Betrothed

by Wanda Wiltshire

  ‘Every year, each kingdom brings its issues before an assembly of kings. The next is not due for a few months yet, so with the help of King Aren, I have organised a special assembly. It will take place about three weeks from now.’

  I felt myself pale at the thought. ‘I don’t have to be there, do I?’

  ‘It might bode well for you if you could bear it.’

  ‘I don’t think I could.’

  ‘It is nothing to fear, Marla. I will be putting your case before the chosen kings, the injustice of it. If over half vote in our favour, the remainder will not stand against them, and you will be free to make Faera your home.’

  ‘How do you know the rest won’t cause problems?’

  ‘We have a law of majority rule in Faera. If it is broken, it can result in war, and that we cannot afford.’

  ‘So if the majority vote is against me, the rest will agree also?’

  ‘This is true, but I have already contacted many of my grandfathers and secured their commitment in our favour.’

  ‘Won’t your father do the same?’

  ‘He might.’

  ‘Does he know my identity?’

  ‘If he does not, then soon he will.’

  ‘What happens if we lose?’

  ‘I think it unlikely.’

  ‘But if we did? What would your father do to me?’

  In a quiet voice, Leif said, ‘I don’t think he would hurt you, Marla, but he would exclude you from Faera.’

  ‘I couldn’t be with you?’ The thought was sickening. It might have been all right if I hadn’t actually met him.

  ‘I would stay here with you.’

  ‘As if you could! You’re going to be a king one day. Besides, you’re immortal and I will get old and die.’ I could feel tears pricking at my eyes.

  ‘If the worst happened, I would need only get you to Faera for your eighteenth birthday.’

  ‘But what if you can’t, Leif?’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘But what if you can’t?’

  ‘I would stay with you regardless. I would give up my immortality for you if I could.’

  ‘But you can’t, and I’ll get old and you’ll stay young. You won’t want me.’ Tears trailed down my cheeks. He held my face in his hands and wiped them away with his thumbs.

  ‘I will always want you, Marla.’ He was kissing me, my eyes, my temples, but I couldn’t be persuaded.

  ‘But the connection will be broken if I don’t become immortal. You told me so yourself!’

  ‘Now that I have met you, I know from deep within my heart that nothing could ever change what I feel for you. Whatever happens, we will be together.’

  ‘I wish I could believe it.’

  ‘Believe it—there is nothing that could keep me from you. Not my father, nor the Fae assembly, nor a million mortal wrinkles. I promise you from my soul.’ His whole face was fierce with determination.

  ‘It’s so unfair,’ I cried.

  ‘I will be yours always,’ he told me, his expression soft again. And then his lips caught mine and I became lost in a cloud of comfort that quickly morphed into passion. He sure knew how to distract me.

  ‘Geez, there’s a time and a place,’ I heard Ashleigh yell from inside.

  Leif broke away from me, laughing. I scowled, annoyed at the interruption.

  ‘Do you feel better now?’

  ‘I would if you kissed me some more.’ I looked up to him and ran my fingers slowly through his gorgeous hair. His eyes narrowed as he watched me blink a few times. Then one corner of his mouth lifted into a smile so enticing that my heart skipped a beat.

  His smile widened as he felt my reaction. Then he stood, took his shirt off and let it fall to the ground. Oh, he was breathtaking—every single one of his hard muscles a masterpiece. I couldn’t stop the long sigh. He laughed softly, then lifted me into his arms and flew with me to a deserted little patch of the Royal National Park, where he made me feel better with his warm kisses and caresses until the afternoon sun had disappeared.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  I worried as I walked to school with Ashleigh the next day. I’d started thinking about facing Jason as I got ready and it had been on my mind ever since. I knew he’d be angry about things not working out the way he wanted and I was dreading the day ahead because of it. All I wanted to do was go and get Leif from unit four and fly off somewhere. Leif, though, was probably sitting down enjoying a nice breakfast and some good pampering. I frowned at the thought. I’d spent the previous evening at the Marshes’ place and in my opinion, Janet Marsh paid Leif too much attention. I might not have minded so much if she was older and plainer. But I didn’t want to think about that and when I pushed the thought away my mind returned to Jason.

