My Dead Daughter's Wedding Invitation

In the seventh year of my seclusion in the Blackpine borderlands, the mother-curse inside me suddenly began to stir.

That was when someone came down from the mountains bearing a gilt-edged invitation.

The only son of the Sanchez family, richest in the land, weds next month. You are especially invited to attend.

The people of the settlement saw the card and crowded around, laughing their congratulations.

"Years ago Lorna Harding and the Sanchez heir fell for each other at first sight. She left the borderlands to follow him."

"And now the Sanchez family sends a wedding invitation. Surely happy news for Lorna is close at hand."

I smiled too.

I had raised my daughter soft, and yet she had gone and given her heart to that man from beyond the mountains.

But the moment I reached out and took the invitation, a tearing pain ripped through my chest.

The mother-curse churned violently inside me, and I coughed up a mouthful of black blood.

The smile froze on my face.

When the mother-curse spits blood, the child-curse has been severed.

Which meant my daughter was already dead.

And the life-guarding curse inside her had been carved out of her while she lived.

I stared at the words on the invitation, "Zachary Sanchez weds," and my fingers tightened around it, little by little.

If my daughter was already dead.

Then the woman about to marry Zachary Sanchez.

Who was she?

...

I raised a hand and summoned a few hundred curse-insects, and spoke quietly.

"I'm leaving the borderlands. I'm going to the Sanchez family."

The settlement people hurried after me.

"Won't you take more people with you?"

I looked at that little smear of black blood in my palm, and something like a smile crossed my face.

"No need."

"I'm only going to a wedding."

"And while I'm there, to bring my daughter home."

Seven years ago, when Lorna left the borderlands, she was only nineteen.

I had raised her soft her whole life.

Afraid of hardship, afraid of pain, weeping half a day over nothing more than a curse-insect nipping her finger.

And yet she was the one who fell for Zachary Sanchez, who had come from beyond the mountains.

Back then Zachary had run into danger in the borderlands, and it was Lorna who saved him.

She drew the poison out of him, fed him medicine.

She even cut out the snow-spider curse she had nurtured for three years and used it to hold his last breath in his body.

When Zachary woke, he knelt before me and swore he would protect her all his life.

I never really believed the oaths of men from beyond the mountains.

But Lorna clung to my waist, her eyes red from crying.

"Mama, I want to go with him."

"I believe he'll be good to me for the rest of my life."

In the end, I softened.

Before she left, I planted the life-guarding curse in her with my own hands.

That curse could ward off death three times for her.

As long as the child-curse remained, however grave her injuries, I would feel the life still in her.

But now, the mother-curse spat blood, the child-curse severed.

Unless someone had cut the child-curse out of her body while she lived.

Otherwise it could never have happened.

On the day of the Sanchez wedding, the entire estate was carpeted in white roses.

Everyone was praising how devoted the Sanchez heir was.

"I hear Miss Harding comes from the borderlands. For the Sanchez family to take her in, that's honor enough."

"A girl from the mountains, marrying into the Sanchez family. Good fortune earned over lifetimes."

I listened to it all, and my steps did not slow.

The Sanchez butler came forward to greet me, and his face shifted a little when he saw me.

He recovered quickly and piled on a smile.

"You've come at last."

"The young master and his bride have been waiting for you a long while."

Something in my eyes went cold, and I looked up toward the altar.

Zachary Sanchez wore a black suit, his features clean and handsome.

Beside him stood a woman in a wedding gown.

The veil hung down, hiding most of her face.

Her figure was much like Lorna's.

And around her wrist she wore a string of silver bells.

The very ones I had fastened on Lorna myself, the day she left the borderlands.

Zachary saw me, and the smile on his face caught for a moment.

Then he led the bride over.

"Mrs. Harding."

"Lorna will be so happy you could come."

"Her health hasn't been good these past years, and she's grown quieter than she used to be."

"If she seems the least bit rude, please don't hold it against her."

As the words fell, the bride slowly lifted her head.

Behind the veil was a face exactly like Lorna's.

But one look was all it took, and my heart went cold.

She was not my daughter.

My Lorna had bright eyes.

When she laughed, they were like the clearest spring water of the borderlands in March.

She would never look at me with eyes so timid, so quick to look away.

And she would never, at the first sight of me, shrink instinctively behind Zachary Sanchez.

I spoke softly. "Lorna."

She seemed to come back to herself at last, and slowly turned to me.

Her eyes rimmed red in an instant.

"Mother."

That single word landed.

And I laughed.

Seeing me laugh, the guests around us relaxed too.

They must have thought it was only a mother reunited with her daughter after years apart, overcome for a moment.

Zachary let out a quiet breath of relief as well.

But he didn't know.

