Corinna looked at the apple in her hands with innocent eyes. Magical food was empowering to magic users but addicting to normal people. Was that like the flowers in the garden? Their scents had been so strong that first night that Corinna almost fell over from the power of it. Perhaps she shouldn’t eat one of these apples. Still, she’d eaten one the other day and didn’t remember craving one immediately afterward. Maybe it would be okay, just one.
She brought the fruit to her lips and bit down. It was moist and delicious, but even as she chewed it and let it slide over her tongue, she wouldn’t necessarily call it addicting. She wanted more apple, but not in a ‘give it to me now’ sort of way. But it was delicious, unusually so for an apple. Corinna ate half of it while lost in staring at the yard before she realized it.
When she put the apple down to save it for later and to reassure herself that she wasn’t already addicted to it, the sun glinted off the windows of the house. Corinna looked up in its direction and pressed her lips together. Alexander never came out of that room, at least not unless he was going to see Morgana or to play piano at midnight. It had been several days since Corinna decided to help the poor beast, but she didn’t know how to get things started if Alexander never left his room.
“I think I’ll go invite Alexander to eat with us,” Corinna said aloud, catching her friends’ attentions. Belle almost started choking, but caught herself in time.
“But he never joins us,” Gavin began. “His idea that he may come down to meet you during dinner on your first night here was a startling proposal for all of us.”
“But that’s the point,” Corinna said, shrugging a bit. “If he never comes out of his room, how is he supposed to get to know anyone, make friends, fall in love, break a curse?”
“Fall in love?” Belle asked. She looked uneasily at Gavin as if asking him to reassure her that Corinna had not been suggesting she start a relationship with Alexander. Corinna shook her head and pushed herself to her feet.
“Never mind. I’m going to go invite him to join us,” she said again. “You two wait here. I’ll be back.”
Gavin and Belle exchanged wary glances as Corinna made her way across the lawn and to the back door. She thought she spotted Alexander moving away from the window, but the glare from the sun made it hard to tell.
The others may not like this idea, but if Corinna was going to start grooming Alexander into a loveable man, she had to start somewhere, and this was the perfect opportunity. She would simply invite Alexander down for lunch, haul him down there if she had to, and teach him to be the proper gentleman he was no doubt raised to be until he was fifteen.
Walking three flights of stairs was easy after doing it every day at least four times. Still, it didn’t help if Alexander wouldn’t answer the door. Corinna knocked for a second time and stood patiently. She was just beginning to feel annoyed, ready to pound her fist into the door, when the handle turned and it opened just a crack.
“What do you want?” Alexander asked in a growl, though Corinna suspected it hadn’t meant to be.
“Isabelle, Gavin, and I are eating lunch out in the backyard. You should come down and join us,” Corinna said. She was smiling at just how brilliant her plan would be if Alexander accepted.
“No.” Alexander tried to close the door but Corinna put her foot in the way.
“Why not?” Corinna grunted. “I asked nicely.”
“I don’t eat with servants.”
“Why are you such conceited prat? They are the only people staying with you for years on end and you won’t even eat with them? No. Give me a better reason than that.”
“I’m not hungry,” Alexander snapped, but it sounded too much like Corinna on her first day, so the younger woman didn’t buy it for a second.
“Nice try, but Belle says you’re always hungry,” she said.
“Why does it matter to you if I come down or not? I prefer to stay in my room, if you don’t mind. Now piss off. Get your foot out of the way. I don’t want to have to break it to close this door.” And Corinna had no doubt Alexander could really do that.
“You want to know why it matters besides giving you the ability to make friends, keep your sanity, and work on human emotions?” Corinna asked, shoving against the door, but it was no use against Alexander’s strength at holding it still.
“Yes,” the beastly prince answered in return. He made it sound like that answer was obvious, but Corinna was almost positive the prince was simply looking for a way out of this and was only buying some time to think of an excuse or to hear a reason he should go that he could disagree with.
“Well what if I told you it would help break your curse?” Corinna asked. Before she could even begin to balance herself, the door to the room swung open. She almost fell flat on the floor, but Alexander’s large hands grabbed her and kept her standing – or it seemed that was the plan, but they were holding her tightly, almost like a captive. Alexander raised her up to eye level and his human eyes looked stunned. He’d almost look normal, just a bit hairy, if not for his long snout.
“You know how to break the curse?” he asked, his nose nearly up against Corinna’s.
“Well, I think I have an idea,” Corinna allowed. She would have shrugged had she the ability to move her shoulders.
“How? You’re not a magician or a doctor. How could you know?” Alexander held her farther back now, looking her up and down for some sort of explanation.
“Um, there was this magic book down in the library. It opened right to the spell that seems to have been put on you,” Corinna explained.
