“I’ll speak with her,” I swore.
“Don’t concern yourself with that. There are more important things to worry about. For starters—” He grunted and turned the tool in his hand decisively, then grinned up at me. The feeling magically rushed back into my ankle as the metal fell away from it. It felt like a tiny miracle.
I breathed deeply and massaged the stiff joint. “Thank you,” I said.
Then, I turned my attention to Jay. I took two tentative steps toward him. “How did you find me?” I asked.
He hesitantly walked the same distance toward me. “We didn’t, really. It was the unicorns. They found us. We’d thought to follow them, but then Zacarina knelt in front of me.” His lips quirked up in a smile. “It seemed a pretty clear message that I had better climb on to her back if I knew what was good for me.”
The unicorns had found them. It all made sense now. The unicorns hadn’t really left me at all. They’d heard the cries of the search party, just the same as I had. I hadn’t disturbed them when I’d risen to my feet; I’d alerted them to my distress. Just as Jay and I had worked to free them, they’d gone to find him so that he could do the same thing for me. They didn’t abandon me; just the opposite. They were just as responsible for my rescue as Jay, Avery, and Williamson were.
I turned back to the divine equines, who watched us with their inscrutable golden gazes. I could have spoken aloud to thank them, but it felt more proper to do it their way. So I concentrated and cast a wide net out with my mind so that all of the unicorns in the small area surrounding us would be able to hear me. “Thank you,” I mind-spoke. “I could never have gotten out of this without your help.”
Holding my gaze, Zacarina slowly sank down onto her forequarters, landing in what was an unmistakable bow. Behind her, the rest of the unicorns slowly followed suit, until the floor was blanketed with a sea of folded-over unicorns.
“It was our pleasure,” Zacarina spoke for the rest of the herd. “You may not have the form of a unicorn—but you have the spirit of one. That makes you kin. We never abandon our kin. We will always be there when you need us.”
There was a silence from behind me, where Avery, Williamson, and Jay stood. A sense of quiet awe filled the air around us.
I was glad that the rest of the search party hadn’t arrived yet. If word got out about this, I would truly never shake that nickname that I so abhorred of the “unicorn princess.” It wasn’t that I hated being associated with the unicorns, either. No, I was honored and touched to be thought of being the unicorn’s kin. It was the insinuation and assumption that I was somehow in a position of power over them that I loathed. I was not their princess. I was not their queen. The gods had chosen them and they had chosen me. In a way, that meant Zacarina was right. They were my brethren as much as I was theirs.
I walked toward her as she and the rest of her herd rose to their feet. I put my hand on her long face and eased my head against hers. “Thank you,” I said, this time aloud, for the benefit of Jay and the guards. “Kin or not. You didn’t have to help me. It means the world that you did.”
“I told you I would always return the favor when I could,” she said. “Just because we have left your shelter does not change that. It does not end here for us. It never does.”
I stepped back and nodded, stepping away from her and giving her the space to turn. The unicorns turned and walked away into the night, leaving me with only the humans to explain to.
I swallowed a lump in my throat, looking at Jay. He looked so handsome, standing there, silhouetted in the moonlight coming in through the trees. So handsome… and so undeniably awkward. As we stared at each other, his eyes flicked around as he tried to look at anything but me. His hands went into his pockets and he rocked back on his heels, trying to ease some of the tension.
“Have you seen Fae?” I asked, thinking of my daughter spending her first night without me with a pang. “Is she all right?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I poked my head in on her and your mom before I joined the search party. She’s fine. They bottle-fed her at dinner, so she’s eaten. I’m sure she’s missing you, but she’s okay.”
“And my mother?” I asked, almost dreading the answer.
He shook his head, laughing a bit in spite of himself. “Yeah… your mother is probably who you should be worried about. At least, that’s who I would be worried about if I were you. She’s going mad up there. I thought she was going to come into the woods and search herself, but the guards insisted that she stay in the palace, especially with you missing.”
