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Sitting still had never come natural to Eve. It was so terribly tedious, and made her want to claw her brain out just to end the boredom alone.

Yesterday had been exciting—when Seth had been ripped away, and they had had a last hug where Eve had slipped her seal inside his pocket—but, today, the whole damsel in a tower schtick became real. Really boring.

It should be exciting! She was currently living through the arrest and trial of the two highest profile visitors Terrabelle had received in recent memory. Though, it wasn't exciting.

But it would be, again. She just had to get rid of the knights glued to her room, and break out the Fablehaven court.

Balancing the chess board on her lap, she moved the ornate King and Queen pieces to the soft couch cushion beside her. Kendra and Seth were out of commission. Not dead—Eve would be sure of that, but they weren't going to be key players in her plan.

She moved a rook into the middle of the board. Patton Burgess. He was important. As a child, she always heard of his constant, death-defying, and dazzling adventures. The ones popularized in her house and Terrabelle were the tales of him slaying witches, bog-monsters, and terrifying ghostly knights. Until she had met Seth, she had never been told that Patton's methods in his glory days had always involved magic. Magic to defeat magic.

Which was weird to think about, as Eve never really got to hear of magic for good. However, the fact that Patton had ever used magic was damning for the Fablehaven court on its own.

Eve wasn't going to lie—she had had her suspicions about the Fablehaven party even before the mask had been ripped away. The more time she had spent with Seth, the more times he suddenly forgot or tripped over a part of a story when it came suspiciously close to sounding like it had involved magic.

Also, the weird characters had begun to pile up. Especially Newel and Doren: two friends that lived in the woods part-time and had enraged a shopkeeper by leaving goat hair all over her new upholstery.

"Oh, yeah, they had been wearing goat fur pants."

Eve had sat down her tea cup and tilted her head at that. "You wear goat fur pants in Fablehaven?"

"Fashion trend. Yeah, I know. Weird. But, they're into that stuff."

Or, even just Seth's general attitude towards magic had been incredibly different from what Eve was used to.

Yes, there were already negative magic-sympathizing stereotypes about people from Fablehaven. She knew that. People made fun of the people of Fablehaven all the time for being soft. She had just not expected it to extend to the ruling family.

Like, Seth had been excited about a dragon but exasperated when Eve had reminded him that the King didn't allow anything magical to exist in Terrabelle.

And, Raxtus acted totally weird around him—even if they both would like to pretend it was all normal. The-eye Seth garnered from Raxtus within a single conversation was astronomical.

Besides, Seth always seemed less than enthused whenever they discussed magic restrictions. In fact, she even had thought she had seen Seth roll his eyes at a normal anti-magic diatribe espoused by a visiting dignitary. It had been in her periphery, so she wasn't too sure.

But, she did know that she had seen Kendra pinch him.

So, it really hadn't come to her as a shock when it was revealed that he was consorting with magical figures.

Eve eyed the rest of the chess pieces. Vanessa and Warren, part of the House of Burgesses. She knew vaguely that Vanessa had some type of healer background and knew sharply that Warren was conniving as a fox from all her spying on the royal court from the rafters. Both were former knights—Seth was proud of that. However, even with such impressive players, they could not escape Terrabelle alone, on foot or on horseback.

It just wasn't possible. Terrabelle was strong, and Fablehaven was weak. Eve had suspected since Kendra and Seth's very first night that the refuge her father had extended to the House of Soren was just a ploy to eventually overtake it.

Oh, in fact, Eve was almost positive. She could see the plan perfectly...get Garreth to marry Kendra, and now Garreth had claim to Fablehaven's throne. Wait for the Sphinx to leave Fablehaven, and hope that the king and queen died or become irrelevant enough on their trip. Reinstate the House of Soren with Garreth at the helm, and merge the two bordering kingdoms by marriage.

It would have been perfect, and such a blow to the magic resistance. In dazzling colors on every notice to be had: behold, the most magic-sympathetic kingdom brought under the iron fist of Terrabelle.

Eve knew her father had twiddled his thumbs imagining the glory. But, of course, that plan had fallen to pieces.

Well...unless her father took the betrayal of Kendra against the Treaty of Terrabelle as an act of war, and conquered Fablehaven during their time of weakness under a righteous flag. But, he would need to get rid of the House of Soren to effectively do so.

Eve picked up the King and Queen from her cushion and inspected them.

