by J P Anderson
Genevieve was a fine girl in Paige's opinion, but she never would have agreed to be near someone so like the girl she hated if it had not been for Henry. And she wanted to hurt Acruz. She knew the baby was the one he had been searching for, and she thought she could convince the child to stay so Acruz could never truly be happy. Obviously that didn't work when someone came and checked up on her to make sure she did as she was told and brought Genevieve to Akadia. The same someone that had just fought furiously with Henry, trying to convince him to stop the wedding after his own father refused the same plead. The same man the haunted Genevieve's dreams every night just to see her.
"Have you been to the party yet?" Henry asked, distracting her from her thoughts.
"No, I, uh, haven't. I think I shall retire for the night actually." she answered in a rush.
"I say, who is that over there, I've never seen him before." Henry pointed to Peter who was pouring him a glass of punch and tucking back his hair over and over.
"Oh dear Winter, Peter. You'll have to excuse me, I must deal with a matter most perplexing." she stuttered running from Henry to Peter and then straightening her dress and walked causally to him.
"By the Fates, is that Peter Gallagher?" she said with her very best polite voice.
"Yeah it is, you know the weirdest thing. You sound familiar. And I'm not even exactly sure which plant I'm on at the moment much less who anyone is. So how is it that a pretty girl like you knows me?" he asked.
"Peter, it's me, Ms. Crumm." she hinted.
"Ms. Crumm's granddaughter, maybe, but not Ms. Crumm herself? Unless since last I saw you, you lost 40 pounds and years and became black." he asked with his brow arched in question.
"I'm an elf Peter," she stated.
"Oh just like that guy Alister." he nodded.
"My brother" she conveyed. Peter whistled provocatively and licked his lips before throwing back his head and laughing.
"You're smoking hot, why would you hide it under an old lady disguise?" He asked.
"Gosh, um, a favor, from someone very important to me." she answered. "And how is it that a girl like you doesn't have someone to dance with?" Peter asked.
"Well I, can't seem to, um, find him." Paige began.
"Paige" he warned. She looked at him with a new outlook. Peter Gallagher couldn't really know anything about her problem.
"I refused to marry someone I love, but I can't marry him, it's against some ancient law, and very frowned upon." she stumbled over the right words.
"You only refuse his proposal because you are scared. No law would stop you." he told her. She laughed a dry forced laugh.
"And with good reason!" she cried. "If I were to love a smidgen more than I already do and see him die before me, I could never see light in the days. They would just pass slowly in darkness like leaves across a tombstone."
"People who fear the absence of happiness are too preoccupied with worry to ever be happy." Peter said leaning against a pillar, taking a sip of punch.
"Ready to be happy my strange little elf girl?" he asked.
"Yes, but I don't know how." she answered truthfully.
"I can fix that." Therius whispered in her ear and held out his hand to her right. Peter smiled and bit his lip.
"You knew he was walking towards me didn't you." she whispered sharply. Peter shrugged.
"Dance much?" Therius asked.
"Only when forced" she replied and took his hand and they walked away looking into each other's eyes.
"Grrrross" Peter announced taking a sip of his punch and scanned the room. No one to make mention of, although he did see Gen talking to the scoundrel Alister.
"At these parties, I always think a stronger punch is desired, if not needed." he heard. A man in a white shirt with his cuffs rolled to his tan elbows. His tie was loosened and black pants dirtied from the floor he was laying on.
"What happened to you?" Peter asked.
"Love, happen to me, good sir. Kicks ya right in the nads, that love, if you ask me" the man answered, taking a swig of whiskey from a flask. Peter held out his punch bowl, the man took it and threw the content behind him carelessly and filled it to the brim with whiskey.
"To eternal damnation and zero forgiveness of slaughter." the man hit Peter's glass before Peter could object to the creepiness of that toast.
"What's your name?" Peter asked.
"Joshua Joseph Evingston always at everybody else's service but his own." Joshua muttered.
"Please to meet you Josh Joey Evingston." Peter greeted in a broken up sort of rhyme.
"So what's your major malfunction?" Peter asked.
"I want to kill someone." Joshua said. Peter laughed nervously, scooting a bit away from him.
"Is there a reason for this hate?" Peter asked.
"He is marring my lover." Joshua said, taking a rather large swig of his whiskey.
"Well why don't you talk to him, maybe he will seek reason. Or maybe you should think about why your girlfriend would marry someone else if she supposedly loves you." a shadow covered Josh's face, but he could see even in the shadow of his face, he was not happy to see whoever was behind him.
"Peter, a word." the man asked.
"Jeez, I'm Mr. Popular tonight, you're going have to wait, the hot elf's next." He would have continued if he hadn't of completely turned to see Acruz looking down at him. He gulped.
