Starbeam

by Adrienne Woods

  I shook my head and pushed back my tears.

  I heard the doorbell chimed and I broke down in Tanya’s embrace.

  “Shh, it’s going to be okay.”

  The doorbell chimed again. I didn’t want to listen this time to who it was. I wished I could just sleep for a hundred years like sleeping Beauty. Tanya could be the dragon that would protect me until it was time for Albert to be free.

  The storeroom door opened.

  “Katie,” my mother came in. “There is someone here for you.”

  I looked at her and saw the broad smile on her face.

  Albert. I rushed past her and froze when I saw Goran.

  “Hey Katie.” He smiled.

  I sighed and closed my eyes but ran to him. I sort of broke down in his arms again.

  He hugged me tight. “I warned you. I know his dad. They are all the same.”

  “I should’ve listened to you.”

  “Can we go somewhere private to talk?”

  I nodded in his embrace and he let me go.

  “Mom, is it okay…” I sniffed.

  “Go, sweetheart.”

  “Mrs Squires.” Goran bowed. “Tanya,” he said and I heard a small grunt coming from her.

  We went outside and walked past men that were busy with construction.

  “I heard Tanya finally made peace with you.”

  “Yes, after I saved her life and she can speak English.”

  He laughed. “I’m glad. For what it’s worth.”

  I smiled. “What are you doing here.”

  “You know what I’m doing here, Kate.”

  “Goran?” I sighed.

  “I know I’m not Al…”

  The Andrew in the pond flushed through my mind.

  “It’s not that. We can still be together.”

  “The king won’t change his mind Kate.”

  “When he is dead.”

  “How long do you think it’s going to take.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Kate, you are going to give up the best years of your life.”

  “We both have the essence, Goran. I can wait.”

  “I don’t have the essence. You can make us both happy. I will die. She will die too.”

  “I…” he put his finger on my lips.

  “Think about it. You don’t have to be alone, Kate. I will take you in any form.”

  I smiled.

  He kissed me on the head, and his lips lingered there for a short while. “I’m sorry about the way his dad treated you. I warned him that he would do that.”

  “I’ll think about it, okay.”

  He let me go and walked back with me to the store.

  We said goodbye in front of the store.

  “Hey,” I called him back and he stopped. “How is Maggy.”

  “She will be home soon, Kate. You’ll see, my brother’s tactic won’t work either.”

  I didn’t nod. She was so sure that she would get her happily ever after too.

  He waved and carried on walking. I walked into the store again back to my miserable life.

  My eyes caught Tanya and for some reason I couldn’t breathe.

  “Sweetheart,” my mom said. “What is…?”

  It felt as if everything just dawned on me. What my life was going to be like. Years and years without Albert. I would have a boy and a girl. The boy now with Goran and the girls centuries from now with Al. I couldn’t breathe.

  I rushed out the door and ran as fast as I could.

  I didn’t look back.

  I didn’t even pay any attention to the shrieks and screams of the villagers. I just ran. I didn’t want to think anymore, I didn’t want to feel this empty anymore. I didn’t want to love Albert the way I did. I just wanted to be far away from here.

  I was lifted from the ground and flicked onto something hard. The wind was howling in my ears and when I opened my eyes I saw green scales.

  “Where too.” Tanya asked me.

  “Far away please.” I said and just held on for dear life.

  * * *

  ALBERT

  * * *

  Drizelda moved into the west wing with her wretched family. She was already talking my ears off.

  “You are not even listening to a word I say. What is wrong with you?”

  I looked at her with a blank stare. “Let’s get one thing straight, I’ll never love you. My heart belongs to someone else.”

  “I don’t care. You will love me eventually.”

  “No I won’t. This arrangement won’t last Drizelda.” I got up and left.

  She didn’t follow, a miracle in itself.

  I missed Katherine and I knew Goran was going to do everything in his power to woo her. To step in and do whatever it took to be in her life.

  How long was I going to wait for her until we were finally going to be together.

  “Son a word.” My father said but I just kept walking. I didn’t care about his words anymore either.

  He took the two things that mattered the most in my life away from me.

  I was a prisoner in my own castle and went to my room.

  “What did you expect Louis?” My mother said when he complained that I was walking around like a ghost.

  “I will not have it.”

  “Have you ever thought that none of this is about you? You know how he felt about the Chromatic dragons. You ignored it. You always ignore him.”

  “Don’t tell me…”

  “What, how to raise your son? I raised him. Delilah raised him. You did nothing, you couldn’t even look at him.”

  I tuned them out. I didn’t want to listen to their bickering anymore. I was so tired. That was going to be my life in a few years. Stuck in a marriage I didn’t want to be in.

  He was no different from his father.

  The days ticked by and Helmut sent word that his father had budged.

  I rolled up the note. He had Maggy, but I couldn’t have Katherine.

  There was a meeting with Caleb’s and Helmut’s dad. I listened in from my room.

