The Ghost Bride

by Stacey Keystone

  I went for a long hike after lunch, exploring all the adjacent territory. It helped me clear my head, making everything a lot clearer.

  What were my feelings for Martinus? I knew I didn't want to marry him, that's for sure. But, if it wasn't for the whole marriage thing, would I date him? Maybe. He has been much nicer to me lately. And he does make an effort to please me. It's just… I'm too young for anything that serious.

  But the thing is, in this world, as Yllana bluntly said, I either have to choose a celibate life, marry, or destroy my reputation. And it seemed that a bad reputation would mean that I wouldn't get a job.

  The other thing that scared me was everybody's absolute conviction that I would fall in love with Martinus. That magic and this mysterious compatibility would mean we'd fall in love, despite what I wanted.

  And that terrified me. Losing control over my emotions, being forced by my magic to love somebody — that was scary.

  On the other hand, do people get much of a choice in whom they love?

  I washed up and put on my best dress for the luncheon, with my sapphire bracelet and pearl necklace. I wasn't wearing any makeup. I hadn't brought makeup from Earth, nor did I buy any here.

  It would be nice if I could wear some, but then, whatever.

  I put everything Martinus bought me into a bag, to return it. I made a decision about our relationship while tossing and turning in bed at night. Working night shifts really messes up one's biological clock.

  Yllana was right. I shouldn't flip-flop, constantly changing my opinion. I should decide on something and stick to it. Martinus would have to deal with it.

  On my way out, I looked for Arlene and asked her to help with the portal. She showed me how to use it, tapping all the buttons with the coordinates.

  "Have a nice day with your fiancé," she said.

  "He's not…" I was about to explain all the intricacies of our relationship and gave up. "Never mind. Thank you."

  I stepped on the stone, feeling the world change around me. When the world reappeared I immediately stepped down from the portal stone, blinking (I hate portalling), and looked around.

  Novak House was a large estate surrounded by parks. It was pretty; it was gothic; there wasn't much else to say about it. I headed up the entrance stairs and knocked on the door. It opened in front of me as soon as I touched it. Martinus was there, waiting for me.

  "Hello, pumpkin," he said, smiling. Then he frowned. "You look tired. What's the matter?"

  I gave him the bag with all the returned gifts. He took it, looked into it, and frowned.

  "You decided to return my gifts," he said. "Why?"

  "I told you; I think it's too expensive and inappropriate. I'd like to have a private conversation with you, about all this," I said, waving my hand around the gifts, the house, everything.

  He put the bag aside, carelessly.

  "Unfortunately, because of your insistence on having a big party," he said, cheerfully offering me his bent arm, on which I placed my hand, "there's no chance we'll get any privacy today. But you will get your wish to meet girls our age. You'll meet every girl our age in all the high magical family mother could think of. Including your friend."

  "That was fast," I said, thinking of all the effort required to organize a big party in three days. "I only wanted her to invite Yllana."

  "Mother never does anything in half measures," Martinus said, "and if you asked me instead of her, we could have done this without organizing a huge event instead of a simple luncheon."

  "I won't do it next time," I promised. I said it yesterday, too, but maybe not this clearly.

  "So there will be a next time," Martinus said, smiling brightly at me. "That's good."

  "Yes, that's what I wanted to talk to you about," I said. "I've made a decision. About us."

  "You did?" he raised his eyebrows. "Is it something I'd like to hear?"

  "Yes and no," I said. "I guess."

  "Well then," he said, escorting me into a room where his mother and brothers were sitting on a big sofa, surrounded by a sea of flowers. Mrs. Novak didn't seem like a woman who liked half-measures. "I want to know your decision, but let's leave it for another time." He raised his voice. "Mother, dear, our guest of honor has arrived."

  Mrs. Novak stood up, came towards me, and gave me a hug and a peck on the cheek. I noticed she didn't have any makeup, either. But, unlike my discolored and pale appearance, she somehow had rosy cheeks and no black bags under her eyes. Must be magic. Witchcraft.

  I should learn cosmetic magic. Or whatever Mrs. Novak does. I wonder if she'll teach me?