"I'm sure Paige won't mind." he answered with a rueful smile. "A word" he requested. "Alone" he stared at Joshua and smiled.
"Do something about your problems, because they're not going to disappear as easily as the whiskey will." Peter told him as he walked away with Acruz. Joshua stood up, brushed off his pants and crushed the glass under his foot walking into the crowd of partygoers.
Therius was never a man to hold back from saying something but as Paige smiled at him he couldn't seem to make his mouth work, although there are a thousand things he would have liked to say he couldn't utter a word. He finally has the strength to hold out his hand for a dance. It seemed like such a simple gesture, anyone with a moving arm can do it. But he seemed to think, that if she took his hand, that she took him. She was so perfect, at least to him. So strong, she was the exact opposite of Alister in most respects. Her nose, instead of curving out, curved in. Her face was heart-shaped like his, same point of the chin but her lips where full. Their eyes where identical, as where the entire Grey family as far as he knew, a clear grey like the sea after a storm. Her hair was medium brown and fell in elegant waves down the arch of her back. Her bangs, which were always perfectly straight, went to the bottom of her eyebrows. Tonight she was wearing a sleeveless emerald green dress.
"Dance with me?" he asked. She bit her lip and looked down. When he was about seventeen she had asked him the same question, and he had replied
"What good is dancing?" and had just smiled and replied.
"You know my father would always tell us that dancing is like proposing, hand out, completely open, because all you want, is to have them all to yourself for as long as they'll stay." she said. It was the sweetest proposal she had ever heard.
"Forever" she promised and took his hand.
"Alister Grey, stop your moping and ask Genevieve to dance." Paige told looked around from where he stood, searching for the culprit of this, breach of his mind.
"Get out of my head Paige" he ordered.
"As if" she rebutted, as she was twirled by Therius, her husband to be.
"Since when can you speak telepathically, I thought you couldn't." he asked.
"When you have nothing better to do for years at a time you have time to practice curtain things." she told him.
"Like how to tell her older brother what he should or shouldn't do with his own volatile life." he yelled into her mind.
"I was telling you what to do, why does it bother you so much now?" Paige asked.
"Because your advice is actually good, I might just follow it. Then I'd have to thank you" She smiled.
&nbs
p; "You don't have to thank me Alister. I will always be your sister, that's what sisters are for." she told him. He looked at her dancing with Therius. When she finally caught his eye she blew him a kiss.
"I missed you sis" he said in her mind and mouthed 'I love you'. She blinked away tears.
"I love you too. Take the leap, it might hurt, but it's worth it."
"Would you like to dance?" Alister asked holding out his hand and smiled. Gen had to shake the extreme feeling of dread and déjà vu.
"More than you'll ever know," she answered taking his hand. The ebb and flow of one hand rising up and the other flowing down distracted her, as they danced across the room, from her need to vomit. Everything was spinning, not just because of the dancing but because the feeling that something was about to happen hit her gut hard, making it hard for her to concentrate on Alister's voice trying to calm her.
"So, how has your stay in Akadia been so far?" he asked casually.
"Good, can't complain. Although there is this man trying to kill my sister, he's a little buzz kill" she joked.
"Yeah, Acruz sort of always has been, never very fun at parties."
"So how long have you been friends with him?" she asked.
"Since Acruz was sixteen, so, about twenty four years. He never did fit in with the royal family, all three of Hunter's last children didn't." he told her.
"What happen to them?"
"Well Antoinette, who is one year younger than Acruz and one of his only full sister, simply just got married, but she was always sweet and she was so far down the line, I don't think anyone cared that she didn't marry royalty, except her father, who still refuses to speak to her. Anya, who was only ten when I first met Acruz and their littlest daughter Annamarie, who was only eight, became pirates." Pirates, there are pirates here? In Akadia, awesome, but I suppose bad for royalty to become murdering pirates though.
"So what was Acruz like, when he was young?"
"He was, serious, and determined. He won't talk to people he didn't know. But he was funny, never into anything considered bad. Like drinking or cussing. He was all about doing the right thing. He dealt with his power, and we didn't discuss the vision he had until Alison came. He had a vision that he couldn't ignore." he told her.
"What kind of vision?" she asked, leaning closer.
"A vision of you" he told her. Her lips went dry and her heart thumped. Of me? What of me? Me dying, me killing, me marring? What?
"What was I doing?" she asked.
"Can we not talk about this anymore, I really don't want to talk, let's just dance. Okay?" he answered abruptly. She tried to focus on the fact that this is a dream come true. She was dancing with a handsome man. She was a princess with not a care in the world. Except for that fact that her sweet innocent sister is probably going to be murdered tomorrow and there was nothing she could do about it because the only men crazy enough to help her kidnap a princess are never around her when they can be alone. No one would ruin this dance, she decided, not even her conscience.
