by G. K. DeRosa
“Hold still, girl!” reprimanded the handmaid, Katerina, as she nimbly twisted her fingers to craft an intricate French braid.
“I’m not a girl! I am eighteen now and a woman promised to be married,” said Lilliana, whipping her head around and rising from her seat indignantly. “Get out!”
“I apologize, Miss Dobrescu,” Katerina said as she scurried out of her room, head down at her mistress’ fiery outburst.
As soon as her handmaiden left, Lilliana broke down into tears. Sobbing into her handkerchief until some of the tension in her shoulders began to fade. Her foul mood was certainly not the poor woman’s fault, and she had lashed out at her unnecessarily. I will go apologize to her right away. She took a step toward the door and heard a faint knock. She opened it slightly and peeked through, hoping it wasn’t one of her parents, as she didn’t want them to see that she had been crying.
“Dalla!” Lilliana cried out happily. She opened the door all the way and embraced her dear friend.
“It is so wonderful to see you, Lilliana,” she said, holding the girl at arm’s length to get a good look at her. Dalla’s lilac eyes scanned her from head to toe, pausing briefly at the small residual swell in her abdomen before she finally let her go.
“How did you know I was back?” Lilliana asked, feeling slightly abashed by the weight of her friend’s scrutinizing gaze.
“One of the fairies came to me last night. She told me everything. I was so worried about you that I came first thing in the morning,” she responded as she pushed back a stray wisp of her dark hair. “How are you?”
“I do not wish to speak of it, Dalla. Everything that happened, the entire nine months, I never want to speak of any of it again,” she said as a lone tear rolled down her cheek.
Dalla reached out her petite hand to gently wipe the tear away. “My poor child, you have been through so much.”
Lilliana led her into the adjoining parlor where they could speak privately. “Dalla, you must promise me that no one will ever know where I’ve been for the past year. If my parents ever found out…”
“No one will ever discover the truth if that is what you desire. The fairies have been sworn to secrecy and you know that they cannot tell a lie,” Dalla reassured her.
“Good,” Lilliana said as she walked by the window staring out into the grey morning sky.
“Are you sure that you want to marry that man,” asked Dalla, “after everything he’s put you through?”
“What choice do I have?” Lilliana answered, turning back to her friend. “Fabian is rich and powerful and if I don’t marry him my family might not survive the winter.”
“There are other ways,” began Dalla.
“You know that my father forbids the use of magic. He despises it. If only my mother were stronger,” she said. Lilliana’s mother could have been a powerful witch if only she would have followed in her family’s tradition, and in some ways Lilliana resented her mother for her weakness.
“It’s not your mother’s fault that she was not endowed with the gift of magic as we were. The Albsurori have not been a friend to her,” said Dalla as if she had read her friend’s accusatory thoughts. “They had mistakenly believed she was destined for greatness, but now I’m afraid that burden falls on you.”
“So that forces me to marry Fabian to bring about the most powerful coupling of magic known to the supernatural world. I know,” she said with a sigh.
“The Albsurori mean well. They truly believe this is what is best for the coven and for all,” said Dalla.
“But they must know what Fabian is really like. How could they condemn one of their own to a life with him?” Lilliana asked desperately.
“Fabian can be very persuasive. Look at how he has fooled your parents,” she said.
“Yes, but my father has no idea that Fabian is a sorcerer. He simply sees a wealthy man willing to marry his daughter without a dowry and provide a large offering to save his failing farm. And my mother is too scared to say anything,” complained Lilliana.
“Oh my sweet child,” said Dalla taking both of Lilliana’s hands in her own, “you are strong and wise beyond your years and you will get through this.”
“Thank you truly, and I thank God everyday that I have you. If you hadn’t taught me about my powers and introduced me to the wonders of magic, I would have never survived the past year,” Lilliana said as she grasped her friend’s hands tightly. “Dalla, you are like the older sister I had always dreamed of.”
