“Does this mean our lesson is over?” Rosa said.
“It wasn’t a lesson,” Celia said.
“Thank you, Celia,” Ethan said.
He bowed to her.
She nodded to him and knelt over the spyglass. Divinia turned to go.
“Wait!” I said. “I didn’t get to look through the spyglass.”
I felt childish, but I couldn’t help myself. There was someone I needed to see.
Celia examined me for a moment, then shrugged.
“What’s one more rule broken? What do you want to look at?”
“My mother. I want to see my mother. Benedetta of the Fabric Guild.”
I gave her a few more instructions and put my eye to the spyglass before she adjusted it. Before she could change her mind.
I saw a throne room. Tapestries covered the walls in a flurry of color. It looked so different from the smooth marble and serene portraits that decorated Castanian castles. Tailors and seamstresses bustled around the room, carrying fabric and ribbons and jewels. They fit an elaborate blue gown to a young woman standing at the center of everything.
“This is terrible,” she said. “Why can’t you design something new?”
“We are trying, Princess Ingrid. This dress is new.”
“It isn’t new enough. It looks like all the others. My wedding gown must be-”
Her voice faded, and she disappeared as the spyglass refocused. I glimpsed a castle on top of a mountain. Then the sea surrounding it. Then the open ocean. The water grew dark and light over and over again. When the light returned for good, I saw a young woman standing in front of a mirror. I recognized her more from the dress she wore than her features.
It was my mother.
She frowned at her reflection and snapped her fingers to adjust the red fabric of her gown. She kept adjusting. Kept pulling the drape of the skirt until it was just right.
It was the gown I had worn to the ball.
“Are you ready, Benedetta?” someone called.
She studied the mirror for a moment before she nodded.
“Ready.”
She hurried out of the room and through a corridor. Music filled the air as she burst through the doors of a small chapel.
I gasped when I realized what I was seeing. My parents’ wedding.
Father was waiting at the altar. His face lit up when he saw her. She hurried to him and took his hands.
They looked so young.
And so happy.
Father wore his best merchant’s uniform and a sapphire pin that marked him as a future leader of the guild. They gazed into each other’s eyes. Even when the ceremony ended, they didn’t notice the rest of the world.
I still couldn’t feel my soul loop, but emotion welled up in my chest. I turned from the spyglass with tears in my eyes.
“Thank you,” I whispered to Celia.
She patted my shoulder and winced as if the contact pained her. Divinia nodded goodbye to Celia and ushered us out of the room.
Lorenzo tried to put his arm around my waist, but he had to let go as we walked through the corridor. There wasn’t enough space beside me with the hoop skirt. We followed Divinia through endless hallways until we found the starlit room again. The stars were moving now. Or maybe we were. I felt like I was spinning slowly in circles even though my feet stayed still. Ethan reclaimed his shoe and stood in front of our arch.
“What is this place?” he asked. “These stars are magic, aren’t they?”
Divinia shook her head.
“I think you’ve learned enough for today, Ethan.”
His eyes widened.
“You knew?”
“That you and Rosa aren’t guards? Of course. Celia saw you coming.”
“You were spying on us?” Rosa asked.
“Celia watches everyone.”
“Then she knows who is responsible for the attacks?” Lorenzo asked.
“You didn’t find out?” I said.
He shook his head.
“There were too many people in the ballroom. It was impossible to find the right person in the crowd.”
“We did what we could by letting you look through the spyglass,” Divinia said. “We can’t give you the answers.”
She snapped her fingers, and the arch glowed golden. The sound of rustling trees rushed through the room. Lorenzo bowed to Divinia and walked through the gate. Rosa and Ethan followed.
“So you know?” I said. “You know who choked me. Who is trying to stop the treaty?”
“Fairies don’t interfere,” Divinia said with a serene smile. “Not since the fairy snow.”
“It isn’t interfering to tell us what you saw! Who is it?”
