One Black Rose (15 page)

“So….” I didn’t even understand what had just happened enough to be able to ask about it. I could feel his warm palm in mine, and after seeing plants grow from nothing it felt like the only real thing in the world. But I still didn’t get whatever he was trying to tell me. “So, if you are telling the truth and NOT totally insane….”

“So then, I’m a Fairy,” he said, looking at me. “I’m part of the Summer Kingdom Court here, which explains the flowers and people being happy to see me; it has to do with the smell of the flowers on me.” He stopped, waiting to hear my reaction.

“But you don’t look like a Fairy!” I cried. “Don’t they wear tights and crowns of flowers or something?” I was scrambling for some logical reason for him not to be one.

Holt choked and then just laughed.

“No, or at least,
I
don’t. At the Solstice Party some of us will dress more like our Fairy selves, but no, you can’t tell by looking at me if I don’t want you to, except maybe the designs under the skin. Those aren’t always so easy to hide.”

I had to wonder: was the guy holding my hand actually crazy? But another part of me whispered that he’d just made flowers grow to blooming in seconds out of thin air. So maybe I was the one who was crazy?

I thought back to the time Leslie and Lydia had cornered me, how it had almost looked like there were patterns shining under their skin. But then that would mean…. I would wait to see if he explained that.

Instead I said, “But I don’t smell anything on you. It doesn’t make me giddy when I see you. Just that first time.”

 “No, you don’t act like everyone else. It’s why you’re special. The smell doesn’t affect you. None of it does,” he said, quietly looking at our combined hands.

“Why me?” I asked. “Why could I see what you did at the airport?”

“I honestly don’t know,” he said. “There are very few humans who can be what you are. Really, it must mean that somewhere in your ancestry there is some Fairy blood.”

I nodded numbly. I really needed to sit down. Tugging him along, I went to the other bench and sat. Sure, I have a tad bit of Fairy blood running through me. No big deal.

He waited for me to say something, but I was lost in thought.

This may sound crazy, but it actually explained a lot. People just sort of smiled and bounced around him when they saw him, the flowers reached for him, if you looked closely you saw designs under his skin. It also explained how he saved me so fast when that guy was about to fall on me and how he had known I was in his garden that first night.

“Okay. So, say I believe you…you’re part of a Fairy Summer Kingdom? Right? I’m supposed to believe that,” I said.

“I am, we love dancing and happiness. We love beautiful colors and we love physical growth and warmth – as we express through flowers, among other things,” he said, his voice rising with pleasure.

“Isn’t there something called Glamour for Fairies? So that mortals can’t see you? Why can I see you?”

Holt shrugged. “It’s easier on us if we just blend in. The salt air helps dampen humans’ ability to sense us, so we don’t have as big an impact on you. We only use Glamour when we have to.”

“Have you ever used it on me?” I asked indignantly.

“Not since that first day,” he said drily. “We only use it if we’re in trouble.”

That made sense. I had confronted him about what he had done at the airport and he must have realized that I could see through his magic. “Why are you telling me all this?” I asked, wondering how he could reveal such secrets.

“Well, you insisted,” he said with a slight smile. “And because you would have known eventually.”

“So you were planning on telling me?” I asked. “Just not yet?”

“I had hoped that at some point you’d know, yes,” he said cautiously.

For a long time I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure what to say. Tons of questions were darting through my mind in a jumbled heap.

Now it was time to ask about the other part of things, but I had a feeling I knew what was coming. “What about Samuel?” I asked. “Is he part of the Fairy Summer Kingdom too?”

Now Holt really did look concerned. “No, not exactly.”

“Because he doesn’t have the same effect on flowers and people,” I said, remembering that the only really unusual thing about Samuel had been the cold.

“Oh, he has an effect all right,” Holt muttered bitterly.

“I don’t get it,” I said, frowning. “Your families are feuding? Is that it? But about what, if he’s not a Summer Fairy?”

“They aren’t feuding,” said Holt. “We are enemies. Sort of, but also support each other when the time calls for it. It’s complicated.”

“Okay, so how does he fit in?” I asked.

“He’s part of the Winter Kingdom,” said Holt slowly, not looking at me.

“Oh….” I said. “Wait, what?”

“The Winter Kingdom is the opposite of the Summer Kingdom. They are Fairies, but their powers are different. They are not for pleasure and happiness. They are for cold and whipping winds,” said Holt. “We do not get along. They have less power in the summer, while we have less in the winter.”

“Are your families at war?” I asked with concern. “Because you don’t look like you are.”

“No, not right now. There’s a truce, which we hope to hold,” said Holt. “But I’m not sure that’s going to happen.”

“Are the Cheshire girls really Samuel’s cousins?” I asked, thinking of the impossibly beautiful and icy women I always saw him with. Oddly enough, it made more sense that Samuel was a Fairy. He always seemed so shockingly graceful and smooth. And last night at the cliff he’d moved so fast…

“Some of them, but some of them are members of his Court,” he said.

“So, Samuel could date one if he chose?” I asked.

“The fact that they are members of his Court means that he, specifically, cannot, no,” said Holt cautiously.

“Wait, why?” I asked. “He seems very close with them.”

“Why are you so worried about Samuel’s dating habits?” asked Holt in a strangled voice.

“I was just curious. Are you dating any of the girls in your Court? Susan?” I tried to keep any trace of jealousy out of my voice, but I could hear an edge to the question.

“I am a Prince in the Summer Court. I am heir to my parents throne. I do not ‘date’ members of our Courts.”

I nodded encouragingly. “That sounds impressive. I don’t actually know what it means, but it sounds impressive.”

He smiled. “It’s not. It’s just a fact. I am what I am and my duties require me to do…what they require me to do.”