Instead of reassuring Alexander, as she’d expected it to, Alexander seemed to grow more stunned. He dropped Corinna to her feet and shoved past her. Corinna grunted as she fell to the floor and barely avoided colliding her head with the door frame. What was that about? By the time Corinna managed to peel herself off the floor and stand up again, Alexander was returning from wherever he had gone to. Corinna opened her mouth to complain, but Alexander ripped her into his room by her collar and slammed the door behind him. Corinna was up against the wall, two feet off the ground, before she could truly understand what was happening to her.
“Where is it?!” Alexander yelled, his hot breath blowing Corinna’s hair back with its force. “What did you do with it?!”
“With what?” Corinna asked. She knew full well Alexander probably meant the magic book, but she still wanted to play dumb. She could use it as leverage if Alexander didn’t put her down soon. Her arms were going a little numb.
“The book, you idiot! How did you get it off the shelf to begin with?” Alexander growled. He pulled Corinna off the wall as easily as if she were one of the pictures in the second floor room. He held Corinna up like a disobedient child.
“It just came off like any other book,” Corinna said, voice terse. She did not appreciate being handled like this. “Put me down.”
“Just came off?” Alexander hissed. “Just came off? That book doesn’t come off the shelf! You’re a warlock, aren’t you? You deceiver! You’re a liar! Why are you here? What do you want from me now?”
“I don’t want anything from you!” Corinna yelled back. Alexander growled low, his lips curling back off his monstrous teeth, and he tossed Corinna through the air and onto the nearest couch. The couch fell over backwards and had Corinna lying on the back of it instead of on the seat. The farm girl groaned as she moved both her arms to check they weren’t broken in any way.
Then Alexander was looming over her and Corinna grabbed the prince’s face before it could be shoved right into her own.
“Only a sorcerer can use that book. Sorcerers are evil and seek only to destroy me and my kingdom. Do you think I’m an idiot?” Alexander growled.
“That depends. If you actually think I have magic, then yes,” Corinna sneered, shoving Alexander’s face back. It did make the prince move away a bit and look over Corinna again. “If I had magic, do you honestly think I’d subject myself to this manhandling? Y
ou threw me across the room just now. I’d have to be stupid to just let that happen if I had the power to stop it.”
“Then how did you take the book down?” Alexander asked. Corinna’s logic seemed to actually make sense to him, and now he was considering any other possibilities.
“I asked it nicely?” Corinna suggested sarcastically. “I don’t know. I just… pulled.”
Alexander’s eyes shifted to Corinna’s wrists and then he snatched up the right one. On it was a shiny golden bangle with one simple character engraved on it that neither Alexander nor Corinna could read. The prince held it closer to Corinna’s face.
“Where did you get this?” he asked. Corinna looked between the bracelet and the prince for a few seconds before she answered.
“Morgana gave it to me to help me sleep,” she said. “What does that matter?”
“Morgana gave it to you,” Alexander answered as though it were obvious. “This is a magical charm. It has magic in it. The book obviously mistook you for some kind of magic user because it could sense the charm…. You really are a useless farmer after all.”
“I resent that,” Corinna said with a scowl. Alexander shrugged, dropped Corinna’s hand, and moved away. Corinna gasped as the whole couch was righted, with her still on it. She hit the seat and pushed herself up to a sitting position. “Hang on. Aren’t you forgetting what I said? I know how to break your curse.”
“Doesn’t matter. You don’t have any magical ability to pull it off,” Alexander said, trolling around his room until he found a book with a bookmark that was sitting on one of the side tables. He must have been reading earlier. He sat down on his large couch and prepared to read again.
“No. That’s what doesn’t matter. Your curse doesn’t need magic to break it. It just needs you,” Corinna tried again. Alexander looked at her, and Corinna took that as a cue to continue. “See, you’re under the creature curse. It makes you… er… beastly.”
It was probably better not to insult him by saying this was the image of his heart. Alexander set his book down and looked bored.
“What is your point?” he asked.
“My point is that the cure is simply to be a better person. The book says you need to have a kind, empathetic heart,” Corinna lied. Well, it wasn’t entirely a lie. To find love Alexander definitely needed to have a kinder heart. As it was, he couldn’t find a companion even if he used magic.
“Then you’re wrong about the cure. I do have a kind and empathetic heart,” Alexander said, reaching for his book again. Corinna stood up and crossed her arms about her chest.
“You won’t come down and eat lunch with a bunch of servants,” she said. She gazed at Alexander with raised eyebrows and disbelieving eyes. It was a look that told Alexander he was full of horse shit if ever that could happen.
Alexander gave Corinna a hard stare and they stayed looking at each other for several long moments. Finally, Alexander stood from his seat and towered over his smaller guest. He reached out and lightly poked Corinna in the chest, not hard enough to hurt but hard enough to make her nearly stumble backwards. The prince must have had to practice that because Corinna had feared being punctured by a claw. Alexander gave Corinna a curious look.
“Alright, peasant. What do you want me to do?” he asked. Corinna frowned.