  “How could you let him marry a commoner?”

  “He is my son.” Magnus said. “I’m not going to let him be unhappy, not like that. Do you think you showed Al? He is going to hate you, Louis, the way you hated your father. She was his Guinevere.”

  “Don’t say her name.”

  Guinevere, that was her name. I never even knew that.

  “Helmut will rule from his heart because he will be happy. I don’t care what that girl is, she is his choice. We won’t always be here Louis. It’s not too late to change your mind.”

  “I can’t.”

  “You are just as stubborn as your father was. You are going to lose him and he will change everything we worked hard for because of his hatred for you.”

  “He’ll get over it.”

  “She is the fifth woman out of the Sacred Cavern. You know what that means. She will be queen one day. The only question is will you live to see that day.”

  My father didn’t say anything and I tuned them out.

  Drizelda was like a yapping dog, annoying the living hell out of my mother and was starting to annoy my father too.

  How could he force my hand to marry that.

  She was so cruel to the staff. Made them clean stupid things and do stupid errands that were wasting their time. She humiliated them for her own pleasure.

  Soon she would try to order me around like that too.

  But my father still didn’t cancel the wedding.

  On the day of the wedding, I got dressed in my prince’s robes. I felt numb. He didn’t even let me say goodbye to Katherine. Goran probably got what he wanted as he wasn’t here either.

  Helmut came.

  He was happy since Maggy was still at his side.

  “He’s not here, is he?”

  Helmut shook his head.

  “Is he with her.”

  “Albert don’t.”

  “I need to know.”

 
; “It’s hard on her, okay. Maggy saw her yesterday. The fact that my father budged and yours didn’t, she is taking it hard.”

  “Goran?”

  “He’s there for her. You know Goran. Always wants what you have.”

  Tears glistened in my eyes.

  “You have the essence she has it too.”

  “Oh and what am I going to do if your brother gets it, huh? I’ll never be with her, Helmut. You know that.”

  He closed his eyes. “He won’t. I promise you, he won’t. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “This is not how I foresaw things.” I sniffed.

  “Seriously Albert, you didn’t? We all knew that your marriage to her wouldn’t last. At least you had her while it did.”

  “Why does he hate me so much?”

  “He doesn’t hate you, he just shows it in a fucked up way. I really wish there was another way. Maggy absolutely loathes Drizelda.”

  “She’s here.”

  “Of course she is. It’s not that you didn’t fight hard, Albert. She was just too damn perfect right up until the end. She would be the perfect queen, one day.”

  “Let’s just do this and get it over with.” I walked to the door. My heart was breaking as she would be with Goran now. He knew how to reel vulnerable women in and she would marry him which would be the biggest mistake of her life.

  I waited at the front. My father and mother were on their thrones.

  The wedding march played and tears filled my eyes as I just stared at the carpet.

  Drizelda stood right next to me. Not saying a word. The priest started with the ceremony. I drowned out his words.

  “Stop.” My father said and my gaze shifted to his. “I need a word, Albert.”

  “Seriously now.” Drizelda asked.

  My father glared at her and she lowered her head.

  “Please son.”

  I got up and walked to my father. He led me out of the church to where the candles were lit.

  He closed the door as the guests started to twitter.

  He rested against the closed doors and sighed. “I can’t let you marry that wretched girl.”

  Was I hearing right? “Excuse me.”

  He turned around and for the first time in a long time, he looked at me with compassion. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I love you son, more than I should and I know that I haven’t been showing it to you the right way. Your mother begged me not to tell you, but I can’t keep this secret anymore.”

  “Tell me what.”

  “I didn’t do anything when they executed my first love. They gave me a choice.” Tears welled up in his eyes. “A choice no one should ever have to make.”

  “You choose your crown.”

  “No,” he yelled and a tear rolled down his cheek. All these years and he still loved her. He looked at me.

  “I chose my son. She chose you without thinking about it. It was her or you.”

  What was my father saying?

  “I couldn’t look at you because you look just like her.”

  “What are you saying.”

  “My brother was the crown prince. He was married to the woman you called mother. I was married to Gwendolyn. We had you, but my stupid brother was badly injured in a hunting accident and I didn’t want my father to discover what your mother was, so I let him die.”

  “You knew what she was.”

  “Of course I knew. I always knew. The heart can’t choose who you are going to love. But then you got sick. You didn’t have a dragon form, and she healed you when no physician could. His right hand saw it, he loathed dragons. He told him what she could do.

  They immediately arrested her, and he knew how to save the treaty he had with Magdel’s family. She was supposed to be queen, but with me already married and my brother dead, the crown would go to me. The treaty was lost.”

  “He did this for a fucking alliance.” I was so angry all of a sudden.

  My father nodded as his shoulders shook. I went to hug him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. What happened after he took her into custody?”

