I’m pleased to tell you that we have reached a small village called Stirling. We had no luck finding Healers on the road or finding anyone who knew of the curse. Most people just wanted to have a chat about the new queen and what she was like. I must tell you it became very annoying.
I laughed.
Then one day I heard of Stirling. I thought Flora and I should go there. I followed the directions and found a strange creature named Gulp. He lives in the water, Aurora! He fashioned us a boat out of things in the water and on land. It was incredible.
We arrived in Stirling where we met Holger. He helped us find someone who I really think can help Sawyer. She’s a Healer Fae and her name is Aiofe. (If you’re wondering how to say her name it’s Ee-Fa) She is willing to come look at Sawyer and to see if his curse resembles another that she has healed before.
My heart stopped for a moment, and I felt like I could scream. She had found a Healer! She had found Sawyer’s saving grace. Tears ran down my face and onto the paper. My vision blurred as I kept reading.
She told me that she had to find the weapon that was used against Sawyer. Aurora, you must find Raven, and you must find her blade that she used on him. If you do, Aiofe thinks she can wake him. We will arrive in no more than a fortnight. I’m hoping it will be sooner. I am sorry we will miss seeing you crowned.
All our love,
Merryweather and Flora
I let the paper fall as I leaned onto the bed near Sawyer’s hand. Taking it in mine, I just cried. I cried for Sawyer. I cried for the year that I had lost. And I cried for the elation that I felt in my heart.
“Rory, are you all right?” Gray asked as she came into the room. “I heard you crying.”
“I’m fine, Gray. Actually I’m better than fine.” I handed her the letter. When she was finished, she said, “We need to get that sneaky little bitch back here to Ancora and take that dagger from her wretched hands.”
I would make Raven pay for all the wrong she had done. There was never any doubt that I would, but now I would take the dagger from her and plunge it into her heart. Forget a trial. Forget mercy. She would die for her sins, and I would be the executioner when the day came. When I was done with her, she’d be a sniveling mess.
****
The coronation came before I was even ready for it. I wasn’t prepared to be queen when I awoke that day. Instead, I was ready to be a warrior and go find Raven. Everything else was just time wasting, and I didn’t want to do it. I’d much rather be training like I had the days before or even learning court politics with my mother.
Mona tried her best to keep me excited by telling me all who were arriving.
“The Duke and Duchess of Loralen are here now. They are ever so nice, Rory. And the Fae are all here. Oh, you’ll be so pleased.” She pulled my hair up and pinned it. “They look so magical. I think they are all wearing green.” No surprise there.
I pulled on my red dress, having to admit it was gorgeous. It was the softest satin and encrusted with royal jewels that my mother bestowed upon me. The color was so bright and lovely, but then again, it did remind me of blood. Raven’s blood that I wanted to spill, perhaps?
The sleeves came to my elbows and the neckline higher than I was used to. Gray insisted that I should look regal and not indecent. It was a form fitting bodice, but had the perfect amount of room at the waistline as it spread out onto the floor ever so perfectly.
“Princes are here, unfortunately,” Clara said as she entered the room and changed my train of thought. I was so happy to have her as my maid once more. I didn’t want anyone else helping me except for these two. “None of them are as handsome as Sawyer.”
I laughed as she did up the back of my dress, one button at a time.
“No one in all the land will ever be,” I told her.
“Just as no one will ever look as beautiful as you do on this day, Aurora.”
My gold shoes were last, and I had to say they hurt my feet already.
“Do I have to wear these?”
“Gray said your shoes must be uncomfortable, to keep you sharp,” Mona explained.
It was so like Gray to think of something like that.
“Fine,” I succumbed. “But as soon as this day ends, get rid of them.”
“I’ll take them!” Clara exclaimed. We all laughed.
I hoped then that this was how it would always be with us after I became queen and after I found Raven. Would killing her change me? Would others look at me differently?
“Aurora, darling, it’s time.” My mother came in to fetch me and smiled when she saw my gown. “Oh, you look exquisite my daughter.”
“Thank you, Mother.”
We walked into the hall where Gray and the guards stood waiting. All of their heads turned as I entered. Gray looked proud and nodded in approval.
She then went through the protocol for what was to come as we walked to the great hall where everyone was waiting.
“You’ll be announced, then you’ll proceed down the aisle,” she explained. “Guards are everywhere, even in the crowd dressed as royals. I made sure your safety is the most important thing here.”
I nodded and listened to her. I wasn’t afraid of Raven now, nor will I ever be and I told her so.
“I know that, Rory. But we have to follow all of the safety measures.”
“I understand,” I told her.
Before I knew it, we were standing outside the great hall where my father, mother, and all my other relatives were crowned. It was also the place where my father was killed. Gray suggested we move the location, but I told her no. I wouldn’t want to do it any other place. My father’s spirit may have been taken, but I believed it was still in that room. I wanted him to watch his daughter take the crown. He would have been so proud of me.
“It’s time, now,” my mother said as Gray entered the hall to announce me. She grabbed my hands and kissed them. “You will do great things, daughter.”