“The portal is fading, Alma. You should return to the woods unless you wish to remain here and become a fairy yourself.”
The arch flickered as she spoke. I glared at her and hurried through, pushing my hoop skirts down to fit through the narrow opening.
Chapter 27
The gate went dark as soon as I passed through it. Trees glowed in the moonlight, and the wind whispered through the forest. Rosa and Ethan were studying the carvings on the metal arch.
“Where is Lorenzo?” I asked.
“Getting the horses,” Rosa said.
Ethan pulled a healing charm from his tunic and held it up to the gate.
“The markings are similar,” he said. “I’ve never heard anyone compare fairy magic and salt magic before.”
“Do you think that’s why Celia wanted your charm?” Rosa asked. “Can she fix it with fairy magic?”
I swallowed.
“Will your grandfather be angry about the charm, Ethan?”
“He wouldn’t have any use for it broken.”
“Ethan, I am sorry about that. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
He turned from studying the gate and grinned at me.
“I’m not upset about it, Alma. If you hadn’t taken the charm, I wouldn’t have met the fairies. But we’ll have to explain everything to my grandfather.”
“We can’t tell him we went to the Fairy Mountain. Lorenzo swore us to secrecy.”
“Not everything then, but we have to tell him something. That charm-”
“The horses are gone!” Lorenzo called from the woods.
“Ridiculous. I tied the bridles myself,” Rosa said.
We hurried to Lorenzo and searched the area, but there was no sign of the horses.
Rosa shrugged.
“He’s right. They’re gone.”
“But how?”
“Everyone stand close,” Lorenzo said. “There might be-”
Something rustled in the woods, and we all froze. A man in a dark green cloak jumped from behind the trees. His hood was pulled low, and golden hair obscured his face.
“For Salaria!” he shrieked.
He raised his hand, and something gleamed silver in the moonlight. He lunged at the prince and darted back into the forest. Lorenzo crumpled to the ground.
“Stop!”
Rosa snapped her fingers, and a star appeared over the man’s head. I didn’t have time to be surprised that she knew light magic. The star’s light had revealed a Salarian crest on the man’s back.
“My cloak!” Ethan said.
He sprinted after the man. Rosa knelt beside Lorenzo. I hesitated a moment. I wanted to stay and help Lorenzo, but Rosa knew far more about medicine than I did. I followed Ethan into the woods. My hoop skirt caught on thorns and branches as I ran through the trees.
Rosa’s star made it easy to follow our attacker, but he was fast and had a head start. Ethan was close behind him, but I didn’t have a chance of catching up in my ridiculous dress. Somewhere in the darkness, a horse whinnied.
“Don’t let him reach his horse!” Ethan screamed.
He dove to catch the man. The hooded figure dodged him and ran deeper into the woods. I stopped and listened for the horse. It whinnied again, and I ran towards the sound.
The
hooded man had to double back to avoid Ethan, so I beat him to the horse. I grabbed the bridle and held it with trembling hands. He couldn’t escape us without his mount.
The man pulled a branch back and let it go. It hit Ethan in the face and knocked him down. He didn’t get back up, and the man sprinted toward his horse. He stopped when he saw me.
“Who are you?” I asked.
He stood a few feet away. The knife in his hand had blood on it. Lorenzo’s blood. I tightened my grip on the reins.
“Ethan,” he said. “My name is Ethan, and I act for all of Salaria.”
He spoke with a Salarian accent, and his voice did sound something like Ethan’s.
“Why did you attack our prince?”
“The treaty is a decoy. We came here as spies and assassins.”
He moved towards me and held up the knife.
“Step away from the horse.”
“No.”
“I don’t want to hurt a lady.”
Behind us, Ethan groaned and sat up. The man in the cloak stepped closer. I could almost see his face under the hood.
“Let me go, Alma.”
I flinched.
“Do I know you?”
“Of course you do. I’m staying at your house with the rest of the Salarian delegation. We danced at the ball.”