That sounded seriously ominous.

“And Samuel is the same?” I asked, but I had a bad feeling I already knew what Holt was going to say Samuel was.

“Samuel is a Prince in the Winter Court. He is also his parents’ heir,” said Holt grimly.

“And that’s bad?” I asked tentatively. “I mean, I can see you think it’s bad, but why is it bad?” I really didn’t get it. Basically Holt had yet to tell me anything bad.

“It’s bad,” said Holt, “because we both have to find brides.”

“You what?” I asked, shocked. What century did we live in again?

“Why do you have to find brides?” I wanted to know.

“So that the lines continue, so that the Courts continue. Our very survival depends on my finding a queen to rule with me,” he said. “Look, Autumn, I know this is a lot for you to take in,” he continued, standing up with me and reaching for me. “But please just listen.”

I felt overwhelmed. Of all of the things I thought might be going on with Holt and Samuel, and between the Cheshires and the Roths, this hadn’t been one of them. “Why didn’t you tell me all of this before?” I asked, groping to make some sense of it.

“I don’t know. It had been so long since someone like you had come along, I was afraid of ruining it. The last thing in the world I want to do is hurt you. I couldn’t stand it if I hurt you,” he said. His eyes were pleading.

“So, is that why Samuel hates me?” I asked. “Because I would marry you and not him?”

Holt looked upset now. “Samuel doesn’t hate you, but he’s upset because he doesn’t want to marry you.” He paused and sighed. “Look, it’s complicated. I wish you’d let me explain more.”

“You should have told me,” I said quietly. “You really should have told me.”

“I wanted to,” he said desperately, reaching for me again. “I wanted to from the second I saw you.”

This time I let him pull me back. I sat there, waiting to hear the rest of the story.

I braced myself. Holt had explained a lot, but none of it actually made clear why I was a problem. And judging by the Cheshire girls’ behavior I was definitely a problem. They wouldn’t have ordered me to stay away from Holt unless there was more to the story. So I waited to hear what it was.

“The other thing you should know is about the Rose,” he said quietly.

When I didn’t say anything he kept talking.

“The One Black Rose is the Rose the heir to a Kingdom gives to the girl he wants to be his queen. Usually there is one girl predestined for it. I could give the Rose a hundred times, but only once the right girl takes it will she tap the powers of the Fairy Court and our bond. It’s not always easy, though, to figure out which is the right girl. For many of our choices, if we tried to give a girl the Rose she just wouldn’t be able to take it. No matter how much I cared about such a girl, she’d go on to live her life without me.

“Each royal family has only one Rose for each Prince, which means we can’t go giving out five roses at a time. We can’t just take it back from a girl if it starts to not work out, once we give the Rose and once she accepts it, it’s for life. She is ours and we are hers. Forever.”

Wow. Apparently Fairies didn’t believe in divorce.

All I could think to say was, “A Black Rose isn’t very romantic.”

Holt shook his head and smiled wryly. “It’s not black exactly. It’s this riot of midnight colors dancing over the petals and stem. My mother keeps mine locked away.” He pointed to the design that I’d seen when we’d come into the alcove. “It’s behind there.”

Normally my curiosity would get the better of me and I’d go look, but I had too many unanswered questions. “Why can’t any girl accept? Shouldn’t it be whoever you want?”

“We are supposed to want the one we are destined for. Samuel, for example, has never offered the Rose to a girl, because there’s never been a girl he thought he’d want to spend the rest of his life with. But it wasn’t until this summer that the girl he was destined for came along. From the moment the Cheshires saw you they knew you could be a Winter Queen.”

That sounded overwhelming. So, it wasn’t so much that I was destined for Samuel as much as I was destined to be a Fairy Queen and it was Samuel’s turn to find a girl to marry. “But, when a girl accepts the Rose, what happens?” I asked. “Does she automatically become queen?”

“No, nothing like that,” said Holt. “The magic has to be passed on from the current queen. It’s just that she is now the prince’s wife and prepared to become queen in the future. When the time is right.”

“Wouldn’t my taking the Rose just make me part of the Court?”

“No, not once a girl takes the Rose. For a girl to become part of the Court, the girls who are already part of the Court have to help choose that girl, and she has to not want the Rose. If she wants the Rose, then trying to become part of the Court could be disastrous for her.”

“So, what is it about me that makes you think I could accept a Rose?” I asked. I really wasn’t sure I believed any of this.

“Well, you don’t put up with any nonsense, you just do your thing. Don’t think it’s the first time girls from the Winter Court have ordered potential queens around. Most run shrieking for the hills, but you just stood your ground.”

None of this sounded very special to me. I was tired of being pushed around so I had refused to be pushed around. But it was probably the first time in my life that I had done that. Normally no one would describe me as brave.

All I could do at that point was nod. Could I really accept a Rose? Did I want to? I had no idea. And it still didn’t explain exactly why Holt and Samuel were fighting. But I didn’t even have to ask, because Holt answered the question for me.

“It is rare to have two princes so close in age,” he said quietly. “The difficulty is that we both need queens to rule and we can’t pick just anyone. There is no difference between Samuel and me. We would both prefer to marry for love, but he feels that he has less of a choice, because according to our customs, he must marry first. So, when you came along, his whole family expected him to marry you and he doesn’t want to.”

I noticed, I thought grimly.

“I’m sorry,” Holt continued. He reached out to touch me and gently placed his hand on my back, rubbing in small circles. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“Still, it seems like there must be more between you and Samuel. What is it?” I asked, trying to concentrate. His touch was so distracting.

Holt sighed. “There was another girl. Lily. We were just teenagers but we both liked her. I liked her a lot and I offered her a Rose.”