Nieves nodded her head. “Most definitely.”
He swallowed his apprehension. Her skin felt warm around his neck. She felt warm in his arms. She was life, here dancing with him in the night’s cool air. The stars were just beginning to show themselves.
She asked him, “Are you happy?”
He pulled his attention to her. “What? Of course.”
“Are you really?” Nieves raised a brow. “What’s one thing you want to do, right here at this moment that you’ve never done before?” Nieves thought of skydiving or catching fireflies. She remembered fireflies as a good past time.
Alric didn’t need to hesitate. It was the first thought that came to mind. It was the first thing he wanted to do and it made his stomach twist with butterflies. His arms slid around her, bringing her just a step closer. “Nieves, if you will allow me to, might I kiss you?”
Her breathing stopped. Nieves glued her eyes to his then, after what felt like a century, she replied, “I don’t mind.”
His hand lifted to her jawbone. With shaky fingers he brushed back her honey brown hair. His lips trembled nervously as he leaned closer to her. He saw now how vastly beautiful her eyes were and how endlessly they drew him into her. Alric’s lips touched hers, taking in their softness. Warmth flashed against his lips and along the skin of his face.
As he pulled away Nieves released a breath she hadn’t noticed she was holding in. Her lungs burned for oxygen. Her mind spun from adrenaline. Her entire body trembled and ached for Alric, and begged that he hold her closer.
This time Alric didn’t have a hard time holding Nieves. He slid an arm around her waist and a hand on the back of her head. Alric pulled her closer, pressing her head against his chest. She was life. She was what he’d been unknowingly searching for all those lonesome years. Somehow he knew there was something to be found—something missing—and here she was.
Nieves.
CHAPTER 33
Mia pushed the kernels of corn around her plate. She’d only eaten a bite of her turkey and gravy. Angel watched with a considerate amount of worry. “He’s not the only guy in the world,” Angel commented softly to her fork.
“Easy for you to say,” Mia whispered under her breath. “At least Dan doesn’t have a Fiancé.”
It took a moment for Angel to clear her mind of Dan.
Angel continued with, “Rusuto says there are plenty of men out there for you to meet. Monsun isn’t the one for you. I know it hurts.” Angel lowered her voice, stabbing the turkey before lifting it off her plate.
“You don’t get it,” Mia said.
Angel lifted the piece of meat to her mouth. “Get what?”
Mia slammed her fork against the table. “Angel, I’m not like you. I can’t find someone else to love!”
Angel’s mouth stayed open, the fork frozen in its place.
“I can’t live without him,” Mia muttered. “Seriously.”
She realized she wasn’t going to enjoy the supper until Mia solved her problems. Monsun, to Angel, was just a person and simply a teacher. To Mia he was a life source. He was her life raft in the storm ensued ocean surrounding her. Angel placed her fork with its skewered meat back onto its plate.
Angel said, “You came over so we could talk.”
Mia nodded her head.
“Then let’s talk.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how to explain myself.”
“How do you feel?”
“Scared.” Mia, at the sound of the word, felt tears rise. “I am scared because…”
Angel leaned back in her chair. She wasn’t very well with comforting people and no words in the world sounded good enough to her. How could she help Mia get over Monsun?
“Mia,” Angel said with a gentle tone. “There’s a world full of people. Men who would drool to have you.”
The trembling girl felt her stomach twist. “No, Angel. There is a world full of men that I can’t go near. Monsun was my only connection with the outside world.”
“What are you—” Angel stopped. She finally understood what Mia had been trying to say this entire time. She wasn’t speaking about how she needed Monsun because she loved him in that sense. Mia was trying to tell her that without Monsun she couldn’t even get out the gate without changing into Nina.
“I can’t live without him!” Mia jumped to stand, knocking her chair to the floor. “I can never leave these walls Angel! I’m stuck here while you live your life at school and in the city! Where will I go? What am I going to do?”
“Mia, I…” Angel’s words refused to rise.
She screamed, tears pouring from her eyes endlessly. “I can’t!” Mia ran for the door, bursting out into the cold winter air. She raced down the path to her bicycle and peddled as quickly as her legs could go. She wanted to go, back to the confines of her room and vanish within its shadows.
For the first time she understood Alric. She wanted to find him and hold him as tightly as he had held Nieves during his dance with her. She’d seen them from the distance and envied.
Was Angel right? Was there really someone out there for her? Could she ever get close to her soul mate without becoming some demonic child again?
†
“What happened?” asked Rusuto who was walking into the house. He slid off his boots before stepping inside—no reason to get mud everywhere. “I saw Mia racing to get back home.”
Angel didn’t reply.
Rusuto caught the drift. “Well,” he sighed. “I guess bickering best friends was bound to happen eventually. I just hope the two of you clear this up before Mia dies.”
Angel darted her attention at Rusuto. “What?”
“When the snow falls, of course.” He headed into the kitchen with the hopes his words were having an effect. Angel came running in but he stopped her with a raised hand. “What I’m really trying to say is that Mia is alive and you should try to comfort her simply by listening. Don’t state your opinion, just listen.”
