in golden light. The Queen was sitting on the highest platform, taking everything in. Her face held a ruthless expression, but then it always did. The party was like something from a Jane Austen novel. The only difference is that instead of humans, there were magical beings too. Both were freely mingling and laughing together, and this of course struck Adrian as peculiar.

“This is so creepy,” Becca whispers to Logan, she noticed the magic folk around the same time Adrian did, “They’re so weird!”

“Shh!” Logan shushes her angrily, “They’ll hear!”

“Logan,” a sickeningly sweet voice interrupts them. All three of them jump around, and come face to face with the Queen.

“My Queen.” Logan is the first one to come to his senses, he bows low in front of her. Adrian and Becca hastily follow suit.

“Rise,” she says in that same voice “Which one is your fiancée?”

“This is Rose, my Queen, she is to marry me.” Becca smiles and looks at the Queen properly for the first time. Just like her unusually sweet voice, her face is unnaturally beautiful. At first it fills Becca with envy but she controls it, thinking to herself, This beautiful face won’t save you from death.

“And who is this?”

“This is Melina, Rose’s cousin.” It was Adrian’s turn to fake a smile. Even she was jealous of the Queen’s beauty, but unlike Becca, she knew about the Queen’s powers. She knew that she did not have one face. It changed according to whoever was looking at it. It took the form of the face each individual find the most beautiful. It was all magic. No one knew what her face really looked like. Probably not even her.

“I would like to dine with the three of you after the ball.” She says and walks away as the three of them are left staring after her.