Chapter 18
It was late afternoon when I finally woke, as I had spent the better part of the previous night staring down the hallway, in one direction for a while, and then in the other.
After that, I crawled into my massive and unbelievably comfy bed and stared at the ceiling for a while. Once my brain had exhausted itself with the wonders that were Nikolas and Liam, it finally shut down and allowed me to sleep.
The smell of food coaxed me from the mounds of blankets and pillows I was entrapped in once the sun was on its downhill swing and I discovered the meal from the night before had been replaced with a steaming bowl of chicken soup, fresh bread, and tea. This time, I did eat. I even sopped the bowl clean using the small loaf.
I stepped into the washroom and splashed water over my face, then rubbed my oil of choice over my pulse points. From a wardrobe, I chose a cream colored number composed of a satiny material beneath a black lace overlay. I walked back to the bathroom and studied my reflection in the large, gilded mirror that leaned against the wall. Undoing my braid, I combed my fingers through the waves until I was satisfied with my reflection. While I knew I was nowhere near the corner of beautiful and gorgeous, a girl couldn’t help but feel a little pretty in a dress like that.
A timid knock sounded at my door as I walked back into the bedroom. My heart did backflips as I worried Nikolas or Liam may be waiting on the other side of the thick wood. I took a few breaths to compose myself and opened the door to find my mother standing on the other side.
“I am so sorry, my dear, but I just couldn’t stay away any longer.” She explained, wringing her hands again.
“No, no. Its fine, I’m happy you’re here.”
“I thought you may have some questions…if so, I would be happy to answer them for you, we all would.” My mother offered.
“I do, actually. I have lots of questions.” I wondered who “we” entailed nervously.
My mother nodded. “Of course you do, my dear. Come now and let us provide you with the answers you seek. Then, maybe we can get down to some semblance of normalcy for you. I know lately your life has been anything but.” She looped her delicate arm through mine and led me down the hallway to the left.
We rounded a corner and came to the royal suite that housed my parents’ rooms. Thick double wooden doors with polished gold handles stood before us. My mother turned to me and spoke. “We passed by this way last night and your father and I pointed out our quarters. I do believe you were too exhausted to notice.” She offered a warm smile, but her eyes held the same knowing look they had the night before.
I smiled and tried to make it believable. “Yes, I was. I don’t remember that at all.”
My mom kept the smile on her face and nodded, but disappointment crossed over her fair features. “Not to worry, you are well acquainted with its location now.” She let go of my arm and threw both doors open. “This is our private parlor.”
The room was large with high ceilings and the upholstery was a muted gold, from the thick drapes to the furnishings, all plush and cushy and inviting. The back wall was all windows, floor to ceiling, flooding the room with sunlight. The endless lake stretched out beyond the windows, waters sparkling like liquid emeralds.
My father stood staring out across the water and I recognized the golden haired woman seated at a desk, intently studying the open book on the desk in front of her.
My mother gestured toward the woman. “Danica, this is Soleil, Enchantress of Castle Lux and longtime friend of House Connolly.”
Soleil unfolded herself from the seat she occupied and crossed the floor gracefully, movements like water, flowing and seamless. She stopped in front of me, offering a slight bow. “Princess, my heart is gladdened that you are where you belong once again.”
“Thank, thank you.” I blurted. It was imposing to be in her very presence, not to mention she was an amazon and had to be about six feet tall, and I felt like a child looking up at her.
If memory served, this woman was over two hundred years old and aging remarkably well. She looked to be in her middle to late thirties. Her skin was pearly and iridescent, her laugh lines and crow’s feet only visible when she smiled. Thick glossy hair like spun gold was twisted into a loose bun at the nap of her neck.
“Perhaps we should be seated for this discussion.” My father offered as he crossed the floor. He gestured to a grouping of cozy looking couches and we made our way over.
I sat on one of the immense couches, only using the edge of the seat. My mother shared my couch, sitting to my right and my father chose a large chair to my left. Soleil lounged on the couch facing me, stretching her upper body across the cushions to rest her elbow on the arm of the couch, legs tucked neatly beneath her.
I thought it best to get my dumb question out of the way first. I just had to know. “So, are you like…uh, how old are you?”
Soleil chuckled. “Of all the things you could ask and that is your first question.”
I smiled sheepishly and shrugged.
“Let us just say that I am older even than you are imagining, and leave it at that.”
Got it. So, really old.
