Fallon: Son of Beauty and the Beast (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 6)

by J. A. Armitage

  “Hopefully, not too quickly. I’m going to need someone to keep all this importance from going to my head. Keep me fun and interesting so I don’t bore all the patrons at the tavern.” I nudged my shoulder into his.

  He tripped sideways, almost falling into the street, then regained his balance and nudged me back.

  His jaw relaxed as he let out a bold, belly laugh. True emotion finally sparking in his expression. “Might be a big task, Your Majesty. You were never that fun or interesting to begin with.”

  “Then I guess I’ll have to spend more time with you so you can show me how to be such a popular socialite. Dazzle the gentlemen, charm the ladies, and all that.”

  “I’ve been trying to show you for years, but you just never paid attention.” He unhooked the top two buttons of his shirt and widened the area around his neck. His shoulders drooped and his steps started to regain the swagger I’d recognize anywhere. “However, what’s this about charming the ladies? Don’t you owe me a story about a girl?”

  “Right.” My brain drifted back to that night on the street. The panic in my veins. The hopelessness of the battle against Edwin. So much had changed in only a few days. Except, Veda still hadn’t reappeared in Mosa, or at least not that I or any of the kingdom guards could find. Maybe she was lost in the fairy magic with her father, or in her typical style, she didn’t want me to find her. “But, I don’t think there is much story left to tell. I messed up pretty badly and I’m not sure if she’ll be back.”

  “You were in love with her though, weren’t you?”

  I scoffed as I searched for anything more interesting to talk about. “Why would you say that?”

  He skipped a few steps ahead and cut in front of my path, his arms crossed against his chest. “Because I’ve been around you my entire life. I’ve seen you with practically every girl in this city since your first kiss, and no one, not one of them made you look like I shoved a dagger in your side.”

  I cringed, the fictional blade plunging right in the fleshy spot Kalmin suggested. Maybe I did look a little upset? “Have you always been picturing stabbing me with a dagger?”

  I pivoted to the left and tried to move around him, but Kalmin bobbed in front of me, refusing to let me pass without an answer. Like my own personal bridge troll.

  “Enough, Falls. This girl. She’s special, isn’t she?”

  “Is special? Was special? I’m not too clear on that right now.” I gripped my forehead as sweat built along my hairline. The sun must have gotten hotter. “But I wish I would’ve gotten a chance to figure that out. Being with her brings me calm. Anchors me when I always feel like I’m floating. She’s…I don’t know…kind of like the best thing and the biggest disaster in my life so far. And I can’t really get enough.”

  Kalmin chuckled and patted me on the shoulder. “Sounds pretty serious to me.”

  “But maybe just in my mind.” I shrugged him off and continued down the street, following the web of cracks between the stones and letting the sun scald the exposed back of my neck. “Since when are you so interested in my love life?”

  “Two reasons. One—” He held up his index finger. “—no matter what’s happened I do want to see you happy. And two—” He held up a second finger, but looked away. “—all that stuff you said about your mystery girl. That’s kind of how I feel when I’m around Sophia.”

  I halted and jerked my head up. Kalmin continued forward, leaving me behind before realizing I’d stopped, then turned around a wide-eyed look on his face.

  “You and Sophia? When did that happen?”

  Kalmin hung his head and gripped the back of his neck. “It’s still new. After you stopped coming around, things kind of took off. And I’ve actually been interested in her for a long time.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

  “I didn’t want you to be mad. You’re the prince. Any girl out there would line up to be with you. I don’t have that kind of draw. And she was always hanging off your arm. How could I compete?”

  I winced as I recalled how I’d treated Sophia and so many other girls in the kingdom. Like property. Playthings for my amusement. I’d have to add her to my list of apologies to the people I’d wronged, somewhere near the top.

  I stepped forward, my shadow towering over him until he raised his head and dared to look at me, his eyes heavy.

  “Don’t ever hide something like that from me again. But does she truly make you happy?”

  He nodded.