From the time she was small, Lorna never once called me Mother.

She called me Mama.

I took a step forward, and the bride instinctively drew back.

At once Zachary moved between us.

"Mrs. Harding, Lorna isn't well."

"The doctor said she can't take any shock."

"If you have something to say, you can say it slowly, after the wedding."

I raised my eyes to him.

"I call my own daughter's name, and that counts as a shock?"

The smile at the corner of Zachary's mouth faded a little.

"You misunderstand me. I only worry for her."

I stared at him, and suddenly I remembered seven years ago.

He had knelt in the borderlands, covered in wounds, yet clutching Lorna's hand and refusing to let go.

Lorna had been hiding behind him then, watching me with a flushed face.

Back then, I believed there would always be someone in this world who would treasure her.

Only now do I know.

The oaths of men from beyond the mountains are worth nothing at all.

Old Mrs. Sanchez came over too, supported on someone's arm, her face all kindness and warmth.

"Our honored kinswoman has come such a long way. Please, take the seat of honor."

"The child has suffered so much these years, and it's been so hard for her to finally reach her wedding day. You mustn't frighten her."

I ignored her, and looked only at the silver bell on the bride's wrist.

"Give me your hand."

The bride's face went white in a flash.

I said flatly, "I only want to look."

"To see whether the child-curse inside my daughter is still there."

At those words, every Sanchez face changed.

Zachary's voice turned to ice.

"Mrs. Harding, today is a day of celebration."

"If you object to my marrying Lorna, you can say so plainly."

"There's no need to use these things to humiliate her."

The bride burst into tears at once, her eyes red.

"Mother, I know you blame me for not listening back then, for leaving the borderlands with Zachary."

"But I truly am Lorna."

"How can you doubt me like this?"

She wept, the very picture of something pitiable.

The way the guests around me looked at me shifted in an instant.

"What a cruel mother, making a scene at her own daughter's wedding."

"Don't tell me she thinks the Sanchez bride-gift was too small?"

Listening to it all, I found it almost laughable.

I, Ellie Harding, have ruled the borderlands for twenty years.

A thousand curses and ten thousand insects answer to my hand, and all twelve bloodlines of the settlement obey my command.

Would I come to the Sanchez house to make a scene over a bride-gift?

I offered no explanation. I only raised my hand.

A black-butterfly curse flew from my sleeve and settled on the bride's wrist.

The bride screamed in terror and flung her arm wildly.

"Ah!"

"Get it off! Get it off me!"

Her cry was too shrill, too desperate.

Even Zachary froze for a moment.

My daughter had lived alongside curses since she was a child.

She was afraid of pain. She was afraid of the dark.

But she would never fear a curse.

The black butterfly settled on the silver bell, its wings giving a faint tremble.

The next instant, it dropped straight to the floor.

Dead.

The last trace of a smile left my face.

Zachary faltered for a heartbeat. It showed.

Then his voice dropped low again.

"Mrs. Harding, Lorna's been away from the borderlands for years. It's only natural these things unsettle her."

"There's no need to press her so hard."

I looked at him and gave a cold laugh.

"Zachary. This woman beside you is not my daughter."

The bride's knees buckled and she dropped straight to the floor.

"Mama!"

"You can't refuse to claim me just because I left the borderlands!"

She clutched at the hem of my dress, weeping.

"I know I was wrong."

"I'll come back to see you often from now on, I promise."

"I'm begging you, don't do this to me at my own wedding."

Zachary bent at once to help her up, his eyes full of tenderness.

"Lorna, don't beg her."

When he raised his head to look at me, the last warmth had gone out of his eyes.

"Mrs. Harding, I respect you as an elder."

"But Lorna is my wife now."

"No one humiliates her in front of me."

I watched the way he shielded that woman.

And a thought came to me.

If Lorna had been shielded like that back then.

Would she still be alive?

I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, a bronze curse-vessel sat in my palm.

Old Mrs. Sanchez's face changed.

"What are you trying to do?"

I didn't answer.

I only opened the vessel.

Inside, the mother-curse had been at its last breath.

But the moment the vessel opened, it flung itself against the walls of the vessel like something gone mad.

Not toward the bride, but toward the Sanchez inner hall.

Beating itself bloody.

My fingers tightened, little by little.

Zachary saw it too, and started for the inner hall.

Zachary barked, "Stop her!"

Several bodyguards rushed forward at once.

But before they could reach me, twelve black butterflies rose from behind me.

And settled on the backs of their necks.

The men froze where they stood, unable to move so much as a finger.

The guests screamed and shrank back.

Step by step, I walked toward the inner hall.

Zachary lunged in front of me, blocking my way.

"Ellie Harding!"

"This is my wedding. Don't push this too far!"

I stopped and looked at him.