“Okay then, down to business.” I took a deep breath, trying to decide what to start with. “Why did you send me away? I mean, I know what I’ve been told, but I want to hear it from the people that actually did it.” As I said the words, I realized I was kind of angry. Feelings of abandonment bombarded me and while the logical side of my brain called it a necessary evil, the emotional side called it rejection.
My mother reached out and took my hand in hers, tears brimming in her soft eyes. “You must understand, my dear heart, we felt it was the best choice. This was decision made with heavy hearts and…and we could not have parted with you, except to save your life.” She squeezed my hand, lips trembling.
My father rubbed his massive hands over his face, and immediately he looked as if he’d aged ten years.
Soleil rose and crossed the space between us, kneeling down in front of me. “I am to blame for this choice. I felt there was nowhere in our realm he could not find you. I had learned of another realm, a people who did not believe in magic, a place so very different from our own world. It was the last place anyone would think to look for you and there are few who are even aware of the existence of another realm. I cannot imagine how painful and difficult this all must be for you, but you were never abandoned. I kept a close watch on you.”
My eyebrows rose at this proclamation. “How?”
Soleil reached into a hidden pocket in the generous folds of her dress and opened her hand to reveal a small, clear orb, the size of a marble, balanced in her palm. She withdrew her hand and the orb remained suspended in the air. I drew in a breath at the sight of it hanging there as the moon hangs in the sky. With a flick of her fingers, the orb grew to the size of a basketball. With another flick, she brought forth the image of a busy strip of road lined with shops, walkways full of people moving busily down the path.
It was the same image I’d recalled the previous night in my mind, but again, I couldn’t think of the name of the place. “That…that’s where I was.” I breathed.
Soleil smiled warmly and nodded. “We, your parents and I, would view you each day, often many times a day.”
My father nodded in confirmation. “We have never forgotten you, sweet girl, not for one moment of one day in all these seventeen years.”
I felt a tear escape my eye and nodded my understanding. The anger I’d felt had begun to ebb.
My mother squeezed my hand again, face wet with tears. “There wasn’t much time to decide who to leave you with. We did not know the woman we chose would be so…so…please forgive us, my child.”
I couldn’t remember the woman’s name, but I did know she wasn’t an awful person. My memories of her were fading fast and I knew that parting with her was like parting with an acquaintance, s
omeone that you didn’t really mind, but wouldn’t really miss either. “No, no…she wasn’t a bad person, she just wasn’t, well…a parent.” I said, trying to soothe my parents. The guilt they were carrying hung so heavily in the air I thought it may soon suffocate me.
My mother bit her lip and nodded, then released my hand to pull a handkerchief from a glass box on the table next to her and dabbed her eyes.
Another thought occurred to me. “Why can’t I remember the place I was clearly?”
Soleil stood from the floor, tapped the orb, causing it to return to its original size, and snatched it from the air. Walking away, she took up her place on the opposite couch. “As time passes for you in this realm, your mind will let go of that place. Passing from one realm to the other causes the loss of memories forged in the place you left behind.”
“So…I’m going to forget seventeen years of my life? Like, like it never happened?” Disbelief clouded my mind as I tried to decide just how upset about that I was.
My life hadn’t been the greatest, but it hadn’t been horrid either. And, those were my memories, I didn’t want to lose them. The only way to keep them would be to return to the place I came from. That would mean losing this place and all of the people that came with it. That was phenomenally more disturbing than losing what I’d had before I came here, so I supposed the only thing to do was deal. I would just deal with it and get over it. There didn’t seem to be another option.
“I know it doesn’t make up for what you will lose, but we will make new memories, and by the Maker’s grace, may they be the happiest of your life.” My mom offered, attempting to soften the blow.
“Yeah, okay.” That was about all I could come up with at the moment.
“Do you have any other questions?” My father had risen to his feet and was pacing behind the couch Soleil was seated on.
I looked down to find my fingers working over the mark on my wrist. “Yes.” I wrenched back the left sleeve of my dress. “What in hades is this about?”
My mother answered this question, her words soft and low. “It is a mark of the power that flows in your blood.”
I blinked at her. “Okaaay, so where is yours?”
“I do not have one, dear.” She exposed her wrists to me to provide proof.
I glanced at my father, eyebrows raised in question.
“Nor I.” He said, shoving up his sleeves. He showed me his wrists as well, also devoid of any marks.
“But, you said it was in my blood. Don’t we have the same blood?” I stood and took up pacing as well.
When my mother spoke, her words were slow and deliberate, the way one explains things to a small child. “We do, my dear, but the power that flows through you has never been commanded by your father or me.”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand.”
