“You are the Freedom of Magic,” I said quietly, trying to wrap my head around everything that was happening.
“Give the girl a cigar,” shouted someone at the back, causing Cynder to glare at her.”
“We knew someone had been providing fake documents to Drusilla Bloom. She’s not rich enough or smart enough to figure out how to do it on her own. Thanks to you opening up the police force, we managed to get a couple of our own into the task force so we could keep tabs ourselves on The Regent. A lot of what we know is thanks to you, Leo.”
I turned to look at him. It was then I noticed he had a black eye from the fight earlier.
Up until this morning, we knew exactly what you knew. That The Regent was planning something. A lot of the Freedom of Magic were already planning to be at the wedding to protect you in case anything should happen, but this morning we received a tip-off. We found out that Luca was The Regent. It was too late to contact you, Leo. You were too busy with the wedding. If we had have been able to get through to you, we might have been able to stop this before it started.”
“I told Copper that I couldn’t be reached today.”
“And I didn’t know Inspector Copper. For all we knew, he was one of them.” I was frantic, knowing Luca was going to do something big. I got on my horse and rode as fast as I could to the capital, just in time to see you say your vows on the big screen. I gathered up the Freedom of Magic people and told them what to do, Then it was just a case of pulling the drivers from the front two carriages and driving off quickly before anyone could stop us. Once we had gone, our people closed around the other carriages so no one could follow. As I said, Luca wasn’t intending to follow you. He was making his escape.”
“I…” I had no words. It couldn’t be true.
“He wants to rule the kingdom. He doesn’t care in what capacity, whether as a prince or a president. With you out of the way, he’s free to do that. He is not the fan of the Magi he pretends to be. If you look into his past, you’ll see that he opposed Seraphia when she married his brother. It’s only in the last year or so he’s had this amazing turnaround.”
“Since the ball?” I asked.
“Exactly!”
The room went quiet. I looked over at Leo. He nodded his head.
“I believe him. I also believe Daniel.”
“I actually didn’t know what was going on until I got here,” said Daniel. “But I know these people, and I trust them with my life.”
“If you don’t believe us, you are free to go now,” said Cynder looking directly at me. “We won’t follow you. Your horses and carriages are still outside. I don’t want you to go. I don’t think any of you are safe in the capital at the moment. I suspect Luca will show up on TV at some point, blaming us or someone else. He’ll become the kingdom’s hero and all the while he is publicly grieving, he’ll have his best men looking to kill you all. I can only keep you safe here, but I’m not going to keep any of you by force.”
I waited to see if anyone would get up but no one moved. Cynder looked at me almost beseeching me to believe him, and I found that I did. There was more in the way he looked at me then, than there had been all the way through my wedding with Luca. No wonder Luca’s hands had been cold and clammy. He knew that the palace was going to blow up. He knew I was going to be inside it when it did. I wondered what excuse he was going to give me for him to leave just before it happened.
I thought back through the past couple of months when he’d been absent all day. He’d told me he was recruiting palace guards, and I’d believed him. Instead, he was hatching a murder plot, no doubt inspired by Xavier and my own father. He must have thought it hilarious to wait for our wedding day, echoing the disaster that had happened last year. Perhaps he only chose today to be guaranteed that we would all be at the palace. It occurred to me that he wasn’t just planning to kill my family, but his own too. If Cynder hadn’t rescued me when he did, the palace would be filled with hundreds of people there for the wedding reception. Cynder had saved hundreds of lives, not just those of us here. I felt sick at the thought of it.
“Can you all leave us?” Cynder said to his people. “Our guests need a bed, and I suspect they will be hungry. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, and I’m sure they’ve had enough to deal with already today.”
“A couple of women took Mother, Elise, Leo, and Daniel through a door. The rest of the people left through other doors until it was just Cynder and me in the room.”
“I was going to leave you to live in peace. I’m sorry this has happened to you.” He moved forward and got to his knees in front of me so that we were now almost eye level as I sat on the sofa.
“You saved our lives,” I said. “I don’t know how to begin to thank you.”
He took my hand and sat next to me on the sofa. Our eyes both went to the picture on the screen which showed the charred remains of the palace.
“You can thank me by fighting them. You are the best queen Silverwood has ever had. The Magi need you. Everyone needs you. Please don’t give up.”
I wasn’t about to give up. My fighting spirit was angry. I was going to bring Luca down and turn this around no matter what it took.
“Anything else?” I asked, gripping his hand tightly, knowing that this time I wasn’t going to let go.
“You might want to think about getting a divorce.”
From the depths of my despair, a laugh bubbled to the surface. I would win. With Cynder by my side, I knew that this was just the beginning.
