The voice of the priest boomed out via a loudspeaker.
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate...
I needed to be in there now! I didn’t have time to wait for the others to make their way through the crowd.
There was no way I was going to get through the guards using force. They both had guns for a start. If they fired just one shot, they would hit someone. Instead, I would have to try and get through some other way.
I still didn’t know what I was going to say when I reached them.
“No entry!” said the one on the right roughly.
“Please!” I begged. “I lost my invitation. I’m a friend of Drusilla’s.”
“Guests were admitted an hour ago and fully vetted at the main door. I’m afraid that the guards with the guest list doing the vetting have already left.”
“Please. Drusilla would think me a terrible friend if I didn’t see her marry her handsome prince.”
I laid it on thick, even managing to squeeze out a few tears.
The second guard nodded lightly at the first guard.
“Fine, but be quiet and find a seat at the back. I don’t want you to interrupt the wedding.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I beamed.
I found myself in a small antechamber. Apart from the ornate stonework of the cathedral itself, there was nothing in the room. I could still hear the sound of the priest speaking via the loudspeaker outside, but now I could also hear him, just a fraction of a second earlier, speaking in real time. His voice sounded rich thanks to the acoustics of the high ceilinged building.
I opened the wooden door opposite and walked through.
Hundreds of rows of people sat before me, all eyes on the couple at the front. A quick sweep of the vaulted room told me that it was heavily guarded.
A thought went through my mind, bringing me back to what had been said earlier. There were so many guards here and yet I was allowed entry with not so much as an awkward question to fend off. The two guards didn’t even ask my name.
It’s too easy.
Those three words had cropped up time and time again. All day, we’d managed to get past guards without being stopped. No one had been hurt. Why?
Luca wasn’t stupid. He knew I was in Silverwood’s capital somewhere, and he knew I was with Cynder. He also knew or must have figured out that I was in disguise. He certainly knew that the Magi could change my features. He’d seen it before. He’d so carefully planned everything up until this point. Why was he so lax about security today? Today, the biggest day of the year for him, with the exception of his coronation tomorrow.
Yes, he had so many guards, I could barely count them all, but if they were just going to let me do what I wanted, what was the point of them?
I knew exactly what I wanted to do. When the priest asked if there was anyone who knew of any reason for the couple not to marry, I was going to run up the aisle and announce that I was the queen.
I was just thinking this through when I realized my mistake. When I’d come up with the plan, Cynder had been by my side. I’d planned for him to change me back into my normal appearance. Without him, or another of the Magi, I was just some unknown woman proclaiming to be royalty. Who would believe me?
Damn!
I ran back into the antechamber. Time was running out. I’d been through enough weddings by now to know when the right moment was, and it was coming up soon.
Outside the exit, I saw someone arguing with the two guards. Cynder! I ran to him and pulled him inside.
“He’s with me,” I said sweetly, winking at the guards for good measure.
Taking his hand, I pulled him quickly through the antechamber before the guards got a chance to realize what had happened. We only had a minute or so left, and I didn’t want to spend it arguing with two guards.
“What are you doing?” hissed Cynder. “I thought we were all going to come in here together. Strength in numbers!”
I shook my head. “We don’t have time! I need to get up to the front, now! If I don’t, I’ll miss the opportunity. When I get to the front, make sure there is at least one TV camera on me and when I nod my head, turn me back into me. I need the whole of Silverwood to see my face.”
“No! Without the others, it’s too...”
I cut him off. I already knew what he was going to say, but I calculated I had about thirty seconds to get up the aisle. The priest had already begun to say the words.
“Sorry!” I murmured before taking off up the aisle.
The priest stopped what he was saying as he caught me running towards him. It didn’t matter; he’d already more or less said what I needed him to say. Luca and Drusilla both turned their heads to see what he was looking at. Good! I wanted them to see this.
“I do!” I shouted, stopping just feet short of Luca and Drusilla.
All around me, I heard gasps from people as they took in who was stopping the wedding. I couldn’t blame them. No one would know who I was in this disguise. Making sure there was a camera on me, I turned to the guests.
“Luca can’t marry Drusilla. He can’t because he’s already married to me!”
The guests looked on at me in shock. The collective gasps filled the cathedral. In the front row, I saw King Theron, Queen Sarina, Prince Tomas, and his two young children. They both looked miserable, unsurprisingly as their mother was currently lost. Little did they know that she was outside somewhere. Very soon they would be reunited with her. I smiled at the thought of it.
I nodded to Cynder. At the back of the cathedral, I saw him raise his wand.
I opened my mouth to tell the world exactly who I was. This show was finally over.
Chaos
“I’m Char...” I began, but I didn’t get to finish
At that second, a hundred guards descended on me. I was tackled to the floor, and a black cloth bag was forced over my head.
I could no longer see, but I could hear the screams coming from the guests. Someone dug his knee roughly into my back while simultaneously pulling my arms behind me.
It had been too easy. This was why. Luca had known that I would do this. He’d managed to ruin every wedding I’d had so far, he would expect me to try to ruin his. I should have known. I cursed myself as I was hauled to my feet, my hands now tied behind me.