He swallowed visibly, no longer looking amused. “They were afraid it was a plot, you see. And if you had been kidnapped, they didn’t want to give your captor a chance to also get their hands on the queen.”
The expression on his face… I could see the ghost of the fear that must have been eating him alive for all of the hours that I had been missing. Guilt assaulted me. “I’ve made a mess of things, haven’t I? And all because I needed to be alone so that I could think about…”
I trailed off and Jay looked up at me, his expression arrested. “Think about what?”
I shook my head. We could have this reunion now, sure. But I was filthy and exhausted. I wanted it to be a real and productive conversation, not delirious words spoken in the forest. I wanted it to be coherent. Because it mattered; this conversation was important. And I didn’t want to mess it up, not again.
“Later,” I told him. I slipped my hand into his, and, hand in hand, we walked toward Williamson and Avery. “Promise me we’ll talk later. For now, I need a bath—and I need to see my mother and daughter.”
We made it back to the castle as the sun was rising, casting hues of orange and pink over the castle. It looked like a painting that my mother would have commissioned. I had been right when I’d awoken to shouts of my name and guessed that it was after midnight; it was well after midnight. In fact, it was the early hours of the morning, so early that the sun had not yet awoken.
The search party had caught up with us shortly after we began our trek through the forest to get back to the castle. We made quite the picture. All of us were bedraggled, sleep-deprived, and exhausted. But none more so than me.
After the initial adrenaline of being rescued had faded, I’d slumped with exhaustion onto the back of one of the party’s horses. We pulled up in front of the castle entrance and I eased off. Jay took the reins.
“I’ll take him to the staviary. I’ll come find you in the afternoon so you can get some rest. We can talk then.” He nodded behind me to where the castle gate was. “You’ve got other concerns right now.”
As I turned, a small train slammed into me, and I let out an oomph, my arms automatically coming around the figure with its arms around me. “Mother.”
“Don’t you ever do that again.” Her words were muffled from speaking into my shoulder. “I thought Rumpelstiltskin had finally come to collect on our bargain. I thought I had lost you.”
Oh, the guilt. I closed my eyes, battling the waves of it washing over me. Before, whenever my mother had seemed to overreact to me going missing for a few hours, I’d only been frustrated, angry, or annoyed. This was different. Now, I had been in actual danger. And now, I understood the reasons behind her fears. She wasn’t paranoid that something random would happen to me. There was legitimately someone out to get me. Out to get her. Rumpelstiltskin wanted revenge. And I hoped beyond anything that he wouldn’t get to have it. But I’d been a fruit on the vine, ripe for the picking tonight. No protection. No way to defend myself. I shuddered, thinking of how close he’d come to getting his hands on me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I really didn’t think anything would happen.”
She pulled back, expression stern. “And that was foolish. I could understand before, but you know the dangers now. And you don’t just have yourself to think of anymore. You have a child. You can’t afford to go running off willy-nilly. I assigned you guards for a reason. I do things for a reason.”
>
She sighed and ran an aggrieved hand through her mussed hair. Dark circles ringed her eyes; I doubted if she’d slept any more than I had tonight, probably less. I’d had the comfort of the unicorns, at the very least. She’d only had the fear of the unknown over what was happening to me.
“I know. I’m sorry.” I quirked a smile at her. “If it’s any consolation, the night definitely provided me with the clarity that I was looking for.”
“I bet.” She laughed, but it was a watery sounding laugh. She massaged her eyes. “We can talk about this more later. I’d imagine you’re exhausted and to be quite frank, so am I. Let’s get some sleep.”
I nodded. “And Fae?”
“She’s fine. Still asleep; she was in and out all night; even she seemed to sense that you weren’t where you should be last night. You know what they say; let sleeping babes lie. Come by and get her after you’ve gotten some sleep.”
“I will.”
I slept forty winks. And then, maybe forty more.
And finally, I woke to knocking at my door.