If you enjoyed Lucky Charm - don’t miss the final instalment in the Charm Trilogy…
Charmed
Luca looked every inch the man in despair as I watched him on the TV. His beauty was not diminished at all by the tear tracks down his face. If anything, the sorrow made him all the more beautiful. It was a shame it was all fake. Fake tears, fake sorrow. And yet, I couldn’t turn the TV off. It was one in the morning and I’d watched this particular interview twice already in the past twelve hours. The first two times I’d been surrounded by my family and the members of the Freedom of Magic group as we huddled round the sofa, trying to take in everything that had happened.
The palace was gone. Barely anything survived the catastrophic fire that had torn through it. The cause had finally been confirmed as a number of bombs placed at strategic points throughout the building for maximum impact. So much for extra security! Of course, when the person in charge of the extra security was the one who planted the bombs, there was little anyone could do.
“Come to bed,” I heard Cynder’s voice behind me but I didn’t turn round. It was Two am and I should have been sleeping as the other’s were, but I couldn’t sleep. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to sleep again.
“I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”
He slipped in next to me on the sofa.
“No,” he whispered. “I couldn’t sleep either. I’ve brought you a hot milk.”
I took the milk gratefully and gave him a sad smile.
“I should have known.”
Cynder put his arm around me. “You’ve had it so tough this past year. First your father, now your fiancé. There is no way you could have known. Please don’t put the blame on yourself.”
“I was with him every day. Every single day for a year. Only an idiot would not have suspected something.”
Cynder stroked my cheek, causing me to take my eyes from the TV and look at him directly.
“The only idiot I can see is him. He threw away everything and for what?”
“He didn’t throw away everything though did he? He’s quite the hero now. The whole of Silverwood feels sorry for him and he’s been tipped to become the new king. King! Not President, but actual royalty. He’s the happiest person on the planet right now. He’d gotten everything he ever wanted.”
“I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about you. He lost you. No title, no matter how powerful or glamorous could compare to being by your side. He is the fool here.”
/>
“Hmm,” I made an uncommittal noise. From where I was, the only people that had lost were my family and I. And we had lost. We’d lost it all. Everything we had was burned to cinders. Our clothes, our belongings, our home. That paled into insignificance as I contemplated the loss of life. The majority of our staff were at the wedding when the bombs went off, but of those left behind to get the palace ready for the wedding reception, most had perished. A total of ninety seven people had died yesterday. Ninety seven families who had lost a loved one all thanks to the greed of one man.
“Look at it this way,” said Cynder. “He can’t really become king because you are still alive. As soon as you show your face, he’ll be done for.”
“And he knows that! You said yourself, he’ll have all the MDS looking for us. Nowhere is safe. We can’t even go to the press ourselves because we don’t know if they are members of the Magi Death Squad. You were right when you said there was nothing we could do.”
“I never said that at all,” he replied, referring to the meeting we’d had earlier in the day. “I said that we need to sit tight for a few days until we come up with a plan. You know we are going to fight this right?”
I nodded slowly, not sure what I knew anymore. We both silently sipped out milk, watching Luca shedding his crocodile tears on the TV.
“How unlucky can one person get. I’ve been engaged twice and both times, my fiancé has tried to murder me on my wedding day.” I began to giggle. There was nothing funny about the situation, but my nerves were so high that giggling was a nervous reaction.
“It won’t happen the next time,” he said, pulling me closer to him.
His arms tightened around me, shielding me from the world like a warm cocoon. He picked up the remote, and turned the TV off. I fell asleep with him stroking my head.
I woke up the next morning to a whole group of people making breakfast in the open plan kitchen. They were all tiptoeing around and whispering so as not to wake us, but there were so many of them, it was impossible to sleep through.
I yawned and sat up straight, waking Cynder with the motion.
“Good morning your highness,” said one of the women. She was about the same age as me but tiny and adorable. Her hair was in braids by her side like a little girl. Somehow it suited her.
“Call me Charm!” I said. “We are all in this together. There’s no point standing on ceremony.”
She curtsied and blushed. “Renaissance,” she said, curtsying again for good measure. “Renaissance Poad, but people call me Renee for short.”
“Nice to meet you Renee.” I had to let everyone know that they didn’t have to curtsy or bow to me anymore. We had a meeting scheduled after breakfast. I’d do it then.
Standing up, I made my way into the mess of people in the kitchen. There was someone cooking eggs and bacon, another person laying out bowls for cereal, a couple were counting mugs for coffee.
“Can I help?” I offered.
A collective round of “no’s” and “Just sit down, we’ll serve you’s” went up.
“You saved my life yesterday and you are keeping me here with great danger to yourselves. Here I’m not the queen. I’m just a person like the rest of you and I want to help.”
“Maybe they just think you can’t cook!” whispered Cynder playfully in my ear. I grinned and gave him a swipe which he dodged.
“You can make toast for everyone,” said the woman who’d been frying the eggs. She broke off to pass me a loaf of bread and a knife. With curly hair topping off a ruddy face, she was the quintessential grandmother type. Her half-moon glasses were steamed up, so she peered over the top of them.
