I tried to examine our surroundings as I ran, looking for a place we could safely hide.
“We need to hide.” Apparently William’s mind was following the same track.
“Yes, but where?”
“We could climb a tree.”
I grimaced. My leg was barely holding up for our headlong flight. I wasn’t sure if it would take my weight if I tried to climb on it. But I didn’t see what choice we had.
“An arrow nicked my leg.”
“What?” William faltered, so I gave him a shove, pushing him onwards again.
“I’m all right. But I might need your help up the tree.” Did the pursuit sound closer? We needed to hurry. “As soon as you see a good one, start climbing. I’ll follow, but you might need to haul me up some of the way.”
William glanced at me and nodded, before beginning to scan the trees. A few steps later, he veered to the left. I followed, listening intently for the crashing and the strange crackling that followed us.
Without slowing, he launched himself up a gnarled tree, grabbing a low branch and swinging himself higher. I followed, gripping the branch with both hands and attempting to use my momentum to run up the side of the tree. My left leg buckled, and I would have fallen if a strong arm hadn’t gripped me.
With William’s help I scrambled safely onto the branch. As soon as I had balanced myself, he swung up to the next branch, reaching down again to help me. We continued to move upwards until the sound of the pursuit peaked.
William stopped, his back to the trunk, and pulled me against him. We both held our breaths, the discordant crashing of our hearts loud in our ears. The sound of our pursuers didn’t falter. It surged ahead and gradually diminished.
The arm that gripped my waist relaxed slightly. I twisted and saw his lips open to speak. I smashed my hand over his mouth, and he raised both eyebrows at me. I shook my head.
The moment stretched out, our eyes locked, our bodies crushed together on the narrow branch, and his breath warm on my hand. Too many emotions surged through me, and I feared I would burst from the pressure. Something important prodded at my thoughts, but I couldn’t wrest my mind away from William long enough to focus on it.
I felt his jaw move. Apparently he had decided he had humoured me long enough. Before he actually spoke, however, a loud snap from below jerked both of our attention downwards. Two guards walked slowly back in the direction of my aunt’s house. They each carried long sticks and were beating the undergrowth around them.
“We’re never going to find them this way,” said one.
The other grunted.
“They could be anywhere by now,” the first continued.
“The prince will have us comb the whole island if we have to, you know that. He can’t let any of them get away. And none of us are getting those fat purses unless he gets his hands on the royal treasury. So keep your mind on the gold and stop complaining.”
They moved further and further away, the first man continually glancing back over his shoulder. “I just think we should have stayed together. What if we actually find them? That prince still has that magic sword.”
“Then we set up a racket and keep our distance. The dragon will get here quickly enough.”
William and I exchanged a silent look of confusion. There was no way that had been an actual dragon behind us. Dragons were a bedtime story for children.
When the men dropped out of sight, William pulled his head away from my hand and lowered his lips to my ear. Despite the precariousness of our situation and the burning pain in my leg, the tingle of his breath against my skin sent a shiver through my body.
“We need to get out of here. Before you bleed to death. Do you see over there?” He pointed off to one side. “The ground rises slightly. I think I can see something. It might be cave of some sort. If it is, we can lie low there for a while.”
A cave sounded dangerous. We couldn’t afford to get trapped in a place with only one exit. But he was right about my leg. If I fainted, I could get us both killed. Reluctantly I nodded agreement.
William shifted his weight, half supporting me as I dropped down to the bough below us. Slowly, branch by branch, we descended to the ground. We moved much more slowly now, focusing on silence rather than speed.
It seemed to take an age to reach the place William had seen from the treetop. The uphill slope strained my leg, but I gritted my teeth and continued forward. We nearly missed the opening from ground level, hidden as it was behind several large bushes. A better hiding place than I had feared, then.