Yawning, I pulled on a robe and schlepped over to the door, poking my head out to the two guards who were not Williamson and Avery. Well, they deserved to get some rest too. And if that wasn’t the reason they weren’t there, I’d deal with that tomorrow.
Jay was the reason they were knocking.
I blinked, stunned from my sleepy haze into alertness, and hurriedly ran a hand through my mussed hair.
“You said we should talk,” Jay said softly, looking at me through hooded eyes.
That quickly, my heart started doing double time.
“I did, didn’t I?” I replied. Time to show Jay I was ready to get him back. “Come in.”
I gestured to the couch and Jay chuckled, shaking his head ruefully. “Deja vu,” he commented, taking his seat. He ran his palms down his pant legs.
Deja vu, huh? I wasn’t going to give him a reason to relive the day where I’d made a mistake that had almost cost me one of the most important people in my life. My mouth firmed, and I resolutely took a seat next to him, so close that our thighs were touching.
Jay’s gaze drifted down to where our legs met, and he stared there for a long moment. “Lia, wha—”
I wasted no more time in pressing my lips to his, cutting off his words.
Kissing Jay was… it was everything. It was understanding, passion, desperation. The peck I’d initiated opened the floodgates. My mouth opened to him and his to mine. His hands tangled in my hair and he pressed me close like he was afraid this was a dream and that if he held me tightly enough, he’d be able to stay asleep in it.
Eventually, reluctantly, we withdrew from each other, breathing hard. Jay leaned his forehead against mine.
“I made a mistake the other day,” I whispered. “A big one. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in a long while and I won’t make the same mistake again. Can you forgive me?”
He grinned, the light dancing in his eyes, and he leaned in close. Eagerly, I met him halfway.
7
11th May
I woke in a glorious haze the next morning and stretched my fingers and toes toward the headboard and footboard of my bed. I covered my face with my hands and shook my head, unable to suppress the grin that stretched over my features.
I was well rested, and for the first time in a while, I felt like I was living in a dream. The unicorns were back. I had a beautiful daughter, loving parents, and I lived in the most beautiful land anyone could ever dream of.
And—and here was why the grin continued to escape my hold—I had Jay.
Yesterday’s memories swarmed me and I basked in their glow. Seeing him come through the forest, like a knight in tales of old. Talking with him. And then, even better, the best yet, in fact—getting to finally kiss him.
I hadn’t realized how long I’d wanted to do that. How long I’d wondered what his lips would feel like pressed against mine. How his hands would feel if they tangled in my hair. I closed my eyes and relived the moment again. It was like a dream. Only I couldn’t make it happen again by going back to sleep. For that, I’d need to get up and go find Jay.
I threw my bed covers aside with renewed energy and rushed to my mirror. First things first, I needed to get my hair in order. The past two days had blurred together and even though I’d washed the hours in the forest off me, my hair looked like it hadn’t been touched. Hurriedly, I ran a brush through it, taming the worst of it and then my fingers deftly fashioned it into a braid. At least, I didn’t look unkempt anymore.
But—I covered my smile with my hands—I knew that it wouldn’t matter to Jay even if I did. He loved me. It was that simple for him. I wanted to look nice for him, but that was more for me than for him. I could be covered in mud with hair in tangles and vines and he would still love me. All he asked of me was that I be me. That was more than enough for him. And he was more than enough for me.
And as if he weren’t wonderful enough, he loved my daughter as well.
My heartstrings tugged. I hadn’t seen my beautiful little girl in more than a day. I wanted to see Jay too, but first I needed to hold her close and gather her in my arms once again.
If I wasn’t a mother, I might then have thrown open my closet and tried on a dozen outfits, knowing that I’d see Jay later today. But I was a mother and I was in a hurry to hold my child again. I knew realistically that she was safe, having spent the night with my mother, who would sooner walk through fire than allow any harm to come to her grandchild. But it was different from seeing her with my own eyes and holding her in my own arms.
