by Cege Smith
“I’ve never met a queen before. Oh, bah, my mother would be so upset with me again for forgetting my manners.” The girl dropped into a deep curtsy.
As Angeline suspected, her presence meant she stood out like a sore thumb. “Please, rise. What is your name?”
The girl was jumped up and started bouncing on the balls of her feet. “I’m Kallie, Majesty. I can’t believe it! I’m meeting the Queen of Altera. I can’t wait to tell my mother.”
“Wait, Kallie,” Angeline said. “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. I was hoping to find a bit of tea while I was getting ready, but when I tried to find someone to ask for some, I got turned around and lost. Perhaps you can help me?”
“Of course, Majesty,” Kallie said. “Your room is this way.” Kallie turned and started down the hallway.
Angeline was going to interrupt that her room was downstairs, but then a horrible thought crossed her mind. The level that she was on clearly was occupied by the higher ranking members of the Clan. It was odd that Angeline, as an important guest, would have been relegated to a room on a sublevel. It was possible that Thomas had something else entirely planned for Angeline in the room that she was supposed to have entered downstairs.
She held her tongue and followed Kallie through a maze of corridors and quickly lost her sense of direction. “I feel so silly to have gotten lost,” Angeline said.
“It’s easy to do, Majesty,” Kallie said. “If I hadn’t grown up here, I don’t think I’d be able to find my way around either. They should have told you though that there is a rope in the corner of the room that calls the servant quarters. Someone would bring you anything you wish right away.”
“That’s very accommodating,” Angeline said. “I assume that my companion is being equally well-taken care of?”
Kallie stumbled for just a moment before stopping altogether. “So it’s true? You traveled with a wildling?” Kallie’s eyes grew as wide as saucers.
“I traveled with a man named Connor Radwin,” Angeline said, ignoring Kallie’s confusing comment. “Do you know where I can find him, Kallie?”
A shadow crossed Kallie’s eyes just before she dropped them. “No, Majesty. My work is on the upper levels so I wouldn’t know anything about that.”
Angeline smiled brightly. Kallie had just told her what she needed to know by saying next to nothing. Angeline didn’t have to feel guilty about manipulating the girl for information. Connor was in the Clan’s compound, but he was somewhere on a lower level. That narrowed things down at least a little bit. “That’s fine, Kallie.”
Kallie pointed down the hallway. “Your room in the third one on the left. It’s the nicest of all our guest quarters. I have to go. My mother is expecting me, and I just know I’m going to get in trouble if I’m gone much longer.”
The girl seemed eager now to get away from Angeline. Angeline caught her wrist, and Kallie turned and looked at her in surprise. “Kallie, I’m just a guest here, and I don’t want anyone to think badly of me. Can you keep the fact that I got lost just between us?”
Kallie looked uncertain. “I’m not sure about that.”
“I tell you what. If you are serving at the council meeting tonight, I will speak to you there. Surely that will raise your status with your friends? That way you can tell them that we met without having to tell my embarrassment.”
Kallie’s face lit up. “Really? You’d speak to me in front of everyone?”
Angeline smiled. “Of course. You were so gracious to help me.”
Kallie bobbed her head. “I can do that. Thank you, Majesty.”
“You can go now, Kallie. I’ll see you tonight.”
The servant girl waved and then backed up quickly. Moments later she was gone. As Angeline suspected, her actual room was not below at all. She wasn’t sure what game the Clan was playing with her, but she didn’t like it.
She went to the third door on the right. Then she leaned over and ripped another strip of fabric from her dress and tied it over the knob. Another breadcrumb. For a moment, she considered going inside to see if anything was amiss, but she couldn’t risk being trapped inside the room when she had no idea if they were going to bring Connor to the council meeting. She had to find him.
Angeline set out to find another stairwell. She still had work to do.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Connor could see the sun. He immediately curled into a small ball wrapping his arms around his head, expecting the fiery pain to begin at any moment. Nothing happened. His eyes rose over his arm, and he stared at it. Still, nothing happened. Then the wonderment took over, and he slowly got to his feet.
He stretched his arms out on either side wanting to embrace the beautiful yellow ball in the sky. It had been so long since he could stand and observe it, to let it play its fingertips of warmth across his skin. He closed his eyes and sighed. Wherever he was, he wanted to stay there forever.
A hand on his arm pulled him out of his trance. He looked down, and his heart leapt in his chest as he saw Angeline’s lovely face looking up at him. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly.
“I am in the sun, and it doesn’t burn!” He whirled her around in a huge circle, noting the green grass and bushes of flowers that stretched out in every direction. They appeared to be in a large garden. The setting was tranquil and peaceful. It was exactly the kind of place Connor always imagined when he thought of place where he could grow old.
Angeline laughed and then gently poked at him. “Put me down, you big oaf. You’re making me dizzy.”
Connor stopped and set her gently back on her feet, but he didn’t release her. He rested his chin on the top of her head keeping her close. The smell of her hair reminded him of violets. “The best part is you are here with me. If this is a dream, I don’t ever want to wake up.”
Angeline snuggled in against him. “If this is a dream, then it’s my favorite dream.”