  “Then she’s lucky to have someone like you. As long as she doesn’t mind me being around the two of you again?”

  He glanced up cautiously. “Are you sure it's okay?”

  "Of course, you deserve to be happy. Both of you. I wouldn't stand in the way of that, king or not."

  He sighed as his body relaxed. The tension wound tight through his jaw and neck let go as we air rushed out at his mouth.

  "Now are you ready for me to destroy you at chess?” I asked as I hurried down the street.

  As I turned the corner at the bottom of the hill, Kalmin raced to catch up. We entered the square and a muffled din of voices flew at us. People were everywhere.

  "What's this?" I asked as Kalmin appeared at my side.

  A large crowd had gathered staring up at a small stage constructed in the center of the square. On the stage, a mismatched group stood in crooked lines next to a rather overdressed man with a curled mustache who seemed to be running the show.

  "Right. There's some writing contest awards happening here today. I read a sign about it somewhere but forgot."

  The writing contest. Veda's writing contest? I sped forward to the back of the crowd and stood on my tiptoes trying to find her face up on the stage. A tuft of hair and flash of gray appeared behind a large muscular man in the front row. My pulse skipped in double time. Could it really be her?

  "What's the big deal, Falls? Are you suddenly a huge literature fan now too?”

  I glanced back at him and frowned. "No, the girl. Veda. She wanted to enter but I don't know if she submitted her entry in time."

  "Well then, you'd better go find out.” Kalmin laughed and slapped me across the back. "No wonder your mother suggested that I take you to play chess today."

  "It wasn't your idea?"

  He laughed harder. "No. She sent a message to me this morning saying you needed to get out of the castle and it would be a good suggestion. She is a dangerous woman, your mother.”

  "Of course, she is. She’s the most powerful Aldric of all.”

  Kalmin nudged me with his elbow. "Stop thinking about your mom, Falls. Go get your girl."

  A loud voice boomed from the stage. The stocky host stepped forward. "And now the prizes for best poem, long-form…"

  He listed off the names as each contestant stepped forward to a rush of cheers and applause.

  “Excuse me. Pardon me.” I weaved through the crowd, sidestepping my way between the bodies of the citizens as they grumbled at me.

  Whispers erupted around me, my identity impossible to hide up close, but I didn’t care as I pushed my way through.

  3rd place, Greta Halvorson. 2nd place…

  The announcer’s voice grew louder as I approached. I twisted my head to try and find Veda among the contestants, but there were still too many in the way. A small opening appeared to the left and I lunged in that direction, my foot squishing something hard before hitting solid ground.

  “Ouch,” someone groaned as I pulled my foot off theirs. A woman dressed in a white cloak cowered away from me.

  “I’m so sorry, miss.” I winced. “I hope I didn’t hurt you.”

  She looked back. Her ethereal blonde hair hung around her pained face as her ocean blue eyes glared up at me. I gasped. Golden rings circled in her stare. The same ones I saw in the mirror every morning. Like not one other person I’d ever met.

  “Who are—”

  The woman snapped her head away. “I have to go.”

  “No. Wait.” I grabbed fo
r her arm but the silkiness of her sleeve slipped through my fingers as she darted through the horde.

  I started after her, jutting in and out between people, but her small frame fit easier than mine and gave her a generous head start.

  And now the winners of our short fiction category. 3rd place, Oliver Hortensio.

  Those golden eyes. Maybe that woman knew where I came from? She didn’t look like anyone I’d ever seen in Aboria before. Too pale. Too spectral. But still impossibly beautiful. Did she have magical abilities like me?

  2nd place, Stephano Cicero.

  A space opened on the right. I pivoted and tried to jut ahead but the woman slid left and deeper into the crowd.

  And 1st place with her heart-wrenching story of lost love “A Tale of True Beauty”, Miss Veda Macario.

  I stopped. The woman in white kept running. I glanced up at the stage as a familiar face stepped forward and the announcer lowered a large gold medallion over her head. The crowd around me cheered.