  ‘How do you think Jason’s going to be today?’ I asked Ashleigh as we strolled along. It was cool this morning and I pulled my jacket tight around my body.

  ‘So that’s what you’ve been so silent about?’ She had the look of someone who’d just figured out the last word in the crossword puzzle.

  ‘I can’t stop thinking about his reaction on Saturday. He was so . . . cold.’

  ‘What did you expect? He comes over thinking you’re going to be glad to see him and then . . . well, we both know what happened then.’

  ‘It’s not like we were serious or anything. We went on one date and hung around at school a bit.’

  ‘Yeah, well, it’s not like Jason’s used to rejection either.’

  ‘True.’

  ‘Do you want me to check it out for you?’ Ashleigh offered.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Jason, stupid, do you want me to find out what’s on his mind?’

  ‘No!’ I was horrified at the thought of it. ‘Definitely no—stay away from him!’

  ‘Why? Do you want all the guys for yourself?’ Ashleigh said with a smirk.

  I looked at her and frowned. ‘And you called me stupid.’

  ‘Well, it’s not like you haven’t got Leif and Jack both wrapped around your finger.’

  ‘As if! They’re the last two guys to be wrapped around anyone’s finger!’

  ‘Oh, whatever,’ she said, rolling her eyes.

  ‘Promise me you’ll stay away from Jason,’ I tried again, anxious to get a commitment from her.

  ‘But he’s so cute,’ she whined. And I could see that commitment slipping away.

  ‘Please, Ashleigh.’

  ‘Well, I can’t promise.’

  I knew it was lost. ‘Well, don’t you dare mention Leif.’

  ‘I never would,’ she said, offended.

  There was no point arguing with her. Ashleigh had made up her mind to seek Jason out and there would be no changing it. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea. I felt uncomfortable about the whole Jason thing and at least if she spoke to him I might find out what he was thinking.

  I left my sister at the gate and went to meet Jack and Hilary under our tree. The expression on Jack’s face was confusing. It made me anxious because it could only mean one thing: Jack was struggling with my new relationship with Leif.

  He looked at me and said, ‘So . . . how was the rest of your weekend?’

  I considered how to best answer him for a moment, how much to tell. Then I took a deep breath, because there was only one way to answer him—honestly. Jack and I were best friends and if we were going to stay that way, I couldn’t start keeping stuff from him now. I let the breath out and said, ‘Leif taught me how to fly.’

  It didn’t even sound real to my own ears. How could I expect my friends to believe it? I told them all about it anyway: how Leif had taken me to Bald Hill to help coax my wings out from where they’d been long hidden and how difficult the whole thing had turned out to be. I explained how he’d flown with me in his arms out towards the horizon, and how he had taken me high into the sky, until I was shivering with the cold, and filled me with his sun before letting me plummet towards the sea. And then I told them of the miraculous moment when I discovere
d that my wings were more than decoration. Finally I told them how I had taken off, flying loops in the air with Leif at my side.

  My friends were silent, just watching me as they tried to absorb the impossibility of what I had told them.

  Eventually Jack said, ‘How can my life ever be interesting again?’

  I tried out a smile on him. ‘What if I got Leif to take you flying, would that be interesting enough for you?’

  He returned the smile with the hint of one of his own. ‘I suppose that might work.’

  I let out a sigh of relief.

  Jason sauntered over halfway through lunch, Simone and Brittany at his heels and a couple of his other friends tagging along.

  ‘How much better would that face look with a bag over it?’ Jack muttered as we watched them approach.

  ‘Jack,’ Hilary cried, her head popping up from her conversation with Abby, ‘don’t be so mean!’

  Jack shook his head and looked to the sky.

  One fleeting glance was enough for me to know that Jack was referring to Brittany. Her scowl would make the happiest baby cry.

  ‘Saw your sister at recess,’ Jason began, after punching fists with Kyle and Peter, saying hey to Hilary and Abby, and not even pretending to notice Jack.