This was why I’d been able to get in so easily. The guards on the door already knew it was me, but why let me help the others to escape? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this had been his plan the whole time, but why? He was planning to kill everyone anyway in a couple of days’ time.
“Quiet everybody.” I heard Luca’s voice, echoing around in the giant chamber. Then I heard it again, this time quietly in my ear. This time it was just for me to hear.
“Hello, Charmaine. Glad you could make it. I would have sent you an invitation, but I didn’t know where to send it.”
“Bite me!”
“How very unladylike,” he chuckled. “Now I expect your friends are here somewhere. I made it easy enough for you to get them all out.”
“Let me go!” I wriggled against the man holding my arms behind me, but he was too strong.
“Why would I do that,” Luca whispered smoothly. “I’ve gone to so much trouble to get them all here. I could have killed them all before now, but I needed to flush you out of hiding. You’ve played right into my hands.”
I lifted my leg and kicked out ahead of me as hard as I could. I felt a deep satisfaction when my foot hit something hard—more than likely Luca’s shin.
“Bitch!” he muttered under his breath. I felt a punch to my stomach making me gasp for air.
“Don’t ever try that again. I did this all for you. I could have waited until tomorrow to kill you. It would have been easy enough to get one of my guards to put you in my basement or have another policeman on duty in the cells. Jason Copper did as I expected too. You are all so predictable. Anyway, he’ll be dead soon too.”
He was q
uiet for a moment before beginning again. “Yes, this was all for you. I’d even planned the execution. It would have been fun to watch you and all your Magi friends hanging by your necks, but then I thought, wouldn’t it be more spectacular to do it on air? The TV stations do what I tell them, but many were averse to screening the killing of so many people. Plus, there are still many people out there that still like the Magi and to murder them all on live TV, well, it might have started a backlash I didn’t want to deal with. I have to say I blame you for that. That purple rag of yours, the Charm Chronicle, it’s stirred up a lot of anti-royal feeling. I can’t begin to tell you how it angered me. Anyway, I thought about it and realized that I couldn’t just kill all those people. I needed a good reason to do it. Now what better reason than coming to my wedding and trying to kill me. I’m assuming your friends are on the way. My guards are ready for them. As soon as they come to rescue you which I’m sure they will, my guards will shoot them all dead.”
He snickered quietly as my heart dropped.
The whole thing was a trap, and I’d fallen into it. Worse still, I’d dragged everyone else into it. The Magi outside would be seeing all this on the screens. Any second now they would be trying to get in and the guards would let them.
I closed my eyes. They were all going to die, and it was all my fault. How could I be so stupid? The only good thing in all of this was that Elise had gotten away. She would be safe in the palace basement...for now.
I kicked out again, but this time kicked air.
“Luca!” I cried out, loudly enough for everyone to hear me. “You are a murderer! You can kill me now, but you’ll never be anything more than a liar, a cheat, and a murderer!”
Someone slammed their fist into the side of my head. For a few seconds, I felt dizzy and sick.
One thought kept running through my mind. Cynder, please run away!
With any luck, he’d seen what had happened and turned back. If he managed to get word to the others, there was a chance they could escape without anyone getting hurt. Sure, I’d be dead, but it was a small price to pay for the lives of everyone else. Elise was still alive. She would be the rightful queen with me dead. If they all left now, they could regroup, come up with a better plan. Maybe next time they wouldn’t fall into the same trap.
“Run!” I shouted as loud as I could, hoping Cynder could hear me. “Save her!”
I couldn’t say Elise’s name, but he would know who I was talking about. It was imperative now that Elise and her daughter survive so that one day she could rule. Luca couldn’t win!
“Get them!” Luca shouted, his voice reverberating around the room. All of a sudden, there was pandemonium. I was too late. The Magi had arrived.
I was dragged backwards to the edge of the room. All around me, I could hear screaming, gunshots, and the noise of benches being knocked over as people scrambled for the exit. Above everything, I could hear Luca laughing into the microphone. I could see nothing but darkness thanks to the bag over my head, but I had the feeling Luca was saving me until last. If he wanted to kill me, he would have done it already. No, I was going to be the last to go. He’d want me to see the bodies. He’d want me to see Cynder dead. It was over. Luca had won.
I slumped against my captor, feeling defeated. I had nothing left but death to look forward to.
I didn’t cry. There were no tears, but my world was as black as the covering over my face. I’d brought so many people to their deaths because of my need to rule my kingdom again. Once we had helped them escape, I could have told them all to cross the border. Thalia wasn’t safe anymore, but Ling was. The other kingdoms to the north, southeast and southwest would have taken them. They could have lived.
No! I reminded myself. If we had gone, there would be no one left to fight for the people of Silverwood. The Magi would never be allowed to return. The heirs of Luca and Drusilla would be coached to continue the tradition of hatred. It didn’t bear thinking about.
I heard Cynder cry out, but it wasn’t in pain. He was fighting back. They all were. Hearing him gave me the motivation to stand, to pull myself forward and then jerk my head back so quickly it hit the face of the guard holding me. I heard his bones crack as my head made contact. Like that, he let go of me. I ran forward, lowering my head at the same time. Thanks to gravity, my hood fell to the floor enabling me to see what was happening all around me. It was complete chaos. Guests in their finery were fleeing, creating a bottleneck at the entrance while people from the outside were trying to go against the tide and get in.
