Charmed: a Cinderella Reverse Fairytale book 3 (Reverse Fairytales)

by J. A. Armitage

  Cynder didn’t reply. He just took hold of my hand which was exactly what I needed at that moment. I rested my head on his shoulder, and the hand that had been holding mine now snaked around my shoulders, pulling me even closer to him and crumpling the shirt that someone had lent to me.

  As I’d come to the house in a wedding dress, some of the women had given me some clothes, and for the first time in my whole life, I felt comfortable. No one was forcing me to look or act a certain way.

  Just thinking about it reminded me of Jenny and of Xavi and her crew. They were all at the wedding when the bombs went off so I knew they were safe, but Jenny would be worried sick about me.

  “I wish I could tell Jenny I’m fine.” I murmured aloud.

  Cynder replied by stroking my arm. He was as restless as we all were and the slowly ticking clock did nothing to calm our nerves. Soon we’d have to leave.

  It had just turned eleven when we heard the sound of horse’s hooves thundering into the yard. Cynder was up like a shot, peering out of the curtains.

  “It’s ok,” he said, holding his hand behind him to stop us all getting up. “It’s them, they are back.”

  He opened the front door to welcome Leo and Daniel, and I followed.

  I was expecting just the two of them, so I was surprised to find two carriages full of people. I recognized the carriages as the work of Daniel who’d turned a pumpkin into a carriage before. These were both temporary modes of transport thanks to Daniel’s magic skills.

  “What happened?” asked Cynder as Leo climbed down from the driver’s seat.

  “We kept to our word and didn’t try to rescue Dean, but we know where he is. We are going to have to take more people to get him back. He’s being kept in a big house in the capital. I don’t know who it belongs to, but Luca is living there along with a number of others.”

  “Who are all these people?” I asked as they poured out of the carriages. I didn’t recognize any of them.

  “They are Magi,” Daniel shouted. “They are being hounded out of the city. We decided it was safer to bring them here and give them shelter.”

  “Good idea,” replied Cynder. “Can you take them inside and ask Alannah to get them some food?”

  Alannah appeared at the door, apparently hearing her name. She led the people inside. Daniel came over to us. He kicked a stone, sending it flying to the house where it bounced off the wooden wall. I could tell that he wasn’t happy to be back without his boyfriend.

  “We are going south,” said Cynder. “It’s too dangerous here, and now that we have more people, we have no space. We were going to go tonight.”

  Leo raised his eyebrows. It was evident what he was thinking. We were going to go without them. “Tonight?”

  “I’m going back!” barked Daniel. “You promised.”

  Cynder shuffled on the spot. “I know I did, but it might not be possible anymore. I’ve had time to think and...”

  Daniel pushed him up against the house and brought his fist back ready to strike. Leo jumped in between them as I screamed, bringing many of the Magi to the window to see what was happening.

  “There is no point fighting between ourselves,” Leo snapped. “Cynder, do what you have to do, but I’m with Daniel. We owe him. We owe Dean too. I managed to speak to Copper. Dean’s information on the MDS has been invaluable. We can’t let him stay at that house.”

  “What information?” I asked. I was desperate to hear about what was going on at the capital. The only information I had was from the TV, and thanks to Luca and Pittser, it was highly biased. They were telling the story they wanted to tell. I needed the truth.

  Leo let go of Daniel and walked over to the first carriage. From inside it, he brought out a thick file which he handed to me. I opened it at a random page to see a photo of a man I didn’t recognize.

  “That’s one of the MDS, his photo, his address, and all kinds of information. He’s not the only one. The file is filled with them. All Dean’s work.”

  “Fine! We go back tomorrow under the cover of darkness,” relented Cynder, “but everyone else has to move on. I’ve been given the address of the safe place, so when we have Dean, we can head straight there. Daniel, can you let everyone inside know that now we are moving tomorrow and not tonight? The new people will have to sleep in the barn as we are out of space in the house.”

