The political conversation still swirled around me. I fought to suppress another yawn and glanced sideways at Eileen to see if she was experiencing the same struggles to stay awake. No sign of boredom filled her face. Instead she sat with perfect posture and unwavering attention, responding with graceful, intelligent comments. Aiden frequently smiled at her, his eyes filled with such tenderness, clearly extremely proud of her. The sweet display gave me my first smile of the evening. Despite Eileen’s frequent worries, she was doing a wonderful job.
I glanced at the clock. Only a quarter of an hour had inched past. How much longer would I be expected to endure this? If only I could sneak into the kitchens, where I could help the servants clean up and spend the evening exchanging stories, just as I’d passed many evenings at the palace—but unfortunately I was expected to remain.
I prayed for something to break up this monotony, and a miracle occurred in the form of a dark-haired parlor maid arriving, bearing tea and sweets. Excellent. Eating would provide a much-needed distraction. I immediately—but daintily—dove in. Ooh, raspberry custard, delicious. Could this be Ali’s favorite treat? I’d no sooner taken a bite than my gaze drifted back towards him. I stiffened. He still wasn’t paying attention to me, nor to Eileen. Instead, he was fixated on the maid. My eyes narrowed. Why was he watching her?
She handed a cup to an aging ambassador sitting close to where Ali stood guarding and glanced at him to bat her eyelashes. For a moment they stared at one another before she smiled coyly, flirtatiously, and he lifted his eyebrow back.
I nearly choked, and then I was coughing, but despite the noise attracting the attention of nearly everyone in the room—including an icy glare from Princess Seren––it didn’t even warrant a glance from Ali. Instead he remained fixated on the maid, his eyebrow still raised, a gesture he’d given me dozens of times but which I now realized meant nothing special.
I was never going to share my famous brownies with that parlor maid ever again.
The maid finished her task and left the room, pausing only to give Ali a lingering look. My jaw tightened. So it was like that. The two obviously shared a tender relationship. Was it just the two of them, or did Ali also toy with Eileen’s lady maid? He’d wasted no time after I’d admitted that I considered him handsome to think himself a lady’s man. He probably now raised his eyebrow and twitched his lips at every girl that came along, the rogue.
The burning pain had returned, and I finally recognized it for what it was: jealousy. Yes—I, Rosalina, was envious that a mere guard seemed to be interested in multiple women, none of whom were me. Well, I refused to allow him to steal my affections now. Whatever spark had transpired between us in the garden had clearly only been a flirtatious game to him and meant nothing. I wouldn’t allow that confusing encounter to distract me from my real prince.
I shoved away every strange, fluttery feeling I’d ever felt for that guard and forced myself to focus on Prince Liam, the only man for me. My spell was almost ready, and then I’d finally win the heart of my prince, giving him the strength to finally break his forced engagement so he could cherish me––and only me. That was the only happily ever after I wanted, and nothing—especially any unwelcome feelings for that slippery guard—would cause me to stray from my chosen course.
Chapter 15
After my long and arduous quest, I, Rosalina, had finally succeeded in creating my love spell. Prince Liam had arrived earlier in the day, and seeing him again had only confirmed he was the prince for me. In his absence, my thoughts had admittedly wavered slightly—undoubtedly Alastar’s doing. But when I greeted Prince Liam and he kissed my hand with his usual dimpled smile, my destiny had once again become clear.
I beamed at the chocolates, perfectly round and the most delectable-looking dark brown. They looked so delicious I was tempted to sample one myself. I clasped my hands and squealed. What a brilliant success.
“Do you want to wake the entire palace?” Ali grumbled.
I spun around to see him standing in the doorway. I unconsciously ran my fingers through my tangled hair, damp and wild from having spent a good portion of the midnight hours melting chocolate over a hot fire. “How did you know I was here?”
“I followed the scent of mischief and naturally knew you were the source.”
At the mention of mischief, I subtly scooted so my body hid my chocolates. “Mischief?”
