“My name’s Jasmine.” She stood up straight, noticing how much shorter she was than the Queen. It made her feel like a child. She smoothed her skirt, aware that she was covered in dust and grime. “Please excuse my appearance, Your Majesty.”
The Queen looked around, her eyes landing on Ari. “Did you clean this place with a rag or your clothes?”
“Hello, Mother.”
Ari and his mother locked eyes.
“I’m glad you’re back,” she said, walking over to her son and taking him in her arms. “Please don’t scare us like that again. Your father makes these rules for a reason.”
“I’m a grown man,” said Ari, releasing his mother from his embrace.
“True, but you’re not just any grown man. You’ll be King one day. You have to be more careful than most.”
Jasmine could see Ari wanted to say more and was holding back. It seemed they needed some privacy.
“Would you excuse me, please?” asked Jasmine, curtsying once more. “I must check on my brother in the infirmary.”
“Of course.” The Queen grimaced. Clearly, even a polite smile would be too much effort.
“Good luck,” said Ari, smiling at her, as the creases of his mother’s frown deepened.
Jasmine scurried through the door and made her way directly to Raph, keeping her head down.
Did being a Queen give you an excuse to be rude? This wasn’t a question she could ever ask Ari. Nobody liked to hear their mother criticized no matter how terribly they’d behaved.
Anyway, she didn’t have time right now to worry about Ari’s mother. It was time to wake her brother with true love’s kiss. A kiss of his own making. An elixir he’d made with nothing but love.
Please let it work. Please. It was time to wake up.
ARI
THE NOW
“You’re upset with me,” Ari said to his mother.
“Of course I’m upset with you. You went to Cypress after your father expressly forbade it.” She picked up a pot and slammed it on the table. “After everything your sister put us through.”
“I’m a grown man, Mother.”
“So you keep reminding us. And as we keep reminding you, you’re a grown man who’ll be King one day. Your decisions aren’t your own to make. The future of Wintergreen depends on you.”
Ari sighed. His mother didn’t understand anything. She didn’t know the first thing about him.
“You love her, don’t you?” she said, smashing that theory of his to pieces. How had she been able to see that in the few moments Jasmine had been in the room with them?
His mouth fell open.
“It was written all over your face,” she said, answering his unspoken question. His mother had seen him look at enough of the girls she’d brought before him to know when she finally saw interest in his eyes. “I was beginning to wonder if it was a groom you were after, instead of a bride, but I see everything now. It was a common girl you wanted.”
“There’s nothing common about Jasmine,” said Ari, straightening his back. As beautiful as Jasmine had looked covered in dust and dirt with her hair flying in even more directions than normal, he could see why his mother may have jumped to the conclusion she’d be an inappropriate Queen. “If you took the time to get to know Jasmine, you’d change your mind. You didn’t even give her a chance.”
“I believe it was she who didn’t give me a chance.” She straightened her back in return and drew level with his height. “She ran from the room like a frightened rabbit.”
“Mother, you’re the Queen. Do you not understand how intimidating you can be?”
“A little respect please, Ari.” She tutted and crossed her arms.
He placed his hands gently on her forearms and her arms fell to her sides. “You can’t tell me who I choose to love. You’ll only drive me away, when I’ve spent my whole life trying to stay close to you.”
His mother’s eyes burned with tears, although, he knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t let them fall. Her tears fell for Ana alone.
“You must forget your foolish feelings immediately, or I’ll have that girl and her brother thrown out of the palace, no matter what information they may have.”
Ari stepped back as he assessed whether or not this was an empty threat. As much as his mother wanted information on Ana, she saw it as her duty to ensure that he married an appropriate Queen. And a girl covered in dirt just didn’t seem to fit this bill.
“Do you trust me?” he asked, hoping to sway her.
She shook her head. “Not after you betrayed us and went to Cypress. How can I trust you now?”
“Because I was searching for Ana. Not just for me, but for you. I know how much pain her loss has brought you. I don’t want to see you this sad. We have to know what happened to her.” He weighed up whether or not he should tell her about what he’d just discovered about the hole in the wall and decided not to. She’d only have it closed up and then he’d never get a chance to find out who’d been climbing through it.
“Then where is she?” She spat out her words with venom.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Did Father give you the pendant?”
His mother held out her closed fist and let her fingers fall open, revealing the pendant in her palm. “Where did you get it?”
“The boy had it. Raphael. Jasmine’s brother.”
Her eyes lit up. “They’re mixed up in all of this! Why do you trust them? They know where my daughter is!”
“They’re not mixed up in this. They’re victims of it, just like we are. Both their parents died alongside countless others in the blue plague. I haven’t worked out yet how these are all connected, but I’m certain they are. Ana has had something to do with this. I know it.”
“My daughter is not responsible for the plague!” she screeched. “How dare you say that! All this time we’ve thought it was Ana who was jealous of you, but really it was you who’s jealous of her. Following her around, begging for her attention and having tantrums when she ignored you.”