  ‘Oh yeah?’ I tried to sound casual.

  ‘Yeah, she’s all worried and everything, you know, about what happened with us.’

  ‘Is she?’

  ‘It’s cool though, no big deal. I mean, do I look worried?’

  ‘Not really,’ I murmured. ‘I hope we can be friends,’ I added, keeping my eyes on Brittany and Simone to gauge their reactions. Brittany made a sound in her throat that sounded a bit like a snort mixed up with a hiccup, while Simone’s face remained as frozen as ever. I didn’t like the look of this one bit. All I really hoped for was peace.

  ‘Friends . . . yeah,’ Jason said.

  The atmosphere was tense while Jason and his friends remained and forced conversation. They talked about the great time they’d had at the beach the day before, how mammoth the waves were and how awesome Jason looked on his new surfboard. Before they left, Jason turned and caught my eyes with his. They were glacial, spreading dread from my head to my toes. This guy was out to get me, I was sure of it.

  ‘Tell your sister not to worry, it’s all good. Actually, you know what? I think I’ll tell her myself.’

  I watched them walk away.

  ‘You be careful,’ Jack said, when they were out of sight.

  ‘What happened with him, Jack? I know something did.’

  ‘Just be careful.’

  ‘Of course I will.’

  I saw Leif before he saw me as I walked home from school. He was sitting on the balcony of his new home, face buried in a book. I was at least fifty metres from him when I decided I would try out one of my newfound gifts.

  Leif, I called from within my mind. His face popped up immediately. He laid the book on the table beside him and, placing his hands behind his head and stretching his long legs out in front of him, gave me his attention.

  You look very alluring, Marla.

  In my school uniform? I said, as I checked the traffic before crossing the road.

  Always.

  A lovely warm feeling brought a smile to my face, but I rolled my eyes and said, I look like a dork, Leif.

  A what? I could see his face crinkle into a grin as I started across the road.

  Never mind, I said.

  When I was close enough to hear his voice, he stood and held up his index finger. ‘Wait,’ he said and whipped his T-shirt over his head. In a flash he was sitting back in his chair and I was tucked into his lap.

  ‘Hello,’ I smiled.

  ‘Hello,’ he replied smiling back, then he leaned close and rubbed my nose with his. ‘How was your day?’

  ‘I missed you.’

  He laughed. ‘You saw me last night!’

  ‘That was ages ago. Why don’t you come to school with me? You could dazzle the principal and enrol yourself.’ I wound my arms around his neck.

  ‘Dazzle the principal?’

  ‘Dazzle, confuse, whatever. It would be fun—you could choose all my classes.’

  ‘Ah, that would be fun, but it’s not safe, Marla. My father’s scouts don’t know you, but they do know me, and if they are searching for me, which I am almost certain they are, that is how they will find you.’

  ‘They don’t know I go to school,’ I protested. ‘Anyway, why would your father want to find me? You said he wouldn’t hurt me.’

  ‘I won’t take any chances. And I’ve been thinking, I don’t think we should fly too much until this whole thing is sorted out.’

  ‘But I’ve invited Hilary and Jack over this afternoon. I wanted to take them flying. I told Jack already.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Marla.’

  ‘We could fly very fast.’

  Leif laughed. ‘And you think that would not attract Fae attention?’

  ‘Maybe not if we’re really fast.’

  ‘When it is safe, my love.’

  I snuggled myself close and began walking my fingers up his arm. ‘How was your day anyway?’

  ‘Interesting actually.’

  ‘Why?’I tried but failed to remember the names of the muscles in his forearm as I pressed them with my fingers.

  ‘Janet has been very obliging. She taught me how to use the computer.’

  ‘You didn’t know how to use a computer?’ He had to have been tensing his muscles, they were just so firm. I pushed a finger hard into them—maybe too hard. I looked at him to see his reaction. He smiled but made no comment.

  ‘We don’t have computers in Faera.’

  ‘Really?’ I asked, continuing my investigation—triceps, biceps . . . what was that big one called again? Gosh he had good definition . . . Deltoid, that was it.