They stood like that for several long moments. Connor could have died then, and he felt as if his life were complete. Eventually though, the questions in the back of his mind forced themselves to the front and refused to be ignored. He pulled back from Angeline and gazed down at her smiling face.
“What is this place? How did we get here?”
Angeline shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, does it?”
Connor felt as if there was something that he should remember. It was something important that would lend a clue to how he arrived in this utopia, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Every time he tried to cull it from his memory, it slipped away.
“I guess it doesn’t,” he agreed
“Good,” Angeline reached a hand up and stroked his face.
Connor sighed and leaned into it. She was too good for him. She was a queen, and he was nothing but a lowly, filthy vampire. But he loved her, and she said that she loved him too. Surely if they loved each other, they could weather anything.
“Take a walk with me, Connor. Let’s enjoy the day,” she said. Her smile made him feel lighter inside. He felt like the man that he always knew that he could be when he was with her and she smiled at him like that. They had been through so much. They deserved a few moments of happiness.
He took her hand, and she pointed off into the distance. “I saw a small garden with roses over there. You know how much I love roses.”
At the palace in Brebackerin, there was a rose garden that had once been Angeline’s mother’s favorite place. It was a quiet place in the midst of the bustle of the palace that allowed for solitude and reflection. In the days leading up to her father’s death, Connor heard through the servants that Angeline would go to the garden every evening at sunset to stand and caress the roses. He thought that they soothed her soul.
“I will bring you roses every day for the rest of your life,” he said. They walked down a path that somehow appeared before them, and Connor had a chance to look further at the setting around them. “Do you know where we are?”
“It’s beautiful h
ere, isn’t it?” Angeline said. “My soul feels as if it has been set free. I have nothing to worry about anymore. I don’t have to think about anything. I can just live and be happy.”
Connor examined her words and knew that they matched his feelings exactly. “I haven’t seen the sun in over a hundred years.” He looked up at the sky wistfully. “I thought that I’d never get to see it again.”
Angeline wrapped her arms around his waist. “You can never give up hope. Even when things seem bleak or you think that all hope is lost, you can never give up. That’s what I love about you, Connor. You didn’t accept your fate. You have spent the last hundred years looking for the cure to what you always saw as nothing more than a disease. Now here you are. Here we are.”
“Is this real?” Connor didn’t want to disrupt the perfection around him, but he had to ask the question that begged to be asked.
Angeline peered up at him. “It’s as real as we want it to be.” She stood up on her tiptoes, and her lips met his and Connor groaned. His hands buried in her hair. She tasted like peppermint, and his thoughts spun away as he lost himself in the sensation of drowning in the one he loved.
Too soon, her lips broke away from his. She had a mischievous look on her face. “If you can catch me, you can kiss me again. First one to the rose garden is a rotten egg.”
“I’ll chase you to the ends of Altera and back again,” Connor said, a slight shadow overturning his thoughts of bliss.
Angeline laughed, hiked up her skirts, and ran toward the garden. Connor could see the entrance in the distance. A wrought iron gate guarded it. Angeline’s black hair flowed behind her and Connor could hear her laughter. The game was silly and for the young, but he had been young once. Before his innocence was ripped away forever by Monroe. Before he became a monster.
Connor wanted to capture those feelings again. With Angeline, he felt almost mortal again. He tried to put aside the doubts that crept into his consciousness and give into the feelings of the moment. Here, he lived in the sun. Here, he had Angeline by his side. He didn’t need anything else.
Did he?
Connor ran after Angeline. For so many years, he was used to being the fastest creature in existence. It didn’t matter if he encountered a rabbit, or a cougar; he was able to outpace them all. So it surprised him that he wasn’t gaining on Angeline in their race. Even in her skirts, with what should have been a small lead, she ran faster.
He remembered the first time that he showed her how to run with her new wraith abilities. That thought caused him to break his stride. Was Angeline still a wraith here? Had they both been alleviated of their dire conditions? Or had he been cured and she was still what she had been before? He needed to catch her to ask her. He pushed himself harder and felt an ache in his lungs that he never remembered experiencing before. As he drew up to the rose garden’s gate, he stopped and put his hands on his knees trying desperately to draw in a breath.
“What’s the matter, Connor?”
He felt Angeline’s hair swish against his cheek as he struggled to regain his composure. “That run was harder than I expected.”
Angeline put her arm around him and helped him stand up. He felt feeble leaning against her, but he couldn’t help it. It was as if his limbs had turned to jelly. She guided him through the narrow gate and into the garden. Even in his trembling state, Connor recognized the beauty of the lush bushes that sprung up everywhere that he could see. Roses of every color and variety blossomed joyfully in the warm afternoon sun.
There were two white stone chairs sitting near the middle of the garden and Angeline helped Connor to the closest one. Once she seemed assured that he wasn’t going to fall out of it, she settled into the other one. Her face was concerned.
Finally able to draw a deep gulp of air into his lungs, Connor felt the lightheadedness start to clear and the strength returning to his limbs. He looked down at his hands and was shocked to see age spots appearing beneath his skin.
“I don’t understand,” he said out loud.
