by Anna Santos
“You’ve made me really happy, Cedric. You must know that we need to stop pretending that everything is going to be okay. We aren’t meant to be. Last night was fun, but we are only prolonging the inevitable.”
“Then…I’m doomed to stay alone forever,” he mumbled.
I put my hands over his face and forced him to look me in the eyes. His eyes were shut.
“There’s a ballroom full of girls waiting for a chance to see you, talk to you, and dance with you. You have a princess everybody wants you to marry. They don’t want you to date a vampire. They will not accept a vampire as their queen. Even if we stay together, what will happen when you stop wanting me when you find your other half and bond with her? What will happen to me then?”
I was breathless by the time I’d finished talking. Cedric had slowly opened his beautiful blue eyes and was pouting like a small boy.
“I’m not a toy, Cedric. I don’t need anyone else to break my heart.”
“You keep giving me the same excuses, and I think that you don’t want to commit to me because you are afraid.”
“Of course, I’m afraid. I don’t want my heart broken again.”
“No, you are afraid of living,” he said, making me step back and release his face.
I hugged myself and looked away, aiming my blurred gaze to the floor. “I don’t want this to end in another pointless discussion where we both say things that we will regret later,” I said. “It was fun. I don’t regret anything we did. If you are unwilling to understand my decision, then, maybe it’s best for us to say goodbye now and forget everything that happened. Go back to your party, and I’ll…be somewhere else, waiting for the right time to say the spell.”
I fixed my dress and hair, turned around, and left Cedric in the study. The only sounds were my high heels and my heart beating fast. I found my way along the corridor to William’s laboratory. I knew I had to find the stairs to the rooftop, but I was in auto-pilot mode with a part of me wishing that Cedric would follow me and sweep me off my feet. Another part of me hoped that he wouldn’t, so things wouldn’t be so hurtful.
I was hurting too much already. If he kept insisting, I would eventually cave in and give up, so I could spend more time with him. But what would be the point? One more day, two more days—in the end, I would be alone. He would go back to being a gargoyle until some other girl touched him, and they would be paired, making him forget all about me and what we had.
I knocked before I entered. William was immersed in his reading. He didn’t notice that he had company until I cleared my throat.
“Is it time already?” he asked, staring at me with some special golden glasses. His curly brown hair was shadowing his forehead, giving him an ethereal look.
“Not yet. I was bored,” I said, sitting down on a chair next to him. “Did you find something else in the prayer?” I put my hand under my chin and smiled at him.
“This hidden message is fascinating,” he said, giving me his attention.
“Well, I’m just interested in the spell to save Oliver.”
“I find you extremely brave.” He put down the parchment and concentrated his soft gaze on my face.
I offered him a lopsided grin. “Why aren’t you downstairs flirting with the single gargoyle girls?”
“This is a lot more fascinating. My work is much more important than trying to sound interesting to young girls. Besides, I believe in destiny. It will happen when it has to happen.”
“You are so handsome and nice! I’m sure you have plenty of girls chasing after you,” I teased him.
“Not really,” he said, diverting his attention to the parchment. “I’m not interesting enough for them. They would rather meet the prince than me. I don’t particularly care. If I’m matched with a girl or a boy, I expect that they would like me for me and not for my title. It can be stressful. I wouldn’t want to be in Cedric’s shoes.”
“What are your thoughts about Aria going back to Philippe? Do you find her decision unwise?”
“Well,” he said, taking off the glasses and folding his hands on the table. “I never had a formed opinion about Philippe, but they were here just a moment ago, and they seemed… Not seemed, they looked deeply in love. Philippe treasures her, and Aria is clearly a beautiful person. If they are in love, who am I to judge? It sucks for Cedric, though. But he will have plenty of other opportunities. It was for the best to break up now before they faced the trial and he turned to stone. And Cedric seems to be falling hard for you. Maybe he and Aria were never meant to be. Perhaps, Aria was meant to have her powers only to save the world from some unknown menace.” William leaned back in his chair, folded his legs beneath the table, and stared at me.
“We both know that Cedric and I could never be together,” I said, mimicking him and folding my hands in my lap. I studied the borders of the table.
“You are taking Oliver’s place, his curse, so why can’t you be with Cedric?” William asked, making me raise my head.
I blinked several times, puckering my lips. “I’m going to die, William.”
“That’s not how I read the spell. It states that you are taking his place, meaning that you are taking on his curse, so he can enter Heaven.”
“Yes, I’ll become a statue.”
“No, you’ll become a gargoyle and, as far as I know, you’ll be able to kiss Cedric. Once he rejects Aria, you both can put your love to the test. If you are truly a matching soul, then you’ll be soul-mates and become full angels.”
My mouth was agape and my eyes wide open. I must have forgotten how to breathe for a moment as I tried to make sense of what William was telling me. If he was lying, if he was making that up, I would die of grief.
I grabbed the parchment, pulling the light on the letters. It was a desperate act. I didn’t know how to read the angelic writing. William understood my frustration. He rose, pulled up his chair, and sat next to me.
