Callista thought about it for a long moment. He could almost see the thoughts processing through her mind as she struggled to wrap it around what he was telling her. “You’ll send Hemsworth after me?” she asked quietly. “If I’m not back within three days, I mean.”
“Of course.” He brushed a hand over her cheek, unable to resist touching her, clinging to her in these last moments. “After all, you still have to fulfill the terms of your bargain.”
She gave him a sunny smile. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“It’s only a few days,” he reminded her quietly.
“I’ll miss you anyway,” she promised.
Would she? As Callista hurried away to make sure she had everything she would need to attend her sister’s wedding, Griffin simply sat there, looking after her. Would she miss him? Or would she, like so many others who had once cared for him, begin to forget all about him the moment she passed outside the influence of the castle and the curse? There was no way to tell—no way to know if the friendship that had bloomed between them had the deeper potential to become more or not.
“You won’t be sending me after her, will you?” Hemsworth asked quietly from the shadows.
“No.” Griffin took a deep breath, let it out slowly as that truth solidified in his chest. “No, if she doesn’t remember me on her own, I will release them from the bargain. It’s been long enough that it will likely pass from all of their minds in a matter of hours, once Callista is outside the spell’s influence.”
“She could be the one,” Hemsworth pointed out quietly.
“I know.” He hadn’t realized just how much he wanted her to be until now. He’d known it would be hard to let anyone go, to allow for the possibility that he would have to start all over again. The past months with Callista had been the most pleasant he’d had since the curse had taken over the castle—but it wasn’t just that she had made the curse bearable, wasn’t just that she’d brought light and laughter back into his life when he’d been sure it was gone forever.
It was Callista—Callista herself.
He was in love with her—and he was letting her go. If she loved him, it wouldn’t matter. She’d be back in a day, or three, chattering about her sister’s wedding, but still his.
If she didn’t…
“She’ll come back,” Hemsworth said seriously.
“I hope so.” Griffin took a deep breath of the night air. He couldn’t deny her this—not even if keeping her with him would solidify their bond and ensure that what was “dear friendship” had the opportunity it needed to turn into something more.
He was no longer content with merely being her friend. The beast inside him raged at the thought of being trapped thus for a lifetime, unable to have her; but it was the man who would mourn most if she passed from his life forever.
Only Callista could tell.
“She could go down to the village within a few weeks of being here,” Hemsworth reminded him.
“Hemsworth?” Griffin looked up at his butler, his friend, and just shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.” No amount of discussing it ahead of time would make a difference in the end anyway. It was all up to Callista now.
He could only pray that she was falling in love with him—pray that he meant enough to her that she would remember him and come back.
“Stasi, you look amazing!” Millicent burbled.
“Everything is just perfect,” Erin put in.
“Can you believe it?” Stasi fell back on the bed, careful not to crush anything—not her skirts, not the flowers in her hair. “I’m finally getting married today!” And it was, to all appearances, everything she had ever dreamed of. She’d been planning this wedding, she sometimes thought, since she had been in the cradle, and she was overjoyed to finally be marrying the man she’d spent so many hours dreaming about.
The day itself didn’t matter—not really. It was just one day in what would be a lifetime together—a lifetime she couldn’t wait to get started. Still, the wedding mattered. It was a symbol of their devotion to one another, a symbol that they were truly bringing their two families together once and for all, cementing an alliance that would benefit both sets of lands for generations.
There was only one thing marring the perfection of the day, one nagging sorrow that threatened to tug her lips down if she let herself think about it.
Callista.
“Oh, don’t,” Erin whispered, seeing the moment when her face twitched ever so faintly. “Don’t think about it, Stasi, please. It’s such a perfect day. It’s like even the weather is giving you exactly what you’ve asked for, and you deserve it, you do!”
“I’m all right.” She took a deep breath, settling herself. It wouldn’t do to cry now, not when she’d just finished her makeup. “I just—oh, I wish she could be here!”
“I do, too.” Millicent hugged her tightly, but kept her voice light so that neither of them gave in to the urge to cry. “But we’re going to tell her all about it—we’ll write to her as soon as the ceremony is over. And she would have been bored out of her mind having to stand on ceremony all day, you know she would have.”
“I know. I just…I wish she was here.” To her horror, Anastasia felt her lips beginning to tremble. She didn’t want to cry. She really didn’t. The trouble was, she could feel the tears hovering in the corners of her eyes anyway.
“You’re not supposed to cry on your wedding day,” a familiar voice said from the doorway.
They all leapt to their feet with a shriek, tumbling toward the door as though they’d never seen her before.
“Callista!” Millicent exclaimed.
“How are you here?” Erin demanded.
“Did he make you leave?” Anastasia breathed. It wouldn’t matter. She was marrying her Peter today, and that made her ineligible for the beastly prince. They would find some other way to repay their father’s debt, but—
“No,” Callista said quickly, hurrying forward to hug her. “No, he didn’t make me leave, Stasi. He let me leave.”
