Isla's POV
The pot slips from my hands and crashes against the stone floor.
"Stupid girl!" Cook screams, raising her wooden spoon like a weapon. "That's the third dish you've broken this week!"
I drop to my knees, grabbing the broken pieces with shaking fingers. Blood drips from a cut on my palm, but I don't stop. Broken dishes mean less pay. Less pay means no medicine for Thomas.
My little brother needs that medicine.
"I'm sorry," I whisper, blinking back tears. "I'll be more careful. I promise."
Cook opens her mouth to yell again, but heavy footsteps echo through the kitchen. Everyone freezes. Guards never come to the kitchen unless something terrible has happened.
Two royal guards push through the doorway, their armor gleaming in the firelight. Their hands rest on their sword handles.
"Isla Merrick?" the taller guard asks.
My heart stops. Guards asking for servants by name never means anything good.
"Y-yes, sir?"
"Come with us. Now."
"But I'm working," I say stupidly. "Cook needs me to"
"The Queen doesn't care what Cook needs." The guard's voice is cold and flat. "Move."
My legs won't work properly. Every servant in the kitchen stares at me with wide, frightened eyes. Nobody speaks. Nobody helps. They're all thinking the same thing I am.
What did I do wrong?
The guards grab my arms and drag me through the palace corridors. My worn shoes slip on the polished floors. We pass beautiful paintings and expensive furniture that I've cleaned a hundred times but never really looked at.
"Please," I beg. "Tell me what's happening. Did I steal something? I didn't mean to"
"Shut up," the shorter guard snaps.
They pull me faster. My cut hand throbs with pain, leaving tiny drops of blood on the perfect white floor. Some other servant will have to clean that later.
We stop in front of massive golden doors.
The throne room.
I've never been inside. Servants aren't allowed in the throne room unless they're scrubbing floors at night when the royal family sleeps.
The guards shove the doors open and push me forward. I stumble and almost fall.
The room is huge and cold. Marble columns reach toward painted ceilings that show ancient battles between humans and monsters. At the far end, sitting on thrones made of gold and jewels, are the King and Queen.
King Edmund looks tired and sad. Queen Morgana looks like a hawk watching a mouse.
And standing beside them, crying into a silk handkerchief, is Princess Celeste.
I've seen the princess from far away before. She's beautiful with perfect brown hair and green eyes. Right now, her face is red and puffy from crying.
"Approach," Queen Morgana commands.
I walk forward on shaking legs. My dirty servant clothes feel wrong here. Everything about me feels wrong here.
I fall to my knees and press my forehead against the cold floor like servants are supposed to do. "Your Majesties."
"Look at me, girl."
I lift my head slowly. Queen Morgana studies my face like I'm a bug she found in her soup.
"Stand up. Turn around."
I obey, moving in a slow circle while the Queen examines me. My cheeks burn with shame. Princess Celeste sniffles loudly.
"She'll do," Queen Morgana finally says. "Same height. Similar coloring. With the right clothes and training, people might believe it."
"Believe what, Your Majesty?" I ask.
The Queen's cold eyes lock onto mine. "Do you know why Princess Celeste was supposed to marry the Dragon King of the North?"
My mouth goes dry. Everyone in the kingdom knows about the arranged marriage. It's all anyone has talked about for months.
"To… to create an alliance, Your Majesty. So the dragons will protect our borders."
"Exactly. A very important alliance." Queen Morgana stands up, walking down from her throne toward me. "But my foolish daughter has decided she cannot go through with the wedding. She says she'd rather die than marry a monster."
Princess Celeste cries harder.
"So here is what will happen," the Queen continues, circling me like a predator. "You will go to the North in my daughter's place. You will pretend to be Princess Celeste. You will marry the Dragon King. And you will never, ever reveal the truth."
The words don't make sense. They can't be real.
"But… but I'm not a princess," I whisper. "I'm just a servant. I don't know how to be royalty. I can't"
"You will learn." The Queen's voice cuts like a knife. "You have three days. Lady Helena will teach you everything you need to know."