“Well to start with, my name is Corinna. And the other servants have names too: Belle, Gavin, and Veronica. Calling people by their names is a perfect way to start being empathetic,” Corinna said.
“Okay.”
“Try it out.”
“Try what out?” Alexander looked nervous, though Corinna couldn’t imagine why.
“Try calling me by my name, idiot,” Corinna said and earned a slight glare from the prince.
“Fine, Corinna. What next?” Alexander asked, crossing his large, furry arms.
“I don’t appreciate the sarcasm, but that’ll do for now. Next,” Corinna began and slapped Alexander in the face. The prince hissed and turned a huge growl out of his chest, directed right at Corinna, but Corinna seemed unaffected. “Next, I want you to work on your temper. And brush your teeth or something. The slap was for making me come here in the first place. Belle didn’t pack enough food for you, now that I think about it, so I’ll see you at dinner and we’ll work on your kindness after that, alright?”
“Fine with me,” Alexander forced out, unable to hide his distaste. Corinna smiled proudly and gently pat the part of Alexander’s face she had just smacked. Not only did it seem to stun the prince more than the slap, but it made Corinna feel amazingly in control. The raven haired girl nodded once and then took her leave of the room. Alexander said nothing and didn’t try to stop her.
When Corinna reentered the yard, Belle and Gavin both seemed to let out a long held breath. To Corinna’s shock, they hadn’t touched their food at all since she’d left. She retook her seat and picked up her apple. As she took a new bite, Gavin said:
“See? I knew he would not come.”
“On the contrary,” Corinna said. “He should definitely be joining us for dinner.”
Belle looked amazed and covered her mouth in an attempt to hide her shock, but she was smiling. Gavin’s mouth hung open for several long moments and then he grinned as well. This would be a first in almost seven years.
Chapter 13 – To the Tune of Autumn
Corinna leaned on her broom and stared out the front gate and down the winding pathway. It seemed to her that every day she was here, the path appeared to grow longer, farther away. Even now as she stared at it, she swore the trees must be moving away from the house. She could not remember the area in front of the gate very much. She’d been far too focused on the manor on her trip through the area, but she didn’t remember there being so much open space out there.
Maybe it was just her imagination. Maybe it was magic. Maybe she would never make it out of here. Or maybe the path would be the same on her way out as it had been on her way in and she was merely over dramatizing it all.
No matter if the trail truly was average or if the trees were honestly moving away, the gate never budged an inch. Every day, Corinna and Belle would come out in the evenings to sweep away the newly fallen leaves. Together they would push the piles out into the forest beyond, where they would be swept up by an unusual air current that carried them away into the darkness. They did this every night in the autumn, and every new day brought with it an endless supply of new leaves to be swept. And every night, the iron gate watched them work. It never moved, never swayed, never creaked. It was a silent, terrifying guardian whose gargoyle minions reminded Corinna every day that she was stuck behind its blasted bars until the day she cured Alexander of his curse and the prince gave her freedom.
“Corinna, I think we’ve done all we can for today,” Belle said as she came up beside her. Her dark eyes drifted from Corinna to the path and back. She frowned empathetically, but Corinna didn’t want her pity. Corinna cleared her throat and stood up tall.
“You know what I was thinking, Belle?” she asked. Before Isabelle could have time to think and answer in some silly politically correct manner of referring to Corinna’s position at this tiny castle, she answered herself. “I was thinking it might be nice if Morgana kept the leaves out along with the weeds.”
Belle smiled, but it was a sad one. It didn’t take a genius to realize Corinna was avoiding the topic of her enchantment.
“Yes, that would be nice,” Belle said. “But then what would we do with our evenings?”
“Learn to play chess,” Corinna suggested as they reentered the house. Belle let out a laugh. “No. We would polish the banister until it was the perfect style for sliding down from the second floor.” Belle laughed more. Corinna grinned. “Or we could install a pulley system on the roof somehow and… well I’m not sure what we’d do with it, but it would be interesting.”
“You’re funny, Corinna,” Belle laughed. They put their brooms away and moved toward the kitchen. “But I feel much better cl
eaning than inventing. However, if you really want to invent something, perhaps you could join me in the kitchen and invent some new type of dinner for Alexander.”
“Oh, what could be more fun?” Corinna asked. Belle giggled at the sarcasm, and Corinna let herself glow with that small boost to her pride.
Eating in the castle had grown interesting over the last few weeks as well. Not only had the summer months passed unusually quickly, but Autumn felt as though it had been around for far too long already. Dinners consisted of pumpkin foods and other squash. There were carrots and broccoli and scallions. They also had oats from time to time when the supply cart came around. Although Corinna had never seen it for herself or even noticed tracks inside the gate, Belle assured her that the cart did in fact exist and that a knight by the name of Ellis was its primary driver. Corinna would believe it when she saw it.
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