"May I cut in?" Except that. Gen jumped at the sound of Acruz's voice and stepped on Alister foot, hard. She stopped dancing and looked into his eyes, something not widely suggested.
"Acruz," she tried to sound indifferent, it didn't exactly come off as she would have hoped, more of a desperate whimper.
"Would you like to dance?" he asked, sounding a bit coyer than usual, less morose and more playful, sort of like Alister. She tried not to notice.
"She already is," Gen heard Alister say with a hateful tone, she would have looked at him, if she could force her head to move and eyes to blink.
"I didn't ask you to dance Alister, I asked Genevieve," she couldn't breathe. He couldn't have killed anyone; it just wasn't possible. Although that might just be my heart talking and not my good sense, which was evaporating along with my better judgment. I want to believe he's innocent, but maybe that's what he wants. Play it cool and don't let your heart have a second to burst. Refuse the dance. It's too dangerous, and far to close.
"Sure," she heard herself breath. As she let her hand slip from Alister's she didn't dare look at his face, ashamed at what it would look like after such betrayal.
"It's just a dance Alister," she tried to explain in a whisper. Still not looking away from Acruz's eyes
"It's what the dance represents my dear, goodbye." he greeted. She heard the click of his shoes on the marble floor and she knew she was alone with a murderer. She opened her mouth to call for him but nothing came out.
"Always was an over-reactor. He'll be fine, just give him time to stop throwing a hissy fit." Acruz told her holding out his white gloved hand. She put her hand in his. Her had was small compared to his, her fingers were long and the nails where painted black. She thanked every God she could think of that he had gloves on so she didn't have to feel jittery at his touch, which was, in her opinion, filled with magic. When they started to dance Acruz was a lot more graceful than she thought he would be. He looked so sad, stone faced, deep in thought.
"Why are you so miserable?" she asked. His hand gripped her's so hard she let out uncomfortable breath and she released his hand and shook her own, a violent spark went through her hand making the veins turn electric blue and push to the surface of her arm then go back to normal. She let out a grunt of pain as she flexed her hand.
"Jeez," she complained.
"I'm sorry; perhaps you're allergic to me." he joked nervously.
"Or maybe you should tone down the magic!" she finally yelled.
"What magic?" he asked a bit flustered. She laughed in the coldest of tones.
"What magic? The magic that you use on me every time where together!" she snipped.
"Genevieve I have never used magic to ensnare you." She froze.
"I sure you've noticed the familiarly of this night by now Genevieve you are not blind."
"How do you-?" she breathed. He leaned in so he was far too close to her face.
"I know what I must do, what should have been done eighteen years ago but with all my heart I refuse to do so. I wish I lived in your world dear sweetness, but unfortunately, there is nothing either of us can do to stop the changes that have already been set into motion ring any bells." he whispered into her ear, she looked around, the colors, the people, it wasn't just similar. She was in the dream exactly now, right after she had always woken up. She looked at her hand to see the black lace glove she had taken off in the dream to intertwine their hands and tell him what Paige had always told her.
"But you didn't follow my advice, I told you to stay and you didn't and now," he took a long pause, too long.
"Now what," she asked, her tone getting harder as her fight or flight response started to kick in. She wasn't one to run away from a good fight.
"You must witness the part of your stay in Akadia you could have been relieved of." he leaned in, as if to kiss her, but a fist came between them and hit his face making him stumbled to the side. She froze. The fist could have belonged to a multitude of people.
Henry, because whatever made him late tonight, had something to do with Acruz telling him something he didn't want to hear.
Alister, because Acruz just stole a dance from yours truly and she's pretty sure that represents something in the country.
Peter, because last time he saw Acruz he was beating the ever loving crap out of him and Peter doesn't take lightly to being beat down by an old man.
All her guesses were unfortunately wrong.
"Pause!" she screamed, holding onto Joshua's fist so he didn't pause with the rest of the party, Acruz as soon as everything was paused, blinked and broke from his spot on the ground.
"He hit me!" he squeaked pointing at Joshua.
"Acruz calm down!" she ordered, putting her hand up to keep him back.
"But he hit me!" he repeated whipping the blood from his lip.
"You were going kiss Miss. Genevieve, and you're engaged to marry my Andria. I couldn't let you disgrace her like that!" Joshua said ta
lking the shocked face he had on himself and putting on a face she'd never seen, at least from him, one of anger.
"Oh 'your' Andria is she, she's marring me. She seems to be my Andria. And I was not about to kiss "Miss. Genevieve"" Joshua lunged at Acruz but she threw her hands out at both of them making them both fall to the floor. Acruz fell into a couple making the fall to the crowd, still frozen in there pose.