by J A Armitage
Blaise leaned forward with interest.
“The child’s origins were unknown,” Azia continued, skimming down the page. “And members of the court have been ‘astonished at the infant’s unique eyes, which bear beautiful golden rings.’”
“That was the part that interested me,” Hedley said. “I’d never seen eyes like Deon’s. His note last night mentioned that you all have them, too. I see now it was no exaggeration.”
“Where do you think they come from?” Azia said, observing him closely.
Hedley held out his hands, gesturing at emptiness. “I’d guess magic if I had to choose.”
He leaned back and looped his thumb around his suspenders.
“Speaking of which,” he added, tone matter-of-fact. “How many of you have magical abilities?”
They all exchanged cautious looks.
No one else seemed eager to volunteer that information. But I’d given this some thought. If I was going to travel with these people, they deserved to know what I could do. I took a deep breath. “I have plant magic. I can control them a little bit, make them move, and things like that. I also seem to have the ability to grow plants even under difficult conditions.”
“He’s being modest,” Lilian said. “He maintained a beautiful private garden all through the blight, and if you saw the Gilded Lilies at our wedding ceremony, those were his. He bred them over a period of just a few years, and they’re magnificent.”
I shot her a grateful look. I didn’t so much care about the praise of the rest of the world, at least, now that my reputation had been rescued from Remington’s attempts to smear it. Hearing Lilian call anything I did “magnificent,” though, was everything.
“I can breathe underwater,” Blaise said, shifting in her seat. “I’m beginning to be able to control water too. It’s pretty new, but I’m working on it.”
“I’m a shifter,” Castiel said. “I can go from human to animal form, and I’ve got a lot of control when I do it.”
“Which animal does your shifter form take?” I asked. I’d heard of shifters. We didn’t have them in Floris, but his ability wasn’t as unique as Blaise’s or mine.
“All of them,” he shrugged. “I can turn into any animal I want.”
Well, that was different.
We all looked to Azia. She pressed her lips together and glanced down at the little creature curled up between her boots. “I can talk to dragons.”
Lilian leaned forward. “That’s why she’s so well-behaved!” she said delighted.
Azia permitted herself a grin. “She’s a shifter too, but I’m not sure she is that well-behaved. She prefers her dragon form.”
Hedley considered each of us in turn. Thoughts were forming in his head, and it wouldn’t do to ask what they were until he was ready to share.
I looked around at the others, too. I’d thought I was special for having the fledgling powers I did. But I couldn’t talk to dragons.
“My abilities are pretty new,” I said, silently hoping Lilian hadn’t oversold me. “I’m just learning to control them, and I definitely don’t have what it takes to fight something like the blight.”
Azia contemplated this. She set her empty plate on the table between us all and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “When did your powers show up?” she said.
“This year.”
“Mine, too.” She pursed her lips, eyes narrowed in thought. “After I turned eighteen.”
“Same,” Blaise said.
Castiel nodded.
That was another point of commonality, then. A thread tying us together, a strand that, combined with the others, had the beginnings of a powerful bond.
“This person in Aboria is eighteen, too,” Azia said. “I’ll bet they have abilities. Ones that manifested this year.”
“That brings us to five,” Blaise said. “There are four people out in the world who are just like me.”
“More,” Castiel said.
I frowned at him, but he was staring at the table in front of him, his brooding face full of thought.
“There have to be more,” he said. “We all ran into each other as a matter of chance. But if we were to start looking, as Mr. Hedley did, who’s to say how many people are like us out there? People who don’t even know they’re like us, because maybe their powers haven’t manifested.”
“Maybe we’re just a side effect of the curse,” Blaise suggested. “Maybe something about it affected us, like how some people are allergic to food, and others aren’t.”
Azia shook her head. “I’ve had these eyes since I was born.”
“Then maybe the eyes are just a way to let you know who’s going to be allergic to curses,” Blaise said, sounding a little impatient.
The entire concept sounded absurd, especially phrased like that. But if this past month had taught me anything, it was that something being wild or strange or impossible was no reason to dismiss it.
“I guess the only thing left to do is confirm our theory,” I said.
Stinging nettles, I didn’t want to be the one to suggest it. I didn’t want to leave Lilian or the incredible miracle of our life together.
But she reached for my hand, and the warmth of her skin gave me strength.
“We need to go to Aboria and find this person,” I said. “If our number five has powers that started this year, and if something terrible is happening in Aboria--well, that’s a kind of answer, isn’t it?”
“It’s not the answer,” Castiel said. “It doesn’t tell us who’s responsible for all this.”
“But maybe the royal family of Aboria will know,” Azia said. “And if not, we won’t be any farther behind than we are now.”