“You have evaded human death for over a century, Connor. I should have warned you. Becoming human again has its side effects. You lose your speed, your agility, and your strength. Your body will age and eventually give out and you will die. It is a hard choice for someone who has tasted the nectar of immortality.”
Connor stared at Angeline. He felt the weight of the hundred years that spanned their ages. She was so young and without the bondage of the vampire curse in place, he was now so old. He had lived five times the length of time that she had even been alive. He flexed his fingers and felt a flash of pain in his joints. Could this possibly be his end? It wasn’t what he envisioned at all.
“Those are never things that I wanted or desired,” he said. “Most certainly not because it required the blood of innocents to sustain it. That was the heavy price of all of these benefits that you speak of.”
“I understand,” Angeline said. She reached over and took his hand in hers. He felt his heart swell as he saw the love that still shone in her eyes. He didn’t know how he had gotten so lucky to find her. It was a miracle. “Don’t worry, Connor. I will make sure that nothing ever happens to you.”
The note of discord chimed again in his mind. There was something wrong with the scene, and he tried to figure out what it was. “I will protect you too, my love.”
Angeline laughed. “How will you protect me? By giving someone a severe tongue-lashing? By trying to hit them with your walking cane? The sentiment is sweet, but we both know that it is unrealistic. Your time here on the living plane draws short. You will have every comfort until the end. I will make sure of it.”
Connor fell against the back of the chair. Tightness gripped his chest, and as he raised his arm to bring his hand to his chest, he saw that it was thin and frail. It was as if he had aged the full century of his life in the last few minutes. The horror of her words settled upon him. She would continue her life and his would come to an end.
“That isn’t what I wanted to happen,” he hissed through lips that turned to rubber. His head lolled back, and he stared at the sun, the thing that he thought was the sign of his salvation but instead was his harbinger of doom. “I take it back. I don’t want to be cured. I want to stay with you.”
The face that appeared above his was not Angeline’s. He remembered it. It was Theodora. She smiled slyly at him. “Finding your life as a cured man not to your liking?”
“This is a trick,” Connor whispered.
“It is not,” Theodora said. “Do you think that the magic that binds the vampire to you allows for such a thing as happily ever after? You lose your vampire half, and you lose it all. Your flesh and bones will turn to dust, and the balance of your life will be restored to the elements as it should have been long ago. You cheated death by turning into a vampire. Death waits for you to return.”
The choice before him was horribly unfair. He would continue his existence as a creature he despised and be able to stay with Angeline, or he would disappear into the ether. He knew that death would not bring him peace, not so long as he knew that it left Angeline alone and defenseless against the Clan. She needed him. Her need was greater than his.
“I chose to remain as I was.” He choked on the words, but got them out.
Theodora shrugged. “As you wish.”
Darkness swallowed the sun. Connor wanted to reach out for it, but knew that, for him, it was too late. As his eyes readjusted to the darkness, he found that he had returned to his body, skewered against the wall in the dungeon. Theodora stood before him. She looked pleased.
“Your adoration for the Queen is impressive. We’ll see if it continues.”
That was when Connor knew that his trials had just begun.
CHAPTER NINE
Malin arrived at the door to Angeline’s quarters with mere moments to spare. His hand rose to knock on the door when it opened even before his knuckles touched it. His sister stood before him, a beacon of light and glamour in a go
ld brocade gown with silver filigree stitching. Her hair was twisted into fat curls that hung loosely down her back, and the Robart crown was tucked into the twists of braids that encircled her face.
He bowed. “Majesty. I am here to escort you to the Ascension Ball.”
“Thank you, Malin.” His sister’s voice was hollow. He wondered how much of her remained conscious under the spell of compulsion or if she even had any awareness of it. Her orders were to play the part of the Queen. He had a feeling that once Corrinda regained her free will, he was going to have a lot to answer for.
Malin offered her his arm, and Corrinda took it with an empty smile. He hoped his observations of her indifference were because he was seeing the woman beneath the illusion spell. Everyone else would see their queen.
“Do you have any other questions about tonight’s festivities?” He kept his voice low. Even though he didn’t see anyone else lurking around, the servants always seemed to find ways to keep low profiles and eavesdrop on everything going on around them in the palace. Malin learned that the painful way.
The King was less than thrilled when the Lord of one of the minor houses challenged the then future Chief Advisor to a duel. The gossip that ran rampant was that Malin had an affair with the Lord’s wife. Although Malin had affairs with several other wives, he was only courting the one in question. Nothing serious had happened beyond flirtation, but a duel was a duel and he had been put in the spot of killing a man over a festering piece of false gossip. After that, Malin was much more careful of his dealings inside the palace walls.
“Smile pretty. Feast, but not too heartily. Dance the first dance with the Lord of the oldest house. Take my leave well before midnight.” The list was rattled off with no emotion.
“That’s right,” Malin said. “Although we will have to change the first dance. Lord Redley I fear is dead, and his daughter will not be anywhere to be found.” Elvry hid in plain view of the Court as Lord Redley’s daughter. Lord Redley’s real daughter had not been seen in court in years, and so no one questioned it. A bit of magic obscured her true identity from Malin, who would have been the only one who would have known who she really was.