  “He gave her a potion which made her change. The question was simple, her or you. The answer wasn’t.” He sniffed. “I was forced to marry my brother’s wife after they erased Gwen out of our history.” For the first time he spoke freely about her to me. He touched my face. “You are a lot like her. Always wanted dragons to be free. I’m sorry. It was just so hard to look at you. I do not want to be like my father, Albert. If this girl is who you love, then marry her.”

  I grabbed my father again. “Thank you father. What about the wedding that is busy taking place.”

  “It’s my doing. I’ll sort it out. Go get her.”

  Bob appeared in the hallway.

  I looked at my father.

  “And your dragon is pretty cool too.”

  I smiled at him and then ran to Robert.

  “Please tell me you know where she is?”

  “I have kept taps on her. Tried to speak to her a few times but what good would that have done. We need to hurry, Al. She is about to marry Goran.”

  “What?”

  “I’ll just carry you in my paw. Don’t want to ruin the royal attire.” He shifted and grabbed me with his claws.

  Her father’s ring was around my neck on a chain and I plucked it off.

  I put it back on my ring finger as Bob flew me toward wherever Goran and Katherine were.

  Please let me be on time. That’s all I ask.

  * * *

  KATIE

  * * *

  I kept hearing Al’s voice calling for me to wait. How long was I going to have to wait for him.

  I was standing for a second time in front of a priest. I told Goran not to do the vows part, I had nothing to vow to him, but he wouldn’t listen. I had given my vow to Albert, who was marrying Drizelda today.

  “If there is anyone present that has any reason these two should not to be wed, speak up now.”

  “Wait,” Albert’s voice was loud and clear.

  I closed my eyes as guests all gasped.

  “Kate,” he said and I turned around. Everyone was bowing to him.

  “Albert?” Goran said, sounding upset as he walked up to Albert.

  Al’s fist came out of nowhere and he punched Goran in the face. He went down and covered his nose.

  “I love you like a brother, but she is not yours.” He said.

  “Albert.” I sounded shocked.

  He looked at me. “It’s over. I told you to fight woman.” He grabbed me tight against his chest.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Stopping you from making the worst mistake of your life.”

  “Dammit, Al. Seriously.” Goran yelled again.

  Robert kicked Goran and he was on his back.

  “Could you stop punching your best friend?” I yelled at Albert.

  “He’s not my best friend. You are.” He went on one knee and started to laugh.

  “I don’t have a ring.” He looked at me. “But I have a heart, and a soul and my body and it’s all yours. Marry me Kate, this time, forever.”

  My lower lip started to vibrate.

  “For real.”

  “Forever.”

  I nodded and he grabbed me tight and twirled me around. He kissed me hard and long.

  I broke the kiss. “Wait what about your father.”

  He chuckled. “He finally came to his senses.”

  “He did?” I smiled.

  Albert smiled too, sighed and nodded. “He wants to meet you, and this time he promises not to use the word ‘commoner’.”

  I laughed as I kissed him again.

  He put me down and Tanya slapped him in the face.

  “Can you all just stop, please?” I looked at all of them.

  “If you ever break her heart again, I’ll kill you.” She said and walked toward the clearing. She changed into a dragon and flew away.

&
nbsp; “Still the same Tanya.”

  “Different. She has feelings now. Deep ones.” I said.

  Albert laughed. “As long as she knows I don’t share.”

  Chapter 31

  KATIE

  * * *

  Albert took me to the castle. The king wanted to see me again.

  But this time it was different.

  We flew in Robert’s palm as Al didn’t want to mess up his clothes or my beautiful dress.

  His claw was big, and I was leaning against his one talon as Al covered my body, standing on two of his dragon talons.

  “Will Goran be okay?” I spoke a bit louder as the wind howled in my ears.

  “You care about Goran?” Al sounded upset.

  “He is still a good friend, Al. It wasn’t like that. I thought it would take centuries before I would see you again.”

  “He’ll be okay,” was all he said. “He always comes back after he cools down.”

  The castle came into view and Robert started to descend.

  He was very careful with us in his paw. Lifted it up high, landing only on three paws.

  A real professional.

  Albert jumped out first and then he caught me.

  “See you soon.” Al said and we went inside.

  I clung to Albert’s arm.

  I was so nervous as the first time hadn’t been a good experience with his parents.

  We walked into the gates and toward the castle’s front door.

  I took a deep breath.

  “This isn’t fair,” Drizelda’s voice overpowered the hallways and Al chuckled.

  “Don’t laugh.” I slapped him softly.

  “She is horrible. Don’t go feeling sorry for her Katie.”

  “Seriously Albert,” she saw him. “How could you do this to me?” She stormed toward him.

  “I don’t love you, that is how. I told you that Drizelda.”

  Her eyes shifted to me.

  “Cindersoot.” She asked and looked confused at Albert and back at me.

  “It’s your lady, Drizelda. And she will be your queen one day, so next time you will treat her with more respect.”

  She gasped as it dawned on her who I really was to him.