“I’ll show you. The English version you showed me had some inaccuracies that I took the liberty of fixing. The new spell is on the other table. I was going to give it to you before the ritual.”
“Are you sure?” I asked with blurred vision. My heart wanted to come out from my mouth. I was also trying not to get up and run to Cedric. I didn’t want to give him false hopes. I didn’t want to…
I wasn’t even sure if it mattered anymore. Cedric’s feelings for me could be nothing more than raw lust. It was exciting while he knew that we had no future. Maybe now that we might have a future, being with me wouldn’t seem as thrilling.
“What’s wrong?” William asked me since I wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying.
I tried to concentrate on his voice. “I…don’t want to get my hopes up and…break Cedric’s heart when I become a statue forever.”
“Jo, God is love. He always knows what he’s doing. He wouldn’t give us a spell to save us and have someone else disappear in exchange for our salvation. You need to believe that God is love and life, not death and unhappiness. Whether your act of love is done for Oliver or Cedric, you can be sure that the spell will work, and you’ll become a gargoyle.”
William’s voice was steady and righteous. He believed what he was saying with all his heart. His eyes were sparkling, and his face was lit with joy and hope. I was never a hopeful kind of person. I never had too much faith in the reason for my existence. However, enlightened people like William were hard to find. I should believe him as there was something about him, some kind of aura that made me hopeful. It made me believe that there was a future for Cedric and me.
“When did you find out?” I asked.
“A couple of hours ago. I had some time to translate the parchment after consulting Gabriel about it. The version you provide us with was bothering me. It seemed off somehow... Does this make you change your mind about performing the ritual?”
“No, it makes me want to perform it even more,” I assured him, smiling while grabbing his hands. “William, you are a lifesaver.”
>
“I’m just doing my job. If Cedric isn’t your match, I wouldn’t mind kissing you.”
I burst into laughter, watching William’s face brighten up. He was adorable!
“What’s so funny?” a cold male voice asked after closing the door with unnecessary noise.
I fixed my makeup, making sure that my happy tears wouldn’t ruin it. Then, I turned around to find Cedric’s piercing blue eyes on us. He had stopped on the other end of the table with his hands in the pockets of his trousers. He didn’t seem happy.
“I was flirting with Jo,” William said casually.
I bit my lip to swallow my new laughter. Cedric looked like he was about to make a jealous scene.
“I’m joking, cousin. I was telling her the good news…”
I touched William’s arm, shaking my head. “Cedric and I need to have a serious conversation. Why don’t you go downstairs to the party?”
“I’m not properly dressed for that,” William said, staring at his white cotton sweater and black jeans. “But I can step out for a moment and let you two talk.”
I nodded in agreement.
William grabbed a few papers from the table along with his peculiar glasses and strolled to the door with a pleased smirk on his face.
The prince’s eyes never left mine. When he heard the door close, he took his hands out of his pockets and sighed deeply.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” he complained, moving forward. He pulled up a chair and sat next to me. “We need to talk. You can’t…”
I put two fingers to his lips, shutting him up.
He grabbed my hand and leaned forward with his shiny blue eyes clouded with grief. “You need to hear what I’m going to say.”
“I don’t,” I whispered.
“You do. Your excuse to perform the ritual is that we can’t stay together, but what if we could?”
“Yes, let’s talk about that. If I could be with you, would you want me to be with you forever or until the sexual attraction faded away?”
“It’s more than lust, Jo. You need to believe that. I was hoping that it was more than lust for you, too.”
“Would you accept me as your mate?” I asked, caressing the hair close to his right ear. “Even if I’m a vampire and everybody downstairs hates me?”
“They don’t hate you. They are jealous of you because you are pretty, kind, and better than them. If they hate you, then they are fools. Petty, heartless, and egocentric fools who should mind their own business.”
“Cedric, you are being egocentric yourself, not wanting me to save Oliver.”
“I’m half human half angel. I’m not perfect. My perfection lies in you, in what you have that’s missing in me.”
I smiled at his words, lowering my eyes. He put his hand on mine and raised my chin with two fingers. I felt my cheeks reddening. My heart was beating fast.
“If William is right and Archangels can’t lose their wings even after the rejection, then… I’ll be able to be with you, even if I need to reject my title so we can stay together. William would be a good king. We couldn’t have babies, and I don’t know how long I would live, but…I…”
I kissed him, closing my eyes and tasting the softness of our kiss. Placing my hands on his chest, I sensed his heartbeat and breathing. I was unable to stop smiling while our lips met. That was the sweetest thing anyone had ever told me.
“There may be hope for you, after all,” I mumbled against his mouth.
“What do you mean?” he asked, capturing my face between his hands and stopping the kiss. “Does that mean you are going to stay with me?”
“Cedric… I think I’m in love with you,” I confessed, putting my hands on his. “I never thought I would feel this way again for anybody else. But the fact is that…we click. I don’t know any other word to explain what happens between us. We understand each other without words. You can be a possessive jerk, but there’s something compelling about that. I understand that you feel lonely. I feel lonely, too. Being that way isn’t a reason to want to be with someone, though. We need to truly belong to each other for this to work.”