“We need to leave soon,” Castiel said.
“Today,” Azia agreed.
“We just got here!” Blaise said. “I’m not done appreciating that feather bed in my quarters.”
“There will be time for feather beds after our mothers are whole,” Azia said.
Blaise didn’t seem to like it, but she sighed and nodded.
I couldn’t go today. I couldn’t leave Lilian behind this quickly. And what would happen to the gardens? To the greenhouses, and the mushrooms, and the solutions we were chasing together?
Lilian’s hand tightened on mine, and she used one of her fingers to press my ring more firmly against my skin.
It was a clear reminder: We were married. We had found a happily ever after for ourselves. And now, we owed it to everyone else in the kingdom to try to find one for them, too.
“I’ll arrange your train tickets,” Lilian said. She cleared her throat. “Aboria is large, and there’s no guarantee the royal family will be home when you arrive, so I’ll reserve lodgings for you, too. There’s a hotel I quite like near the capital city that should give you some privacy and allow you to go back and forth from the castle as you need.” Her tone was brisk and polite, but her hand squeezed mine so tightly, the bones felt as if they might crunch together. “You’ll enjoy yourselves if you haven’t been to Aboria before. It’s beautiful.”
Nowhere on earth could be as beautiful as right here. I squeezed Lilian’s hand back, and took a deep breath, steeling myself for the tasks that lay ahead.
The others stood on the driveway, shuffling around as they handed their belongings to the driver. Lilian and I stood some distance away, stealing the last few moments for ourselves.
She pressed an envelope into my hand. “It’s from Mama and Papa,” she said. “Money and a note wishing you luck. I promised to keep them updated, so if there’s anything you don’t want me to pass on, be sure to tell me.”
I leaned down until my lips grazed her ear. “There will absolutely be parts of my letters I don’t want you to share, but I trust you’ll be able to identify those passages on your own.”
Lilian flushed and grinned. “I can’t wait to read them.” Her smile faded, and she flung her arms around my neck and held on tight. “Stars, Deon, I’m going to miss you.”
“I’m going to miss you too, Lils.” I kissed every bit of her I could reach, from the warm hollows of her neck and the little dip behind her ear to the curve of her cheekbone. I saved up the kisses in my mind, hoping I’d have enough to pull one from my memory for each night we were apart. “I love you. I love you so much. I always have, and I always will, and I still can’t believe you’re my wife.”
“Make sure you eat,” she said, leaning back to look at me, but keeping her arms twined around my neck.
“Have I ever skipped a meal?”
She acknowledged this with a wry grin. “And make sure you sleep. And be sure to take care of yourself and write to me and be safe and don’t get into any trouble, and please, darling, if you find the person responsible for all this, please don’t go chasing after them without backup. You’re the Prince of Floris now. You can summon an army.”
I glanced at the others. They were almost done arranging their things, and Azia was watching me.
“I think I might keep that bit quiet,” I said. “At least some of the time.”
“That might be best. You won’t need to tell the king and queen of Aboria, though,” she added. “They were literally here two days ago for our wedding.”
I frowned. “Why didn’t you say?”
Lilian shrugged. “No use, they left right after the ceremony. The king wasn’t feeling well. That’s part of why I arranged lodgings: I’m not sure they’ll be up for visitors when you get there.”
I kissed her forehead. “You’re prepared for everything. How am I supposed to do this without you?”
“You won’t be doing anything without me,” she said. “We’ll write each other. You can keep me in your pocket.”
“I wish that was true,” I said. “You’d be very cute pocket-sized.”
She smirked. “I’m cute regular-sized, thank you.”
I kissed her and then kissed her again. She clung to me, and the scent of strawberries and magnolias floated around me like a cloud. If there was a heaven, it felt like this.
Someone cleared their throat. I pulled away from Lilian. Azia stood not far away, politely not looking quite at us. “I’m sorry, we have to go,” she said. “If we miss the train, we’re stuck here another night.”
“I’ll be right over.”
Azia left to take her place in the carriage. I bent to engulf Lilian in an embrace. I wished I could be stuck here another night. And then another, and another.
From his seat on the palace steps, Hedley watched us. He gave me a nod, full of promises: to take care of the palace grounds until I returned, to create as much enchanted glass as he could manage, and to help Lilian learn everything she could about the mushrooms that seemed immune to the disease that had ravaged the rest of the country.
He always believed in me, from the first time I’d toddled after him in the garden to the moment a few hours ago when he’d pulled me aside and told me that he knew I would figure out what was happening in Floris and fix it. He trusted me, he’d said, and I carried his faith with me like a talisman.