Dalla pulled the younger girl into a hug. “Everything will be all right, my sweet child.”
Lilliana smiled as she released her confidant and batted a stray tear away. “I don’t want to cry anymore. For the past year, all I’ve done is cry.”
“There is still the wedding,” said Dalla ruefully.
“Yes, in the spring I will be forced to marry Fabian and my unfortunate fate will be sealed.”
Celeste’s eyes widened and her breath hitched as she stopped dead in her tracks to take in the nightmarish scene before her. Dani took advantage of Celeste’s momentary distraction to quickly squirm away as everyone’s attention was diverted to the scene at the altar. After all the commotion of the past half hour, the room had suddenly become eerily silent and no one dared to even breathe. Celeste could only see the back of Roman’s head as he, Nico and Alek encircled the white marble altar. Lilliana Constantin sat straight up, partially covered by a linen sheet and taking shallow breaths, her bright blue eyes frantically examining her unexpected surroundings. As she scanned the room, her gaze fell upon Celeste for a brief moment and Celeste couldn’t help but turn away, unnerved by those penetrating yet oddly familiar clear blue eyes. She noticed that Stellan and Dalla, too, refused to meet her gaze, as if that one act would make this surreal scene irrefutably real.
This can’t be happening. Lilliana Constantin has been dead for almost a century. How could Alek have brought her back to life?
Lilliana cleared her throat and a raspy voice gurgled to the surface, “Where am I?”
“Mother?” gasped Nico, as he stared unbelieving into the face of the woman he had believed was forever lost to him.
She turned toward her son, her wild blonde hair in disarray and tried to focus her eyes on him as a perplexed expression crossed her face. “Who are you?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.
Celeste saw Nico’s wary smile slide off of his face as the words were spoken. Her heart flinched. Before she could take a step toward him, Marco held her back as Roman let out a guttural growl and lunged at Alek, knocking him to the floor.
“What have you done to her?” Roman yelled as he wrapped his strong hands around Alek’s neck to try and choke the life out of him. “How could you do this? Answer me!”
“Stop!” cried Lilliana as she shot up from the altar table. The white sheet slipped off and her beautiful crimson Victorian gown came into full view. Celeste took in the magnificence of the dress, with voluminous silk layers and intricate black lace embroidery, but her attention quickly diverted when she saw Lilliana leaping on top of Roman.
Considering Lilliana had been dead for almost a hundred years, she was much stronger than one would have imagined. She pulled Roman up off of Alek with one hand and threw him against the stone wall. That was enough to snap Celeste back to action, and she raced across the room to his side. Nico, too, finally unfroze from his state of shock and ran to his brother’s aide.
“Are you okay?” asked Celeste as she kneeled down next to Roman as Nico hovered over them.
Roman grimaced in response, shook his head, then roughly propped himself up against the wall. The look of anguish on his face as he watched his mother run to Alek’s side made Celeste’s heart ache. She reached out her hand to comfort him, but he stood up abruptly before she could touch him, the emptiness in his eyes slowly being consumed by rage.
“What have you done to her?” roared Roman, stalking toward them.
Lilliana was kneeling on the floor caressing Alek
’s cheek as he lay still on the ground, apparently overcome by Roman’s death grip and the overuse of magic. “What have you done to him?” she echoed, picking up the dagger on the floor and whirling toward Roman with venom in her voice.
The words stuck in Roman’s throat as he stared in disbelief at the mother that no longer recognized him.
“Mother, don’t you remember us?” asked Nico, his voice wavering.
Lilliana took a step toward him, holding the dagger in a tight grip. She knitted her light brows, seeming to examine his face more closely, then looked over to Roman; still, her expression remained blank. Stellan stepped forward, keeping Dalla behind him with his hands raised in a non-threatening manner. “Lilliana, please put the knife down. You have been through a great shock, perhaps you should sit down,” he said.