Everyone knew that King Stan and Queen Ruth were running out of time, quickly. Everyone knew that Kendra was so close to becoming the Queen that it hardly mattered if the actual regents were alive if only Kendra was dead.

Everyone knew that. She knew that. Her father knew that.

That's it. Eve had to get the House of Soren out of Terrabelle. And, although risky, Raxtus was their best chance.

However, they were also Raxtus's best chance for survival as well. Eve wasn't a fool. She knew Raxtus was slowly dying in that coal cavern. Dark dust and debris covered every inch of his scales and indubitably his lungs. His health was hard to guage, but his spirit was definitely shriveled.

While, he had never been an optimistic dragon, the years of containment had rendered its toll on his hope. Any discussion of possible release would always end in exhausted negatives, Raxtus turning invisible, and slunking into the caves. It had seemed impossible for it to even happen.

Eve could never have released Raxtus on her own, safely and successfully.

But, the Fablehaven group had magic. They could.

Eve poured all the chess pieces off into a basket and set her chessboard back on the couch. She was done thinking. "I want to wear a different dress."

The guards didn't spare her a glance.

"This one is itchy."

They didn't move.

She stood up and stomped on the ground. "Don't ignore me!"

"My lady," Lockland placated. He left his post at the door and bowed to her. "We aren't ignoring you. You are free to use your bathroom to change dresses."

"No, it is too cold in there. There are no rugs to protect my feet from the cold stone."

"Rugs would get wet in a bathroom, my lady."

"I know that! I want to change in here." Eve shooed him with her hands. The guards looked uncertainly to Lockland. "Out."

"For your safety, it would be best if you—"

"Out!" Frustrated tears sprung to Eve's eyes. It wasn't hard to muster. She rushed over to her wardrobe and took a dress from the rack. "I want to change. Get out!"

He sighed before signaling for the guards to leave. They left with annoyed glances at the princess. Lockland stalled before shutting the door. "We cannot leave you alone for long. Be quick."

Once the door shut, Eve dropped the gown and picked up her wooden desk chair. Quietly, she set it below her door knob, tilting it till the back of the chair fit snugly beneath the handle. There, that will take a second of strength.

Quickly, she packed a canvas bag with a couple pieces of clothing, the dress she had picked off the rack, and her tiara.

Then, Eve lifted up one end of her couch as quietly as she could and shifted it away from the wall. She shimmied between the wall and the couch and began feeling the wallpaper for the indent of the tunnel cover. Her heart sped up as she considered what she was about to do. She wouldn't see her father ever again, and quite possibly, Terrabelle either.

"Are you done, my lady?"

"No!" Eve's fingernails caught the edge of the cover, and she scratched at it, frantically trying to get a hold. She did, and it fell forwards quickly, smacking against the couch. Panic spiked at the sound. "Don't rush me!"

"What was that?"

"I tripped!"

"Princess!"

Eve crouched, maneuvering into the tunnel. Once she shimmied in, she reached out into her room for the cover.

The doorknob rattled. Stop, stop, stop that! Lockland's voice called out. "Are you okay?"

Eve tried to set the cover against the hole in the wall, but it kept slipping away and the chair began to splinter along with her patience. She growled and dropped the cover.

"Princess!"

Eve turned into the tunnel and began to crawl as quickly as she good. Worry began to eat at her. What was she doing? She always spoke of adventure and righteousness and glory, but this was terrifying. This was irreversible.

As soon as the tunnel rose up into standing height and Eve could sprint, a crash from her room ricocheted down the tunnel. That was her door. It had to be her door. They were going to see the open tunnel, and that was it. She was either going to be caught and grounded forever or she would be successful and never see her city again.

Ragged breaths tore at her throat and she barely thought about what turns she was taking, but once she slowed to a walk, she began to look around at the three tunnels her's split off into.

In her frenzy, she had lost much of her natural sense of direction, but luckily, Eve had previously carved little letters into the walls at junctions.

She ran her fingers over the wall until she felt grooves spelling out a "D." Dungeons. Perfect!

Eve took a deep breath before she rounded the corner. She was going to do this.

She was going to save her best friend and his family.

She was going to leave her own family behind.

She was never going to see Terrabelle again.

But, she could be free to do as she pleased in the great, big expanse that was not Terrabelle.

She could adventure and talk to dragons and meet witches and do things she had never fathomed.

Eve smiled.

She could do this.

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thank you for reading!

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