“Josephine, it’s simple. Do you want to stay with me or not?” he asked, holding my face tighter as he looked deeper into my eyes.
I nodded.
He pulled me into his arms, burying his face in my hair.
“Cedric, you need to listen to me. I want to stay with you, but we need to talk,” I said, almost out of breath from his possessive hug.
“Jo, you like to complicate things. What are you going to ask now?”
“I’m not going to ask anything. We need to talk. There may be another way for us to be together,” I explained.
William said that the new translation of the spell was on one of his tables. I needed it to explain to Cedric that he had to trust me and let me perform the ritual.
I got up and looked for the paper like a mad person while Cedric was watching me. Hope was making my heart race and my hands tremble. I was too high on that feeling to even consider that William could be wrong. I was choosing to believe that I might have another chance to be with Cedric. I was willing to put my existence at risk in order to become a cursed gargoyle and kiss Cedric to find out if we were meant to be.
A true love’s kiss was all that was necessary for us to be together. But I was old enough to know that real love was the hardest thing to find. I was willing to believe in Cedric’s love and my love because I didn’t want to leave my prince.
“Jo, what are you looking for?” Cedric asked, putting his hand on my shoulder and looking at the mess I was making of William’s things.
“I’m looking for the spell that I’ll perform tonight. You’ll have to put your faith in it as I’m putting mine. And when I become one of you, I will kiss you and bind my soul with yours forever. Don’t you want that?” I asked, unable to fully explain what William had told me. I knew that Cedric had to believe in it as I was. He had to stop his stubbornness and let me do what I wanted for us to be together.
“Jo…”
“It’s here!” I screamed, jumping with the paper in my hands like a hysterical teenager. “It’s here! I need to reread it and explain it to you. We need…” I looked back at Cedric’s puzzled face. “You need to trust me and respect my decisions.”
“You aren’t making any sense,” he said with furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips.
I looked around and saw the couch in the corner of the room, surrounded by stacks of papers and old magazines. I gave him my hand and pulled him along. We sat down, and I explained to him William’s findings.
Chapter SEVENTEEN
ARIA
Despite the dark, I could see Cedric’s wings moving away from the palace. He had someone in his arms, but I was too mesmerized by the silver glow to focus on his companion. It was probably Josephine.
A shiver ran down my spine: fear and envy. I would like to fly like him. I would. But I was too scared of heights to adventure into the void and use the wings that wouldn’t be mine for long. That was unless William was correct, and I was bound to be an Archangel for all eternity.
“I guess we’ve missed them,” Philippe said, holding on to my hand and taking me out of my thoughts.
“Would you fly if you had wings?” I asked, sensing a twitching feeling on my back where my wings were. They weren’t showing, at the moment, though I knew they would appear if I wanted. They felt like a part of me more and more each day.
“I would love to fly. It must be liberating. If you stay as an angel, you will need to face your fears and learn how to fly.”
I sighed and looked at the floor. “I know.”
“You guys don’t seem to be enjoying my party,” a girl’s voice said behind us.
We turned around, finding Charlotte seated on a bench with a vodka bottle by her side and a shot glass in her hand. She smiled, and consumed her drink, grimacing at the taste.
“Care to join me?” Charlotte asked, showing the bottle.
/> “Are you drunk?” I asked, walking towards her.
“Not yet, but I hope I’ll be before the morning comes.”
“Why are you here alone?” I sat down next to her and refused her invite to grab the bottle and the glass beside it.
“Well, I know I should be happy. After all, it’s my eighteenth birthday, but…I’m scared.” She sighed, folding her hands in her lap and pouting.
I didn’t know what to say. I looked at Philippe who had sat beside me. He shrugged.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m scared?” Charlotte looked at me.
“Do you want to tell me?”
“I might. Maybe you’ll understand me.”
“Does it have something to do with Cedric being in love with someone else?”
“No, not really. I’ve always liked Cedric as a friend, anyway. He’s not my type.” She poured more alcohol into her glass. “I guess I acted like a bitch when we first met. My mother was set on making me his bride, even if… I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Do you want to talk about what you’re afraid of?” I questioned, taking her glass away and preventing her from drinking.
The princess protested, trying to grab the glass.
“You’re no fun.” She seized the bottle and drank from it.
“Drinking won’t help you feel better.”
“But it will numb me.”
I gazed at her, intrigued. The girl was a puzzle. She had everything to be happy yet looked miserable. I was out of my comfort zone. We weren’t friends, and she didn’t seem to want my help.
“You probably want to be left alone,” I said, trying to get up.
“No, I don’t,” she assured me, grasping my arm and making me sit down. “I’m…sorry. I need someone to talk to. Someone who doesn’t know me and doesn’t pretend to care.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My parents want me to find someone to marry, to…you know, break the curse.”
I nodded, glimpsing at Philippe.