“We’re going to be fine,” Lilian promised. Her voice caught. We both did our best to pretend it hadn’t.
“Of course, we will,” I said. “We’ve survived a blight and Remington. What’s a few weeks apart?”
“Exactly. Write to me.”
“I will. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Lils?” I glanced down. Our arms were still around one another. “I can’t let go.”
“You have to,” she said. “Because I can’t.”
I grinned. “Married two days and you’re already making me do the dirty jobs.”
“I’ve always made you do the dirty jobs, garden boy,” she said.
Slowly, feeling as if I was tearing myself in two by doing it, I stepped back. She closed her eyes and took a deep, shaky breath, then opened them again and pasted on a broad smile. It was the most ridiculously fake expression I’d ever seen on her face, and I loved her for the effort and loved her even more for the failure.
I climbed into the carriage with the others. Blaise offered me a sympathetic smile. “I know it’s hard,” she said. “I left someone in Atlantice, too.”
I smiled back. She was virtually a stranger. They all were. But somehow, being in this carriage with them felt right.
Azia knocked on the roof of the carriage. The driver called something to the horses, and the wheels creaked as they leapt into motion.
“What time is the train?” I inquired.
“We aren’t going by train,” Azia said. “I just didn’t want to tell you in case you changed your mind.”
“We’ve been traveling by foot mostly.” Blaise rolled her eyes. “Incognito, you know.”
“We’ll take this carriage to the local town, and I’ll try and arrange some other, less conspicuous form of transport. We are all royalty, and I have a dragon in tow. We can’t travel by public transport.”
“It’s not so bad now that the weather is warming up,” Castiel said.
I leaned out the window. A sliver of a moon was rising over the castle towers. In front of them, Lilian stood, her shoulders thrown back, and her head held high. She blew a kiss, and I waved, and I watched her until I’d passed through the castle gates and into the first moments of my next adventure.
Start the next adventure in Queen of Unicorns
<<<<>>>>
After the Happily Ever After…
There is more to these stories. You want to know what happens next right? Fast forward eighteen years…
Pick up book one now
PREQUEL
SLEEPING BEAUTY
1. Queen of Dragons
2. Heiress of Embers
3. Throne of Fury
4. Goddess of Flames
LITTLE MERMAID
5. Queen of Mermaids
6. Heiress of the Sea
7. Throne of Change
8. Goddess of Water
RED RIDING HOOD
9. King of Wolves
10. Heir of the Curse
11. Throne of Night
12. God of Shifters
RAPUNZEL
13. King of Devotion
14. Heir of Thorns
15. Throne of Enchantment
16. God of Loyalty
RUMPELSTILTSKIN
17. Queen of Unicorns
18. Heiress of Gold
19. Throne of Sacrifice
20. Goddess of Loss
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
21. King of Beasts
22. Heir of Beauty
23. Throne of Betrayal
24. God of Illusion
ALADDIN
25. Queen of the Sun
26. Heiress of Shadows
27. Throne of the Phoenix
28. Goddess of Fire
CINDERELLA
29. Queen of Song
30. Heiress of Melody
31. Throne of Symphony
32. Goddess of Harmony
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
33. Queen of Clockwork
34. Heiress of Delusion
35. Throne of Cards
36. Goddess of Hearts
WIZARD OF OZ
37. King of Traitors
38. Heir of Fugitives
39. Throne of Emeralds
40. God of Storms
SNOW WHITE
41. Queen of Reflections
42. Heiress of Mirrors
43. Throne of Wands
44. Goddess of Magic
PETER PAN
45. Queen of Skies
46. Heiress of Stars
47. Throne of Feathers
48. Goddess of Air
URBIS - Coming soon
49. Kingdom of Royalty
50. Kingdom of Power
51. Kingdom of Fairytales
52. Kingdom of Ever After
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Fairytales include:
Alice in Wonderland by J. A. Armitage and J.A. Culican
Cinderella by Kimbra Swain
Snow White and Rose Red by Eileen Mueller and A.J. Ponder
Beauty and the Beast by Beth Hale
Aladdin by Zara Quentin
Rumpelstiltskin by Craig Halloran
Sleeping Beauty by Stacey O'Neale
Wizard of Oz by Amanda Marin
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves by Lacy Sheridan
Red Riding Hood by May Dawson
Rapunzel by Anne Stryker
Sinbad the Sailor by Cassidy Taylor
Robin Hood by Jacque Stevens
Little Match Girl by Lee Ann Ward
Twelve Dancing Princesses by Kit Winters
Mulan by Charlotte Daniels and Charlie Daniels
The Nightingale by IreAnne Chambers and Rachel McManamay
The Girl without Hands by Daphne Moore