Lilliana surveyed the room, her overgrown golden locks in a tangle and her eyes wild like an animal trapped with nowhere to run. Stellan took another step closer to her and spoke soothingly, “No one is going to hurt you. We want to help you. You have been brought back from the Abyss and are understandably confused.”
“Then why did you hurt him?” she cried, pointing at Alek who still lay motionless on the ground.
“He’s the one that did this to you!” growled Roman. Celeste hurried to his side, afraid of what he might do next. She slipped her hand in his and to her relief this time he didn’t pull away. Instead, he sighed and his shoulders slumped down as if they carried the weight of the world.
“I don’t know who any of you are. But I know that young man brought me here and saved me from the Abyss. I am indebted to him in some way, of that I am certain,” said Lilliana. “If you truly wish to help me, help him.”
Nico rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe this,” he muttered. Celeste laid her other hand on Nico’s shoulder and pulled him back toward her and Roman.
“Stellan knows what he’s doing. Maybe he can fix this,” she whispered to the brothers.
Stellan took Dalla’s hand and led her over to Alek as Lilliana watched suspiciously. Just then, Dani Lynn emerged from the corner of the chamber and made her way over to linger nervously by Alek’s prone figure.
Lilliana’s suspicious eyes never wavered from Dalla as she bent to the floor. Celeste thought she saw a passing flash of recognition as she watched the interaction between the two women, but in a moment it was gone, leaving Celeste feeling that she had imagined it.
“I’m just going to heal him,” said Dalla quietly. “The use of so much magic has drained him.” Lilliana nodded.
“Seriously?” asked Nico. “You’re going to give the bad guy more power?”
“Hush!” hissed Stellan. “She will give him just enough so that he regains consciousness.”
Nico grunted in response as he and Roman stared, incredulous.
Dalla whispered a few words as she held her hands above Alek’s head, and his eyelids began to flutter. Lilliana kneeled to the floor once again, her full skirts covering the ground around her. Alek’s eyes opened and Lilliana sighed in relief. She reached out her hand and caressed his pale cheek.
“Mother?” he said wearily.
“I’m here, my boy,” she said.
“That’s enough! I can’t take this farce any longer,” said Roman dropping Celeste’s hand and surging forward. Alek sprang to his feet and pushed Lilliana behind him protectively.
“Why doesn’t she know who we are? How could she only remember you, a son she barely knew?” asked Roman as he jabbed a finger in Alek’s chest and stood just inches from his face.
And as a special bonus, here’s an excerpt from the companion novella, Finding Wilder. Enjoy!
It’s strange being back in Oak Bluffs after so long. And it’s even stranger that I’m taking classes – again – at the local community college. But it’s important to keep up appearances. Of course, I’ve attended some of the best universities around the world, and I can’t help but laugh at the irony of finding myself in an introductory European history class. Glancing at the eager faces of the young freshmen surrounding me, an attractive co-ed catches my eye. She’s rather striking with full pink lips and sun-kissed chestnut hair. She stares unabashedly at me as she chews on the end of her pen; her glance is somewhat insinuating. I toss her a smile, then turn my attention back up to the professor.
Before I’ve even gotten out of my seat at the end of class, the attractive young girl appears in front of me.
“Hi,” she says with a coy grin.
I flash her my own million-dollar smile, and she’s suddenly speechless. I’ve always had that effect on women, and I can’t say that I don’t enjoy it. It has gotten me out of almost as many dangerous situations as it’s gotten me into.
Finally, she finds her tongue and continues. “I’m Dani Lynn,” she says, extending her hand. “You have to be new in town because there’s no way I wouldn’t have run into you by now.”
“I am. My name is Nico Constantin, and my brother and I just moved to Oak Bluffs.” I purposely omit the back part.
We carry on with the usual “getting to know you” conversation, and eventually she invites me to her place for a party. Since I never say no to a party, I agree to come, and she walks away happy after we’ve exchanged phone numbers.
Not bad for the first day at a new school.
