“Read,” she said, gesturing at the room
around them, the rows upon rows of books. “And paint. I finished a
painting only a few days ago.”
She rose to open a large armoire and pulled
out a small canvas, the size of his hands when placed side by side.
It was a scenic view of a tree by a lake, and he could almost
imagine the warm sun on his face and the springy grass underneath
his hands. “This is really good.”
“You think so?” For the first time she
smiled, and he saw what she would look like when she was an adult.
She was going to be a lovely woman, all delicate beauty and gentle
actions. It wasn’t fair that an evil fairy took that away. “I’ve
never seen a tree before, so I’m painting from a drawing in my
book. I wasn’t sure if it could be any good because of that.”
“It’s really great.” She’d never seen a tree.
The thought punched a hole in his lungs – then, the magnitude of
everything she had lost hit him. She’d never seen a
tree
. He
and Kira practically lived in the woods. They’d built their tree
house when he was eight. Kira had broken her arm when a spoiled
royal jerk visiting his father’s palace had pushed her out of the
tree two years ago, and war had almost been declared between their
kingdoms after Seth had finished beating the hell out of the little
bastard.
“The lake too? I like paintings when they
have the sunlight reflecting off the water. Is it that beautiful?
It must be.”
He nodded. “Yeah, it is. When we’re married,
I’ll take you on a picnic. We’ll go on a perfect spring day. And
you’ll feel the sun when it’s the perfect warmth without being too
hot, and there’ll be a breeze, and you’ll smell flowers and a hint
of water.”
Her eyes alit, her fingers clenched and
unclenched in unconscious desire. “Do you think there could be a
bunny? The books say how soft they are, and I always wanted to feel
one.”
“I’ll get you a hundred bunnies,” Seth said,
and he blinked hard, because a man did not tear up. “I don’t get
the appeal, but I know they’re something girls like, so if you want
them, they’re yours.”
Rosamund stared at him with an intensity
flaying skin from bone and burrowing straight to his soul. As he
sat before her, exposed and raw, she fell back, boneless as a rag
doll, to land on the floor beside the bed. “Except that’s all just
a pretty dream, isn’t it?” Her voice turned a dark, ruined thing,
an emptiness to it he’d only known old men to possess until now.
“If the curse gets me, the only thing that can break it is true
love’s kiss. And I sit here alone, and even my father fears loving
me. I’m going to be alive forever in death’s embrace. There will be
something always just out of my reach, and I’ll never touch, or
hold, or feel. Always this half-lived, never-lived non-life.”
Seth scrambled down to the ground in front of
her. “Don’t talk like that,” he said, pulling her into his arms. He
ran his hands down her baby-fine hair, the way he saw his friends
do when their sisters were hurt or scared. “I’m your fiancée. I’m
here with you, and it’s my job to care for and protect you. I won’t
let that happen to you. I promise right now I will always honor my
engagement. I won’t fall in love with anyone else. We’re going to
get married, just like our fathers agreed. I swear to you, you’ll
live a long, full, wonderful life, and I will not let that curse
take you.”
She didn’t answer, but her arms wrapped
around him tight and choked sobs escaped from her throat. He rocked
her, continuing to stroke her hair.
Time lost meaning. They were wrapped around
each other, and then she fell asleep, and he placed her on the
bed.
“You’re an awesome kid. Anyone ever tell you
that?”
Seth whirled to see a woman standing in front
of him. She was very pretty with long dark brown hair and dark
eyes. There was pride in her smile, and she looked at him the way
he had seen parents look when their kid won first place in a race.
“How did you get here?”
“Magic,” she said, as if it was the most
obvious thing in the world. He supposed it was. “I’m Reina, and I’m
a fairy godmother.”
He wasn’t sure he wanted another one around.
Fairies wielding magic had done enough to them, as far as he was
concerned. Still, it paid to be polite. “What can I do for
you?”
“More like what I can do for you. That was
impressive enough to get my attention. We usually only grant wishes
to people who are much older and have a long record of good deeds,
but that was… wow.”
He took a tentative step closer to her. She
was too pretty to be evil, though he was sure Kira would hit him
upside the head if he said that out loud. Plus, if she was evil,
she could have just smited him or something without faking him out.