Her eyes began to shimmer with tears. “Is she really going to die?”
“There’s always a chance,” Rusuto explained. “When the snow falls, all of the cursed must kill the head-cursed. It’s our job as his court to make sure he doesn’t kill anyone innocent.”
“I don’t understand,” Angel whispered.
“Alric will try to enter the city.” Rusuto slid a hand across his forehead, feeling the faint layer of sweat. It was his night to change; he could feel it in his bones. “When that happens we have to stop him. The only way to save the people of the city is to kill Alric.”
Angel took a stumbling step back and gasped a breath of air her lungs had no room for. “No,” she stuttered. “I don’t believe that. Alric can’t be killed. I thought he couldn’t leave the Macter land… You can’t kill him… Nieves, she…” Angel shook her head. “Please don’t, Rusuto…”
“I’m sorry, dear.” Rusuto went to hold her but she was already stepping away from him.
She barked, “Murderer!” Like a stag her legs carried her out the door with a quick speed. Clawing at her heart was the mere idea of losing both Mia and Alric. And all the other Cursed-Ones. Angel and Dan were not cursed at all. But Wilhelm and Rusuto were definitely cursed. Eliza, Rusuto, Wilhelm, and Mia. She couldn’t lose them. They were her family.
The other cursed, she barely knew them, but to watch them die was something she couldn’t bear. The idea sent her mind swimming. Her steps became shaky and she leaned against the barren winter tree.
Snow, she thought. How cruel it could be.
†
“Mia,” Angel called out through the halls of the main house with searching eyes.
“Angel?” asked Wilhelm. “What are you doing here?”
Angel turned around with a fake smile and Wilhelm saw right through it. He gave her a stern scowl, readying himself for lecturing. “I’m here to see Mia,” said Angel. “Have you seen her?”
Wilhelm thought back in time. “No… I thought she was go
ing to your house today.”
She nodded. “Yes. We had a small fight and she left.”
“Oh, I see.” Wilhelm slid his hands into his doctor’s coat pocket. “Have you checked her room, yet?”
Angel nodded. “That was the first place I looked.”
Wilhelm went through his mind, picking out his knowledge on Mia. She was a quiet girl who spent most of her time listening to music. It was why her hearing was terrible. She said she didn’t care. Music was her life.
“I know where she is,” Wilhelm blurted.
Angel’s eyes lost their fearfulness. “Where is she, Wilhelm?”
Wilhelm confessed, “She told me she likes to spend time in the gazebo in Alric’s garden. She hides away there. Mia’s either there or she’s in the attic where she can be alone.”
Angel nodded her head. “I’ll go check the gazebo.” She had to admit, only to herself, that attics were definitely not her thing. They were spooky and full of cobwebs. If Wilhelm hadn’t been there then she would have gone up but there was no need now.
“I’ll meet you there,” Wilhelm told her sternly. “Wait until I get there, just in case I do find her.”
Angel waved her hand absentmindedly and dashed down the hall for the doors to the back of the house. The gazebo wasn’t that far away. But it was surrounded by thick trees on all sides, a moat full of water and an arching Japanese bridge to get inside. It used to be her playing spot until Alric told her a ghost story about an old lady who had died there.
Now, at this age, she knew Alric was only teasing her. But the gazebo was still not her favorite place in the world to visit.
“Mia!” Angel called out after rounding a set of bushes. “Mia are you here?”
Angel’s foot slipped to the side, dropping her to the ground. Was that red? Had she seen red on Mia’s white shirt? She lifted herself up with a hand that burned at the touch of dirt. Her hands had been scraped by the ground when she fell.
Angel bit back her scream. “Mia, what have you done?”
Mia’s eyes drooped close and she took staggered drunken steps forward. “I’m sorry,” said Mia, softly and distant. “I’ll never get to live in the city. I’ll never see the world anyway.”
“Mia,” Angel lunged forward, taking hold of her best friend. “Your wrist… you’ll bleed to death if we don’t get you help.”
Mia moaned, resting her head onto Angel’s shoulder. “I know.”
She released a horrid scream for help, sobbing and whimpering. “You stupid fool, Mia. You stupid girl. I am here for you. Always here for you. Stupid! Why would you do this to yourself?”
Angel grabbed the wound, holding it tight. The color of the blood leaking out at such a large amount Angel wanted to swoon. Her mind ached at the thoughts that ran through her mind: an image of a blade slipping and streaming across her best friends wrist.
“Help me!”
CHAPTER 34
Nieves tightened the scarf around her neck at the touch of a cold wind. She knew very well it was in the midst of winter but a picnic was just the thing for Alric. Aunty explained he’d never tasted foods from the outside world: hot dogs, pizza, and ice cream were simply distant dreams. He knew they existed in some form or another.
She looked back at him, feeling the urge to see if he was still with her.
He carried the basket with one hand, something that had required both her hands when bringing it to show Alric. He seemed to be much stronger than he was before.
His black hair was dappled with sunlight that reached in beams through the spaces of tree branches. “What is it?” asked Alric, weary as to why Nieves was suddenly watching him.