“Indeed.” I expected his lips to twitch as he studied me but instead his expression was rather sullen; he undoubtedly hadn’t gotten over our recent fight. Despite by own lingering annoyance, I still experienced the sudden urge to get lost in his eyes—a rather strange notion—so naturally I severed our gaze and stared at the chocolate-splattered floor instead. But hard as I tried, I couldn’t resist the strange lure pulling me to Ali for long. I peeked up at him through my flock of golden hair to discover him no longer looking at me but studying the splotched floor with a puckered brow.
“What’s been going on here?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I squeaked, sidling over a few more inches to make sure my chocolates were completely masked from view. He cocked an eyebrow.
“I sincerely doubt that. What are you hiding, Rosie?”
I gnawed my lip, fighting the curse that was anxious to escape at the predicament I was quickly finding myself in. “I’m not hiding anything.”
He stepped more fully into the kitchen, eyes suspicious. I wriggled beneath his scrutiny. “The guilt filling your eyes, your rigid posture, and the chocolate all over the floor indicate otherwise.”
I growled in frustration, a very unappealing heroine moment, to be sure. “Why are you so observant?”
“I’m a guard, Rosie. It’s my job.”
I sighed and reluctantly scooted over so he could see my arrangement of beautiful chocolates all lined up in darling rows on the tray.
He gawked at them. “You didn’t.”
“I did! Aren’t they delightful? I’ve never made anything so perfect.”
The only advantage to having been discovered was it gave me the opportunity to brag, and since Ali had been rendered temporarily speechless, I swelled myself up in preparation to tell the entire tale.
“When we squabbled about this the other day, I only had one ingredient remaining that was being stubbornly elusive. After baking up a tracking tart last night, I was able to find it in the Forest this morning. Naturally, I didn’t waste a moment and immediately whipped up these chocolates as soon as the kitchen was free. It was quite the adventure—mincing all the ingredients small enough to stir them seamlessly into the chocolate as it melted over the smoldering hearth, but look how splendidly they turned out!”
Ali listened to my recitation without altering his expression. When I finished, up went his eyebrow. “What a stirring account of how unhappy endings are created.”
My heart lurched. “Whatever do you mean?”
“This path will undoubtedly lead to a very unhappy Rosie.”
I pressed my hands to my hips. “If this was the wrong path, the chocolates wouldn’t have come out so splendidly. See?” I seized the tray and held it out to him for his inspection, waving it beneath his nose. “Don’t they look tasty?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You’re offering me a love spell? You want me to fall in love with you?”
Heat flared my cheeks. “Of course not.” What a ridiculous notion. He was obviously trying to charm me just like he charmed the palace maids, but I refused to fall for it. I slammed the tray on the counter.
“Even if I ate one of your spelled chocolates and it actually worked, it wouldn’t create real love.”
“You’re so unromantic,” I snapped. “Don’t you believe in love?”
Although his expression didn’t falter, the look he gave me was intense. “I do, more than you know, but I don’t believe such an emotion can be created through magic. Even if these worked”—he tipped his head towards my rows of chocolates—“it would merely create a façade of love, an infa
tuation, which isn’t true love at all. I’m surprised that you—a girl with the most romantic heart I’ve ever encountered—don’t want something real.”
I flinched. “Of course I do, but I must do something to hurry things along in winning my prince, for unfortunately, my true love’s unwanted marriage is imminent, and only a love spell will give him the strength to break away from his duty.”
“Prince Liam isn’t your true love,” Alastar said. “The more you come to know His Highness, the more you’ll realize how ill-suited you two are. If you spell him only to realize he’s not the one, you’ll find yourself in a bundle of trouble.”
My jaw tightened. “That’s not going to happen. He’s my prince and I’m his princess.”
“No, he’s a prince,” Ali corrected. “But marrying a title isn’t enough to guarantee the happily ever after you desire. One day you’ll finally realize that and will be quite unhappy that you’re stuck with him.” His grave expression settled into determination. “As your friend, it’s my responsibility to intervene.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Intervene?”