“Thank you,” I replied, taking the bread from her and fetching the butter.
“We usually fend for ourselves round here,” She said, going back to the bacon and eggs, “but what with everything going on, we thought it would be nice to welcome you with a proper breakfast. There’s thirty of us altogether and we can’t fit around the kitchen table, so we’ll have to take it in turns.”
“Alanah,” said Cynder sidling up to her and stealing a piece of bacon right from the pan. “you know you’ll not stop cooking until we are all fed. You can’t help yourself.”
“Looks like you’ve to problem with helping yourself,” she said, hitting him playfully with the wooden spoon she was holding.
I sliced, toasted and buttered mountains of toast. Every time I put a slice down, someone would come and take it. After I’d gotten through three loaves, I finally took a couple of slices for myself and added an egg and bacon to my plate. Alanah was right, there was no space round the table, so I sat next to Cynder on the sofa. Someone had put the TV on again. I watched silently, eating my toast as my so called husband continued the charade.
His interview was one I’d not seen before. He’d probably filmed it this morning. He was wearing a smart suit with a purple flower in the lapel. Oh how I hated him for that!
The fake tears were still streaming down his face as he spoke. He really was quite the actor.
I chewed on a slice of toast as I listened to him.
“We had our whole lives in front of us,” he cried. “I’d been looking forward to our wedding for months and I still can’t understand why anyone would do this. Why would someone kidnap my beloved?”
“The public is in mourning today alongside you.” said a voice just off camera. I recognised it immediately as the voice of Frederick Pittser. So it didn’t take long for him to crawl out of the woodwork. Without Leo at the police station and with Luca in charge, Pittser had nothing to fear any more although I noticed he didn’t show his face.
“Yes,” replied Luca. “and I want to thank everyone for the overwhelming support they’ve shown at this horrible time. I will continue to support them back in the way Her Majesty would have wanted.”
I resisted the urge to throw my plate at the television.
“There is a slight possibility that the queen is still alive,” Pittser reminded him.
“I truly hope so, but the truth of the matter is, whoever blew up the palace obviously wanted her dead. Why would they take her otherwise? I’m sorry to say that, although I’d give anything to see her one last time, I fear she is already gone.”
“Oh, you’ll see me again alright!” I shouted at the tv. Cynder gripped my hand, quietening me.
“If she is alive and somehow watching this, what would you say to her?”
Luca turned to the camera. His eyes pierced mine as though he could really see me through the lens.
“I’ll find you Charmaine. I’ll not rest until I do!”
To any one of the hundreds of thousands of people watching, it would look like a broken man doing anything he could to find his beloved, but I saw it for what it was. A threat. He was coming for me and he’d find me. Well, not if I found him first!
I was still seething with anger when Leo and Mother appeared. She still looked as graceful as ever, even after everything she had been through. Someone passed them both a plate of food. Mother took hers to the kitchen table, where there was now space, but Leo sat on the arm of the sofa next to me.
“How’s Elise?” I asked, noticing she wasn’t with him.
“She’s feeling rough. The journey yesterday did her no good. She’s too sick to eat.”
“I’ve got a remedy for that!” said Alanah. She bustled into the kitchen and began taking things from the cupboards.
“One glass of this, and she’ll be right as rain in no time!”
“Is it a mage potion?” asked Leo, suspiciously looking at the weird concoction she was making.
“No, It’s my mother’s recipe and her mother’s before her.”
“What’s happening today? Anything I should know about?” Leo nodded towards the now blank screen of the TV.
“We are going to have a proper meeting when everyone is
Up,” said Cynder. “All you’ve missed is thinly veiled threats from Luca. Pittser’s suddenly come out of hiding too.”
Leo, nodded his head. “I’ve been thinking. Maybe I should go back. Copper won’t know what’s going on. He needs my help and he needs to know the truth.”
“No one is going back yet, until we’ve come up with a plan,” replied Cynder. “It’s too risky. They know you are with Charm and they suspect that Charm is with us. You go back there, and you won’t be able to come back here.”
“Actually I am going back!” we all turned to see who had spoken. Daniel stood there, looking distraught. “I’ve just had a call from Dean. They are holding him hostage. He says they are going to kill him unless we take Charmaine back to the capital.
Other books by J.A.Armitage
WAR AND SUITS
Two of Clubs
Three of Clubs
Four of Clubs
Five of Clubs
Six of Clubs
Seven of Clubs
GUARDIANS OF THE LIGHT
Endless Winter
Infinite Spring
Eternal Summer
Autumn Ever After
Guardians of The Light Boxset
LABYRINTHIANS
Labyrinthans
Labyrinthian Diamond
Labyrinthian Escape
MURDER AT THE BITE CAFE
Bloody Mary Murders
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Lucky Charm Page 22