"Zachary."

"My daughter's remains."

"Where are they, in this house of yours?"

Zachary stood in my path, and every trace of warmth was gone from his face now.

"Ellie Harding."

"Lorna is standing right in front of you."

"You insist she's dead. Do you just want the whole world watching the Sanchez family make fools of themselves?"

He didn't say it loudly.

But every guest in the hall heard it.

The ones who had backed away in terror from the curse-insects slowly closed in again.

Someone murmured under their breath.

"Her own daughter's wedding day, and instead of a blessing the mother curses her to death."

"Borderland people really are sinister."

"The Sanchez heir has quite the patience. If it were me, I'd have thrown her out long ago."

Old Mrs. Sanchez picked up her prayer beads again, her expression heavy.

"Mrs. Harding, children grow up. They marry, in the end."

"You can't destroy Lorna's good name in public just because she spent seven years away from the borderlands."

She spoke with such mercy, but her eyes were cold as a knife.

The false bride finally caught on, crawling two steps toward me on her knees.

"Mama."

This time, she changed how she said it.

Zachary must have caught the slip a moment ago.

Her eyes were red-rimmed from crying, her voice trembling at just the right pitch.

"I know you still blame me."

"Blame me for not listening back then, for insisting on leaving the borderlands with Zachary."

"But all I wanted was to marry the man I loved."

As she spoke, she drew a silver clasp out of her gown.

A tiny butterfly was carved into it.

My eyes fell on that clasp, and something in my chest wrenched tight.

I had forged it with my own hands the year Lorna turned seven.

As a child she was always hiding her treasures in a little cloth pouch.

The clasp had been sewn into the deepest fold of that pouch.

She used to say that when she had a child of her own someday, she would sew this same clasp into hers.

And now it was in this woman's hand.

The bride raised the clasp up in front of me, crying.

"Mama, look."

"You gave this to me yourself."

"I've kept it all this time."

"How could I not be your Lorna?"

I did not take the clasp. I only looked at her.

"If you're Lorna."

"Then tell me. When did I give you this clasp?"

For one instant the bride's face froze.

Zachary spoke at once.

"Lorna's health has been poor these past years."

"There's so much from her childhood she can't clearly remember."

"Mrs. Harding, must you corner her like this, on her wedding day?"

He crossed to the bride's side and reached out to help her up.

His movements were gentle, as if she were something fragile and precious.

"She's been anxious for a long time, working toward today."

"You're her mother. Can't you spare her a little tenderness, just once?"

Leaning against Zachary, the bride wept harder.

"Mama, if you won't claim me."

"Then I won't marry today."

"I don't want to put Zachary in a hard place."

Zachary's face darkened, and he lifted his eyes to me.

"Mrs. Harding."

"If you still claim Lorna as your daughter, then drape the borderland bridal gown over her with your own hands."

"If you won't claim her, then leave."

"I won't let anyone ruin her wedding."

The moment those words left him, the Sanchez family had someone carry over a wooden chest.

When it opened, the whole hall went quiet for a breath.

Inside was a borderland bridal gown, red ground worked with silver thread.

I had embroidered it for Lorna with my own hands.

Before she left the borderlands, she had secretly tried it on once.

The skirt was too long, trailing across the floor.

She turned a full circle, her eyes crinkling with laughter.

"Mama, do I look pretty in it?"

"On the day I marry, you have to drape it over me yourself."

I scolded her then for being shameless, but that same night I sewed the blood-thread curse into the gown.

If Lorna wore it, it would glow a faint blue and guard her safety all her life.

If it was not Lorna, it would not stir at all.

Zachary pushed the gown toward me.

"Your borderland things would never lie to you."

"If the gown knows its rightful owner, shouldn't you be apologizing to Lorna?"

The bride stood where she was, a flicker of satisfaction she couldn't quite smother crossing her eyes.

But she quickly lowered her head again, putting on a wronged little look.

"Mama, I'm willing to prove it."

"As long as you'll claim me."

I looked at that gown, and suddenly I smiled.

"All right."

"Then prove it to me."

I reached out and took up the gown, walking step by step toward the bride.

With my own hands I draped it over her shoulders.

The silver thread that had lain dead suddenly lit.

Blue curse-light flowed out along the patterns.

Old Mrs. Sanchez let out a breath at last.

Zachary looked at me, a cold, certain triumph in his eyes.

"What have you got to say now?"

The bride's tears rolled down, as if some vast injustice had finally been washed clean.

"The gown knows me."

"I really am your Lorna."

I stood there, watching the curse-light on the gown.

For one instant, my heart lurched hard.

Could she truly be my Lorna?

But soon enough, I saw what was wrong.

A thought flashed through my mind.

I knew exactly what was going on now!