  Daniel nodded and headed inside leaving Leo, Cynder, and I.

  Cynder turned to Leo. “Tell me honestly. Can we get Dean out?”

  “It’s not going to be easy,” admitted Leo. “The house is surrounded by guards twenty-four hours a day.”

  Cynder sighed. “That’s what I thought. They’ll be waiting for us.”

  “Yes, but we have something they don’t.”

  “What’s that?” asked Cynder.

  Leo raised his eyebrows. “We have magic.”

  Cynder shrugged his shoulders. “Even with magic, it’s not going to be easy. They know we have magic and will be ready for that. The MDS are highly trained on detecting it.”

  “Magic is better than no magic, surely?” I asked, trying to look on the bright side.”

  “I guess so,” relented Cynder, “but the likelihood is, some of us or all of us might not make it back. They won’t hesitate to kill us. It’s what they want after all.”

  “There’s something else...” Leo started, but his attention was diverted by Elise calling his name. She ran outside, still looking frail, her nightdress flapping behind her. Leo scooped her up and took her inside.”

  “I don’t like this,” said Cynder once he was sure we were alone. I could barely see him in the pale moonlight, but there was no mistaking the worry on his face.

  “We have all day tomorrow to plan something,” I replied. “I know we’ll be fine.”

  Cynder took me in his arms and held me tightly. “That’s why I like you, your positive attitude.”

  “That’s the only reason?” I teased.

  “No.” He pulled back slightly so I could see his face. It was almost blue in the dark light and yet I could still see the warmth in it.

  Without thinking, we moved towards each other. His kiss was a salvation, healing my broken soul, putting together all the parts that Luca had destroyed. His lips melted my heart as they touched mine, his kiss hungry and warm at the same time. I matched his urgency, realizing that this was our first real kiss. The first kiss we’d shared that was somehow legitimate. Just because it was no longer forbidden, didn’t make it any the less exciting. If anything, it was all the more intense knowing there was no one to stop us. His face, so close to mine, blurred until I couldn’t see him at all, and yet I could feel him against me. I shut my eyes and gave in to it as his tongue parted my lips, taking me to places I’d never known before. I never wanted it to stop. I wanted to stay locked in this magical embrace forever, and in that moment, I knew what I’d been missing with Luca all these months. Yes, he was a practiced kisser, and yes it felt nice, but what Cynder was doing to me wasn’t just kissing. He was unlocking a passport to another world—another part of me.

  I moaned loudly, which was followed by a cough of someone behind us. We broke apart quickly, both embarrassed by being caught. I turned to see Leo back outside.

  “How’s Elise?” I asked, trying to cover up the sound of my heart beating which could surely be heard even at the ten feet or so between us.

  “She’s gone back to sleep,” he sighed. “Your mother and Alannah are looking after her. I wanted to tell you something before that I think you both should know.”

  “What is it?” asked Cynder.

  “It’s not just Dean they have. They have Daniels’ father and...”

  “And?”

  “They have Jenny too.”

  The Plan

  “You ok?” Cynder came into my room. I was one of the few people not required to share with one or more people. I’d protested of course, but it seemed that no one was quite prepared to share a room with a queen.


  “I’ve been better,” I admitted. “Jenny practically raised me.”

  “I know.” His arm rested on my shoulder and I sank into him. There were no tears. If anything I felt too numb, too scared for crying. Crying might have helped me feel something, but I’d gotten to the point I didn’t really know how to feel anymore. My life had spiraled out of control so fast, and no matter what I did to make things better, every day brought more heartache, more trauma.

  “I’ve been thinking about tomorrow. What is the plan?” I must have sounded muffled, buried as I was in his warm sweater, but he heard me.

