And Corinna’s family would be there. Her mom would be smiling but crying a little in her joy. Her daughter was free. Alvar would toast her from across the room while she danced. She and Alexander would laugh about Alexander’s time as a beast, and Corinna would let herself be spun and dragged around the room in their dance, fancily dressed and groomed. She’d imagine her father smiling in the light of the chandeliers and Alastar –
Corinna opened her eyes and the music and images vanished. Her fingers halted above the keys, and she stared off into the room as one distracted.
Alastar would be there. Corinna lifted off the bench and walked over to the middle of the room. She looked about at the reflections of the mirrors, every image repeated. Finally she stopped and looked into the right hand corner by the door. Alastar would stand back there and watch with his arms crossed. He would look conflicted. And when Corinna saw him, she would be conflicted too.
As she imagined it, Alastar pushed off the wall and walked over. He looked odd in party clothes, with his hair brushed properly for once and his stubble almost nonexistent. Corinna curtsied to her friend’s image, and then Alastar bowed back, that low and sweeping movement he’d shown to Corinna shortly after their first meeting. Then Alastar would take her hand and maybe even plant a kiss there, and Corinna wouldn’t know what to do. Alexander was nearby.
Then Alastar would take both of Corinna’s hands in his own and smile. He would lean in close, dangerously close. Corinna would say she was sorry and only Alastar would hear her over the music playing. Alastar would let out one of his muffled chuckles and lean in for a kiss. But Alexander was nearby. Alexander was –
Corinna gasped, and the idea of Alastar so close Corinna could feel him breathing vanished like that very breath. She was alone in the ballroom again. She frowned and covered her lips. Her reflection stared back at her, the same confused eyes echoing through the mirror.
“Ya can’t go…You’re all I’ve got.”
“Sounds like he was important to you.”
When had these emotions come up? Wanting to dance with Alexander. Wanting to have Alastar kiss her. Pushing away her own wants because of Alexander in the room. When did these thoughts start happening?
“Alastar,” Corinna murmured and dropped her hand from her mouth. “Oh damn. I’m so sorry.”
Corinna ran for the door and pushed it open with no resistance from the lock. It snapped shut loudly behind her, and the lock clicked back again to keep everyone out. Corinna ran through to the yard and all the way to the gate before she stopped. She threw herself against the bars to stop her momentum and held them tightly. The crisp fall air swirled around her, and she felt ill. It felt as though the ideas of Alastar and Alexander were pressing in around her and fighting for control, but Alastar was losing ground and trying to hold onto Corinna – oh and the whole battle made Corinna queasy.
She pulled away from the chilled iron bars of the gate and dropped to her knees in the grass. She was sure she would soon throw up, like Alastar after a hard night of drinking. Oh, there he was again, pushing for space in Corinna’s chest. But Alexander was there, bigger and stronger and beastly. He made Corinna’s chest swell with the strain of containing him.
Damn, when had all of this shown up? When had Corinna started to care so much about Alexander the person instead of Alexander and his curse? What about after this was all over? What about when Corinna could go home again? What about Alastar?
Oh, what did it matter?
Corinna coughed harshly and held her gut, but nothing escaped her throat but air. She gasped for breath for several moments and shut her eyes. There was a knot in her stomach that wouldn’t go away, but the nausea did pass. When she could move without feeling sick, Corinna shifted to sit on her butt. She took deep but quiet breaths and looked up at the autumn trees.
What did any of it matter? Corinna may be dreaming of Alastar, but he was a nobleman, and Corinna may be fantasizing about Alexander, but Alexander was a prince. What did any of it matter when Corinna was still just a peasant – and now she was a magical peasant to boot. The King would never let Corinna into Paesaggia, and who knew what Alastar’s father would do.
The wind blew by her and brought with it the smell of the rose garden, the familiar and yet completely unreal scent of magic. Corinna took a deep breath of it and felt her whole body relax. Without thinking too hard on it, Corinna knew it was the roses. They were trying to calm her down. Of all the things she could have created a bond with, Corinna supposed flowers were one of the better options.
With a deep breath, Corinna pushed herself back to her feet and used the gate for support. The cold air was a welcoming break from her thoughts, and it perpetrated her lungs like a sudden wake-up call. She moved across the lawn until she could see the rose garden in all its glass beauty. She tilted her head and squinted at the wall between her and the flowers and wondered if she was just imagining it. Was there a door there? One of the rose beds seemed to have moved and merged with another, creating a space for a glass door.
“Alvar,” Corinna breathed out and hurried over to it. Alvar had said the front door wouldn’t budge, but he somehow made it into the garden. Corinna never saw an outside door when she was working, but perhaps it was another trick of the flowers. They could rearrange themselves and do impossible things. This wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.