The accent slipped a little, and his voice sounded familiar.
Branches snapped as Ethan stood and stumbled towards us.
The man jumped forward and pushed me aside. I tripped on the hoop skirt and fell. The horse lunged towards me since I still held the reins. I rolled to avoid his hooves and managed to keep my grip. I couldn’t let this man escape.
His knife slashed towards me, and the reins dropped loose in my hands as he cut them. I fell back and lay on the ground gasping for air. The hoop skirt flew over my head and tangled my legs when I tried to sit up. From the ground, I watched the horse gallop through the woods.
Then Rosa’s star flickered out, the pounding hooves faded, and the forest fell silent.
“Alma, are you alright?”
Ethan knelt beside me and helped me stand.
“I couldn’t stop him,” I said. “I’m sorry. I tried.”
Ethan grimaced.
“At least you didn’t get knocked out with a tree branch.”
“He sounded familiar, Ethan. I think I know him.”
“He did remind me of a certain someone in the Salarian delegation.”
“Shut up. We all know he wasn’t you.”
“You know because I’m already here, but it might have worked otherwise.”
“Ethan?” Rosa called. “Ethan, where are you!”
“Lorenzo!” I said.
We ran through the woods, following a flickering light until we reached them. A small star hovered above Rosa’s head. She knelt by Lorenzo, holding the guard’s cloak against his side with one hand and waving the other to work a healing charm. It wasn’t working, and her hands were stained red with blood.
“He’s been stabbed,” she said.
“I’m fine.”
Lorenzo’s voice was a whisper, and his face was pale.
“He needs a doctor, but I don’t think we should move him,” Rosa said. “If one of us runs to Castello, maybe we could bring back help.”
“Let me see.”
Ethan knelt beside Rosa and examined the gash in Lorenzo’s side.
“We don’t have that much time. He’s lost a lot of blood.”
He pulled a flat silver disk out of his tunic.
“Don’t!” I said. “If it touches his blood, it will absorb into his soul! He’ll be cursed like-”
I stopped, unwilling to say it. Cursed like me.
“He won’t,” Ethan said. “I won’t let it touch his blood. Do you trust me, Your Highness?”
Lorenzo’s eyes flickered from me to the silver charm.
“Do it.”
Ethan held the charm just above Lorenzo’s side. Silver light swirled from it, circled around the gash, and dissolved into darkness.
Ethan’s brow furrowed.
“It isn’t working,” he said. “Something is blocking it.”
“Is it this? Divinia said it would absorb magic.”
I held up my necklace. Ethan shook his head.
“It would have to be touching him.”
Lorenzo’s head slumped against the ground, and he closed his eyes. His breathing was shallow.
I studied the salt charm’s light. It drifted toward Lorenzo’s hand like smoke caught in a breeze. No, towards his signet ring. I leaned closer and studied the ring. The swirling designs etched in the gold matched the symbols carved on the gate. The golden gem shone brighter than it should have in the moonlight.
It glowed like the fairy blood on my corset.
I grabbed the ring and pulled it off his hand.
Lorenzo’s skin flashed gold, blinding us all for a moment. Silver swirls of light radiated from the salt charm and covered his wound. The bleeding slowed to a trickle, and the skin pulled back together.
I pushed my hoop skirts aside and crawled closer to the prince. Lorenzo’s face no longer looked like an Alessandro portrait. His nose had grown longer and hooked at the end, just like his father’s. His ears stuck out like his mother’s.
Worse than that, angry red welts and splotches covered his face and neck. The worst healing scars I had ever seen.
“Oh,” I said.
“That explains a lot,” Ethan said.
Rosa rubbed a hand over her own healing scars. Even though I knew they didn’t hurt, I couldn’t help wincing.
“Will he be alright?” I asked.
The salt charm dimmed, and Ethan pulled it away from Lorenzo’s side. The silver salt had gone dull. Rosa and I leaned closer to check the wound. The prince’s side was also covered with red marks and scars from past soul magic healing, but the stab wound had closed.