Walking into our stylish apartment, it occurs to me that perhaps we over did it with the place. It’s doubtful that the average college twenty-somethings would be able to afford such a nice space. Staring out through the floor-to-ceiling windows in the great room, I catch sight of the peaceful blue pond below and push aside my hesitation. The apartment was worth it.
Kicking off my shoes, I stretch out on the black leather sofa as I grab the remote, noting that the 60-inch wide screen television was also totally worth it. As I flip through the channels, my ever-brooding brother walks into the living room.
“How was your first day?” he asks as he takes a seat beside me. Roman and I have an interesting dynamic. As the older brother, he often takes the parental role, as he is right now.
I decide not to give him a hard time about it and answer him honestly. “You know, the usual – lectures, homework, and pretty girls throwing themselves at me.”
Roman shoots me a displeased look. He’s always had a more difficult time fitting in than I have, but it’s certainly not because he couldn’t. I would never admit it to him, but he might even be slightly more attractive than I am. We both have similar physiques, tall and well-muscled with classic features. However, where I have dark brown eyes, he has the most crystal clear blue eyes I’ve ever seen. If I were a girl, I’d be all over that. Still, his astonishingly good looks seem to elude him, and he ignores all overtures from the opposite sex.
“We’re invited to a party tonight,” I tell him. “All of Oak Bluffs Community College will be there. You should come.”
“I don’t think so,” he answers predictably.
“Why not? It would be good for you to get out.”
“I have been getting out,” Roman responds.
“Oh yeah, that’s right.” I thought I had heard him sneak out of the apartment late yesterday evening. “Where have you been going in the middle of the night?”
“Nowhere important,” he responds with a shrug, and I know the conversation is over.
Looking at myself in the bathroom mirror, I apply a bit more gel to my spikey hair to get the purposely-messy look just right. I adjust the collar of my aqua button-down shirt and tuck it into the midnight blue Armani jeans I bought in Rome last spring. I douse myself with a few sprays of cologne, and I’m almost out the door when Roman stops me.
“Be careful tonight. You never know who might be at the party,” he says, grabbing hold of my arm.
“I’ll keep my eyes open for her, if that’s what you’re getting at,” I respond. Roman loves to be dramatic. I know there are important things going on around us, but sometimes a party is just a party. It’s so typical of him to constantly
obsess about our safety.
“You heard Stellan. We are to stay away from her,” he continues. “If this get-together is as big as you say it’s going to be, she could very well be there.”
“Right, I got it,” I say and shake loose my arm from his grasp.
Climbing into my new fire engine red BMW M5, my heart races with excitement. Another not so prudent purchase, but well worth it in my opinion. As I press the start button, the engine roars to life. I slam my foot on the gas and peel out of our quiet complex, the balmy breeze blowing through my hair and perfecting the tousled look. The party is a short drive from our place. Oak Bluffs itself is a small town and a person can pretty much drive all over it in ten minutes. As I pull into the condo, I note streets that are teeming with parked cars, a stark contrast to the empty lot I just left.
Partygoers are spilling into the streets as I walk up the stairs. This is going to be some fiesta. Dani Lynn, the hostess, runs up to me as soon as I cross the threshold. She’s wearing a low cut halter-top, revealing some of her best assets.
“I’m so glad you made it!” she announces triumphantly as a gaggle of girls turn my way.
I lean forward and give her a kiss on each cheek, and I’m pretty sure she’s going to faint. It amazes me how much young people in America lack regarding old world civilities. She recovers from the momentary lapse and introduces me to her sister, Jessica, who is peering over Dani Lynn’s shoulder.
I shoot Jessica a smile and opt out of the double-cheeked kiss for fear her younger sister may collapse on the spot. The two girls usher me toward the crowded kitchen and present me with tempting options from their fully stocked bar. As I sip on my chosen beverage, a Jack and Coke, I peruse the area around me as Dani Lynn chatters on. Before long, I notice that I’m surrounded by a throng of young college girls. I have no choice but to regale them with stories of my travels in Europe, as they stare at me open-mouthed.