She wrapped her arms around her youngest sister and held on. It was Callista, all right: an inch taller than she remembered, she was sure of it, and maybe a little thinner, but it was definitely Callista. “I don’t understand,” she admitted.
“He knew how important it was to me to be here, so he told me to come,” Callista said simply. “I stepped through the magic mirror just a few minutes ago.” She grinned. “I haven’t seen Papa or any of the others yet. Would you like to surprise them, or should I go hunt them down?”
“I—you’re just here? Just like that?” Anastasia demanded. “You wanted to come to my wedding, and the debt is paid?”
“I’m going back after the wedding,” Callista said firmly. “But he said that it was okay for me to be here for you—that it wouldn’t hurt…anything.”
Anastasia didn’t ask about the “anything.” In fact, she didn’t care about the anything. She was just grateful that her little sister was, somehow, impossibly, actually there for her wedding. She’d been sure she’d have to get married with only part of her family present, but there Callista was, in the flesh, looking just as bright and excited as Millicent and Erin.
She was here. She was really here! “Maybe he’s not such a beast after all,” Anastasia said teasingly.
Callista laughed, the free, unfettered sound that she’d missed so much since her sister had been gone. “He’s not such a beast,” she promised. “Honestly, Stasi, he’s so kind, and he has such a good heart—this isn’t his fault, not at all.”
“You said something in your letters about a curse, but I just assumed—well, he had to have done something to be cursed that badly, didn’t he?” She shook her head quickly. It was hard to even think about the prince her sister had been living with for the past year. She remembered something about a curse, but the details wouldn’t come clear; and anyway, it was her wedding day, and today of all days, she wasn’t going to waste the energy—not on anything. “It doesn’t matter. Wha
t matters is that you’re here today, with me—and Callista, I am glad to see you.”
“Me, too.” Callista hugged her again, hard. “Now, tell me—what’s left to do? I know I’m a little bit late; it took the invisible servants some time to dig out fabric that would match the bridesmaids’ dresses and have one made for me. I mean—” She hesitated for the first time. “It is okay, isn’t it? We’d always talked about me being a bridesmaid, but if you’ve made other plans—”
“No. No other plans that are more important than having all of my sisters beside me.” Anastasia meant every word of it. In fact, with her sister present, she was fairly certain that she floated down the aisle, her feet barely touching the ground.
The man she loved with all her heart was waiting for her at the end of the aisle. All of her family was there to celebrate this important day with her. As far as she was concerned, nothing could be more perfect.
It was the wedding day she’d dreamed of all her life.
*****
“So you’re really just here, just like that?” Theo looked surprised as he stared down at his youngest sister.
“He said it was all right.” Callista shrugged, still beaming. She, like the rest of them, had needed to wipe away a few tears when Anastasia and Peter recited their vows; but the teary part of the wedding was over now. There were toasts, and cake, and dancing, and she was determined to enjoy every bit of all of them. It was nice to be back with her family, to see all of them again.
She just wished Griffin could be there, too. It was the one sadness in the entire day. Most of the people she cared for the most were gathered here to celebrate with her sister, and that was wonderful; but she wished, hard, that he could be there, too. She couldn’t imagine, at this point, how she could forget him, since she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Having him at her side would have been the one thing that could make this day perfect.
He would have been miserable. People would have pointed and stared—they were doing quite a bit of pointing and staring just at her, as it happened. He would have had to wear the uncomfortable mask, and the gloves—no, Griffin would have been utterly miserable
She still wished she’d asked him to come with her—or maybe to watch at the mirror, to share the day with her from afar.
To her surprise, Callista found herself wanting to step back through the mirror now, to skip the dancing and gaiety now that the wedding itself was over. Peter and Stasi had slipped away, presumably to wherever they were spending their night together before embarking on their honeymoon together the next morning. There was nothing else she really wanted to be here for.
Griffin had told her that she could have three days to spend with her family. She should have been enjoying it.
Instead, she was mostly frustrated with them. Millicent had complained about her dress being better than theirs, as though it was her fault; Erin had gotten catty about the fact that she didn’t have a groomsman to walk with, making noise about how yes, it was wonderful that she had come, but she could have given them some warning so that they could balance things; and her father had wept on her shoulder, telling her all over again how much he hated that she was the one bearing the weight of his gambling addiction.
All in all, she was feeling quite smothered, and rather tired of being surrounded by so many people when she had become accustomed to the solitude of the castle.
She was ready to go—and it didn’t surprise her at all when she thought go it was accompanied by home.
“I’m glad you’re here, sis.” Theo offered her a one-armed hug. It wasn’t the first he had given her, but Callista had the feeling that there was a little more sorrow behind this one. “But I get the feeling you’re not so glad.”
“I’m glad I got to see Stasi get married,” Callista protested quickly.
“Yeah?” He raised an eyebrow.