Ari was fairly certain that crying himself to sleep as a young boy didn’t count as a tantrum, however, he didn’t want to argue the point right now. He had bigger issues to solve. Such as how he was going to get his mother to accept the woman he loved. Or more urgently, how he was going to stop her from having her thrown out of the palace.
“Raphael has important information,” he said. “It’s possible he’s come face to face with Ana. He was holding her necklace when I found him. Not only that, but it’s also possible he’s discovered the cure for the plague. Remarkable for a boy so young.”
“Perhaps he’s merely curing something he began in the first place.” His mother sneered, not softening in the slightest. He was making things worse here, not better.
“Raphael didn’t start the plague. That plague killed both his parents and destroyed his village. He’s a kind boy. Wise for his age.”
“Very well,” she said, taking a step toward the door. “He may stay. But his sister leaves in the morning. We have no use for her here.”
“No!”
She froze at the ferocity of his words.
“If she leaves, then I leave too. And this time I won’t return. You’ll have lost both your children.” He hated himself for threatening her like that, but he had to get her to listen.
His mother’s eyes darted around the room as her brain struggled to come up with a new plan that wouldn’t involve losing her son. “She may stay for now if it means so much to you. But you are to forget these feelings you think you have for her. I’ll be arranging for a new selection of suitable brides to be presented to you immediately if you are in such a hurry to attach yourself. And this time you are to select one for your Queen. No excuses.”
“You will do no such thing.” He had no intention of complying with any of that. “I refuse to meet any more women of your choosing. I would like to choose my own wife.”
“What are you implying?” She narrowed her eyes at
him and it took a few seconds for him to figure out what he’d said wrong.
“I wasn’t referring to Father,” he said, wondering how to get out of this. “I’m sure he was very happy when his parents chose you for him.”
“He was.” She nodded, and he wondered if she really believed this.
If his father had been allowed to marry the woman he truly loved, instead of keeping her as a mistress, he’d surely have been far happier with his life. Ari would not make the same mistake. But he could hardly say that to his mother. There was no point in making her feel any worse about the situation than she no doubt already did.
“But as well as that worked out for Father, I intend to do things my way,” he said. “We’re very different people.”
“Not that different, Ari.” His mother jabbed her finger into his chest, trying to regain control over the situation. “Distance yourself from that girl or I’ll ensure a much greater distance is put between you.”
“I will not. And I suggest you learn how to deal with that.” He looked down at her finger on his chest, until she pulled it back and stepped away, the power between them shifting.
“I know you think you know what’s best for me,” he said, keeping his words soft. “But as you keep reminding me, one day I’ll be King of Wintergreen. And if I’m to be a good king, then it’s time I started making decisions for myself.”
“And you’ve decided on this girl, have you?”
“Nothing between us is decided,” he said, avoiding her question. He most certainly had decided on Jasmine. But despite her having warmed to him, he was aware that she was far from having decided on him.
His mother lifted her chin in the air and left the perfumery, accepting that her argument was lost for now.
Was this how Ana had felt when she fell in love with the Alchemist? Another union their parents hadn’t approved of. For the first time, he thought that maybe he understood a small part of his sister. Love was such a powerful force. It could glue your feet to the floor and it could make you run to the other end of the earth. It could create life and it could kill. It could send you soaring into the sky and it could make you crash and break in half.
Right now, he wasn’t sure what state his heart was in. It felt like it was soaring and breaking all at once. All he knew for sure was that for the first time in his life he felt alive in a way he never had before.
And it was all because of Jasmine. A girl as sweet and beautiful as the flower she was named after. A girl who’d make a wonderful Queen.
JASMINE
THE NOW
Jasmine went to Raph. He looked even more innocent than usual, lying in the infirmary bed that had been made up with crisp white sheets. His blond hair was damp from sweat and his fingernails were embedded with dirt. Jasmine had been keeping him as clean as she could, using a sponge and washbasin, but he desperately needed a bath. They all did. Cass and Tommy lay sleeping together in a bed beside Raph, and it seemed Doctor Abner had taken a break from keeping guard over them.
“Raph,” whispered Jasmine, placing her hand on her brother’s forehead. He was worse than when she’d left him this morning, his breathing a little more labored and his color a bit paler. Had he been holding steady during his journey here because his head was in her lap and the scent of the elixir was near? It seemed more than possible and hope bloomed in her chest. She might just have figured this out.
She unlooped the ribbon from around her neck and held the sachet under Raph’s nose, so he could breathe in the fragrance. This was her best hope. True love’s kiss had woken her from her sleep. Could it wake her brother too?
Raph didn’t stir, so Jasmine undid the top few buttons of his shirt and untied the ribbon from the sachet. She sprinkled some of the scented salts into her hand and rubbed them into his chest.
Placing the sachet on the pillow next to his face, she leaned over to kiss his forehead. “Try to wake up,” she whispered. “Please try.”
“What are you doing?” Cass asked, sitting up in bed, watching her.