  “Veda,” I yelled as I waved my hands in the air.

  I struck a burly gentleman beside me with my elbow. He frowned, then upon recognition stepped out of the way.

  “Veda.”

  She placed her hand flat to shade her eyes and scanned the square. I jumped up, my arms flinging wild again. People backed away from me, gawking at my ridiculous display, but I didn’t care. Nothing mattered.

  “Veda.”

  Her head turned my direction and we locked eyes over the distance. Red flushed her cheeks and she stumbled back from the edge of the stage. She swung her head looking for an exit.

  I rushed toward the side of the stage. “Excuse me. Pardon me. Sorry. Excuse me.”

  The crowd parted to let me through. I climbed the left stairs to the platform as she escaped toward the right.

  “Veda, wait. Please stop.”

  Her hand hovered over the stair railing as she halted, and her head hung down. She gripped her hand into a fist and pumped it in the air before slowly turning on her heel. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  The sarcastic tone of her words twisted the imaginary dagger in my side, sending a sharp pain through my spine. But I deserved it. I knew that. It still hurt, though.

  I meandered through the other contestants and judges on the stage, each one of them frozen in place as if an evil witch had cast a sleeping spell over the kingdom. A similar hush fell over the rest of the crowd as they watched my careful steps that brought me closer to the one person I’d tried to forget and couldn’t. She waited, her hands clenched in knuckle-white fists at her sides and a sad frown across her lips.

  “What are you doing, Fallon?” she whispered as I neared.

  My hands reached to hold her shoulders, to pull her close to me, but they resisted and dropped with a smack on my thighs.

  “When you disappeared, I didn’t know where you went. I looked everywhere. I even sent guards to find you, but you were gone. Where did you go? Why didn’t you come back to me?”

  A few murmurs started in the audience and Veda looked out over the captivated crowd, but for once whatever they thought didn’t matter. Hate me if they wanted to. Throw more fruit. I wasn’t leaving yet. Veda excelled at hiding and my heart couldn’t take another vanishing act without hearing a reason this time.

  “I don’t know what happened. Everything went dark, then when I opened my eyes I’d somehow ended up lost and alone in the middle of the forest.” She shuddered as the memory flickered through her eyes. “And you already know why I didn’t come back.”

  “I don’t though. Why do you think I pushed my way through the square screaming like a fool to catch up with you? I don’t understand.”

  She lowered her voice and leaned closer. The sweetness of wildflowers clouded my head. An untamed jasmine flower.

  “You’re a prince. I’m just this—” She spread her quivering arms as her eyes welled. “I told you before, at the castle, guys like you don’t end up with girls like me. We should just stop whatever this is now before either of us gets hurt. Before I get hurt.”

  “But…” I looked her over. Her quirky disheveled head to her sturdy, practical feet. If only she could see herself the way I saw her. How her beauty stole my breath every time we met. How it shone through her like a lighthouse calling me back to shore. Back to still waters. “Maybe you’re right.”

  Her face melted as her body went limp. She pulled her hands into her sleeves and fought back her precarious tears. “See. Now can you just go.”

  “Except, I don’t think that statement is true anymore. It used to be. I’ll agree with you about that, but not now.” I wrapped my fingers around her fist and teased it out into my palm. I covered it with my other hand and stepped closer holding it to my chest. Over my heart. “Guys like how I used to be don’t belong with girls like you. That guy was weak, while you were strong. Where I was ignorant, you were wise. Where I was scared, you were steady. But being with you, and even being without you, over these past few weeks has changed me. It’s made me question everything I am and everything I stand for. It’s made me a better person, a bolder one. One who for the first time in his life knows what he wants and what he stands for. And that’s all thanks to you. To the amazing person that you are. So, yes, guys like that jerk I was in tavern don’t deserve good things in their lives, but now that I’ve been lucky enough to have it, I can’t give it up. I just hope that you think the guy I am now is finally worthy of a girl like you.”