  "Amy, dear, I'm so happy to see you," Mrs. Novak said. "Now that you're here, you can start greeting our guests as they come. You'll be the hostess of this event, after all."

  "What?" I asked. "But Mrs. Novak…"

  "Mother," she corrected me. "You agreed to call me mother, dear."

  "But mother," I obediently said, "I don't think I can be a hostess. I'd have no idea how to do this. I thought you would do it. I don't even know the names of most of the people."

  "Oh, nonsense, dear," Mrs. Novak said. "Martinus knows the names of all the people I've invited. He'll help you." And she left, leaving me standing, with Martinus on my side, while his brothers stared at me disapprovingly.

  "I told you it was a bad idea to involve mother," Martinus said. "See how she managed to make a punishment out of this event for all of us?"

  I was thoroughly confused, my head spinning.

  "How many guests did she invite?" I asked.

  "As far as I could see," Martinus said. "We got responses from forty guests."

  "Forty?" I exclaimed, in shock. "I told her to invite Colonel Yaldai, his wife, and sister. And maybe another girl of my age."

  "I could guess that," Martinus said. "Considering your tendencies towards money. But she organized everything with enthusiasm and decided she could combine multiple schemes. Both setting you up with an appropriate companion, and maybe finding a girl for these two," he said, pointing at his brothers. "Also, observing how you behave at a low-stakes social event."

  "You call forty people low-stakes?" I asked.

  "Our engagement party will have more than a thousand people," Martinus informed me, "as you requested."

  "Back when I thought none of you would go through with it," I said, panicking. Yllana had told me about this earlier, but now it just felt too imminent. "Can I retract it now? Have a smaller one?"

  "Too late," Martinus said. "Too many people have already invited themselves to our party. If we don't invite them, they'll lose face and we'll have many people angry at us."

  "But it's not like we invited anybody yet, right?" I asked. "Except for Mr. Morad, that is."

  "Not as far as I know, no," Martinus said, shrugging. "But the guest list is already set in stone. We can't not invite most of the people on the list."

  I blinked at the double negative, processing it.

  "This has already gone too far," I whispered into his ear. "Why does everything seem to become bigger and bigger? We need to talk."

  "That will have to be left for another moment," he said, his lips expanding into a wide smile that was the fakest I'd ever seen. "Since our guests have arrived. We need to go greet them. They," he said, waving his hand at his brothers, "will be in charge of the seating."

  I think I was about to hyperventilate.

  "Don't worry," Martinus whispered into my ear. "I'll do most of the work. You just smile, say it's great to meet them, and my brothers will escort them in."

  I also put on a fake smile. Which became genuine when I saw who the first guests were when we opened the door.

  "I'm so glad to see you, Colonel Yaldai, Mrs. Yaldai," I said, greeting the Colonel and the elegant woman standing by his arm, "and this must be Miss Yaldai?" I looked at Yllana.

  She was wearing an elegant blue satin dress, and her face was quite different from the ghost appearance she wore in the academy. I could see some degree in similarit
y, in the subtler aspects: her figure, demeanor, pose, gait, were similar to ghost Yllana. But her face was completely different. Her eyes were dark blue, her face extremely pale, her hair black and curly, her cheekbones high and her face narrow; a complete opposite of ghost Yllana, who was darker, round-faced and brown-haired. It made me think this wasn't my friend Yllana… Until she winked at me. In the same playful way, my friend Yllana would (I hadn't seen ghost Yllana wink at me). My heart just knew this was my friend.

  "Colonel, Mrs. Yaldai, Miss Yaldai," Martinus then said, "allow me to introduce you my fiancée, Miss Amy Laurendeau."

  We all nodded to each other. Ric, Martinus' elder brother, escorted them towards the dining room, as the next set of guests came. Most of them were unfamiliar to me (which makes sense; I only know ten people in this entire world). Thankfully, Martinus seemed to know them, as he greeted them.