“I’m just…I don’t know.” She shrugged, wishing she had pockets to stuff her hands into like Griffin did when he was agitated and trying to keep her from noticing. “I wish he could have come with me.” She hadn’t meant to admit that to her brother, but now that the words were out, she wasn’t going to take them back, either.
Theo’s eyebrows raised, but only for a moment. He didn’t really look surprised. “He means something to you,” he said slowly, probing gently. “We didn’t really get to talk about it when we were there this summer.” His comment left room for her to share what she would like—or to hold her own counsel.
“He means a lot to me,” Callista corrected. “I care about him, Theo—and I miss him, being here without him.” She toyed with the ends of her shawl, grateful now that the invisible servants had pressed it on her even though technically, the odds were good that she wouldn’t be going outside. “He’s my friend,” she said quietly.
“I think he’s starting to be more than a friend,” Theo informed her.
“Yeah? Well, maybe.” She couldn’t help the smile that turned her lips up, just at the corners. “Do you think it’ll be okay? With Papa, and with the others, I mean?”
“I like him,” Theo said firmly.
That drew another smile from her.
“It’s hard, getting past the…well, you know.” He waved a hand over his face. “But what I got to know about him when I was there…he’s a good guy underneath it, sis. You could do a lot worse, I think.”
“I’m not saying it’s true love,” she said quickly.
“No, but you aren’t saying that it’s not, either, and that tells me something, Cally.” He sighed. “You want to get back to him.”
“He’s all alone in that big, empty castle,” she pointed out.
“Uh-huh. Except for the servants who are like family to him,” Theo reminded her.
“It’s not the same. He gets lonely—he was lonely almost all the time before I came. And I’m afraid—what if I start to forget?” There—that was the truth of it, the weight that she was trying not to put into words even in her own mind.
“I don’t think you’re going to forget him that fast,” he teased gently. “It’s just been a few hours. Usually, forgetting someone takes days, at least.”
“But that’s just it. With Griffin, days could be all it takes to wipe him away from my memory forever, and Theo—I don’t want to forget him.”
His brow furrowed. “The curse?”
She nodded.
“That’s a hard balance, then. But I assume that if he sent you, he knows how long you can be away without it being a problem.”
“Either that, or he’s decided that he’s tired of me, and he’s hoping that I’ll just forget. That’s how he handled it with some of the girls, sometimes. Once they had been gone long enough, they just forgot all about it, so whatever got them there in the first place—a debt, or a bet, or a dare—was just forgotten along with it, and he didn’t have to worry about them coming after him later.”
“How could he be tired of you?” Theo wanted to know. “You, my dear, would be very hard to get tired of.”
She stuck her tongue out at him.
“If you’re that worried, why not go back?” he wanted to know. “Did you tell anyone how long you were here for?”
“Not really. I mean, I told them I was here for the wedding, but I didn’t give it a timeline.”
“The wedding’s over,” Theo reminded her.
Callista gave him a soft, sunny smile. “You’re sure no one will mind?”
“They don’t know how long you had to be away. How are they to know that it’s not Griffin making you come back?” He reached up to ruffle her hair, then hesitated, stopped the gesture. “I’m proud of you, Cally,” he told her seriously. “I know this wasn’t what you imagined when you dreamed yourself into the middle of an epic story, but I think it’s been a good one for you.”
“I think it has, too,” she admitted a little shyly.
“Then go see if he’s your happily ever after,” Theo encouraged her. “I’ll talk to the others, tell them that you needed to go a
nd didn’t have time to say goodbye.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want—”
“Go!” He turned her toward one of the outer rooms—which one didn’t really matter, as long as she was able to slip away and use the mirror. “Talk to your Prince Charming. See if he really is the one for you.”
Callista didn’t need him to tell her again. She stopped just one more time, wrapping her brother in a fierce hug. “Thanks, Theo,” she told him seriously.
He smiled. “You ready for happily ever after?” he wanted to know.
“I’m willing to wait,” Callista corrected him softly. “To be sure that he’s the one God has for me. But Theo…I kind of think maybe he is.”
She didn’t look back a few minutes later as she slipped through the mirror; and Theo had the feeling that she would never look back quite the same way again.
“Let him be human the next time I see him, God,” he murmured. “Let her love be deep enough to break the curse—because she is in love with him, whether she knows it or not.” And, to his surprise, he only minded a little. He was going to miss her, with Callista being so far away; but he was happy for her, too.
It seemed as though Callista was finally finding her happily ever after.
Lost in his own thoughts, Theo didn’t realize that he and Callista had been seen—and not by someone he recognized.
“Where did your sister rush off to?” The young lady looked down at Erin, her expression oddly closed. “I thought she was just standing over there talking with your brother, but it seems she’s completely disappeared.”
“Stasi?” Erin frowned. “She and Peter left ages ago. They’ve got kind of a drive in front of them—I think they want an early start in the morning.” Such a shame they couldn’t have just borrowed that mirror; but she supposed that it was impressive enough that Griffin had been willing to let Callista use it to bring herself to the wedding.
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