by Kris Black
“Your happiness is my happiness, Princess.”
Alina frowned a little at that but wrote it off as a good-natured joke. That was until he reached out a hand and laid it over her own. The warmth enveloped her covered hand, a sickly warmth full of moisture and nerves. Alina tried not to make a face as she slipped her hand away.
“Do you mind if I explore more, alone?” She looked around. “Since you took all this trouble to make sure it was empty.”
He looked more than a little flustered that she wished for him to leave. In fact, he looked like he was about to argue. Instead, he replied: “As you wish.”
He left everything where it laid as he quit the area - food debris and blanket spread on the path where he’d set it up. As soon as the door to the greenhouse shut, two people came up to clean the mess the haughty lord left. They curtsied to her before moving on with their work. One was slight with her dark blond hair tied back, the other heavier set with an array of chocolate curls.
“Oh no, please. You don’t have to do that.” Alina brought up her hand in supplication. “I can clean that up.”
“It’s fine, Your Highness. Enjoy your time here in the garden, please.” The one with the curls replied as she continued clearing the mess away. The blond risked a peek up at the new princess and gasped, her hands coming over her mouth.
“What? What is it?” Alina asked, glancing over her shoulder to see what startled the woman.
“It’s just- it’s just that you look so much like your mother, Your Highness.” The woman’s eyes filled with tears and she let out another strangled cry.
“Brigit.” The other woman hissed in warning.
“You knew my mother?”
“I started working here in the greenhouse as soon as they built it,” Brigit said. “Sarah here and I helped her plant most of the seeds.”
“What was she like?” Alina’s voice was soft as a whisper, imagining her mother and these two women patting down earth and planting and transplanting seeds and bulbs.
“Beautiful.” Sarah offered. “And she never uttered a harsh word about anyone.”
“Even the courtiers and nobility that scoffed and scorned her.” Brigit’s jaw set.
“Brigit.” Sarah hissed out a warning again. “Some courtiers believed that King Belmont should have chosen a different bride.”
“A human bride.” Brigit filled in, not the least bit affected by the admonishments.
“People didn’t like that she was a faerie.” Alina finished.
“We shouldn’t be gossiping,” Sarah said, gathering as much of the picnic area up as she could. “Please, enjoy your time in the greenhouse, Your Highness.”
Sarah scuttled off to put the items she gathered away. Brigit hesitated for a moment more, glancing at Alina. “I hope that we will have the chance to speak again soon, Your Highness.”
“I would like that. Next time I am here you can help introduce me to the plants.”
Brigit smiled and nodded, before bowing and hurrying along after Sarah. Alina hoped that Brigit wouldn’t get scolded for being so forward. She enjoyed the frankness of the conversation - something she hadn’t experienced since being announced as the heir of the realm.
Alone at last, other than Henry trying to make himself invisible, Alina walked up and down the pathways of the garden. It was breathtaking. The plants seemed to sing under the sunlight, a sure sign that the gardeners took care of them meticulously. Alina ran her fingertips over petals, leaves, branches, and bark, listening to the song they sang in joy.
She slowed when she neared the large willow tree, off the right corridor of the greenhouse. It towered above her, its leaves weeping towards the ground. Drawn, Alina stepped over the stone barrier that barred the rest of the wanderers from stepping into the garden space. The tree whispered like a lullaby as she parted the branches and stepped through the opening. The branches twisted and danced together as they reached towards the sky, nearly touching the glass dome above.
Green shrouded her as the entrance shut behind her, enveloped in nature and hidden from sight. In the protective embrace of the willow, like a child cradled by a mother, Alina finally let her shoulders drop and sighed in relief. She tiptoed forward in quiet reverence and reached her hand out. She planted palm and forehead to the trunk, closing her eyes and focusing on nothing but the giant that stood before her.
Tentatively, she sensed a strange tendril of energy reaching out to connect with the same essence in the towering tree. It was immense and powerful, but patient and comforting.
“Your Highness?” Ella’s voice echoed throughout the greenhouse. Startled, Alina dropped her hand from the trunk. The loss of the willow’s presence was like leaving an old friend. “Princess?”
“I’m here.” Alina stepped out of the quiet veil of the tree.
“Oh, good!” Ella rushed down the stairs and onto the path. By the time she met up with Alina, her dark curls were coming loose from her updo. Alina stepped down and met her on the trail. “When I saw Felix walking down the corridor without you, I got worried. You shouldn’t be here by yourself, without Felix.”
“I didn’t realize it was unsafe. Rhys is over near that wall, pretending to be a tree.”
Ella shot a look towards Rhys and huffed, attempting to tame her curls back a bit. “I wouldn’t say unsafe. But as the Crown Princess, you need to take precautions. I was just worried.”
“Luckily, my father thought of that.” Alina didn’t realize having her guards follow her around was such a big deal. She had never been to court. Never been someone important enough to need a guard.
“That’s not the only reason I’ve come in search of you though. I have somewhere I need to take you.”
“Is it a second greenhouse?” Alina half-joked.