“Yes. Since you have continually ignored my advice to not bake the love spell, you’ve left me with no other choice.”
His eyes honed in on the chocolates. I gasped and stood in front of them like a shield. “You wouldn’t!”
“Wouldn’t I?” He stepped closer. “My duty is first to the crown, which includes protecting Prince Liam from your scheme.”
“Thwarting the heroine’s goal isn’t a noble act, but an evil one.”
He advanced another step, then another, taunting me with his slow approach. I pressed my back against the edge of the counter, desperate to protect the spelled chocolates I’d worked so hard on.
“It pains me to be temporarily cast as your antagonist, but I find myself quite invested in your happily ever after. Thus I must take drastic action.”
“Drastic action?” My voice shook. “Your scheme better not be to steal my love spell.” By the gleam in his eyes, I knew that was precisely his dastardly intention.
He took another slow and deliberate step, as if he delighted in extending my torture as part of this villainous game.
“Don’t steal my love spell. Please, Alastar.”
He froze. “Alastar? Are we back to formality?” He sounded rather disappointed.
“Villains don’t deserve nicknames.”
“But don’t friends?”
“If you steal my love spell, we’re no longer friends and never will be ever again.”
His normally rigid expression actually crumpled. “We are friends, Rosie.”
“Rosalina.”
He sighed. “Very well, Miss Rosalina.”
My formal name sounded so wrong passing Ali’s lips—no, Alastar, I corrected myself. He deserved no nickname from me.
“We are friends,” he continued. “That’s why I must stop you.” He finally closed the distance between us. “I know you, Rosie. You won’t be satisfied with anything less than the most perfect of happy endings. Being trapped in a loveless marriage with a prince you scarcely know won’t make you happy.”
“It will, for Prince Liam will be in love with me,” I protested.
“He’ll be infatuated, Rosie. I know you don’t want that, and as your friend I don’t want that for you, either. Hence, you’ve left me with no other alternative.”
He grabbed me by the waist and hoisted me away from the counter in order to seize the tray of spelled chocolates. I shrieked and pounced, whacking him with my fists. Pain laced along my wrists as I hit him over and over, but my efforts were futile; he was too strong. In no time at all, he’d swept my dozen chocolates into his satchel.
“Give those back!”
“Calm down, Rosie; you don’t want to wake the entire palace.”
“I’ll wake up anyone who’ll come to my rescue and lock you away as a thief.” My tears escaped and his expression twisted.
“I’m sorry, Rosie.”
“Don’t call me that,” I stuttered, finally giving up on hitting him and burying my face in my now throbbing hands. “You’re evil, Alastar. I do believe I hate you.” I never should have let that rigid guard weasel his way into my affections; it made his betrayal even worse.
“I’m sorry for that, too. It pains me to be your antagonist.” He brushed my shoulder, but I flinched away and glared.
“You’ve ruined my happily ever after.”
“Believe it or not, I’ve just saved it. I hope one day you’ll realize that.” He carefully took my hands in his large, calloused ones and examined them. Despite my anger, I shuddered at his touch. The reaction frightened me. I tried to yank away, but his hold was firm. “Oh dear, your hands are red. Do they hurt?”
“All because of you.” I fought to ignore the pleasant sensations rippling across my skin as he massaged the backs of my hands with his thumbs. They somehow hurt less with him touching me. “You’re the most evil villain that’s ever existed. Release me at once.”
He obediently, albeit reluctantly, did. I seized the opportunity and dove for his satchel, trying to yank it away, but once again he was far too strong. He pushed me away both forcibly and surprisingly gently.
“I’m sorry, Rosalina.” His normally stoic expression was a mask of regret—or rather false regret; villains experienced nothing but villainous emotions.
“You’re not sorry. From the beginning, you’ve done everything in your power to continuously thwart me at every turn.”
