I made her promise not to tell anyone she was putting the advert in the paper on my behalf.
The next morning she was gone. As were the rest of the Magi. There was no point crying over it. We both had known it was coming and had already said our goodbyes. I’d given her enough clothes to sell to make a bit of money to travel to her family, and, from there, I prayed she’d be ok.
The day she left was miserable. I didn’t know if I’d ever see her again. I vowed to myself that when I became queen, things would change. Agatha would come back to the palace, as would the others. That night, when I opened the paper, I saw my advert. The small ad, comprised of just a few words was completely drowned by the snazzy ads with photos, but it was there. I only hoped Cynder would see it.
***
Between the dates and interviews, I read Leo’s book. It was short, only about fifty pages, but I scoured it time and time again. It contained the true history of Magi in Silverwood, and how they had been persecuted through the ages.
They were still being used as slaves as late as during my grandfather’s reign. Apparently, my grandfather owned over a thousand, all of whom worked in the palace. Things changed drastically when he was in his fifties when he had a drastic change of heart and started to pay the staff. They went from living in dormitories with no running water to having their own quarters within the palace for those who wanted them. Life improved on the outside of the palace too with the abolition of slavery of Magi happening around this time. This had continued until my grandfather’s death the year before I was born. Apparently, upon the death of my grandfather, things immediately began to get worse for the Magi again although it never deteriorated into how terrible it was before slavery had been abolished.
In all my years of learning the history of Silverwood, I’d never known anything about any of this. How could I not have been taught such a large part of my own history?
I wanted to speak to Cynder so badly to see if he knew about this, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t ask anyone else as I’d have to tell them how I knew. The only person I could think to ask was Leo, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. None of the staff had seen him. I decided to walk out to the bungalows where he was staying. There were four bungalows reserved for guests in the grounds. Leo, Luca, and Xavier had one each. The third one had been reserved for Alexander, but as he’d not stayed, it was currently standing empty. Daniel still lived in town with his father.
I’d not been to visit any of the men here. For some reason, it felt intrusive. Also, I didn’t want the paparazzi getting any shots of me going into the men’s private quarters. I scoured the garden wall, looking for paparazzi but apart from the guards at the bottom of the wall, there was no one to see. Feeling confident that I wasn’t being watched, I knocked on the second bungalow’s door. Luca was in the first bungalow and Xavier in the third.
I waited for a minute before knocking again, but there was no answer. As I’d scoured the whole palace and garden, I concluded that he must have left the grounds for the day, although the doorman had not seen him leave. It was feasible that he’d decided to go out the back door, and I’d just decided to go and ask the guards at the back gate if they’d seen him when I noticed movement in the window of the supposedly empty bungalow.
Cynder!
It was my first thought. What if he’d managed to sneak in, and he’d been hiding here all this time? Maybe he just couldn’t find a way to get into the main part of the palace to see me.
I ran over, once again checking that no one could see me. The way this bungalow was positioned meant that not even the guards were in sight. It was the perfect hiding place for Cynder, and I don’t know why I’d not thought of it before. There was no point in knocking on the door. He wasn’t going to answer, so instead, I tiptoed round to the front window.
There was someone in there! I was about to knock on the window before realizing he wasn’t alone. There was someone with him, and he was kissing her. My heart caught in my throat as I ducked out of view. What was going on? Why would Cynder come all the way back here and chance being caught, only to kiss someone else?
I peeked back in which is when I got my next shock. Actually two shocks. The girl was Elise, and the guy I thought was Cynder wasn’t him at all. It was Leo!
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The Betrayal
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Elise repeated over and over again. They’d seen me loitering outside and had pulled me in. Elise was in tears. I could see that Leo wanted to comfort her, but in the current situation, he couldn’t. Remorse filled both their faces as they both realized the enormity of what they had done.
I sat on an old-fashioned armchair, while they sat back on the sofa I’d seen them making out on, only this time, they sat at opposite sides, putting as much distance between them as possible.
I looked around the small guest house, not quite knowing how to react. A spot of wallpaper was coming off in the corner of the room, and it needed a new coat of paint. It’s funny what my mind went to in the situation. I didn’t know how to think, how to react.
No one spoke although I could hear Elise quietly sobbing and whispering “I’m sorry” under her breath.
I wanted to go over to her and hug her and tell her everything would be ok like I always had when she was upset, but I couldn’t—not this time. I wasn’t sure everything was ok. I took a deep breath and followed it up with a few more.
My sister had betrayed me in the worst possible way, and yet, when I searched my soul, I found I didn’t mind. There was no sting in my heart when I saw them kissing. My heart was filled with too much pain at losing Cynder to fit any more in there. As I took emotion out of the equation, I realized, she’d not really betrayed me at all. Ok, she’d not been honest with me which hurt; but I was not betrothed to Leo, nor had I told her I had any interest in him romantically. In fact, on the few occasions we had spoken about my four suitors, I’d been nothing but ambivalent about them. I didn’t love Leo, and he didn’t love me, and Elise knew that. Sure, I enjoyed his company, but romance wasn’t in the cards for us. I wasn’t even sure it was in the cards for me at all.
