Darcy gazed at her wrist wistfully. When she could no more stand the sight of her bleak future, she let her wrist fall in defeat and blinked desperately so the tears wouldn’t fall.
It wasn’t her fault that she may never find her Beaconed Mate.
It wasn’t –
“Darcy?”
Darcy turned to meet the stony glare of her Stepmom, Clara.
“Yes, Clara.”
“What are you going to do about the looming curse on your head?” Clara asked without missing a beat.
Darcy struggled not to wince at the bite in her words. “There’s no curse-”
“Don’t give me that!!” Clara shrieked. “If you didn’t spend all day with your head buried in a book and gallivanting in the wild, you’d have found your mate. Your twenty-first birthday is approaching. You know what happens.”
Darcy was beyond herself with resentment at this point. “I’m aware Clara.”
“Good,” Clara smirked, continuing with a glint in her eye. “And I for one would have a front-row seat to witness your humiliation on the day of The Reckoning.
With that last blow, Clara sashayed away.
Darcy remained seated with her fists clenched. It was so unfair. Why should she be banished because her beacon had refused to shine? Maybe her destined mate wasn’t even in these parts or worse, he was dead. Then she was truly doomed to a life of being forever lovelorn. But Darcy didn’t mind. She’d never been loved by anyone before and there was no reason to hold onto a hope when the inevitable was unavoidable. But as she raised her wrist, she didn’t help the hopeful sigh that escaped her. “Can you please show yourself if you’re really there?”
The Day of the Reckoning
The gentle evening breeze blew and the drums were almost silenced by the cheering crowd as twenty-five maidens from the ages of eighteen to twenty-one lined up with the hope that they could connect with their mates. There was a look of expectation in the eyes of the eighteen-year-olds and a tense air and anxiety in the eyes of the twenty to twenty-one-year-olds. Darcy was in the latter group. Her heart beating as yet another person announced that their wrists had begun to shine.
“Mine is shining!” the girl beside her screamed in glee. Darcy watched as a man appeared from the crowd with an equally beaming wrist and as he ran and hugged his newfound mate and the crowd erupted in deafening cheers, she prayed earnestly in her heart for a similar fate.
But one by one the ladies reduced to fifteen and then to ten and finally to six. Just as the drums signifying the end of The Reckoning sounded, a nineteen-year-old maiden screamed with joy as the beacon lighted up in her wrist and her mate emerged. When the drums sounded, she looked at the remaining girls. The oldest was twenty so she had one more year.
Darcy looked at her wrist as she watched the circle where her beacon should have emanated from fade away forever. She smiled in resignation and walked away, the pitiful and mocking gazes of the townspeople following her.
As she got to her former home, she quickly packed her bags and didn’t even look back as she wandered to the mountains. The announcer was supposed to officially bring the decree of the king telling her to vacate the kingdom but she decided to beat him to it. There was no need to wait for the morning when more humiliating looks of the people would follow her.
Darcy traipsed on the rocky pathway and ventured into the deepest part of the woods. There was no going back now, she thought to herself as she crossed the boundary that marked the end of her kingdom and the beginning of the heathen lands. She had heard horrible things about these lands and the people that inhabited them but she supposed that if she could survive betrayal from her people, nothing could get to her anymore.
The moon was up in the sky and she knew that the grounds were no longer safe. But she knew no one here. A tremor of fear ran down her spine as she felt the prickle at the back of her neck. Someone was watching her.
“Who goes there? Show yourself!"
“It’s funny that I’m in my lands, yet a trespasser and possible thief asks for my identity.”
Darcy turned in alarm and was face to face with a man cloaked in darkness even with the bright moonlight overhead. She took a step back as light tremors and tingles of excitement swept her being. Who was this man and why was she reacting like this to him?
“Who are you and what are you doing in my lands, ma’am?” The man’s booming voice broke through her haze as he stepped forward.
“I’m from far away. I was just sojourning. I mean no harm.”
The man narrowed his eyes at her like he didn’t believe her for one second. “Okay then. Be on your way.” Readjusting the satchel on his shoulder, he made to leave.
Darcy leapt away from the darkness and held his arm. “May I follow you, please? I have nowhere to go.”
The man gasped as he looked at her. Her eyes were shining with a light that meant only one thing.
“What’s the matter?” Darcy asked.
But the man was not listening. He couldn’t believe he had found his mate. How could this be?
“Nothing. You can come with me.” He suddenly blurted out.
“You sure?” Darcy beamed, not believing her fortune. “Thank you. I promise to work hard.”
The man smiled and motioned to show her the way. He read the quiet cynicism in her eyes and knew he had to take it away. Darcy may have given up on ever finding her mate or even finding love but the heavens had a surprise for her.
Jhymi🖤
My entry to The Inkwell Fiction Prompt.