Lorenzo’s eyes fluttered open, and he reached for my hand. Red scars twined around his fingers and down his arm.
“Alma,” he whispered.
“You’re fine,” I said. “Ethan healed you.”
“Alma, are you alright?”
“Yes, and so are you.”
I paused a moment, unsure how to tell him.
“Lorenzo, we had to remove your ring to heal you.”
“Oh,” he glanced at his hand and winced.
“You can see them? My scars?”
I nodded.
He turned his head away, but I leaned over him and met his gaze.
“Lorenzo, scars are nothing to be ashamed of. They don’t matter.”
“Of course they do.”
“No, they don’t.”
Lorenzo studied my face, his eyes searching for something.
“You’re the first person to think so, Alma.”
“Whatever happened, you’re still-”
He sat up and kissed me gently on the lips. I stayed still for a moment, then leaned forward and kissed him back. He wrapped his arm around me, and my heartbeat settled into a steady rhythm as I recovered from the surprise.
Ethan cleared his throat, and I broke the kiss. Lorenzo smiled at me.
“Alma, thank you.”
He reached for the signet ring in my hand, but Ethan grabbed it and held it out of reach.
“The wound is still healing under the skin,” he said. “That healing will stop if you put this back on.”
Lorenzo sat up halfway, propping his weight onto his elbows.
“Someone has to wear it,” he said. “The charm will fade unless someone wears it.”
“Fine.”
Ethan slipped the ring onto his finger. His skin flashed with golden light, and we all squinted in the sudden brightness. When the light faded, his features had shifted. His green eyes were brighter, and his golden hair gleamed like silk. His freckles had disappeared, and his skin glowed in the moonlight.
Rosa giggled.
“You look ridiculous.”
&n
bsp; “Ridiculously handsome?” Ethan said with a hopeful grin.
His voice sounded deeper. He took a step towards Rosa and swayed. She caught his arm and steadied him.
“Sorry, I feel dizzy.”
He twisted the ring around his finger.
“Was that Divinia’s gift?” I asked.
“I almost died when I was born. The doctor saved me with soul magic, but it scarred my entire body. My parents kept me hidden, hoping the scars would fade. They didn’t, but Divinia appeared and offered to heal me.”
“She used a fairy charm to make a baby handsome?”
Rosa sounded outraged. The gentle weight of my own fairy necklace pressed against my skin, and I squeezed Lorenzo’s scarred hand.
“You’ve worn it your whole life?” I asked.
He nodded.
“I swear you all to silence,” he said. “About this and the fairies.”
Rosa and I nodded. Ethan crossed his arms. The fairy ring glinted in the moonlight, and his face looked impossibly handsome even when he frowned.
“I’m not one of your subjects to be ordered around, Prince Lorenzo.”
Lorenzo’s grip on my hand tightened. Ethan’s frown faded, although he still looked serious.
“But I am your friend. I hope you believe that now. I’ll keep your secret. I swear it.”
“You saved my life tonight, Ethan. Thank you. You are truly a friend of Castana.”
“What a shame that I also stabbed you. Apparently, I can be in two places at once.”
We all laughed uneasily. Lorenzo grimaced in pain and gripped his side. His scars formed new patterns with each expression. They were mesmerizing.
“You still need a doctor,” Ethan said. “The wound was deep, and I’m not sure how much healing the salt charm managed before it ran out of magic. Can you walk?”
“I’ll manage.”
Lorenzo pushed himself up, wincing as he moved. I helped him as much as I could, but the hoop skirt threatened to trip us both.
With a sigh of exasperation, Rosa left Ethan and pulled the prince to his feet. He swayed, and I grabbed his arm to steady him. Lorenzo took my hand and raised it to his lips. The scars around his eyes crinkled as he smiled, and we walked side by side through the forest.
Chapter 28
Lady Alma Page 19