Corinna walked up to the door and hesitantly laid her hand upon its handle. It was cold like the front gate, but it was smooth and comfortable to hold. She couldn’t see Morgana within the glass walls at all, and her bracelet wasn’t shivering, so Corinna turned the handle and let herself into the familiar space.
The roses greeting her was almost palpable. She smiled in the wake of it. Oh, she’d missed working in here. She dragged her fingers down over the roses as she walked and took pride in how they lit up at her touch. It was just as Morgana had said.
“Hello. Sorry I was gone for so long,” she said as she moved down the line and toward the fountain. She could literally feel the flowers forgiving her. They knew it wasn’t her fault.
At the back of the garden, the rose tree stood tall in the middle of the fountain. Corinna frowned and reached up toward them. She still didn’t want to touch them. They were the offspring of a curse after all, and yet she did want to inspect them. Morgana had touched them easily enough, but she had been a part of creating their curse. She was their guardian. Corinna pressed her lips together and then nodded. Morgana said she had a way with flowers.
She reached up as though she was holding the nearest rose and then she twisted her wrist as though she were turning the rose to check its color. The rose moved with her, no actual touch needed. Corinna smiled and turned herself to check the flowers.
Morgana was right again. The base of the rose was spotted brown, dying at its core. The flowers themselves looked beautiful from the outside, but any further inspection showed the deceit. Morgana was probably the one keeping the flowers beautiful from afar. She wanted Alexander to believe he had more time. She wanted Alexander to think his roses were still healthy.
But why?
If her plan was to drop Alexander into a depression so great that he ended up killing that which he most desired, wouldn’t showing their decay be helpful in achieving that goal? Hiding the spots would only serve to give Alexander more hope, not less. What was Morgana ultimately trying to do?
A tingle. A shiver. Corinna froze. Her bracelet was trembling. It was gentle, far away but close enough to matter. Was it Morgana? Worse, was it Morgause? The only good possibility was if it was Niviene, but she wouldn’t come into the garden, would she?
The trembling got worse and vibrated through her arm. They were getting closer. Corinna looked around but she saw no one. She remembered when the sisters had dissipated into thin air. Could they reappear that way as well? Could they possibly hide themselves invisibly? She didn’t see anyone.
The bracelet fell silent on her wrist.
“Corinna?�
� a small, familiar voice called out.
Corinna turned, expecting to find a witch, and instead found Veronica. She was at the other end of the garden, peeking around one of the larger bushes at her. Corinna looked around again, checking once more for witches. Whichever one it had been must have left, because the bracelet stopped just before Veronica called out to her. They probably didn’t want an audience while they threatened her.
“Hey there, Veronica,” Corinna greeted with a wave. “What are you doing out here?”
“I… I saw you from my room window, and I was curious. I thought Morgana told you not to come in here anymore,” Veronica said as she walked over to Corinna. She was looking around nervously, probably expecting to see Morgana lurking in a bush.
“She did, but the roses let me back in,” Corinna said. Her eyes glanced to where the door had been, but the roses had reformed over it and the outline was gone.
“Oh. Well that was nice of them. So… what are you doing in here?” Veronica asked. She sat on the edge of the fountain and eyed the water, but she didn’t try to touch it. It was then that Corinna noticed there was no shadow on her from the tree. It was as if the tree wasn’t even there for her. It had been that way for Corinna as well until she had touched the water, but assuming from Morgana’s talk with Morgause, most people couldn’t touch the water and see the tree. What would happen if Veronica touched it? “Admiring the water?” Veronica asked and brought Corinna’s attention back to the conversation.
“Oh. No. I was worrying over the roses,” Corinna said. “I haven’t been able to see them since Morgana kicked me out. I know they’re technically her job, but the roses and I like each other.”
Veronica smiled at that, and there was something almost achingly familiar about it. She was the same sweet girl, in awe of Corinna’s easy speech about her magic, and her smile was comforting. Corinna smiled too. It reminded her of her mother.
“Do you want to help me pick some of the flowers to put in the house? I saw the only form of art left in there is the vases, and they’re all empty. I’m sure the garden won’t mind. They grow back overnight because of Morgana’s magic,” she said.
Veronica put her hand to her mouth and cast her eyes around at the bushes. They shivered in a nonexistent wind. Veronica smile and dropped her hand.
“Sure,” she said. “I think Alexander would like that as well.” And she laughed, something soft and magical in its own right.
Chapter 18 – Something Special
Bright. That was one way to describe the day. The air was crisp and nippy. The trees stood at alert, their leaves shuddering in the sharpness of the gentle breezes. Colors dotted everything, browns and golden oranges, and there was a carpet lining the outside of the fence – a carpet of paints and hues as could only be seen when surrounded by a late autumn forest. The gate around the yard almost seemed to creak in a desire for the color. It ached and all with eyes waited for it to break apart in attempt to mimic the trees in the shedding of their leaves.