William helped me inside and swept the area outside the entrance with his eyes, looking for any signs we might have left of our presence. I pushed into the cave, looking for any unpleasant wildlife who might have made it their home. Nothing immediately greeted me, but the cave continued back a long way, gradually narrowing and disappearing into darkness. It looked like exactly the sort of place to house a colony of bats. I shivered.
Thankfully a couple of small openings in the rock let some extra daylight into the front section of the cave. I would just have to stay well away from the back.
Now that my body was still, the elusive thought from earlier took definition. I spun back around to the opening as William entered.
“I…I don’t understand.” My whole body trembled. “I gave myself away, but the curse hasn’t punished me.”
William ignored me, grabbing both my arms and wrenching me against him. His lips came down hard against mine, and the world spun away from me.
Chapter 30
Fire scorched through me. It lifted all my physical aches and pains, a sensation in direct opposition to the effects of the curse. I burned with energy and a new wholeness.
Only when every sense of time and place had fractured, did William break the kiss. His eyes locked on to mine. “I don’t care what it takes. If that didn’t break the curse, I won’t rest until I find something that will.”
“Actually, I think that did it.” The feelings his kiss had ignited in me were the opposite of the curse in every way.
“Oh.” For a moment he looked almost lost. Then a sly smile crept over his face. “Then I guess I don’t have anything better to do than this.”
Before I could grasp his meaning, he crushed his lips back down over mine. When my knees buckled, his arms tightened around me, taking my weight. I had spent so long trying to smother the fire he kindled inside me, that it swept through me now with a mighty roar, hungry to be free. I slid my hands around his neck and up into his hair, using my grip to tighten our kiss. Time slowed and then sped up.
Eventually, we had to come up for air. I regretfully put some distance between us. “As lovely as this is, we still have to get out of this jungle alive, remember.”
He instantly sobered. Slipping out of his vest, he stripped off his shirt. I tried not to stare at his bare chest. I remembered when I had first seen it, in the practice hall of our faraway palace. How long ago that seemed.
He ripped the material into long strips and knelt. Wrapping the makeshift bandage around my dripping wound, he pulled it tight, murmuring an apology when I hissed at the pain. Once it was securely bandaged, he helped me to sit.
I closed my eyes and took deep breaths, willing myself not to pass out. Eventually the pain ebbed, and the dizziness faded. I opened my eyes to find William’s blue ones staring at my face. I blushed.
He reached up to brush my cheek with gentle fingers. “Every moment you look more beautiful than the one before.” He shook his head. “How is that possible?”
My blush deepened. Every fibre of my body seemed to quiver in response to his presence. I had found him hard to resist before, I knew I would have no hope now.
“You called me Aurora. How did you know? How long have you known?” My mind backtracked over all our recent interactions, stretching back to the capital. Had he known as we trekked through the jungle? When we talked on deck in the moonlight? In Largo?
“You confounded me from the begin
ning, Princess…Aurora…” He grinned ruefully. “See! I don’t even know what to call you.”
“I don’t care what you call me,” I said softly, and then wanted to roll my eyes at myself. I would have to be careful, or I would truly become the foolish court maiden I had mimicked for so long. Too many people already bent before William’s natural charm, he needed someone who would stand up to him.
I swayed, exhausted from the blood loss. William scooted over to rest his back against the cave wall and then pulled me close, sitting me between his outstretched legs. He drew me back against him so that my head rested on his chest.
I sighed and closed my eyes as his hands settled loosely around my waist. We weren’t safe yet, not really, but I felt more peaceful than I had in years.
“The beauty of the Lanoverian princesses is praised throughout the Four Kingdoms,” said William. “Especially that of the Sleeping Princess. But, even so, I wasn’t prepared for the effect of meeting you.” He shifted slightly behind me. “I never thought mere beauty could impact me so greatly. I thought I had more substance than that. I always believed that when I fell in love it would be for kindness and intelligence and principles. A pretty face would simply be the dressing.”