  “Tomorrow, the people in the house will finish packing the essentials. There are a lot of us, so it should be an easy task. Those of you not going back to the capital will be traveling after dark. Of course, the MDS will expect that, but it’s still safer than going in broad daylight when anyone could see them. We will use all the protective and stealth spells we know to get there safely. You’ll be traveling in the second carriage. I’m going to stagger them to make it less conspicuous. One carriage per hour once night descends.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll take Daniel, Leo, and a couple of others out to the capital tomorrow morning. There’s no point waiting until nightfall. The MDS will be waiting for us no matter what time of day. They’ll already expect our visit.”

  “So what are you going to do?” I asked, trying to keep the doubt from my voice. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

  Cynder hugged me more tightly. “Neither do I. I don’t know what we are going to do,” he admitted.

  None of it sounded hopeful. All I could see in my mind was destruction and death. The death of someone I loved.

  Cynder’s hands weaved their way through my hair, comforting me. I’d been shivering and not even noticed, but it wasn’t the cold I was feeling, just the adrenaline rushing through me with no way to dissipate.

  Cynder gently laid me down on the bed, but he didn’t let go. In the morning when I woke up, I was still wrapped in his arms.

  The noise of people clattering around in the kitchen woke me. Leaving my room hand in hand with Cynder raised a few eyebrows and elicited a few smirks from the crowd of people squashed in there. I ignored them and grabbed a slice of toast from a huge pile. Alannah had completely given up at trying to have a system in place and, instead, had piled hundreds of pieces of toast on a platter and put some pots of jam and some knives next to it. Cynder found Daniel and Leo and broke away to talk to them, leaving me feeling completely alone in the middle of the crowded room.

  There was no organization at all. People bustled in and out. Boxes were being packed and then knocked over causing them to have to be repacked. It was so noisy that I suspected the MDS would be able to hear us all the way in the capital. So much for trying to be inconspicuous. Thank goodness, we were already in the middle of nowhere.

  I managed to pour myself a pot of the freshly brewed coffee and took it, along with my toast, outside where it was much quieter. I watched the people loading boxes onto a procession of carts and carriages, each one looking fuller than the last. It beat me how they expected to fit people in them too.

  As I took my first sip of coffee, Cynder came out and sat beside me.

  “Leo’s not coming,” he stated plainly. “It’s a blow. We could have used his help and expertise. Plus he was going to get Chief Inspector Copper and some of his task force to help us.”

  “Why is Leo not going with you?” I sat up, feeling alarmed. It was not like Leo to back out of something so important.

  “He doesn’t want to be away from Elise while she is so sick. I can understand it, but it’s going to make our job much more difficult without him. I was counting on the support.”

  Elise would be fine without him, but I could understand why he was so worried. She’d not been too bad before the race across Silverwood, and here we were, days later, planning to do it all again. She was really too sick to travel, but we had no choice.

  “What if I told Leo that I’d be with her the whole time? I’d look after her.”

  Cynder shook his head. “You won’t be though. I’m separating you all up. The whole of the royal family cannot travel together. I hope nothing will happen, but if any one of the carriages is attacked, it makes sense that you and Elise don’t travel together. Your mother is going in a different carriage too.”

  It was morbid to think about, but it made sense. If one of us was killed, the other would have to survive to carry on the royal bloodline.

  I sighed and rested my coffee cup on the wooden deck. Rubbing my eyes, I tried to make sense of all of it. How could I when there was no sense to what was happening?

  “Alannah will be traveling with Elise, correct?”

  Cynder thought for a second before he spoke. “Yes, but that won’t stop Leo from worrying. I can’t force him to leave her. It wouldn’t be fair.”

  He was right. I hated the thought of leaving her, of traveling with complete strangers in a carriage, knowing she was an hour behind and anything could happen to her. Suddenly, the thought of Leo traveling with her calmed me. Ok, he couldn’t do anything about her illness, but if the MDS were to attack, I trusted Leo to do everything in his power to save her.

  “Leo should go with Elise,” I conceded.

  Cynder wrapped his arms around me and nodded his head.

  I swallowed, not sure how he’d take what I was going to say next. I took a deep breath. “I’m going to go with you.”

