by Sarah Noffke
“I think that, although Blisters and Manx are very capable, having my chief advisor supervising is necessary,” Azure said.
“You only call me that when you’re trying to butter me up,” Monet noted.
“And is it working, chief advisor?” Azure asked, batting her eyes at him.
Monet crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Fine, I’ll stay behind while you two get to go off and have all the fun.”
“Merci, monsieur,” Azure said, curtsying.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“So you give the essence of true love to Oak once you’ve contained it,” Ever said after they’d stepped through the portal and onto the Parc du Champ de Mars.
Azure’s chin rose as she took in the structure towering in front of them, which was almost one thousand feet tall. “Yes, and then Oak gives me the weredragon scale, and I hand that off to Myrtle, who tells me how to free Bob.”
“Too bad you couldn’t have cut out a few middle men.” Ever, unlike most of the tourists on the grassy lawn, wasn’t looking up at the Eiffel Tower, but rather at the person next to him.
“Well, if I’m trying to be positive about the whole thing, at least a few people get something out of the act of freeing Bob, besides the angry genie himself,” Azure stated, a chill running down her back. There was a unique magic that radiated off the Eiffel Tower. She’d heard of it many times, but she’d never been exposed to it, and therefore hadn’t fully grasped its significance. However, standing here now, in front of the tower, she kind of understood.
“There are three levels to the Eiffel Tower, but I vote we go to the top. I’m guessing you want to take the lifts.” Ever pointed to the base.
“Why couldn’t you have simply opened a portal on one of the levels?” Azure asked, suddenly feeling dizzy from looking up. She must look like an ant on the ground to those up high.
“I tried. This was as close as the portal would get us,” Ever explained. “Certain areas don’t allow portals.”
“The House of Enchanted, for instance,” Azure stated.
“Yes, it’s a precaution put into place to keep unwanted visitors from popping up,” Ever said.
“Okay, well, to the lift, then.” Azure set off, still unsure of what they were looking for. There were people everywhere—chatting, taking pictures, holding hands. None of them looked to be falling in love or already in love, for that matter, but how was she supposed to know?
“Why can’t they sell the essence of true love in the gift shop?” Azure joked as she waved her wand at the crowd blocking the elevator. They parted, and she and Ever boarded, not having to wait or needing a ticket.
“A perk of being a queen,” he said in response to the trick, winking at her as the lift set off.
“I like people, but yes, I’d prefer to have my own elevator for the trip and not be jostled by the masses.”
Azure’s eyes widened as the lift rose, Paris sprawling out in front of her. The city spread like waves in the ocean, rippling bigger as they rocked away from a boat.
“What do you suppose Oak wants with the essence of true love, anyway?” Ever asked, watching Azure stare out at the city.
“I’m not sure. He’s a curious old wizard, though. I trust him, but I definitely don’t understand him.”
“Oh yes, I feel that way about most from Virgo,” Ever stated with a smile. A dimple rose on his left cheek.
Looking at him right then reminded her of the fate that would soon be bestowed upon her—the protector of the Howling Willow. Azure still hadn’t come to terms with the inevitable responsibility, but she couldn’t run from it.
All her life, she’d been preparing herself to be queen, and then in one night, she’d had a bigger crown thrust upon her head. Protecting the Howling Willow stole her freedom; it was the grandest honor and also the undoing of her bountiful future. She was a child to a parent who could never allow her to have her own life.
She pulled her gaze away from Ever, realizing that she hadn’t been able to look at him properly since learning of her heartbreaking fate.
“Most don’t look so melancholy when headed to the top of the Eiffel Tower,” Ever noted gently. Azure felt his gaze on her, but didn’t dare look back at him.
“I was only remembering that soon I’ll be taking over for Mage Lenore,” Azure confessed.
“Oh, right,” Ever said in a hush. “So you’re not excited about the task, then?”
“I’m only confused about how different my life will look,” Azure admitted, reaching into her robe and withdrawing the velvet box.
“Being connected to the greatest source of magic on Oriceran is—”
“An honor,” Azure said, finishing his sentence.
“I was actually going to say ‘a huge responsibility’,” Ever said.
Something rattled in Azure’s chest like a power was trying to break loose.
“You’ll also be stronger than anyone on Oriceran,” Ever continued.
Azure’s ears popped when the elevator neared the top. She opened her mouth, trying to release the pressure. Ever’s words felt as overwhelming as the pressure that was suddenly filling her head from the altitude change.
When the doors to the elevator opened, Azure stepped forward, a swift wind covering her face. Various groups stood around the perimeter, peering through a fence that bordered the top.
“Now what?” Azure asked, mostly talking to herself.
“Dolly the love expert said that this is where a high incidence of people fall in love,” Ever reminded her. “So look around.”
“What am I looking for?” Azure asked.
Ever shrugged. “I’m not sure. But I think your instincts are good. You’ll figure it out.”
He strode down the walkway purposefully.
“Where are you going?” Azure asked.
He paused, pointing ahead. “There’s a champagne bar. I’m going to get a drink.”