“Then you can take her curse away?”
The speed with which her face went from
admiring to glum answered that question before she opened her
mouth. “I’m so sorry. There are rules to magic, and the being who
cast that curse is very powerful. Only our leader could overturn
the curse, and he has never intervened.”
Seth pointed at Rosamund, curled in a ball on
top of pink covers. “He’d instead let a little girl live day in and
day out with that fear and pain? He’s a piss-poor excuse for a
leader.”
He’d been prepared for indignation or anger,
so the smile that came over her face worried Seth more than any
outburst could have. “And you will be a fantastic one when you grow
up. Your people are blessed to have you.”
Reina moved toward him and Seth took a step
backwards, but she went past him to stand at Rosamund’s bedside.
Reina brushed blond curls from Rosamund’s ear and leaned down to
whisper to the sleeping princess, so quiet that Seth didn’t hear a
word the fairy godmother said.
Reina straightened and looked back at him.
“You have a very big wish due you, Prince Seth. You are a wise and
good young man, so I’m going to do something I’ve never done. I’m
going to let you delay making your wish. Think on it. You only have
one, so make it count – don’t waste it on trivial matters. When
you’ve decided, call out to me. I’ll be right at your side.”
“
Seth!”
Kira’s voice boomed like a
thunderclap and startled Seth enough that he tripped over his feet
in his haste to turn towards that voice.
When he was back on his feet, he was no
longer in Rosamund’s bedroom but in a castle corridor, sunlight
streaming through windows and the branches of a tree visible
through the opening. This area was familiar.
Kira ran up to him. “Seth,” she cried again,
enveloping him in a hug. “What happened? How did you get out
here?”
For just a moment, Seth hugged her close and
let the wonderful scent of grass and woodsmoke that always clung to
Kira sooth the battered parts of his heart and mind. With one final
breath he put her away from him with exaggerated nonchalance.
“You’re fine?”
“Yes, perfectly. I kept calling, but you
didn’t answer. I found my way out finally”
He never held back from telling her anything.
Her thoughts were vital to his decisions and he always wanted to
hear what her mind came up with. But somehow this meeting, with
Rosamund and the fairy godmother, somehow this was for him alone.
He didn’t think there was a part of him that Kira didn’t inhabit,
but there it was, and it was telling him that right now he needed
to keep this meeting secret, that Kira just wouldn’t understand. “I
fell and I think I blacked out for a moment. I’m not quite sure
what happened.”
Once he finished speaking, Seth didn’t look
at her face. Seeing the disbelief he knew was there would have him
telling her the whole truth in moments. Instead, he began to
retrace the path they’d taken to arrive here.
As he drew abreast of Kira, Seth began to
reach for her hand as he always did, but Rosamund’s face appeared
in his mind’s eye as she was those last moments before she fell
asleep, her eyes deadened and her voice defeated, and his vow
blazed through his heart. His hand faltered and then withdrew from
Kira’s, even as his fingers curled in protest over the loss.
Seth ducked lower, scrunching his body behind
the tree as the chattering of the women grew louder on the other
side of the trunk.
“I thought I saw him in this area,” said the
first. He recognized the voice, Lady Isa – no, Ire – well, it began
with an “I”. Nice enough, but her family was so desperate for a
match that they pushed her to act beyond the bounds of
propriety.
“He has to be around here somewhere,” said
the second. Now her, he didn’t like. Lady Deva treated servants
like dirt underneath her shoes. Father said he had to be nice to
her since she came from a very important merchant family, so he
gritted his teeth and smiled at her at formal functions. That
didn’t mean he had to put up with her at any other time.
“Ladies, what are you doing standing around
the garden?” And this voice was the dearest to him in the world and
welcome any time he heard it.
“Kira, how nice to see you. We thought we saw
His Highness and wanted to ask him if there was something special
he desired for his twenty-fifth birthday. Now I’m sure he is here
somewhere, since you wouldn’t be far from his side, would you? You
always were so close to the prince. He’s lucky that you see to his
every need.” The tone was subtle vileness, but before he could
stand and make his way to the women, Kira’s arm snaked around the
trunk of the tree, the forefinger pointing at him, the demand of
Stay where you are
undeniable.