  It was something I’d been thinking about at the back of my mind, and now that Leo wasn’t going, they’d need someone else to take his place—someone who would be able to get access to Jason Copper.

  Cynder stood up quickly.

  “No!” His voice had risen, causing those around us to look over.

  He pulled me up by my hand and walked me to the edge of the nearby field, away from everyone. I absent-mindedly picked a stem of the long barley and pulled the seeds from the end, sending them scattering to the ground.

  I tried to think of a way to reason with Cynder that he’d accept. Getting him to agree with taking me was going to be difficult. “You said you wanted the chief of police involved. I know Jason Copper. I’ve had occasion to speak to him a few times.”

  “I don’t care who you know,” Cynder rasped, “You can’t go!”

  “That’s not a valid argument,” I pointed out, “It’s just you telling me what I can and can’t do.”

  Cynder stamped his foot in the dirt and huffed. “Ok, how’s this for an argument? You are the most wanted person in the whole kingdom right now. You are also the most famous person in the whole kingdom. How do you expect to simply walk into the capital without anyone noticing? You’ve been on the front cover of every newspaper for the past year. Everyone knows you.”

  “I’ve done it before,” I retorted. “I’ve done it twice, the first time with Leo and the second time with you.”

  Cynder looked at me incredulously. “When?”

  “Our date. I walked through the capital, and no one batted an eyelid. Everyone has seen me on the front of the papers looking regal, with expensive ball gowns and perfect hair and make-up. Look at me now! I look normal. No one would know who I was if I walked right up to them and asked them for directions to the palace.”

  “Our date was different. No one was looking for you then. People see what they want to see.”

  “My point exactly. People are looking for the beautiful queen. No one is looking for a girl dressed in a brown tunic. Can you imagine Queen Charmaine going out looking like this? I’ve hated having to dress up every single day for the past year, but I’m now beginning to see that it was a good idea. A bit of dirt on my face, my hair tied back. No one would recognize me.”

  “The MDS would. A bit of dirt on your face wouldn’t stop them from noticing you.”

  I stood my ground. I hated arguing with him, and I didn’t want to play my ‘Queen’ card, but at the same time, I was done with being useless.
If I had to override him based on my title then so be it. “So I wear a hood too. It’s your only way to get in to speak to Chief Inspector Copper.”

  “I see what you are saying, but it’s too dangerous.”

  “You just told me that it wouldn’t be fair to separate Leo and Elise, and yet you are asking me to be separated from you.”

  I saw Cynder’s shoulders' sag as he realized he was losing the fight.

  “I don’t want to lose you, Charm.”

  “I don’t want to lose you either. That’s why we should always stick together. Besides, it isn’t just me they are looking for. You’ve been on the front cover of all the newspapers recently too.”

  Cynder sighed, knowing that I wasn’t going to change my mind.

  “Besides, I have an idea that might put a stop to all this, but I’ll need to be in the capital to do it.”

  I told him my idea, and by the end of it, he knew he’d have to let me go.

  He wasn’t the only one who argued with me about going to the capital. When I went in to see Elise and told everyone there what I was planning to do, both Leo and Mother told me I couldn’t go. It was amazing. I was the head of the entire kingdom, and still, people tried telling me what to do.

  “Leo, I’m going to the capital so you can stay with Elise. She needs you right now.”

  Elise opened her eyes slowly when she heard her name. She looked so sick. She cast her eyes towards her husband. “I’ll be fine without you, Leo. I’ll see you again in a few days.”

  It was apparent she would not be fine whether Leo came with her or not, but I could hardly say that. Alannah’s green sludge was not working, and if anything, she looked paler and more gaunt than she had the day before. She needed a hospital with proper medical care, but it was impossible to take her to one. The second she stepped foot in any medical establishment in the whole of Silverwood, the press would be there like a shot, followed swiftly by the MDS.

  “I’m not leaving you, baby,” replied Leo, mopping her damp brow.