The Magi and the others were already in the cathedral which meant the ones coming in were members of the public willing to fight. It wasn’t just the Magi who wanted to bring Luca down. Business leaders, farmers, merchants, and all the other people whose lives and livelihoods he’d ruined stood up to fight.
Seeing them gave me the courage to fight too. In the main part of the cathedral, the guards were shooting as the Magi fought back with their wands. Flashes of light bounced off the beautiful masonry as gunshots filled the air. I could already see bodies littering the floor, some wearing the dark blue of Luca’s guards, and some dressed as civilians. Luca himself was standing at the front where the priest had stood. Surrounding him, were a dozen or more armed guards. It would be impossible to get to him without being shot. He was laughing. This was all a game. He didn’t have anyone to lose. The only person he’d ever loved was himself. Drusilla wasn’t with him. Perhaps, she’d run at the first sign of trouble. Maybe he didn’t deem her important enough to stay in his armored circle. Either way, she was nowhere to be seen.
In front of me, one of the guards was strangling a Magi. As their magic mask was still on, I couldn’t see who it was. I tried to remember exactly what Seraphia now looked like, but it was impossible. We’d all changed appearance so much; it was difficult to remember who was who. Whoever she was, she was definitely a mage, and she was definitely in trouble. Her hands waved uselessly around in front of her as a belt was wrapped around her neck, being pulled roughly from behind by a particularly large guard. Instead of going for him, I ran around him to her. Lifting her wand arm up, I did for her what she couldn’t see to do for herself, point her wand directly into his face. With the last of her breath, the mage uttered a spell. Almost immediately a flash of purple light shot out of the end of her wand, hitting the guard right in the face and causing him to topple over. I pulled the belt from her neck. With a hurried thanks, she ran right back into the middle of the melee, ready to fight again. I looked around for Cynder. Of all the Magi, he was the one whose new face I’d committed to memory. I scanned the fighting people, purposely keeping my eyes from the bodies on the floor. At first, I didn’t see him, but then he appeared from behind one of the cathedral’s pillars engaged in a fist fight with one of the guards.
He was fine. It was Luca I needed to get to now. I ran towards him, trying to figure out how I was going to get past the circle of guards when an opportunity arose. A flash of purple zoomed past my ears, singeing my hair and knocking three of the guards out. Now was my chance. As I ran towards the hole in the circle, someone grabbed me and knocked me to the ground for the second time in ten minutes. I was just about to punch the woman before realizing who it was.
“Sorry about that,” said Xavi. “One of the guards was aiming for your head. One second longer and your brains would have been splatted on the pillar behind you.”
“Xavi, it’s me, Charmaine!”
“I knew it!” She grabbed my head in both of her hands and searched my face. “I knew you were alive. What happened to you? You look like you’ve not seen a good stylist in months.”
I burst out laughing. “Trust you to worry about my clothes at a time like this.”
“Your Majesty,” she said, taking in my appearance, “I always think about clothes, but you need your hair and makeup seen to too.”
I gave her a hug. It was so nice to see her again. Despite her making me wear all kinds of fancy dresses and wear too much make
up, I missed her.
“I can’t believe you are here.”
“I did Drusilla’s hair, makeup, and styling.”
“But she looked awful,” I replied.
“Exactly!” She grinned, and I grinned back. I had friends here. I had people left to fight for. I let Xavi help me back up.
All around me, people were fighting, but as I looked, I could see that the Magi were winning. More and more people were trying to get through the doors to help them. So much so that many of the guests were still trapped.
“I can see that my wedding is now over,” boomed Luca over the loudspeaker. His voice was so loud that for a second everyone stopped fighting to look at him. “But my coronation will commence now. Soon I will be king, and no one will be able to stop me.”
The aged priest was dragged into the circle. With horror, I saw the guard behind him carrying the royal crown. He must have stolen it from me before blowing my palace up. The second it was placed on his head, this would all be over. He would be the king and ruler, and there would be nothing I could do about it.
Tomas
“No!” I screamed out loud. “He can’t be king!”
A bullet zipped past me, narrowly missing me and in front of me, two of the guards began to run towards me. I ran quickly, dodging bullets and jumping over bodies to the cathedral’s entrance. It was here I’d last seen Cynder. I needed him now. I needed him to help stop Luca from becoming king.
The priest began to speak. I remembered the words he’d used for my own coronation. His speech would last about ten minutes, but it was the placing of the crown upon Luca’s head that would signify him becoming king.
“Cynder!” I shouted, desperate to find him. My voice was lost in the panicked noise of the crowd. In front of me, the last of the wedding guests were trying to leave, pushing against a tide of those trying to get in. With a shock, I recognized King Theron and Queen Sarina.
“Theron!” I shouted.
The king of Thalia turned.
There was no fear in his eyes, only anger as he saw who it was—the girl that had started this madness.
Charmed Page 18