She shrugged a shoulder and turned to face forward. Nieves veered off the path and into the long whispering grasses. They hushed every time the wind brushed its fingers across them.
“It’s beautiful out here,” Nieves told him. She remembered lying in this exact field the first night she was on Macter land. She simply wanted to watch the stars. In her entire life, she’d never seen so many at one time and in the same place. Colors from pink to blue to white had spread across the sky in a misty haze.
Alric could hardly remember the last time he’d ventured out into the garden this far. He usually walked with Wilhelm, hearing the latest updates about the family. Danzig’s demise was the last one to cause such a family uproar.
Alric still wondered who’d poisoned the old man.
“Here will be good.” Nieves turned on her heel to face him.
He set down the basket in the short paling green grass. Nieves opened the top just enough to pull out a long cloth for them to sit on. She moved the basket closer as Alric began to sit down.
Alric glanced to the gray skies. “Are you sure it’s not too cold for you?”
Nieves nodded her head. “I’m sure.” She lifted the top and pulled out a plate, covered with aluminum. “Aunty told me you’ve never had this before. So I had to bring some.”
He looked down at her. Nieves was uncovering the plate when she said, “Pizza.”
“Pit-sa?” Alric pronounced the word slowly.
“Yep, pizza.”
For a long moment he stared at the strange triangular object. That was pizza? The thing Eliza was always begging the maids to order for dinner from the restaurants that were designed solely for pizza? It seemed so average looking with its white cheese and various toppings.
“Go ahead.” She took his hand and placed the plate in it. “I also brought other things that my grandmother made for me when I was growing up. Blue berry tarts. Oh, and my grandmother’s stew. She taught me but it never tastes as good as hers.”
He watched the piece of food on his plate, waiting for it to move. “Is it edible,” he wanted to ask just to clarify. Instead he asked, “Is there a fork in there?”
Nieves bit her lips.
“No fork,” he thought. “How could someone forget that?”
She covered her hand to her mouth.
Alric gasped. “It’s alright, we don’t need forks.” Don’t cry, he thought.
Nieves shook her head bursting out with laughter. “A fork?” She laughed more until it finally began to clear away. Alric’s blush burned with intensity. “You don’t use forks for pizza.”
Alric stopped his eyes from widening. “Then, if I may ask, how do I eat this?”
“With your hands,” Nieves replied as if that were the only answer.
His eyes slowly lowered down to the food. With my hands, he thought. That was ridiculous. Nonetheless, he awkwardly began to grab at it, unsure what side to hold and where to bite.
Her hand touched his, stopping him in his task. Nieves took hold of the crust with one hand and slid her other hand beneath the jagged part. “Like this,” she told him. He placed his hands where hers were and she let him take control. Alric slowly took a bite, weary and anxious about the taste.
Then, like a slap to the face, the tomato sauce latched onto his tongue. The cheese, a barely unnoticeable taste but it was the toppings that, as he bit into, they filled his mouth with cornucopia of desire.
“Well,” inquired Nieves who sat patiently before him. “Do you like it?”
Alric swallowed his food. “Yes. Very much.”
Nieves couldn’t stop her smile. For Alric to enjoy himself was something that sent her stomach flying and her heart racing. “Great. I have so much more for you to taste.”
“Nieves.” Alric reluctantly placed the food down onto the plate again. “Why are you doing this for me?”
Had her heart just skipped a beat? “I…” She moved her eyes to their corners and stared at the basket. “I’m not sure. I guess… I just want you to be happy.”
The air felt empty, missing and he suddenly wasn’t sure how to breathe. Had the world disappeared or was it just him? His heart was thundering like never before. Those plain meaningless words held more meaning than he thought they ever could. She had said, “I want you to be happy.” It was the same exact thought that c
rossed his mind every time he saw her.
Is she happy? Is that smile of hers really real?
Nieves’s face burned scarlet red. “You’re still a jerk,” she said, turning her head away unsure of the feeling inside.
“At least I didn’t get ice cream on the floor,” Alric muttered.
Nieves narrowed her eyes. “At least I didn’t fall on you.”
Alric gasped, turning to glower at her. “Only because you dropped your frozen milk stuff all over my bedroom floor. And you didn’t even bother to clean it up.”
“Psh.” Nieves folded her arms. “You’re the one who pushed me into a koi pond.”
Alric grinded his teeth. “You slapped me.”
“You tried to kick me out.” Nieves got to her knees, balling her fists.
Alric blurted, “For your own protection!”
She was stunned for a bit. Nieves dropped back, sitting down astonished. “Protection?”
“It doesn’t matter.” He put away the plate and began to get to his feet but Nieves’s hand stopped him. “You should not have questioned my authority in the first place.”
“Wait. I’m sorry.”
“I know you are,” he said, brushing a hand along her jawbone. “I hope you know that I am sorry as well. I did not mean to do those things.” He lowered his forehead to the ground, bowing lowly. “Will you forgive me, Nieves?”
She nearly threw a fit. Her whole body blushed. “You don’t… oh, you don’t have to do that Alric.”
“I do.” He looked up at her. “Forgive me?”
Snow Heart Page 19