I wake up with Alvar facing me. His expression is peaceful in sleep, and with his black hair tousled carelessly over his dark eyebrows, I forget who he is. I never noticed his thick black eyelashes or his sensual mouth with its slight curve at the corners as if he smiles in his sleep. There is a unexplainably heartbreaking kindness to his features as well as his chiseled masculine beauty.

My attention momentarily fixates on his scar.

Someone purposefully did that to him.

I shift in the bed carefully so as not to wake him and sweep the covers aside to step onto the stone floor. I tiptoe to my wardrobe to dress.

"You can just press the caller if you need anything," Alvar'ss voice makes me nearly jump out of my skin. "Leeza will come."

"Oh," I whirl around. "Did I wake you?"

"I'm a light sleeper," Alvar stretches his muscled arms above his head and yawns, the covers fall off him giving me a generous view of his bared chest and abdomen.

I willfully avert my gaze to keep a clear head.

Damn. What is it about him that draws me in like an animal in heat?

"Do you want me to leave now?" Alvar asks, the corner of his mouth twitches, he's noticed me notice him again. "We've spent our 'night' together and as far as any of the old fashioned people in Underland are concerned we are officially man and wife."

"Phew, I'm glad that's over with," I say, stifling a giggle, but I cough and add, "When will I see—see Emily?"

"You should see her very shortly," Alvar says. "I sent a direct message to Remora. She agreed and will be sending Emily by Sky Wave."

What's a Sky Wave?

"I hope she's okay," I say.

Alvar doesn't say anything, instead he throws the covers off and moves to get dressed. He picks up his shirt from the floor and shrugs it on. "Go ahead, press the caller for Leeza, it's by the door."

"We should speak again soon, Lucy," Alvar says. He loops his belt inside his pants.

"So you know how to dress yourself?" I tease. "I thought servants helped you with that."

"I know how to do a great many things, Lucy," Alvar says with a wink, his eyes glinting with a hidden message.

I involuntarily blush and press my hands to the sides of my cheeks to hide it.

"You are very innocent, aren't you?" Alvar sighs and gets a far away look in his eyes.

"By innocent you mean stupid," I accuse, I don't know why I'm taking offense.

"I didn't say stupid," Alvar corrects without retaliating. "Don't talk like that of yourself. Innocence is a gift and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Now are you going to press the button or do you want to figure out your clothing options yourself?"

"I probably could do it," I muse, glancing at the wardrobe.

"Do you know what colors to wear after a celebration like a wedding?" Alvar cocks an eyebrow. He sits on the edge of my bed and tugs on his boots.

"Where are you going?"

"I have business to attend to. I am a king, you know," he says, obviously amused by how easy it is to tease me.

"Oh, yeah," I mutter.

He stands up straight and bows his head at me. "It was my pleasure spending the night in your bed, wife."

Wife.

I reach for my rubber band but my fingers slip over my bare wrist and I think of how Alvar noticed and cared.

Mike never asked me about my odd habit of snapping my own wrist... he never seemed concerned like Alvar did.

"Good day, Lucy." Alvar nods at me. He strides from the room.

"Good day, Alvar," I murmur after him. The way his name rolls off my tongue is admittedly wonderful.

You hardly even know him and you're falling for him like he's a character in a fairy tale? Remember how he kidnapped you from all you've ever known? Stockholm syndrome anyone? Besides, if Mike knew what you were thinking do you realize how hurt he'd be?

I press the glowing white caller set in the wall next to my bedroom door and wait for Leeza to come and help me dress.

"Your majesty," Leeza says, she bows, her crest of feathers nearly touching the ground. "You look well rested and radiant if I do say so myself."

Everyone thinks Alvar and I consummated our marriage. Isn't this awkward?

"Thank you, Leeza. Do you know if Emily will be coming today?"

"She should arrive shortly."

"How shortly?"

"I'd say early this afternoon," Leeza says. "What did you need me for, Majesty?"