  "Hello, Mr. Zawada, Mrs. Zawada, Miss. Zawada," he said. "This is my fiancée…"

  It went on like that until all the guests arrived. The only other person I was familiar with was Zethe, Martinus' friend, who also came (his surname turned out to be Taibi). It seemed like Mrs. Novak invited some young men our age, too, probably to even out the number of young women. Which was fair, but then the party became way bigger than I expected.

  Mrs. Novak seated me next to Yllana, for which I was grateful. I had Martinus on my right, and we were at the head of the table, with another young couple in front of us. Colonel Yaldai, thankfully, was seated far enough from us that he wouldn't be able to notice anything about Yllana.

  Now the question was, how do I publicly make friends with a friend I'm not supposed to know already? This was going to be hard. Also, I didn't enjoy being seated at the head of the table. It felt like everybody was staring at me. I'd gotten the looks of curiosity before, but now everybody seemed to be evaluating me, measuring me. The only thing that kept me from having an anxiety attack was Martinus' hand, which regularly stroked mine. I somehow found it… comforting.

  When lunch started, Martinus cut the roasted beef, and everybody started serving themselves. I was surprised by the lack of catering, but it seemed that magical families, for all their posh houses and nice meals, didn't have servants. Or waiters. Except for the cooking and laundry, which were hired out, everything else was done with magic or manually, by the members of the family. It wasn't how I imagined rich people living. But then, I guess, magic changes things.

  Seeing as how I could not talk with my friend about anything (how could I do it without anybody discovering we already knew each other??), Martinus came to the rescue.

  "Amy, dear, did you know that Yllana also has a talent for projections?" he asked me, loudly.

  I looked at Yllana, who also seemed to be panicking.

  "Is that so, Miss Yaldai?" I asked.

  "Oh, don't be so formal," she said. "You can call me Yllana."

  "And you can call me Amy," I said.

  We talked, albeit awkwardly, throughout the dinner. I had to pay attention to Martinus and the couple in front of me too, for which I was partly thankful. Talking to my friend as if I didn't know her was hard. But I also got to know unknown sides of her. Yllana the physical person was quite different from Yllana the ghost classmate.

  By the end of the dinner, we had established a visible enough bond, and our chemistry was showing. A few of the other people had also met each other and were now pleasantly talking with each other. I was surprised they didn't all know each other. It's not like these families were that large.

  I told Yllana I'd like to, but regretfully couldn't invite her to my place of work without the Kaffale's permission, and she then invited me to her house. Martinus, after I tugged him, also invited Yllana to come to Novak house.

  "I'm just so glad my pumpkin has a friend now," he said, and I almost pinched him for the pumpkin thing. Seriously, I hate being called that. "Since she came to Marn very recently and doesn't know anybody here."

  "Thank you, Mr. Novak," Yllana said. "I'm so glad I got to meet your fiancée. You're a very lucky guy."

  "I know, Miss Yaldai," Martinus said. "And now, if you'll excuse us, we have to play the part of the host."

  As lunch ended, and the guests scattered around the living room, chatting about this and that topic in small groups, Martinus guided me through them, making small talk. Playing the host was exhausting.

  By the time the last guest had left, I was almost dislocating my jaw with the yawns I was making.

  "I'm so tired," I said, as I saw the last guest step on the portal and disappear. "I am also going home. I'm sorry I can't stay longer. Say hello to your mother."

  Mrs. Novak had somehow disappeared, not showing herself through the entire event.

  "I will," Martinus said. "Will you come to visit tomorrow?" he then asked, helping me towards the portal and tapping the settings. I'm not sure I wouldn't end up in some unfamiliar place in my current state, so that was considerate of him.

  "I don't know," I said, truthfully. "I'm quite tired. I may oversleep. But I don't have any other plans for tomorrow."

  "Well, then," Martinus said, standing up, and placing his arms on my shoulders.

  I looked around, realizing we were alone here. I remembered the crazy sensations I felt last time we kissed. Would I be able to resist, in my current tired state?

  I had to be proactive. I stood on my tiptoes and gave Martinus a peck on the cheek.

  "Good night, dear," I said, and took a step back, towards the portal, to disappear, looking into Martinus' strange expression. What was he feeling?