“One day you’ll finally understand that we’re on the same team.” He bowed and strode from the room, taking the spell I’d worked so hard on with him.
“I won’t be thwarted,” I called to his retreating back. “I’ll do whatever it takes to obtain my fairy-tale ending.”
He paused in the doorway to glance back. “As will I, Rosie.”
He disappeared, leaving me with my heart wrenching and glaring after him with clenched fists in the middle of the messy kitchen scattered with chocolate-covered pots and pans I’d used to create the most perfect and now stolen love spell.
But losing Ali was far more painful, a loss made more torturous considering he’d been a villain in disguise this entire time.
If Alastar believed he could foil my fairy tale so easily, he’d missed an essential Heroine Rosalina character trait: determination. I avoided him all the next morning as I plotted my next move—for there would be a next move; that was guaranteed.
“Alright Rosie, the suspense is driving me mad,” Eileen said at breakfast. “What’s happened between you and Alastar? You’re glaring at him like—”
“—like he’s a dastardly fiend.”
“Exactly. Wait, what?”
“That guard is a menace.” To my annoyance, he made no acknowledgement of the sharp dialogue I was using to attack his character; he merely continued staring rigidly ahead, which only angered me further. “Throw him in the dungeon, Eileen, and let him rot.”
“What?” She exchanged an alarmed and thoroughly puzzled look with Aiden. “What ever for? Did you two get in a fight?”
“No, I merely unmasked the traitor. He’s a thief.”
Eileen raised an eyebrow, and I hated the reminder of the guard I was quite determinedly not looking at…until I skewered him with another glare, silently cursing when he didn’t even flinch.
“You heinous villain, I worked hard on those.”
He still said nothing. Eileen and Aiden exchanged another look before Aiden turned to Alastar. “Is it true you stole from Rosalina?”
“Yes, Your Highness, it is.”
Aiden’s expression hardened as his fierce Dark Prince persona settled over him. “Stealing is not condoned, Guard Alastar.”
“Of course not, Your Highness.”
“And yet you stole from our guest, the dearest friend of Her Highness?”
“Yes, Your Highness.” He was as stoic as ever, without even the hint of cracking under his prince’s interrogation.
My hand tightened on my butter knife. “May I suggest the dungeon?”
Aiden sighed. “Such an extreme won’t be necessary, Rosalina.”
“But he’s a thief!”
“Indeed.” His frown deepened. “This behavior is most unlike you, Alastar. I demand an explanation.”
“I stole spelled chocolates intended for His Highness Prince Liam.”
I skewered Alastar with a glare. First a thief and now a traitor; Alastar was proving to be the King of all Villains.
Aiden’s mouth fell open and Eileen spun on me with a gasp. “Oh, Rosie, I thought we told you to not spell Liam.”
“But I need to spell him. He’s my prince.” I turned imploringly towards Aiden. “Tell Alastar to return the spell so that I can.”
Aiden sighed heavily. “Rosalina…” He shook his head and then turned to that guard. “Thank you for your interference, Alastar.”
He bowed. “Of course, Your Highness.”
“What!?” I slammed my hands on the table, shaking the cutlery. “You’re condoning a thief? What kind of monarchy is this?”
“Please, Rosalina, calm yourself,” Aiden said sternly, the force of his black eyes causing me to sink several inches in my seat. “His job is to protect the crown, even if it means stealing forbidden love spells from over-excited girls. I will not have anyone connected to me or my crown do something so dishonorable.”
Eileen laid a hand on Aiden’s arm. “Dear…”
Aiden turned a rare frown towards her. “Please don’t tell me you approve of her attempting to spell a member of the Dracerian Royal Family, darling.”
“Of course I don’t, but please scold her as a friend, not as the prince.”
Aiden intertwined his hand with hers. “Very well, love.” He turned back to me, considerably less fierce and regal. “I apologize for my harshness, Rosalina, but please understand that I cannot allow you to spell Prince Liam or anyone else while within these palace walls. Am I understood?”
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