  Veda’s hand trembled in mine. I bit down on the inside of my cheek. Had I made an idiot of myself? Maybe. But for her, I’d do it a thousand times to make her understand. To help her see how we fit even if it didn’t seem like we did. I pulled her hand higher and pressed my lips against her soft skin. “And if you’d let me, I’d kiss you anytime, anywhere, no matter who was watching.”

  “This could be a huge mistake, Fallon,” she said as her tears broke free and sailed down her cheeks.

  “Or we could write the best love story anyone has ever read. If you’ll let us try?”

  “Don’t make me regret this, my prince.”

  “I won’t if you don’t.” I edged closer, our hands the only thing left between us. “Congratulations on your big win. I knew you could do it.”

  “Thanks.” She picked up the medal and gleamed down at it with a satisfied smile. “I’m pretty excited about it.”

  I slid my hands around her waist as the heat of her body seeped through her clothes and alight my skin. I winked at her. “I think it might be my royal duty to kiss the winner.”

  She pushed up on her tiptoes and slipped her arms around my neck, locking her hands at the nape. “Only if you really want to.”

  “I really do.”

  My lips pressed against hers. Soft at first, waiting until she sparked alive under my kiss and pushed back with every ounce of fight I dreamed of tasting. The crowd roared. Whistles split through the air. We moved together, pushing and pulling, giving and taking, our lips telling stories our minds hadn’t yet formed into words.

  “Way to go, Falls,” Kalmin hollered from somewhere behind us.

  Veda giggled, the sweet vibration dancing across my mouth.

  “Veda, meet my best friend Kalmin,” I whispered.

  “I can meet him later,” she said as pulled away from my face, her hands still clutched tight around me. “I’ll be around for a while.”

  I squeezed her tighter and looked out over the cheering crowd. My shoulders rolled back, my posture straighter as an overwhelming joy flowed through me. A lightness. It’d stopped the evil wizard, I’d won back the girl I loved, and I had a strong prosperous kingdom to rule. I’d gone through hell and come out the other side. I’d won.

  Just then, a strange motion caught my attention in the far end of the square. The blonde woman with the blue and gold eyes stood near the alley watching us. I stared back. She pulled her cloak over her head then ran off, disappearing into the city.

  7

  16th June

  �
��Stop it, Fallon. I can buy my own notebooks.”

  Veda tried to reach around me but I puffed out my shoulders trying to take up as much space as possible while I tossed a stack of baht on the counter.

  “I’m sure you can. But an award-winning writer like yourself should have the finest pages to write her dynamic ideas in.”

  She gave up and dropped her hands to her hips, maybe hoping that her glare would be sharper than her pointy elbows. “But do I really need twelve? I refuse to spend taxpayer money on frivolous things.”

  “Of course, you need them. One notebook for every month of the year.”

  The shopkeeper chuckled and counted the bills out on the countertop.

  “Besides, I knew you’d never let ‘frivolous’ spending stand, so this isn’t taxpayer money. It’s hard-earned gambling money.”

  “Gambling? Really.” Her lips curled up in a crooked line as she tried to fight the amusement breaking through her tough stance.

  I shrugged. “High stakes chess game in the square. Kalmin and I beat a pair of travelers from up north. It’s not my fault if they don’t know their knight from their pawn.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You are ridiculous.”

  I grabbed the bag of notebooks from the shopkeeper and held them out for Veda.

  “I know,” I said with a flirty wink.

  She shook her head then snatched the bag from my hand and headed back out into the street.

  “Thank you, good sir.” I tipped my hand at the shopkeeper and followed behind, the door slamming in front of me and nearly clipping my nose.

  Outside the street bustled with people rushing left and right as they proceeded with their day. Ladies, gentlemen, even children tugging on their mother’s hands filed in front of me, but no Veda. I shook my head and headed to my left.

  “You really shouldn’t do that.” Veda leaped out from beside the shop.

  I screamed.