“Nothing nearly as exciting as this, sorry. Are you ready to go? They’ll allow the nobility back in here within a quarter-hour and I’m afraid you’ll cause quite a stir among them.”
Alina reached out and caressed the nearest fauna, bidding it goodbye and a promise to return soon. “We better go then.”
Alina loved the city that surrounded the castle walls, and she didn’t want her only memory of it to include Calista and her terrible experience in the market. Each time Alina caught a glance at Eastwater over the towering castle walls, she remembered the beautiful brick houses and the bustle of people.
She hadn’t lived next to the sea since early childhood, yet somehow the briney air and cool breeze made her feel as though she hadn’t left. The sounds of the waves lapping against the shores, boats and rocks was a soothing melody that harkened her back to infancy. Back before everything became so complicated. It was nearly as calming as when she had her hands planted in soil.
No one outside the palace walls knew her. Surely, there would be no harm in going down and exploring for a little while. Even just to the shore.
Which was the exact excuse she used when Rhys asked where she was going, halting her when he realized she was heading for the gate.
“Your Highness, I’m not sure that’s wise.” He all-but commanded.
“Please, Rhys. I’ve been stuck in this castle almost the entire time I’ve been here. I just need an afternoon out.”
His jaw tightened for a moment before motioning a passing guardsman. “Inform Henry and Thomas that Her Highness wishes to see the city and needs additional escorts. Also, inform the Captain and have the message relayed to His Majesty.”
The guard nodded and shot off. Alina wanted to argue that none of that was necessary, but if holding her tongue meant she could venture off of the castle grounds she would do it.
Instead, she fidgeted until Henry and Thomas along with three more guards left the castle and strode toward her and Rhys. The longing for anonymity was slowly dying. How could she walk through her people as though she were just one of them when followed by six armed guards?
“Are this many guards really necessary?” Alina asked as they finished their approach.
Alina was beginning to understand why Ella was so upset when the queen left them with one guard for both of them, if this was what was expected at court.
A trip to the open air market would be out of the question. With this many men surrounding her, she would be more of a hindrance than anything else and likely interrupt regular business.
“I’ve only ever been to the market. Can one of you act as a guide and show me around the city?”
The guards looked hesitantly at each other for a moment before Henry spoke up. “It would be an honor, Your Highness.”
The city was a marvel and only served to feed Alina’s need to see more of her country. The port was full of docked ships, importing and exporting goods from all around the known world. Gulls flew overhead, screeching and hunting for food - whether fish or scavenged.
The people, her people, bustled around about their days on the cobblestone streets. Many stopped and curtseyed questioningly after noting her retinue of armed men.
“There are a few districts,” Henry explained as they walked back up the hill towards the castle keep. “We have the port, of course, which also has the fish market. The business hub where you saw the open-air market. It also has many stores and vendors that have permanent shops within the brick buildings on the first floor. Most of the housing areas are on the other side of the city.”
“I think I would like to explore all of the areas of the city eventually.” Alina looked longingly at the expanse. “It amazes me.”
“You have plenty of time to explore at your leisure, Your Highness.” Thomas grinned at her.
Alina did her best to grin back, but had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t have plenty of time. She had a curse to break. She needed to return to Christian. She had to help save his people.
Alina glanced back one more time at the city, where her own people were going about their daily life, as the castle gates shut behind her.
“Are you ready for your first princess lesson?” Ella asked, breaking Alina out of her thoughts.
“Princess lesson?”
“I promised that I would teach you about court life. There are a lot of names and families to remember. I thought it would be best if we put faces to those names.” Ella motioned to a large door that they stopped in front of. “I give you the Royal Gallery.”
Portraits lined the gallery, some laying upright on the floor in their gilded frames - having arrived especially for this occasion.
“Most of these portraits have been here for years. I’ve needed to secure a few, on behalf of the king, especially the younger nobles’. This place is almost never used anymore. We’ll go through each of their names, titles and how they relate to you - and what influence they have at court.”
“This is awfully daunting.” Alina glanced at all the portraits. Would she need to learn all of this, really? She was still unsure of her position in the kingdom, and whether she even wanted it. She certainly didn’t want it without her mate freed and by her side.
“It is, but you’ll get it in no time, I’m certain.”
Alina wasn’t so certain, but she continued down the line taking mental notes as Ella spouted the information about each person. It was all so complicated. How did anyone ever remember these people and their lists of titles? Not to mention how each one related to the other. Alina thought the entire process would never end as they neared the halfway mark, passing from the second wall and onto the third when she glanced up.
She stopped dead, her heart picking up a panicked pace as she stared wide-eyed at her doppelgänger. A ball wedged in her throat, making it impossible to swallow - impossible to speak.
There, hanging on the wall, was her almost exact likeness. Her hair was, as King Belmont described, golden as the rays of the sun. Crowned with the intricate tiara that Alina herself wore to dinner the night before and armed with a flowing midnight dress, there stood Queen Breena. Her head held high, looking fierce and feminine.
Her mother.