“I promise I will.”
I entered the hall and it felt like I was floating not walking. Although everybody was staring at me, I just kept staring ahead where the vicar stood holding a large book and to his right another man held the crown. Trying to imagine Sawyer standing in the crowd watching me, tears came to my eyes. I tried to stop them, but failed. They ran down my face as I walked forward. My gloved fingers did well to soak them up as I touched my face, but I knew everyone could see. I didn’t care. This was an emotional day for everyone, and if a queen couldn’t cry, then what did that say about her? I wasn’t anything but a mortal, and they all knew that.
Having reached the end of the aisle, I followed Gray’s orders and waited for them all to bow to me. Once they did, I was seated in a large chair, now facing the crowd.
The vicar approached me and handed me a scepter in one hand and an orb in the other. I took them and held them regally. At that point he was handed the royal crown, and he knelt and blessed it with a prayer. The golden crown had been my mothers, and I could see that she changed it to fit me. Instead of rubies, it now held several sapphires and diamonds.
He rose and placed it on my head and announced loudly, “God save the Queen!”
The whole crowd followed, chanting three times. “God save the Queen!”
“You, Aurora Rose, have been given the crown to the Kingdom of Ancora. It is a crown of glory and has been placed upon a glorious queen.” He raised his hand in a blessing while trumpets played loudly behind me. The crowd cheered just as loudly as I stood before them. I could hear the bells ringing above me, the castle announcing my crowning.
I was surrounded then by Gray, my mother, and the vicar as he placed a robe around my shoulders—my father’s robe. It had been sewn to fit a queen, and it felt like a hug from him wrapping around me.
“Go now, our queen, and se
rve your people in good faith and in understanding,” the vicar announced.
As the crowd cheered again, I was ushered out of the great room past all of those I had passed before. But this time I acknowledged them as they all congratulated me. I took notice of a dark haired prince with a large smile on his face. I knew that face because I had once played with that boy as a child. He was Prince Aiden from Bordell. I smiled politely and he winked at me.
Oh great! He actually thinks he stands a chance with me.
I broke eye contact and followed Gray to the balcony. The bells still rung beautifully above our heads.
“Now, go out there and wave to your people, Your Majesty,” she said to me with pride in her voice.
As the doors opened, I walked out, but was not prepared for what I saw: thousands of people below cheering so loudly upon seeing me that the bells were drowned out. I waved nervously to them as they all chanted, “God save Queen Aurora!”
It was real now. I was their queen, and I would do right by every single one of them.
Chapter Fourteen
Rory
I was to change from my red gown and into a softer more comfortable gown for the ball and feast that immediately followed the crowning. Gray guarded my door as Mona and Clara readied my things.
Mona held up the sapphire blue dress that my mother had made for me. I smiled—it reminded me of a dress I wore once for the Kings Ball when I was fifteen. That dress had been pink and was cut the same exact way. It was a big surprise, handmade by my mother’s seamstress. I remember how I wanted to dance the night away, but my father insisted I go to bed after the meal; I was only fifteen and in his eyes too young to dance at a ball. I was so disappointed and angry that I ran to the kitchens instead of my room. The memory of that night flowed to me as Mona laced up the back of my sapphire gown.
I began running to the kitchens so that Merryweather wouldn’t catch me. She thought I was heading up to my bed like a good little princess, but I had other plans.
Rounding the corner into the kitchen, I saw Sawyer right away. He was working with the fire in the large stove. I watched as he lifted the logs and placed them delicately inside as beads of sweat formed on his brow. He was so handsome that I couldn’t help but giggle slightly.
He turned and caught me staring, but he wasn’t the only one; Cookie saw me too. Cookie was the head cook who Sawyer answered to most of the time. I loved coming into the kitchens to watch him work and to taste the food they all prepared, but mostly I came for Sawyer. I think Cookie knew that.
“Princess, what are you doing here?” Cookie exclaimed as she cleaned up from dinner preparations. “We have no food for you to taste, you little mongrel; you ate it all!”
I laughed. “I came to give Sawyer a message from my mother,” I lied.
“Oh and what is that?”
Sawyer smiled behind Cookie’s back. He knew I didn’t have a message from the Queen for him. I had to get him out of here somehow though, and if lying was the way to do it, then so be it.
“He’s to head to the stables right away. My mother didn’t send me, but Merryweather is on her way here.” My lie was actually believable because Cookie wiped her hands on her apron and turned to Sawyer.
“You better get moving then, boy. You know if that fairy comes in here and you’re standing around, it won’t look good on me.”
“Right away, Cookie,” Sawyer said taking his leave.
I thanked Cookie, and Sawyer followed me out. We walked past the guards and out into the night. I waited until just before the stables to grab his hand. He looked down at me and smiled.
“They don’t need me, do they?” he asked as he realized I deceived Cookie.
I shook my head. “No. I need you.”
“Where’s Phillip?” He questioned.