  ‘Nor televisions, or telephones, or washing machines,’ he added.

  I lifted my eyes from the study of his muscles to see his face. ‘What about radios and CDs?’

  ‘We have none of those things.’

  ‘No music?’

  ‘Of course we have music.’

  I brushed my hand lightly down his arm as though to wipe my prods away. ‘That’s a relief. I don’t think I could live in a world without music. I’d be lost without my iPod.’

  ‘What’s an iPod?’

  ‘Come to my place and I’ll show you.’

  He smiled and rose to his feet. Then he scooped me up, flew with me to the balcony above and followed me into my room. I showed him how to use the iPod. After a moment’s tinkering, he chose a song and placed the iPod onto the dock. Then he sprawled out on my bed, his big feet crossed at the ankles and dangling off the end. I smiled at the sight of him.

  ‘Geez, you take up a lot of room, Leif.’

  He shot me a grin and, catching my wrist in his hand, tugged me down beside him.

  ‘So what do you think of the iPod?’ I asked, as I perched in the little bit of space he left.

  ‘Hmm, instant music. I expect it could be useful.’

  ‘But not something you have in Faera?’

  ‘No, not something we have in Faera.’

  ‘Tell me about music in Faera.’

  He plucked a cushion from beside him and added it to the pillow beneath his head before folding his hands together behind his neck. The sight of him made me want to cry. He was just so beautiful! ‘We listen to others or make it ourselves when we want music.’

  I brushed my fingers across his chest—obliques, pectorals, couldn’t remember the names of the others, but every single one was a work of art. ‘Tell me something else about Faera,’ I murmured, half in, half out of the conversation. I just wanted to press my body to his—sink into him.

  ‘I’d rather show you,’ he said quietly. Then he tugged a strand of my hair, hard, before tucking it behind my ear.

  I looked back to his face. He was smiling. Warmth flooded my cheeks. Could I be more obvious? I clutch
ed my hands tightly together. ‘That might never happen,’ I said to prove I’d been paying attention.

  ‘It will happen, but I’ll take you on a tour in your sleep tonight if you wish.’

  ‘You can do that?’

  ‘We have met that way before.’

  ‘You were in Faera then.’

  ‘It makes no difference. My mind can connect with yours no matter where I am. It’s one of the benefits of being prince.’

  ‘So it was you doing the connecting when we met before?’

  ‘It was both of us, but I provided the power to make it happen.’

  ‘But what if I was here, and you were there, and I wanted to reach you?’

  ‘Then I would know.’

  ‘Because you’re a prince?’

  ‘I am not a prince, Marla, I am the prince.’

  ‘Ooh, the prince,’ I said, giving into the temptation to touch him again and trailing my fingers up his belly. ‘The one and only prince?’

  Leif’s lips curved into a smile. ‘That’s right.’

  ‘Well then, I bet there are a million girls jealous of me.’

  ‘Probably a billion.’ He grinned. I pinched his conceited belly. ‘Ouch!’

  I smiled and bent to kiss him better. ‘You know you deserved that.’

  ‘I did,’ he admitted with a laugh.

  ‘So you’ll show me Faera tonight?’

  ‘I would take you now, but your friends will soon be here.’

  ‘But how could you? Don’t I need to be asleep?’

  ‘You only need be very relaxed.’

  ‘Of course,’ I said, remembering that time in the shower. ‘But it wouldn’t work, I’m too wide awake.’

  ‘I could relax you.’ He spoke softly, and as he said it, sat up and wound an arm around my waist.

  I looked into his eyes and smiled. ‘No, you couldn’t.’

  He smiled back, slowly, and I felt my heart rate increase. I couldn’t tell which of us had caused it. ‘Marla, you know well I could.’

  I had no doubt.

  ‘And how would you do that, Leif? Would you hypnotise me? Is that what you would do?’ I leaned into him. He reached across and wove his fingers with mine, brought my hand to his lips and kissed softly, before pressing my palm flat to his chest, fingers splayed over his heart. He covered my hand with his and I could feel the steady throb, hot and strong.