Alina’s body flushed with heat as she stared at the face that so resembled her own. She finally knew who she looked like, after years of not fitting in with her fairer brothers and sisters. Between Belmont and Breena, she finally could put the puzzle that was Alina together. She could trace her brow back to Belmont, her nose and face shape to Breena. It was uncanny. Was this what everyone saw when they looked at their parents? Himself or herself reflected back in two people?
Breena was the picture of royalty and grace. Her pointed ears in the portrait safely tucked behind carefully placed strands of hair, giving her the guise of humanity.
Alina never knew this woman, but she’d given her life for her own. Tears rose unbidden.
“The late Queen Breena, rest her soul,” Ella supplied unnecessarily. “You look so much like her that the court thought you were her phantom at first. I am fairly certain Lady Briarbay fainted dead. The Queen turned as white as I’ve ever seen her.”
Alina sniffed and laughed a bit at the vision, wiping the stray tears that escaped. The air lightened, if only a little, and Alina was suddenly glad for Ella’s companionship.
“I wish I saw that.”
“It really was a spectacular performance.”
“Why is her portrait still hanging here, if Calista is queen now?” Alina reached out and caressed the gilded frame that held the portrait of her mother.
“The king forbade it from being removed. The queen, in retaliation, closed the portrait gallery. Unofficially, of course. But the nobles know not to get caught in here.”
Alina gazed into the eyes of her mother. “Did Calista hate my mother?”
“I’m not sure any woman is fond of their husband’s first wife. Especially one as beloved as Queen Breena. We felt her loss hard across the entire kingdom.”
Alina didn’t like the thought of her mother, hidden away in a dark, forbidden room in the castle - like she never existed. She removed her hand from the frame. Perhaps this was something she could fix. Some small power that she could exercise to keep the memory alive of the woman who gave her life and then protected it.
Ella and Alina continued on with the rest of the nobility. She spent most of the day in the small hall as they seared more names and faces into her memory. Positions, family lineages, wealth and power. Alina was beginning to wonder if, perhaps, Christian’s people were right when they used the hierarchy of the pack even when in human form. It seemed more straightforward at the very least.
As they reached the end of the gallery, a portrait-shape package wrapped in brown butcher paper caught Alina’s attention.
“What is that?” Alina asked.
“Something I had to track down and have brought here especially for today.” Ella clapped her hands together. “And believe me, it was a difficult thing to find. Go ahead, unwrap it.”
Curious, Alina walked over and pulled the rough paper away, revealing a stern woman in an elaborate dress and crown. A queen. She would have been beautiful if her face weren’t a frozen scowl and her hair pulled back less harshly. Alina pulled the rest of the paper off, revealing a small boy, only eight or nine. He sat beside his mother, poised and serious in a uniform that could only belong to a prince.
Alina leaned down to look at the boy, cocked her head slightly and frowned. The portrait was pulling on her oddly familiarly. She inched closer, trying to place the rulers. Alina had a vague impression of having met the little boy before; she was sure. She resisted reaching her hand out and smoothing her fingers over the brush-strokes of the ebony-haired child.
“Who is this?”
“I had the hardest time locating this. I wasn’t sure if I should even bother including it, but the king insisted.” Ella frowned at it slightly. “Those are the rulers of the other kingdom - Aldholt. The dark faerie who killed Queen Breena murdered their queen, but the boy is the one whose curse you share.”
“We share a curse?” That was the first time she’d heard of this.
“The faerie wrapped it all in one, I’m told. Linked you both.”
Was it Christian? Was this small, dark-haired boy her mate? Her heart pounded. Were they inextricably locked together by bond and curse?
“Do you know his name?” Alina demanded, breathless. “The prince?”
Alina needed to know. She had to be certain it was Christian and not another cursed prince. At the cursed castle, she’d waited so long to learn his name. Now she waited once more on bated breath.
“Prince Christian,” Ella replied and Alina gripped the nearby wall to stop herself from falling over. “He wasn’t much older than this when the faerie weaved the curse.”
Alina let out a breath she realized she was holding, staring at her mate as a child. Her cursed prince. He was serious, but just a child. He hadn’t deserved what happened to him. Neither had she nor her mother.
The dark faerie tied their curses. Whatever she’d done, she tied them together and cursed them both. Maybe that was the key that would allow them to break the curse.
Chapter Six
Mirror, Mirror
The greenhouse was a sanctuary. The lush, earthly scent wafted through the thick, humid air seemed to breathe new life in Alina whenever she stepped foot inside. Each courtier she passed on her way to the gardener shed near the back curtseyed or bowed, which was disconcerting, when only a few months ago she was just a girl in a torn dress, mopping the worn-floors of a decrepit farmhouse.
“I knew you’d be back sooner rather than later,” Brigit remarked as she potted some plants on the work desk at the shed. “Your apron is hanging where you left it.”
Alina couldn’t help the large grin adorning her face as she tied the apron around her waist. There were gloves tucked into the pocket, but she left them there. She much preferred to feel the soil with her bare hands.
“Your mother almost lived here during the winter months.” Sarah said as she made her way back for more supplies. She and Brigit shared a look. “We had a feeling you may be the same.”