My father put it more simply. “We cannot do what you can, sweet girl.”
I huffed out a breath and folded my arms across my chest. “Then how can I? Where did I get this…this ability?”
Soleil stood and glided over the floor toward me, tugging up her sleeve as she came. “From me.”
The same mark was etched into the skin of her left wrist.
Well, that was unexpected.
“Right, okay. How exactly?” I stared into Soleil’s angelic face as I awaited her answer.
A subtle smile crossed her lips at my reaction. “My only son married the youngest daughter of King Erik Connolly. Your father descends directly from that bloodline, as do you. So you see, it is in your blood to be quite a powerful enchantress. What you have been able to do is but a fraction of what you could be capable of.”
I thought back to when I’d watched the blade halt mid-air during the battle by the orchard. “Did I, did I stop that blade? I mean, that was me?”
Soleil nodded.
Again, very much unexpected.
“But, the portal, you did that?”
Soleil’s mouth quirked up at one corner as she shook her head. “That was you as well.”
Holy rolling armadillos.
“But…no.” I pivoted toward my mother. “I heard your voice.” I whispered.
Fresh tears welled in my mom’s eyes. “Yes, we were watching you.”
Soleil chimed in. “When you pass into the other realm, it leaves a mark, if you will. I have the ability to detect when someone crosses over and since I was not responsible for it, I knew it must be the work of Dark magic. It is a rare talent to breach the boundaries between realms, so when I felt it, I immediately found you with the viewing sphere.”
My mother nodded in affirmation. “Soleil was about to open a portal for you, and then you did it all on your own.” She smiled proudly at me. “We knew you couldn’t understand what you had done, so I called to you, in hopes of coaxing you through the portal.”
I collapsed onto the couch in a heap, rubbing my temples as I tried to process what I had been told.
“How did I do that?” I leaned back against the cushions and stared at Soleil.
“Not sure, really. I have never seen power manifest so effortlessly for anyone. Not even myself.” She shrugged, like it wasn’t really that big of a deal.
I looked to my father. “And you can’t do these things?”
He walked closer and propped himself on the arm of the couch, shaking his head. “No, sweet girl. Men are not affected by this particular ability.” He gestured to Soleil and then me.
“So, all the women can do this?” I realized I had the fabric of my dressed clenched between my fingers.
My mother spoke up. “You are the first female descendent in over two hundred years.”
“Oh.” I looked at each of their faces, ending with Soleil. “Wait, are you…so you’re like immortal?”
Soleil scoffed. “Hardly. I simply know a few tricks to slow the work of age.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “Considerably.” She amended.
“And what about your family? Are they…old too?” I asked.
For the first time, I saw sadness in her honey eyes. “No. I tried, but that particular magic was not effective on others. You may wonder why I chose to outlive them, and for that I can only say I felt it was my duty, I believed I was needed. The gifts we have are rare, but soon my time will come.” This last revelation seemed to make her happy.
“I’m sorry.” I offered quietly.
Soleil shook her head, golden tendrils drifting around her face with the movement. “Do not be sorry for me, I will see them again soon.”
I nodded and smiled weakly, then looked out the window. “It’s really nice out.” I blurted, desperate to talk about something normal.
My father chuckled and my mother looked relieved.
Soleil smiled and nodded and then, she threw some dust at me.
“What the…what’d you do that for?” I sputtered as I clamped my eyes closed against the particles.
Soleil’s voice came from further away than I anticipated. “I cast a protection spell over you, child.”
“I would’ve been alright with a little warning.” I coughed and opened my eyes to see Soleil reaching for the door.
She threw a grin over her shoulder and laughed. “Yes, but I do enjoy the look on people’s faces when I do it that way.” One look at my shocked expression and she was laughing heartily again.
She disappeared through the doorway and I swung my head around to look at my father.
He shrugged and shook his head. “She is a unique soul.”
My mother stood from the couch and made her way to me, a strange smile on her face. “Dear heart, in honor of your return, we have decided to throw a ball in two day’s time!”
Oh, trouble trouble.
“Really?” A ball was an exciting and terrifying prospect.
“Yes, what do you think?” She asked enthusiastically.
I thought about it and it was kind of the dream, w
asn’t it? Only, the dream didn’t include me feeling torn between two undeniably hypnotizing men. And it positively did not include one of said men being betrothed to a ridiculously gorgeous and aggravating girl.
Yeah, what could possibly go wrong?
Lots.
I put on my bravest front and smiled as earnestly as I could. “Sounds like it could be an unforgettable night.”