“When were you going to tell me?” I was addressing the question to Elise, but Leo answered.
“We weren’t deliberately keeping anything from you; it’s just that we weren’t...”
“Telling me?”
“How could we?” whispered Elise through her tears. “I didn’t do it on purpose. I just fell in love with him.”
And there it was. “You’re in love?”
Leo stood up and came over to me.
“I’m in love with your sister. I have been since the first moment I saw her. Neither of us planned it. How can you plan a thing as perfect as love between two people?”
I wanted to hate him, to hate both of them, but I couldn’t. I felt the same way about Cynder. I loved him in a way I couldn’t even have imagined was possible just a few months ago. Just thinking about him left me breathless. If Leo and Elise felt the same way about each other—if they felt only a fraction of the sweet pain I did when being away from Cynder, then what right did I have to stand in their way? Or to make them feel bad about it. I’d not chosen to fall in love with Cynder, it happened so suddenly. Any anger I felt melted away.
“Please stop. You are going to make me barf. I don’t mind that you two are in love.” And I found that it was true. I’d been shocked at seeing them together, but beyond that, I hadn’t felt any particular emotion. My heart didn’t lurch every time I saw Leo the way it did with Cynder. In fact, when I thought about it, there was only relief. Relief that I had one less man to choose from, one less man to have to worry about eliminating.
“I’m happy for you,” I conceded, and I was.
“You are?” Elise looked up at me through those perfect green eyes of hers. How could I be mad at her? Hadn’t I done exactly the same thing? Fallen in love with someone I shouldn’t have. I thought of Cynder again. He was never far from my thought
s. Wouldn’t I sneak around the palace to see him? Of course, I would. I’d already proved I would by sneaking outside the palace grounds to see him.
“I don’t love Leo, and I never have. I don’t love any of the men. I was hoping to fall in love with one of them, but it’s not happening for me. I’ll tell my father that I want him eliminated in the next round. You’ll have to lay low for a bit, but when this all blows over, you can announce yourself as a couple. I expect people will think it’s romantic. Sadie will love it. More gossip for her TV show.”
“I love you!” Elise sprang up and threw her arms around me. I hugged her tightly, glad that at least one of us was happy.
“There’s just one thing,” she began after untangling herself from me. “I don’t want Leo eliminated. If he left the palace, I’d never see him.”
It was true. There was only one way I knew to sneak out of the palace, and that was with Leo’s help from the inside. If he was on the outside, there was no chance.
“If you wait until after the wedding, people will be so happy, they won’t care who you date.”
“That’s four months away!”
“It’s fine, Elise,” said Leo finally going over to her. “We still have until the next elimination together. After that, the time will fly by until we can next be together.”
I watched how relaxed she was in his arms. My flighty joyful sister had almost melted into him. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her so still. It occurred to me how good they looked together. The love in their eyes was unmistakable, and just being in the same room as them made me feel like a gooseberry. My list of four men had now gone down to three.
“Fine. I’ll keep him in this round.” What with my father keeping in Xavier and now Elise making me keep in Leo, this competition was looking like I had no say in it at all.
Leo came over to me and hugged me too. Damnit. Why did he smell so good? I could totally see why Elise was in love with him.
“You know, I should have guessed. Every time I came looking for you Leo, you were with Elise. That time in the library?”
Elise looked uncomfortable. “We used to meet in the library, but when we saw you there, we knew we had to find somewhere else.”
“So you weren’t coming to see if I was ok after all?” I teased Leo.
“I’m sorry, no. I was looking for Elise, but I knew something was wrong. You looked so distant.”
“Everything is wrong.” I thought back to the book about the Magi and how Leo had trusted me in the past. “Listen, you are asking me to keep a big secret. Can I ask that you do something to help me?”
“Sure! Anything!” Elise was back to her exuberant self. In fact, she looked lovelier than ever despite her red eyes from crying. No wonder Leo fell in love with her.
“Actually, it’s Leo I need help from. I’ve read your book. In fact, I was looking for you to return it.” I handed the well-read book back to Leo.
“Did you see anything of interest?”
“I did, and that’s what I want your help with. What happened to make my grandfather change his mind about the Magi?”
“No one really knows. As you have seen yourself, there is little documentation about the Magi. You won’t find anything about them in any library in Silverwood. History books barely mention them, and books of spells and anything associated with them were banned long ago.”
“But you know, don’t you?”
Leo looked at me intently. He was searching my eyes to see if he could trust me further. He must have decided he could. He took a deep breath and began to talk. “I only know the rumors. Everything I’m about to tell you is hearsay.”
“Go on.”
“There are rumors that your grandfather had an affair with one of the Magi. He brought the Magi into the palace and put them in private rooms as a way to carry on the affair. After that, he had to tell people that he’d started paying them. Maybe his lover had talked him into it?”
It amazed me how little knowledge of my own past I had. “What happened to her?”