  14

  I arrived at Kaffale house extremely tired. So when I arrived at the bedroom I just collapsed into the bed, losing my clothes on the way from the door. It was still early, but I was just too tired, after spending an entire day entertaining guests. Being with people I don't know is just exhausting.

  Which is how I ended up awake at two a.m. in the morning. I stared at the vizor, blinking, watching the time move slowly. I couldn't get asleep anymore; I was feeling rested and fresh. After a bit of tossing and turning, I stood up, getting out of bed. I would have to start my day early.

  The night shifts were messing up my sleep. I checked up on the kids, since I was awake, anyway. Maybe I could help Emere and get some more overtime? Since I spent all my advance, I needed all the overtime I could get.

  As soon as I opened the door to the nursery, I heard crying. Very loud crying.

  As I came in, I saw Emere, with red eyes, pacing the room. When she saw me, I could see relief on her face.

  "Amy! Thank goodness you're here," she said, handing Erynn to me and collapsing into the armchair. "I've tried everything — and nothing is working. Maybe you can calm her down."

  "I'll try," I said, singing a lullaby while pacing around the room with Erynn's head on my shoulder. "The itsy-bitsy spider…"

  Nobody would ever say I was great at singing, but I wasn't bad, either. I could sing tolerably, and somehow, whenever I sang, my voice seemed to have a calming effect on mother. And, when there were other patients in her ward, on other patients, too.

  Now I'm starting to think it was the magic, not the singing.

  Erynn calmed down before the spider started climbing the waterspout for the third time. And so did Emere, it seemed, because when I looked at her, she was sound asleep. After considering it for a moment, I let her be and placed Erynn in the cot. She didn't seem too tired, despite all the screaming she'd been doing, but, after I tickled her belly a bit, she giggled, and released a couple of bubbles, she got asleep fast. I took one blanket I had reserved for Bevan and used it to cover Emere.

  I had left some of my books in the nursery, so, after gently redirecting the light away from mother and daughter, I sat down, studying. This is how Ion found us in the morning, his wife and baby asleep, while I turned another page of my book. I'd never done so much reading.

  "Good morning," I whispered.

  He looked at his wife, at Erynn, at me, and also
whispered.

  "What time did you come here?"

  "Two a.m." I said, "she got asleep and has been sleeping since. They've both been asleep."

  "Thank you," he said. "For working on the weekend. How was the luncheon?"

  "Good," I said, "but exhausting. Do you want to take her to the bedroom? I can stay longer with Erynn, I don't mind."

  He looked at his sleeping wife and shook his head.

  "No, she's sleeping so sweetly," he said, "I don't want to disturb her. She hasn't slept well in months. Even before Erynn was born, she was having trouble at night. Let's just leave her here. I'll come to relieve you for breakfast."

  And he left, to come back at nine a.m., by which time my stomach was audibly grumbling. The two girls were still sound asleep.

  I had to learn more about my magical talent. If it affected adults, too, was it safe? It only seemed to affect sick, tired adults or scared and fussy children, but I still wondered. I wasn't even sure what I was doing. Could I be unwittingly harming people with my unconscious use of magic?

  I was still musing that question at breakfast, where everybody inquired me about the luncheon at the Novak's. I described the attendants, giving a brief mention to every person I met (I have an excellent memory for faces and names).

  I was still pondering when I went back to my bedroom, wondering how I could learn more.

  And that's when I got a message in my vizor.

  The message was clear. My uncle was inviting me to his house for a chat. An official chat.

  I considered it. This could be my opportunity to learn more about the Morad family.

  I probably should have called Martinus or the Colonel, but I didn't. I told Edric, who helped me with the portal. I wanted to go to my father's house, see it for myself.

  When I arrived at Morad house, I looked around. It was sunrise time here (I need to learn about Marn's time zones and geography; I keep traveling around the planet and changing time zones unexpectedly).

  Morad House was just breathtakingly beautiful. Under the pink rays of the sun, which colored its white limestone walls in a beautiful, amber color, it looked like a princess' house in a Disney movie. The house I'd always dreamed about while living in the small apartments and attached rentals I lived in with mother.