Rachel, long time editor and friend to authors, let herself into the empty apartment, looking around sadly.
“You really had to go and get hit by a car right before you finished your last book?” She laughed, a lonely sound in the dark living space. “I bet that pissed you off. You were so excited about the ending.”
Looking around, she couldn’t help but slump a little. She knew the manuscript wasn’t finished, otherwise she would have gotten the celebratory text. That left her with the headache of publishing an unfinished book or asking someone else to contribute.
Maybe I’ll luck out and she was almost completely done.
She turned a corner into the office and stopped with a gasp. She couldn’t help the dramatic reaction, however, the sight greeting her was truly shocking!
A thick finished manuscript sat on the desk
Just one chapter left.It’s amazing what goes through your mind when you’re dying.I had taken a break and gone to the nearest convenience store to buy a boatload of chocolate to celebrate writing the last chapter to the last installment of my book series. When I started to write this story of swords, magic, and court intrigue a couple years ago, I could have never dreamt that the books would get published and that they would actually be popular. Of course, that just meant for the last book of the series, the pressure was on to write a good ending. Even though most of the fan mail I got was surprisingly encouraging, I could sense the inpatient desire for the next and final book.The ending better be worth it. I could read the message clearly in between the lines. But despite multiple setbacks, a couple mini nervous breakdowns and one bad tequila binge that I hoped everyone would quickly forget, I had written
I had multiple plans to improve Katrina’s character.The first, and the easiest was her personality. I wasn’t very outgoing by nature, so keeping my head down and doing my work properly without mocking others or causing a scene was simple.The first day after I had appeared in this world, I tried smiling and greeting everyone I worked with. The reaction was a little overdone, one butler literally backed away from me until he fell down a flight of stairs. I had never really specified in the book how awful Katrina was in her day to day life, but considering the astonishment and relief shown by the other house staff members at my changed personality, she must have been dreadful to work with. Now that I wasn’t acting like an idiot bully, I naturally made friends with most of the people who worked there.Second, I decided that if I was going to be a maid character, I wanted to be the super, cool type that co
It was Autumn’s 16th birthday.I woke her up, dressed her, and styled her hair, just like a proper lady’s maid. All the while I kept up a running commentary, prepping her on who would be at the party. We would be surrounded by allies, enemies, and people on the sidelines, and Autumn needed to be aware of who could be charmed, who could be bought and who needed to be ignored. Fortunately after two years of Head Maid Gertia’s boot camp from hell, I knew exactly how to coach her.Autumn endured my lecturing without complaint. She really was a sweet girl, with a quiet temperament but strong morals. I thought she was adorable and felt inclined to protect her. I had felt similarly when I was writing her character. I thought the calm sweet way she approached things was fitting of the protagonist of my story, and made sure she would have a beautiful romance and a happy ending. Fortunately those feelings didn’t fade even
The Prince announced shortly after the birthday party that Autumn was no longer a simple candidate, she was his official fiancé. The girl herself was of course overjoyed, and wandered the house in a daze the entire day after hearing the news. I trailed behind her with a smile, ensuring that she didn’t bump into anything and hurt herself. I was enjoying the peace and quiet while I could, since I knew that a big nuisance was headed our way.“Good morning, Miss Katrina.” The big nuisance said with a cheerful smile. I returned the expression with a polite curtsey.“Good morning, Your Grace.”He handed me a letter. “This is for Miss Autumn from Coron. It’s an apology for what happened at her birthday party, among other things.” He straightened up, looking me in the eye with a serious appearance. “He also wishes me to convey his deepest apologies to
The Duke stared at me in confusion. It was understandable, I suppose. Magic was a rare talent, one that showed up rarely even among the nobility, much less so among the common people. For a servant to have magic talent would be extremely unlikely. I saw his mind working, and he must have remembered that I came from a noble family, although only a Baron, for he asked me quietly.“You underwent aptitude testing?”Every noble child in the world underwent aptitude testing. It was a simple test, the child simple placed their hands on a crystal sphere, and if they had any talent for magic, globes of light would appear around them. The number of globes was an indication of their magical power. Among people who did have magical talent, 1-2 orbs was considered average. The prince had 6 orbs appear when he tested, the Duke currently held the record at 10 orbs. When Autumn had attempted, her magic nullifying ability had destroye
It had already been over a year since Autumn had been named the Prince’s future wife. In a couple of days we would be heading out to the Capitol so that they could conduct their official courtship under the judging eyes of the nobility. I laid in my bed, staring up at the ceiling, thinking through all the possibilities.Ugh, it’s all too tiring.The only benefit I had was knowing the future thanks to my all powerful author knowledge. Of course, I had already changed part of the story by changing Katrina’s character, but judging by what happened at Autumn’s birthday party, there was a concern that no matter what I did, the main plot would continue along the predicted pathway. If this were the book, Katrina would be planning to contact the Duchess Savalle, who was the second cousin of the current king. She hated Autumn almost as much as book Katrina did, and when the foolish servant girl offered to team up,
Things did not go as planned when we arrived in the Capital. To be fair, my expectations were based off of the book plot. In the story, the protagonist met a lot of resistance among the nobility, who were jealous of her favored status with the prince. Katrina of course, worked furiously behind the scenes to make friends with anyone who disliked Autumn and fan the flames as much as possible. This meant it was my time to shine, when I could masquerade as the worthless antagonist side character while protecting sweet little Autumn from anyone who would go against her.At least, that’s how it was supposed to happen.Everything went wrong right from the start. I had prepared extensively for our arrival. We were to act out the scene from the book, where Katrina tripped Autumn on her way out of the carriage. Autumn would be unhurt but embarrassed, while Katrina would be securely placed within the “anti-Autumn” faction.
It didn’t take too long for Duchess Savalle’s men to grab me again. I was brought before the arrogant woman, fighting off a sad sense of deja vu as she stared down her nose at me.“You ruined everything, you stupid girl.” She snapped at me as soon as I arrived. “Why in the world would you wear the poisoned necklace instead of giving it that pretender?”So that’s how we’re going to play it, huh?I went into full spoiled brat mode.“Are you kidding me?! It’s all your fault for coming up with such a stupid plan! Why would she accept a cheap necklace from her maid?” I stomped my feet and produced a couple crocodile tears. “It’s your fault she made me wear it! I threw up in front of the prince! He probably thinks I’m disgusting. Now I’ll never be queen!”My voice ended on a shri