"No." The word escapes before I can stop it. "Please, Your Majesty, I can't do this. Choose someone else. Anyone else. I have a brother who needs me. He's sick and"
"Ah yes. Thomas." Queen Morgana smiles, but there's no warmth in it. "The stable boy with the lung disease. Such a fragile child. It would be tragic if something happened to him."
Ice floods my veins. "What?"
"You have a choice, Isla Merrick." The Queen leans close, her breath hot against my face. "Go to the North. Marry the Dragon King. Make him believe you're Princess Celeste. Keep our secret forever. Do this, and your brother will receive the best medicine available. We'll even move him from the stables to a real bed. He'll be comfortable and cared for."
"And if I refuse?" I already know the answer, but I have to hear it.
"Then Thomas will have a terrible accident tomorrow morning. Horses can be so unpredictable. A sick fourteen-year-old boy wouldn't survive being trampled."
The throne room spins around me. I can't breathe. Can't think.
This can't be happening.
"You're going to kill my brother if I don't pretend to be your daughter?" My voice sounds strange and distant.
"I'm not going to kill anyone," Queen Morgana says sweetly. "I'm simply explaining the consequences of your choices. Now decide quickly. Do you accept this mission, or do I send guards to the stables right now?"
Thomas. My baby brother who reads me stories when I'm sad. Who shares his bread even when he's hungry. Who's been sick for two years and still smiles every morning.
I can't let him die.
"I'll do it," I hear myself say. "I'll pretend to be Princess Celeste. I'll marry the Dragon King."
"Excellent." Queen Morgana returns to her throne, looking satisfied. "Lady Helena will come for you within the hour. She'll teach you everythinghow to walk, how to speak, how to behave like royalty. You'll memorize Princess Celeste's entire life story. Every detail must be perfect."
"What about Thomas?" I ask desperately. "How do I know you'll keep your promise?"
"You don't." The Queen's smile grows wider. "You'll just have to trust me. Oh, and Isla? If you failif the Dragon King discovers you're not the real princessyour brother dies. If you try to run away, your brother dies. If you tell anyone the truth about this arrangement, your brother dies. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Good. Now get out of my sight. You have three days to become a princess."
The guards drag me out of the throne room. My legs barely hold me up. Three days. I have three days to learn how to be someone I'm not, to prepare for a marriage to a creature from nightmares, to somehow save my brother's life by sacrificing everything I am.
As we turn down a corridor, I see an old woman waiting. She's tall and stern, holding a wooden rod in one hand.
Lady Helena.
My teacher. My torturer. The person who will transform a kitchen servant into a fake princess in just seventy-two hours.
She looks me up and down with disgust. "You're covered in grease and blood. First lessonprincesses don't bleed where people can see it. They certainly don't smell like dish soap and onions."
She raises the wooden rod and smacks it against her palm. The sound echoes off the walls like a gunshot.
"We have much work to do," Lady Helena says coldly. "And very little time to do it. I hope you're a fast learner, girl. Your brother's life depends on it."
She turns and walks away, expecting me to follow.
I take one last look back toward the throne room, where a spoiled princess cries because she's too afraid to marry a Dragon King. Where a cruel queen plots and schemes without caring who gets hurt.
Then I follow Lady Helena down the corridor toward a future I never wanted, carrying a secret that could kill everyone I love.
Three days to become someone else.
Three days to learn enough lies to fool a king.
Three days before I'm sent north to marry a monster.
The wooden rod smacks against Lady Helena's palm again.
"Faster, girl. Princesses don't shuffle like peasants."
I walk faster, leaving bloody footprints on the pristine palace floors.
Somewhere in the stables, Thomas is sleeping peacefully, unaware that his sister just sold her soul to keep him alive.
I hope he never finds out what I'm about to do.
I hope I survive long enough to see him again.
But deep down, I know the truththe moment I step into that northern kingdom pretending to be Princess Celeste, my old life as Isla Merrick will be gone forever.
And there's no guarantee I'll survive what comes next