Azure’s chin dipped. She wished she could sip on champagne right then, but she had a purpose and needed to remain focused.
“Come and find me when you’re ready to go,” Ever told her before turning around and heading for the bar. He appeared a bit more defeated than usual.
Azure strode for the railing, feeling a strange draw to the view. Vertigo hit her when she peered over the edge at the city below. She gripped onto the handrail, thinking she might fall forward and tumble to her death if she didn’t hold onto something. Around her, she was aware of couples strolling by or taking pictures together. One of them had to share true love, but she couldn’t force herself to pull her gaze away from the city.
“It’s mesmerizing, isn’t it?” a voice asked at her side in a thick French accent.
Azure found an old man with a thick mustache and bright blue eyes staring out at the city. He was a bit taller than her, but his hunched shoulders put him even with her height.
“Yes, it’s beautiful,” Azure said, her voice mechanical.
“I proposed to my wife right over there, fifty years ago.” The man pointed to a spot where a couple stood, taking a selfie with the city in the background.
They looked happy, but Azure didn’t know if they were in love. How would she truly know? True love wasn’t just happiness; it was something bigger. Something rare.
“Really?” Azure asked. “I wished I could have been here to see it.”
What Azure meant was that she wished they had truly been in love and she could have captured the essence, fulfilling her current goal.
A wide smile spread on the man’s face, and he chuckled. “You would have been mortified, as was everyone in the crowd. She said no.”
“What?” Azure asked, surprised. “But you said she was your wife.”
“She later became my wife, but at the time, she wasn’t ready,” the man explained. “She was furious at me for taking her up to the Eiffel Tower and proposing. Accused me of manipulating her into saying yes by choosing this location.”
“It is supposed to be the most ro
mantic place on Earth or any other planet…if such a place existed,” Azure said, covering her blunder.
“Yes, but we’d only been dating a week,” the old man confessed.
“Oh, wow. So you rushed things a bit.” Azure’s eyes watered from the cold wind. She blinked, feeling tears about to spill over the edge.
“Well, the thing is that I loved Amelia since the beginning,” the old man said, a deep, meaningful expression in his placid blue eyes. “I knew from the first moment I saw her that she was the one I wanted to spend my life with. As cliché as it sounds, it was love at first sight for me. However, Amelia was working three jobs to support her aging mother at the time. She was overwhelmed by responsibility, and not permitted to get swept away.”
“She sounds practical,” Azure stated.
“She was, and whereas I allowed myself to fall head over feet in love with her, Amelia guarded her heart.”
Azure strangely related to this Amelia. “So when you proposed, she said no.”
The old man nodded. “She slapped me across the face and said, ‘Pierre, I never want to see you again’!”
“Oh my! That’s crazy. But you got married?”
The old man, who didn’t at all feel like a stranger to Azure, straightened the cap on his head. “She was angry. Hurt. Scared. I’d rushed things. Strong women, I’ve found, love with great power, but only once they permit themselves to.”
“So what happened?” Azure asked.
“I told her that I loved her,” Pierre said. “I said that she didn’t have to take on the responsibility of caring for her family alone. That I could help her. I promised to protect her, to never leave her side.”
“What did she say?” Azure asked.
He smiled, showing a row of bright white dentures. “Well, you know the answer to that. She said yes, and a year later we were married.”
Azure found herself staring more at this man than at the breathtaking view. “I don’t understand. Why the sudden change of heart?”
“Amelia didn’t fall in love with me until that moment. It took her seeing how far I was willing to go for her to release her heart. Later she told me that, with Paris at my back and my right cheek red, she realized I was the only one she’d ever loved so much that she wanted to run away. You see, it’s much harder for strong women, whom everyone depends upon, to give their heart away. It’s much easier to care for someone who doesn’t sweep them away.”
“You mean it’s safer?” Azure asked.
Pierre nodded. “Yes, because when their toes rise off the ground, they are truly vulnerable.”
“It sounds like your wife had a major shift up here,” Azure observed.
“That’s the thing about love,” Pierre said. “When we release the bars off our hearts, as she had to do, then it simply flows, as it was meant to all along.”
Azure scanned the walkway, turning the velvet box over in her fingers. “I’d love to meet Amelia. Maybe you two could help me with something.”
A tender smile half-broken by the grief in Pierre’s eyes made Azure instantly regret her words.
“She’s dead, isn’t she?” she asked softly.
“A year ago today,” Pierre said, blinking back tears as he stared out at the city.
“I’m sorry,” Azure said.
“You shouldn’t be.” Pierre’s voice cracked. “I’m here today to celebrate the life we lived together. She was the music in my life. There was a light that radiated between us. To know true love like that…well, that’s all anyone really wants.”
“Because love is the true magic in the world,” Azure found herself saying, although she didn’t know where the words came from. She felt the Howling Willow stirring in her, the way it had when she was first introduced to it.
“Yes, something like that,” Pierre said and tipped his hat. “Well, this old man won’t keep you a moment more. Good day.”