"I need to pick out clothes to wear. King Alvar said you'd know which is appropriate for a new bride," I say, holding it together enough to not blush.

"You should wear white," Leeza advises with a smile, she bustles over to my wardrobe. Her wings are folded over the back an ornate, royal blue sari she wears. The color combination with the yellow feathers and blue fabric, remind me of a regal blue and yellow macaw.

Leeza pulls a white two piece, white top and skirt from my wardrobe and lays it out on my bed.

I pick up the shirt and find it's as if I'm trying to capture water in my fingers, the fabric is so, so light and soft.

"What is this?" I ask in bewilderment and awe.

"It's made from the silk of a Telf spider," Leeza says. "The softest, lightest clothes in Axus one can find or buy."

"Spider?" I squeak.

This beautiful, lux piece was made from spider silk?

Creepy.

"They are farmed in the Trees of Gomen," Leeza explains.

I have no idea where that is, but I don't bother asking.

"The sylphs domesticated and farm them," Leeza says, beaming with apparent pride over it. "Someday you will visit Sylphvr, the sylph capitol city. You are actually scheduled to go there in a month to meet and greet the sylph people as the new queen of Underland. Then you can gaze upon the majestic Telf spiders."

I'm not sure if I'm excited about gazing upon spiders, but visiting the sylphs actually sounds—for lack of a better word—cool.

"Will I visit all the peoples of this land?" I wonder if that sounded right. I don't know etiquette here, what if I sound racist by mistake? Or is there even racism in this world? It's so different than Earth, I am so lost, and I realize again how alien everything in Underlund is to me.

Leeza laughs. "Of course you will! You are even scheduled to meet the gobli queen, Remora."

I shudder.

The same queen who wanted to kill my best friend on a Star Wheel?

No thanks.

A loud gong going off and the shrill sound of screams and shouts from outside interrupts us.

What is going on out there?

Leeza's eyes get huge. She grasps my hand and runs us to the window, but an eardrum-shattering roar causes us both to cower away from it.

"What is that?" I ask, breathlessly, my heart beating a mile a minute.

"A Cursed in the city during the day!" Leeza sounds panicked and surprised. She pulls my window shut and draws the curtains, shutting out the day.

"Come, we must go to the safe room!" She cries.

"What is going to happen?" I ask her, terrified of this threat, as we run. I'm only wearing the robe and the rope tying it together slips open.

Of all things!

I fumble to tie it, but Leeza is in too much of a hurry.

"What is it?" I find myself questioning the danger of this situation and I don't know why.

"It's a creature of darkness," Leeza explains. "Through and through. They are unnatural beings. Cursed ones. There is no killing it."

"What do you mean?" I ask, my spine tingles with fear at the horrified look in Leeza's eyes. She really is afraid of this thing.

We're headed down a secret stairs that apparently is in my living area under the great bath in my room.

"Cursed are not always as they appear," Leeza says. "They look like people just like you and me, but they have a darkness inside them at birth that causes a hideous transformation and turns them into a monster. They fool you with the human appearance, but that is what they truly are: Monsters."

"Transformation? Like a werewolf?"

"What's a werewolf?" Leeza halts once we reach a small room that is lit by faint Arlite torches.

"Men that turn into wolves when a full moon is out," I say.

"You have those where you're from?" Leeza's eyebrows raise in alarm.

"We—well, they are myth in our world," I stutter. "We call it an urban legend. They are said to look like normal people except they turn into a wolf when there is a full moon."

"I see," Leeza says thoughtfully. "Cursed are like that. They look like normal people except for one thing."

"And what is that?"

"The tell is that their eyes turn red when they grow stressed."

My blood runs icy cold.

Red eyes.

I don't even want to think it, but—

An echoing roar shakes the palace.

My hands cover over my ears.

I hardly can muster my next words: "Has this creature killed people?"

"Yes," Leeza says gravely. "Thousands."

Oh God.

I may faint.

Alvar is his own people's nightmare.

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