The bars were bitter to the touch. The gargoyles looked more cold than fierce these days. Tiny, melting ice particles clung to their cracks and bends where the sun could not reach them well. Inside the gate, the grass stayed green and beautiful, but the forest grass was tinting brown where it was visible through its leafy carpet floor.
Corinna rubbed her arms gently, urging away any goose bumps. It was still autumn. She couldn’t let a cold day ruin her plans. She ran her fingers through her hair and looked up at the third floor windows. From the angle in the backyard, there was a fierce glare covering most of the glass, and Corinna couldn’t tell if Alexander was there or if it was just a shadow.
“Is he going to come down sometime in the near future?” Gavin asked, tightening his belt and then adjusting the strap of a messenger bag he had slung across his shoulders. He pat the body of the bag and then threw his gaze up toward Alexander’s window as well.
“Well, he said he would,” Corinna said. “So far, he’s always been good about keeping to his word.”
“Yes, well if we do not begin soon, I fear it will rain on our outing,” Gavin said. Corinna shrugged and glanced down at her hands, turning them over as if there were something there to appraise. Gavin pressed his lips together in a contemplative flat line. Then he shrugged his eyebrows. “You seem to have quite some faith in our master,” he said. “You never doubt him.”
“I see no reason to doubt anyone unless they have proven themselves worthy of it,” Corinna said matter-of-factly. She looked up, straight into Gavin’s eyes. For a moment, it wasn’t Gavin. It was Alastar, standing and looking curious, but then it was definitely Gavin. The curious look turned sweet, and the wannabe knight smiled.
“You are truly something special, Corinna. Most people…. Well they would not have the heart to do what you are attempting. Whatever happens, just know that I count you as a true friend,” Gavin said.
“Good to know,” Corinna said with a smile. Gavin looked off to the field and a smug look overcame Corinna’s features. “I’ll keep in mind how you count Belle as well.”
“What was that?” Gavin asked, speech a bit too quick. He looked startled and trying to seem calm. He smiled in a strained manner. “And how would that be?”
“Come now, Gavin,” Corinna teased. “It’s plain to see how you feel about her. You do what you can to impress her, and you grow flustered whenever she compliments you or gets too close. Why don’t you just tell her how you feel? It’s not as if she’s going anywhere.”
“Ah, but therein lies the dilemma,” Gavin said, cutting her off, and smiled at his ability to do so. “You see, what if she does not return my feelings? Then I will have created a tense atmosphere that neither of us can escape, and we will feel awkward around each other for the remaining years of our service here. Besides that, she could request to be removed from this service. I hear she has connections inside the castle workforce.”
Corinna shook her head and laughed. “Trust me, Gavin. She may be embarrassed when you tell her, but she will definitely not try to leave you. She obviously has feelings for you as well.”
“She has told you this?” Gavin asked, stepping closer and lighting up at the prospect.
“No,” Corinna said, and Gavin visibly deflated, “But you didn’t tell me either.”
“This is true, but I still would have preferred it if she had,” Gavin admitted. He busied himself with adjusting the strap on his bag and turned away from Corinna to avoid any further conversations. From the way he moved to stare out into the distance, he was no doubt considering Corinna’s advice anyway. While he contemplated, he slowly began to move away toward the stables, his feet moving him in their natural direction.
Corinna smiled and looked back up at Alexander’s window. She still couldn’t see anything. She looked at the back door, but it didn’t budge to open. Gavin had a point. If Alexander didn’t come outside soon, the ground would be too wet and soggy for the horses to comfortably move through with the weight of riders on them. For now the rain clouds hung away on the corners of the visible sky, but that wouldn’t last forever.
Corinna tugged on her shirt, letting the chill air slip under the cloth, and pursed her lips. She really hoped Alexander didn’t leave them waiting. She didn’t want to have a reason to doubt Alexander in the future. So far Alexander had yet to go back on his word. The only one Corinna had reason to doubt was Morgana. She claimed to care about Alexander, and yet she was plotting against him. If there was a greater reason to distrust a person, Corinna didn’t know it.
“Looks like rain,” a gruff voice spoke, and Corinna’s chest stuttered. She snapped her head toward Alexander with a wide-eyed gaze. The beast stood there looking straight backed and prepared. The door to the house was just swinging closed and Alexander was no more than a step or two behind Corinna.
“How do you manage to do that?” Corinna asked, taking a step back.
“Do what?” Alexander asked and suddenly looked uncomfortable.
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br /> “You’re footsteps are loud as thunder sometimes and then other times, like now, you and Morgana both can just suddenly appear without a sound. You do it when you go down at midnight too. I never hear you,” Corinna said. She frowned, remembering how she had fallen asleep and hadn’t made it into the ballroom almost four weeks ago. She had considered sneaking her way in ever since she realized she could unlock it, but she had experienced enough in there for now. Unless there was an actual ball in there sometime soon, she didn’t see herself reentering.
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