Azure smiled at him before looking out at the city. If love was magic, and she was connected to the greatest source of it, then she reasoned that the Howling Willow could help her. Azure closed her eyes, focusing.
She felt the power of the tree pulse deep within her, and when she opened her eyes, she knew at once that her intention had worked. All over Paris, lights radiated from different places, glowing with a magic that Azure innately understood.
The Howling Willow had highlighted where true love flowed between two people.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Azure had expected the lights marking true love to radiate throughout the city, covering it like a blanket. That’s not what she found.
“One, two, three,” she counted, searching for the next light, as each of the other lights had been scattered far from the one before it. True love was, in fact, rare—so much so that when she’d finished searching the western side of Paris, she’d only counted four instances.
There is much devotion in the world, but something as powerful as true love takes the meeting of two special hearts, the Howling Willow whispered in her head.
It was strange to hear the tree’s words, but then also not at all. She felt it had always been there, whispering, disguised as part of her subconscious. Azure was only more aware of it now.
She turned, searching the walkway in front of her, where couples and families mingled on top of the Eiffel Tower.
Surely there has to be true love up here, she thought. Otherwise, I’ll have to go out into the city and find one of the lights the Howling Willow lit up.
Azure started off for the northern end, her focus sharp and eyes constantly scanning for the lights, like she’d seen out in the city. Several times, a flash caught her gaze, but when she turned, she found it was an artificial light, like that from a camera. Pure light, that’s what she was looking for.
Her hope started to plummet when she had nearly made a complete rotation around the Eiffel Tower. She felt silly not even gawking over the view like the tourists she passed. She was completely focused on watching the people, the velvet box pressed tightly in her fingers.
Even when two hearts meet that are meant to love each other, one might be imprisoned by its own obligations. Only free hearts find true love, the Howling Willow sang like leaves rustling in the wind.
Azure thought of Amelia. She could picture the young woman clearly, coming to terms with her own heart as Pierre stood raw and yearning in front of her, fresh after being rejected.
Something rattled inside Azure, making her halt. She clapped her hand to her chest, suddenly breathless. She peered down at her feet, which were firmly planted on the walkway, although for a moment she could have sworn she was floating. When she looked up, through the crowd, she spied a light glowing unlike any other.
~~~
The bubbles from the champagne tickled Ever’s throat. He took the final swig from his glass, then dragged his hand across his lips to dry the moisture. Blinking out at the city, he didn’t feel any better than when he’d first come to this spot to find a way to bury the loneliness.
Ensuring no one was watching him, he pointed at his glass and refilled it. What, was he kidding? No one would be staring at him when all of Paris was beckoning for their attention.
A few couples had asked him to take their picture, but otherwise, most were locked in their euphoria. And why shouldn’t they be? Standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower is a lifelong dream for many.
He laughed humorlessly to himself as he took a sip. The Eiffel Tower was like falling in love. Most wanted to experience it on some level in their lives, but love wasn’t as easy as buying a ticket and boarding a lift.
Ever had loved Azure before he even knew her. He remembered climbing across the canopy in the Dark Forest, tracking her, watching her. She was too good to be real. But the soon-to-be queen didn’t know she was being watched, and when people don’t know they have an audience, their true character is revealed.
Ever always thought that women wanted a man who would fight for them. Who would go to the end of Oriceran for them. But Azure w
as different, and that was precisely what he treasured about her. Azure never needed saving; she was the hero of her own story.
The pitfall to loving a woman as strong as Azure was that Ever didn’t know what she wanted, or needed. And could she even know, with the many burdens that fell on her shoulders?
“Excuse me,” a voice said at Ever’s back.
He turned, ready to take another picture of a happy couple. An older woman stood at his back, her wrinkled face pinched with confusion.
“Yes?” he asked.
The woman pointed a crooked finger at him. “You’re glowing.”
Ever’s eyes shot to his midsection. He knew how to cover his magic on Earth. How could I have made such a mistake?
But the glow…it wasn’t the way his Light Elf magic usually displayed itself. A golden light shimmered around him, like he was strangely radioactive.
He looked up at the woman. “It’s the material of my shirt. It reflects light,” he lied.
“What an interesting fabric,” the woman said, accepting his explanation at once.
“Yeah,” Ever said, mostly to himself, staring down at his body.
The glow faded, to his relief, but still he couldn’t understand what had caused it. He set the champagne flute down, concluding that he’d had enough to drink.
“Are you wondering why you were glowing?” Azure asked, standing in front of him. He hadn’t noticed her approaching. The soft smile she wore made her eyes brighten.
“Do you know?” Ever asked, grateful that the effect was gone now, especially because the sun was setting, and he’d stick out like a glowstick up on top of the Eiffel Tower.
“It’s the effect of a spell that the Howling Willow cast,” Azure explained.
Ever pressed his lips together and nodded to the box in her hand. “Did you find true love?”
“I did,” Azure said, slipping the box into the robes of her pocket.
“Then we should get back.” Ever wasn’t sure what he’d expected here today, but this wasn’t it. He strode past Azure, headed for the lift.
Her hand caught his wrist, pulling him back around.