He cleared his throat. “But once I had seen you, you haunted me. I couldn’t close my eyes without seeing your face. I tried to fight it, but whenever I was in your presence, it was like I couldn’t see anyone else.”
A small thrill ran through me, and he tightened his arms around me in response.
“I knew all about your curse from Rafe. I told myself that emptiness lurked beneath your beauty, though it was no fault of your own. But I couldn’t quite believe it. Every now and then I caught a gleam in your eyes, or a seemingly innocent turn of phrase that intrigued me.” He shook his head. “I told myself it was wishful thinking, that I was only seeing what I wanted to see. But even back then I thought the intensity of my attraction to you wasn’t entirely natural. But still I couldn’t stop the obsession. And then I met Aurora.”
He dropped a light kiss on the top of my head, and I thought my heart would melt. Pain? What pain? I had entirely forgotten my wound, or the guards out searching for us.
“If I had thought myself conflicted before, it was nothing to how I felt after that. I told myself to be wary, not to trust you implicitly, but you were everything I thought I would never find. I had never felt a rush like when we fought together to free your agent–the fear when I saw you in danger, and the exhilaration when you held your own fighting beside me.”
He stopped for a moment and swallowed. “I wanted to kill every one of them for daring to lift a finger against you, but at the same time I loved that you didn’t need me to defend you. I told myself that my feelings for the princess were a shade compared to what I felt for Aurora. But my heart didn’t believe me. I tried to avoid her…” He laughed softly. “…avoid you during the day, but I couldn’t stay away. I berated myself every day for what I saw as my inconstancy, but somehow it didn’t feel unfaithful to love you both. The best I could do was hold myself back from actually declaring my feelings to either of you.”
His use of the word love made me shiver. The power of his kiss had already proclaimed the truth of his love, but I still exulted to hear it spoken. I had given up on love so long ago.
“I had never been able to shake the feeling that you, as Celeste, were an old friend. That I knew you, truly knew you. I realised that I saw you as two parts of a whole. Celeste was light-hearted and fun, but I couldn’t truly love someone with so little substance. Aurora had all the intelligence, drive and dedication I could hope for, but she never stopped to laugh. Together you were one whole, entirely perfect person. I told myself over and over again to stop such foolishness, but the seed had been planted.
“I didn’t understand how it could be possible with the curse. And I didn’t dare push Aurora for her true identity. I was too afraid of losing you altogether. I nearly went mad on-board ship after we spoke to your uncle and you went into hiding. Not knowing what had happened to you, or if you were safe, was torture.”
He paused for a moment, resting his chin on the top of my head.
“But I desperately wanted it to be true, and I wanted you to tell me the truth yourself.” He paused. “I have a confession of my own to make. I saw you rescue your mother in the storm. But I didn’t want to catch you out, I wanted you to trust me enough to tell me. So as soon as I saw you were safe, I ran. And then, when I saw you in Largo, I couldn’t hold it in, I couldn’t stop myself asking. Only, it sent you running, just as I had feared. And I started to doubt myself again. The storm had been intense, and the flashes of lightening so brief. Was I really sure what I had seen?”
I wanted to tell him how badly I had longed to tell him the truth. But I didn’t want to interrupt his story.
“I told myself to stop believing in such ridiculous foolishness. When I talked to you that night as Celeste, I truly thought I was being driven out of my mind. My heart and my brain were completely at war with each other. One part of me was sure you were the same person, and the other part questioned everything.
“When you turned up at the hedge, my heart tried to claim it as a victory, but my head was firmly in control at that point. Our task was too dangerous, and I didn’t want to see you hurt, as Celeste or Aurora.”
“So what changed?” I tried to remember everything I had said or done in my aunt’s house. What had given me away?
“When you conveniently ‘tripped’ next to the path, all my suspicions returned. I watched you carefully after that and, gradually, I felt more and more sure. But I couldn’t say anything. Not with your aunt there. It wasn’t my secret to tell.