He was busted. Might as well sit back and
enjoy the show.
“Lady Deva, my charge is and always will be
His Highness and His Highness alone. I am not as fortunate as you
in the ability to spread myself and my favors to anyone who desires
it.”
And the tension was palpable even back here.
Seth cocked his head in anticipation of the next volley, but the
winner was Kira as Deva backed down, saying, “We will find His
Highness later. Please inform him we were looking for him.”
“I’ll be sure to do that,” Kira responded in
her driest tone. There was rustling, footsteps fading, and then
Kira’s voice sounded again. “It’s safe, Your Cowardness.”
He poked his head around. “They’re all
gone?”
“The scary girls are no more.”
“Are you mocking me?” He looked up, up, and
up. She was probably the tallest woman in the kingdom, and thank
heavens he was taller than her by a couple inches or he might have
had some inadequacy issues being her best friend. “How’d you get so
tall? Your dad is short.”
“It’s because of how you dragged me behind
you when we were kids. My legs had to stretch to keep up.” The wind
picked up then, the strong wind ruffling Kira’s ponytail and
whipping the red strands around her face. She smoothed them back,
using the movement to cover the fact her eyes were taking in their
surroundings, assessing for any possible risks or potential
enemies.
She should never have been made his
bodyguard. His father had been wrong to make that decision.
To keep his mind from going down that
well-worn argument yet again, Seth stood and ruffled the hair she’d
straightened only moments ago. “Hey!” she cried, batting at his
hands and glowering at him.
“Any particular reason you are here, or is it
you just don’t like sharing me with the other ladies?”
She snorted. “If they got to know you, they’d
give you back in five minutes, tops.” After her hair was back to
its former sleek appearance, Kira lowered her hands to her hips,
her right hand resting lightly on the hilt of her sword. “As it
happens, I’m here to collect you for your father.”
Great. His father and he had not been getting
along recently. There were a couple obvious reasons – his father’s
decision to make Kira his bodyguard one of them – but most of it
was a subtext he could not decipher and could not erase. “Any
possibility of you saying you couldn’t find me?”
“Sure, the same amount of possibility that
Deva is going to be the next queen of the land.”
“Why do you like him more than you like me? I
thought I was your best friend.”
Kira grabbed his hand, dragging him the way
he so often had dragged her. “Come on. Get it over with, and I’ll
let you complain to me the rest of the day about it.”
“Fine. But I’m going to be extra
-grumbly.”
Behind the large desk, his father looked
almost too regal, the perfect actor to play the character of a
king. His hair was pure white now, the lines around his eyes and
mouth ever-present, but his hair was thick without a hint of
balding, and the lines did nothing except emphasize the bright blue
of his eyes and the white, even teeth. His father may have been
getting older, but to dismiss him even now was a mistake.
“Father,” Seth said, giving a small bow. King
Thomas did not look up from the correspondence he was reading. “I
was told you needed to see me.”
“I wish to discuss your birthday celebration.
Many notable dignitaries will be there, and I want to make sure you
know what to tell them when certain questions are asked.”
Add another reason for the increased friction
– his father’s inability to let go. Seth was a prince, trained
since birth to care for his kingdom once his father passed on. And
yet his father sat there ready to instruct him like an obedient
schoolboy on how to answer questions. “What questions worry
you?”
“Many will bring up your succession and-”
Seth’s father paused, discomfort painting itself over his face.
“And your engagement.”
Two months. Two months until Rosamund turned
twenty-three, the deadline for the curse to be fulfilled. With the
end in sight, he had expected his Father and King Matthias to start
making wedding arrangements, but the status quo remained.
For his whole life, it had been that way. His
father always sounded uneasy whenever anything to do with Seth’s
engagement was mentioned, but he also would never hear of it being
broken – no matter how tempting the offer. Seth knew of several
more powerful kingdoms that had proposed an engagement, and his
father could easily use the excuse of the curse to end his
betrothal with Rosamund, but the king had never taken that
avenue.