Princess Viola sneak peek

Originally, I wrote The Cousin Curse directly after The Seven Sages, in The Spectra Crown Tales. However, I'm now going back and inserting another book in between the two. This means I have to tweak the ending of The Seven Sages. This snippet originally came at the end of The Seven Sages to help the reader bridge over, but it's probably going to be cut. 

So, here's the deleted scene, an introduction to Princess Viola (the mute sister of the Six Swans):

 If the kingdom of Castalia was asked which royal sibling was the least likely to cause trouble, Viola was certain that she’d be, if not the winner, at least very close to the top. Yet when had her wild younger siblings ever been dragged into the throne room by security?  

Not that she’d done anything wrong. She’d been minding her own business in the castle gardens. The new security guards thought she was trespassing. This was one of those many situations where a small conversation could fix everything. Unfortunately, she needed an interpreter for conversations of any size. 

She shouldn’t say they were dragging her. She walked between the two men, one small young woman dwarfed by their huge statures and even bigger muscles. She could harness her Sprite strength and throw them both across the room if she wanted to. But that wouldn’t fix up this misunderstanding. 

Her mother, the queen, stood up immediately when they entered. “Let her go at once!” she ordered. 

The security guards glanced at one another. Viola slipped past them, found a bag of wool that she’d hidden behind one of the fancy chairs, and began shaping it into a shirt for her brother. Her hands worked automatically so that she could watch the guards’ faces. This would be entertaining. 

“This child was trespassing,” one of the guards said hesitantly. 

Being called a child would be slightly less annoying if people made the same mistake about Viola’s twin. They were the same age and the same height. But Lilac wore fancy clothes and a tiara and carried herself with confidence. Well, why not? If someone challenged her, she could actually answer. 

Her mother, not much taller than Viola, stormed toward them with the ferocity of a bear. “My daughter lives here! How could she possibly be trespassing?” 

“That’s a princess?” one stammered. 

Her mother’s vivid green eyes flashed. “Why wouldn’t she be? Because she’s a Sprite? Because she’s not wearing fancy clothes?” 

Mother wore traditional leafskin exactly like Viola’s own. To be fair, though, she also wore a thin golden circlet over her dark hair. 

Stammering their apologies, the guards retreated. Viola shook her head and returned to her wool. 

Her mother turned on her. “Viola, you could have solved that problem by yourself.” 

Viola raised her hands in a questioning gesture. 

“You could have escaped them. You could have summoned one of your siblings. You could have carried your slate with you.” 

Viola shuddered. The slate required chalk, and she hated chalk. The grating sound made her want to pull her teeth out. It left a dusty film on her hands that interfered with her cloth-shaping. And it smelled bad. 

Anyway, she had solved the problem. She’d let the guards take her back to her family so that one of her parents could explain. That wasn’t cowardice or laziness or whatever her mother was implying. It was being smart and working as a team with her family. Who could complain about that? 

“You’re going up to the Lakewood in a few days,” her mother went on. “We’ll send a few guards and one of your siblings to interpret, but you’re going to need to handle problems on your own.” 

Viola frowned. Going up to Lakewood was not her idea. Her sisters had been extra giggly, predicting that she’d fall madly in love with a handsome stranger. That was dumb. It would mostly be other Sprites in Lakewood. Viola needed to marry a Muse like her father, someone who could speak mind-to-mind with her. Then she’d always have an interpreter. What kind of relationship would that be if she could never talk to the man? 

The numbering may have changed, but you can still find The Cousin Curse here.