“And then, when we escaped, any last doubt disappeared. You tugged at me, and I turned, frustrated, and saw the door behind you. And you gestured for me to follow you.” He chuckled. “I had seen that steely look and that hand gesture several times before. But never from Celeste. For some reason it was enough. I stopped worrying about the curse, and I just knew.”
I snuggled back against him and smiled. “I’ve been thinking about that. How I gave myself away, and the curse didn’t punish me. A long time ago, my godmother told me I had a lesson to learn. I think I might have learnt it, just now, back in my aunt’s cabin. I think the curse knew that all of its requirements had been met. That I was finally ready for true love, just as true love had found me. It seems to have understood that we weren’t exactly free to kiss at that point and given us a free pass until we reached this cave.”
“So a true love’s kiss is all it took? Really?” William groaned. “I should have kissed you the day after I arrived. I’ve longed to do so often enough.”
I giggled and paused at the sound. How strange to be free to mix my two personas, to snort or giggle as I saw fit. “I don’t think it would have worked then. It had to be true love–which meant you needed to love the whole me. You needed to know who you were kissing.”
“I still don’t understand how it worked. The curse I mean. And your being Aurora.”
I drew a deep breath. “Get ready for a long story.” And I told him everything. My searching before I turned sixteen, the deal I struck with the godmother, my efforts as Aurora. I even told him about my hatred and anger, about the truth I had learned from my mother, and the truth I had learned from my own heart.
He listened, and he held me, and he didn’t judge. And I promised myself that if we got out of this alive, I would never stop loving this man.
When I had finished, silence settled between us. It couldn’t last forever, though.
Reluctantly I pushed myself away from him, standing. “We’ve rested long enough. I’ve stopped bleeding, and the dizziness has passed. We need to find water. And we need to get back to the beach.” Mention of the others twisted my stomach, my newfound peace disappearing. I had been trying so hard not to think of everyone we had left behind.
Even the thought of my aunt’s fate brought a wave of fear.
I couldn’t ignore the sacrifice she had made for us.
While I was stuck in the cave, partially crippled and trapped, I had forced my mind to focus on William rather than my family. And it had been almost too easy. But the first heady joy had faded somewhat, and I could no longer ignore my suppressed fears.
William matched my change in mood. “I trust them–Marie and Rafe and Celine. The prince’s guards won’t find them as easy a target as they expect.” He took my hand. “And the same with your father and brothers back at the palace. I fought your brothers in practice bouts; they’re warriors. And you left them all a warning, remember.”
The memory lifted my heart. I had given them an advantage my uncle didn’t know about.
“You equipped them all,” said William. “Now you need to focus on yourself. I’m not going to let you die just when I found out the truth.” He pulled me in against his chest, seemingly unable to help himself. I let him hold me for a moment, drinking in some of his strength and certainty.
“You’re right,” I said at last, pushing back. “But my aunt is alone. She may already be dead even. But we have to find out. And try to rescue her if she’s alive.”
“Are you sure?” William looked into my eyes, and he didn’t need to voice all the complicated questions and emotions behind the question.
I straightened. “She sacrificed herself so we could escape. You said it yourself–we have to trust the others. They’re not helpless, but she might be.”
“I love you, Princess.” William used the hand he still held to tug me back towards him. “My Aurora.” He dropped a soft kiss on my mouth. “Let’s go get them.”
Chapter 31
We surveyed the jungle for some time before exiting the cave. The guards seemed to have moved on, presumably to search other parts of the island. Carefully we picked our way back in the direction of my aunt’s clearing.
William kept shooting me concerned looks, but I ignored them. Now that we had staunched the blood loss, my leg would hold up for now. After his tenth look, I rolled my eyes. He replied with a small smile, before the expression dropped off his face.
The Princess Game: A Reimagining of Sleeping Beauty (The Four Kingdoms Book 4) Page 22