“I’m trying something,” said Jasmine. “I’m not sure if it will work.”
Cass hauled herself out of bed and came over to see. “Where did you get these salts? The scent is unfamiliar. Did Doctor Abner give them to you?”
Jasmine shook her head. “Raphael made them before he got sick.”
“And you think they could work?” Cass’s eyes lit at the thought of this.
“We have to try something, don’t we?” Jasmine reached for the sachet and tipped some more salts into her hand. “Here, take these to Tommy and let him breathe them in.”
“Thank you.” Cass went to her son and held her hand under his nose.
“It’ll likely take a while. A long while perhaps, but at this stage, it’s our best hope,” said Jasmine.
Cass rubbed the salts into Tommy’s chest in the same way she’d seen Jasmine do to Raph.
“I need to get back to the perfumery,” said Jasmine, anxious to start work on mimicking this elixir, in the event that it actually was the cure. Raph may need more of it before it would wake him up. She was certain she could identify at least a few of the ingredients already. “Can I leave these with you for the boys to breathe? Will you let me know if there’s any change? I’ll come back as soon as I can to see if it’s working.”
“Of course. Bless you.” Cass smiled at her.
“Probably best not to tell the doctor about this,” she said, wanting to be cautious. His methods seemed fairly conservative and she wasn’t sure he’d agree with something as experimental as this elixir.
Cass nodded. “He doesn’t need to know.”
Jasmine went to the washbowl and cleaned her hands, wanting all traces of the elixir to be gone, before she returned to Ari. If he tried to kiss her again, then this time she’d know his feelings were genuine. As for her own feelings, well she’d have to wait and see if those had changed without the elixir, but she was fairly certain they wouldn’t. The thought of him still pulled her stomach into knots.
She left Cass to watch over the boys and returned to the perfumery, hesitating at the door in case the Queen was still in there.
“Ari!” she gasped when she saw him standing alone, holding the small glass bottle he’d taken from the Alchemist’s house under his nose.
He jumped and immediately put the lid back on.
“You said we don’t know what’s in there? It could be the plague!”
“It’s okay,” he said. “If I was going to catch the plague, I’d have it by now.”
“We don’t know that.” Although, he was right in what he was saying. With all the exposure he’d had to the plague, he should be showing symptoms. “Everything okay with your mother?”
“Ahhh, yes. Fine thanks.” He looked to the floor, not seeming to want to meet her eye. “And with Raphael?”
“I’ve put the salts on his chest, although there’s been no change yet. Cass is watching him.” Jasmine smiled widely, feeling confident.
“I really hope it works.” His voice was formal and she wondered if she’d done something wrong. Was he upset with her or was he just upset?
“What does it smell like?” she asked, pointing to the small bottle he held.
“You’d better smell it for yourself.” Ari held out the bottle for her and she took it from him and unscrewed the lid.
She sniffed cautiously, then inhaled more deeply, drawing in what turned out to be a very familiar scent.
“Oh, my goodness…” She took another sniff, even though she was already certain she knew exactly where she’d smelled this sweet balsamic fragrance before.
“You know this scent?” Ari asked.
“I do.” She nodded. “It’s his perfume.”
“The Alchemist’s?”
“Yes. This is definitely it! The trouble is, that I’ve never been sure what it’s been made from.” She couldn’t believe it. Here was her chance, at last, to find out what this strangely alluring smell was made from.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, reaching out to touch him, but withdrawing her arm before she connected with him, needing to know if his distance was because she no longer wore the elixir.
“Nothing,” he said taking her hand and holding it. “It’s not you.”
“Are you sure it’s not me?” she asked, suspecting that the problem was exactly her.
“You’re perfect,” he said, brushing her cheek with his other hand, giving her hope that his feelings remained strong.
“But your mother doesn’t think so, does she?” Better to ask him straight out if he wasn’t going to tell her.
Ari swallowed, but didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.
“She doesn’t even know me.” Jasmine reached for his fingers and brought them to her lips, desperate to kiss him. A kiss with a clear mind and true heart. A very different kind of true love’s kiss than the one that had woken her from her sleep.
“You’re right. She doesn’t know you.” His voice was a whisper.
“Nor do you.” She let go of his hand. “I don’t even know myself.”
“I know you,” said Ari. “I know you here.” He placed his fingertips lightly on her heart and her breath caught in her throat.
The scent of the Alchemist’s perfume reached her nose and she stepped back from Ari as she put the lid on the bottle and handed it to him. She had to be certain of her own mind before she allowed herself to kiss anyone again. The last time she’d been seduced by this very fragrance, things hadn’t gone well. If Ari really was her true love, then his kiss could wait. Besides, how could she even contemplate kissing him when her brother lay so ill in the infirmary.
“I need some air,” she said, knowing she couldn’t stay here another moment. Smelling that perfume had brought back too many memories. She needed to make a decision about Ari when he wasn’t staring at her with those dark eyes.
The Kingdoms of Evernow Box Set Page 34