“Oh, he’s off on some sort of quest. Will you be my dance partner tonight?” I requested, facing him now. We were well hidden from prying eyes.
“Of course,” he said as he took me in his arms. “Let’s dance, shall we?”
“My Queen, are you all right?” Mona asked. My dress was all fastened, but I was left with an awful feeling. I had remembered him again, and all I wanted to do was to go back to that time. We were so innocent and unknowing then. I wished I knew he was the one for me back then instead of wasting my time with Phillip. Being young and foolish, I did as I was told like most princesses do. But I wasn’t a princess now; I was a queen. I didn’t have to lie to Cookie, or to anyone else, to be with him. Except it didn’t matter who I lied to; he couldn’t be with me.
“Which shoes, Aurora?” Clara asked, holding up two pairs of satin slippers. I pointed to the silver ones and she nodded. “Good choice.”
I sat silently as she placed them on my feet. Not feeling like speaking, I was numb.
I had just been crowned queen and Sawyer missed it. He wasn’t here to dance with me when the music played, and he wouldn’t be there to hold me at night. Instead, he was in a silent sleep that seemed to go on forever. Although knowing that everyone downstairs was waiting for me to make a grand entrance, all I wanted to do was curl up next to him and sleep too, nothing else was a priority tonight.
Gray took my hand as I lifted my head.
“Aurora,” she calmly said as she knelt down in front of me. Her silver hair was pulled back and she was wearing armor like always, but she looked so much more than bad-ass tonight. She looked beautiful. She was still hard to the bone and could whip your butt in two seconds flat, but there was a certain softness to her at times. “I can see the pain in your eyes. I know this heartache that you hold inside is killing you, but you now have a kingdom waiting for you just outside that door. I know that doesn’t help any, does it?”
I laughed and shook my head.
“What I’m trying to say is that Sawyer wasn’t taken from you forever. He wasn’t taken permanently. He will wake. He will be there for you for all the other events you will encounter as queen, but this one he has to sit out. Just this once, I promise. We will have him back on his feet and beside you again soon. Take it from someone who knows this pain isn’t forever.”
Her eyes held a great sorrow, and it was then that I knew that she had felt something similar to what I was going through, because only someone who had truly lost something precious would understand this grief.
“Then let’s get this night over with,” I told her as I stood up.
She took my hand and led me out into the corridor where guards surrounded me and my ladies as we went over the plans.
“You’ll enter through the main doorway where you’ll be announced,” Gray began as we walked down the stairway. “The orchestra will start up, and you will have your first dance as Queen of Ancora.”
I stopped and stared at her in shock. “Prince Aiden, correct?”
Mona and Clara shared a look and then took off down the stairs without me. They didn’t know my plan about Prince Aiden, but they didn’t need too. I would tell them when the time came.
“Aurora,” Fauna said as she appeared at my side. “I came to see you before you enter the hall. I just wanted to give you a little bit of news.”
Gray’s news of dancing was put on hold of course; anything Fauna had news about was usually regarding Sawyer.
“Of course, Fauna.”
She patted my hand and smiled. “He’s doing well, the same, but well.” I frowned.
I tried to be optimistic but at this point, him doing the same was better than the opposite.
“I come with news of the Realm of Man,” she said. Of course it was news about Raven! “Your spies have seen her traveling with a small girl, as strange as that sounds. They think she plans on hurting her or worse.”
What would Raven want with a child? Would she eat her? No, she was evil but she wasn’t a cannibal. All of a su
dden it hit me.
“She is making the child her pet.” As the words left my mouth, they left a bitter aftertaste. Raven having influence on a human child was just wrong. I wondered if she knew that her pet would have to stay behind when she came back through the portal, no human could enter here. I wondered then, for the first time, how on earth did Maleficent get Dr. Altman—if that was even his real name—here in the first place. He had to have some sort of special permission or blessing to enter here. From time to time I believe that there have been humans who came to live and stay in Ancora’s realm. There had to be something that didn’t kill those humans, right?
“Fauna, how did Dr. Altman come through the portal to our realm?” She looked perplexed and then answered, “He was brought here by the acting queen, Maleficent. Any human passing through needs the special blessing by the realm’s queen. And even though she wasn’t a true queen, she had the power necessary to do it, and the portal itself recognized that. Because of her blessing, he didn’t die.”
“Allowing her to give him access?” I asked.
She nodded. “I’m not sure how it works exactly, but I know it takes a queen.”
Gray stepped forward and questioned, “So how does one gain access to leave?”
“The same way,” Fauna said matter-of-factly.
We all looked at one another as we pieced the puzzle together. Raven had enough power to survive the entrance to the Realm of Man, but she had to get a blessing from a queen to let her through. My mother wasn’t the one to do it, I knew that for certain. So who was it?
“We have a traitor in our midst, Queen Aurora,” Gray told me as she placed her hand on her sword’s hilt. “It must be one of the queens from another land.”
My head swam in confusion. What queen would allow Raven access? Who would trust her? And was that person here tonight?
Awaken (Slumber Duology #2) Page 7