“None of the Magi were ever really documented. Even when they became legal, they had no real proof of who they were. It has been assumed that the Magi was your grandmother’s maid, Molly. She died a few years after your grandfather and kept the secret to her grave. As I said, no one knows if it’s really true or not, but it does explain the change of heart.”
“How do you know all this?” asked Elise, open-mouthed.
“I don’t for sure. I’ve only heard what people tell me when I go out and feed them.”
I suddenly had an idea. I’d seen for myself what it was like for the Magi; Elise hadn’t. Maybe it was about time she got an education. It would mean she could spend more time with Leo too. “Why don’t you go out with him?”
“I couldn’t do that. Father let you, but he wouldn’t let me.”
“I’ll tell him I’m going. Make sure to wear something with a hood. No one will know it’s you and not me.”
“You’d do that for me?”
“I’d do anything for you, Elise, just do me a favor.”
“What?”
“Don’t get caught!”
That night Elise came to my room to thank me again. I hugged her tightly as she lay down next to me on the bed.
“I meant it when I said I was happy for you.”
“I know you did. I couldn’t wish for a better big sister.” She sighed. “I really didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t even know I was falling for him until it was too late. Every day I’ve been worried about you. You’ve looked so sad throughout this competition, and I was worried that I might be taking your one chance at happiness. I was scared that, despite everything you said, you might be in love with Leo too. Especially when you went out with him that night. Part of me hoped you’d come back and tell me you were choosing to marry him and then I could try and forget about him, but a much bigger part died at the thought of it. I cried all night until Leo came back and told me you’d barely spent any time together. That you’d gone off on your own. It was like a huge weight lifted from my heart. I thought if you loved him, you’d want to be with him.”
“I never loved Leo. I didn’t lie about that.”
“You don’t love any of them, do you?”
I thought of the three remaining men. “No, I don’t.”
“Do you think you could learn to love one of them given time?”
I wanted to tell her about Cynder. About how I didn’t think it was possible I’d ever love anyone else as much, but I didn’t.
“I don’t know.”
When she’d gone, I pondered the question. The truth was, I’d probably never see Cynder again. He’d escaped, and even if they found out who did plant the bomb, there was still no life for him here now. My mother had invited no Magi to the party for a reason. No member of royalty could ever marry a Mage. It just couldn’t happen. I had to pick one of the three remaining men and hope that one day I’d fall in love with him. I had a feeling it would be a long time coming.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Xavier
Since we had passed the first elimination, even though there really hadn’t been one, scheduling dates had been slightly more relaxed. This was partly due to my mother taking up all my time on wedding preparations. It didn’t seem to matter to her that I was no closer to finding a groom, as long as the table centers were just so. We spent one morning, along with Elise and the four men, tasting cakes. As mother wanted ten tiers, we had a lot to go through. Hundreds of cakes had been laid out in the breakfast room, each delicately labeled with its flavor. I saw everything from passion fruit to red velvet, each decorated in a different style. I watched the men as they tasted cake after cake. Leo looked completely at ease, comparing notes with my mother. Elise kept apart from him, instead choosing to chat to Prince Luca and Xavier while Daniel and I squabbled playfully over the best chocolate flavor. Sadie and her cameraman, Martin, captured the whole thing.
From the outside, it looked like we were all having
fun. Inside, the reality was different. I’d enjoyed the cake tasting, but the hours of going through different fabrics and color schemes and songs for the wedding left me drained. It was going to be the biggest occasion that Silverwood had ever seen, and yet, there was only a reluctant bride and still no groom with less than three months to go.
In between cake tastings and bridesmaid fashion shows, I had a bit of time to myself. I spent most of it pouring over past newspapers to find out any more information, but I saw nothing else. The case of the bomber had almost disappeared, with only the occasional snippet that the perpetrator still hadn’t been found. As the police thought it was Cynder, no one was looking for the real bomber, and as he hadn’t been caught, there was nothing much to say. It gave me a little relief, and yet, the propaganda against the Magi grew every day. Each time I opened the current paper, my heart would sink after finding some news article about how some Mage or other had committed a crime. One had a whole page devoted to all the crimes that had been committed in the capital in the last month by Magi. It sounded bad until I read the list of crimes. Stealing bread, breaking into a deli, wand usage. They were starving. Stealing or magic was the only means they had left to get food. These so-called “horrific crimes” gave the police more excuse to make them leave the city. I thought of all the cake we had wasted and hoped that Leo had been able to take some of it out on one of his trips into the city. It was madness that people were starving when Silverwood had an abundance of food. The only good thing to come from looking at the papers was knowing Cynder was free. I knew I should have been happy, but it just meant he was further away. My heart felt a little heavier every day.
After a few weeks of doing very little and with the wedding-without-a-groom looming, even my mother was beginning to panic. She wanted to sort out the groom’s attire, but with four men still in the game, it was she that decided I had to schedule final dates with the men to come to a decision. The wedding was now less than three months away, and my mother’s panic was catching.
Charm (A Cinderella reverse fairytale) (Reverse Fairytales Book 1) Page 15