I dressed as quickly as I possibly could in the first article of clothing I could, a purple, off-the-shoulder day dress. With nearly inhuman speed, I did up the laces on the front of the dress and threw open the doors to my suite.
The guards outside jumped. I winced when I realized that the man and woman outside were most definitely not Avery and Williamson. My mother might need a little more time to cool down about that one, but I resolved that I would fix that soon. They shouldn’t be punished for my manipulation. They’d followed the letter of their orders and only bowed to my pressure. And what were the chances that something like that would go so terribly wrong? They deserved another chance.
“Can we help you, Your Highness?” The female guard was shorter than I was, but she had a self-assuredness and confidence to her in her steely gaze that made me sure that she could subdue me, or any attacker who came her way.
I tilted my head in the direction of the hall’s exit. “I’m just going to go visit my parents and retrieve Princess Fae. You’re welcome to—”
She cut me off before I could finish my sentence. “We’d be happy to accompany you.”
So it was that I set off toward my parents’ rooms with my new guards in tow, following me like we were parts of the same body, like a snake’s rattle winding behind it as it slithered its way around; a warning to all who saw it that it would not be wise to threaten it.
The same way that I hadn’t recognized the guards outside my own door, I didn’t recognize the guard outside my parents’ rooms either. It wasn’t Hardy. Come to think of it, he was probably still busy with the investigation hunting down Rumpelstiltskin.
I paused before I knocked. Gods, I had barely spared that devilish imp a thought in days. I’d been so caught up in first the drama with Jay and then—well, being trapped in a gods-cursed forest, and then the happy reunion with Jay and the return to the palace—that other priorities had quite distracted me from the plight of the imp who had vowed revenge on my family.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t worried about Rumpelstiltskin anymore. It would be foolish to think that just because I was happy now that he’d just give up. But at the same time, dwelling on it wouldn’t do anyone any good either. We’d continue to pursue our leads, but we shouldn’t let it prevent us from being happy either. We’d live. We’d love. We’d continue on. There were so many things for us to look forward to. A new rel
ationship. The celebration of Fae’s birth next week. And just living—watching my daughter and this life that I had created—blossom.
I raised a hand and knocked on the door, but no sooner than I had I finished my rhythmic tapping than the guard in front of the door was shaking his head. “They’re not in there, Your Highness. They’re down in the throne room.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Both of them? This early?” That was unusual. Usually, my father spent a few hours in the throne room a day consulting with his advisors about the economy and trade. In a kingdom like ours, there wasn’t much cause for more frequent meetings. And my mother usually only got pulled into things if foreign dignitaries were in town and she needed to play the part of an esteemed hostess.
But again, it was early. It was not normal for other royals to demand a meeting this early in the day.
And just that quickly, Rumpelstiltskin had my thoughts in his grip once again. “Is it Rumpelstiltskin?” I asked, half-hopeful, half-afraid of what the answer might be.
He shook his head. “No, Your Highness. I don’t believe there is any news on that front.”
I sagged in a strange mixture of feeling let down and relieved. No news was good news, I supposed. “Well, that’s fine. I’ll see them later, if they’re attending to important matters. I just need to get inside and retrieve Princess Fae…” My voice trailed off as the guard again began to shake his head. “What do you mean?”
“Her Majesty the Queen took Her Highness Princess Fae with her to the meeting. There’s no one inside.”
“Ah.” I gave him a deep nod, indicating that I understood. “Thank you. I’ll meet with them there, then.”
“My pleasure, Your Highness.”
My brow furrowed deeply as my new guards and I set off for the throne room. I had a nagging feeling that something strange was going on. We reached the double doors of the room and, after greeting the guards outside of that room, I lifted the solid brass knocker and thumped it down on the door. “Princess Eliana for Princess Fae,” I called out lightly. Just formal enough—just teasing enough to straddle the line of proper royalty and a daughter talking to her mother.
Eliana: Remembering Rumpelstiltskin (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 5) Page 22
