After the Wedding

“Charm...Charm?”

I heard his voice calling me. Either Cynder and I were both dead, or we were both alive. I didn’t actually care either way as long as we were together.

“Cynder?” I whispered his name through the blackness.

“Wake up.”

I opened my eyes. White light almost blinded me. I blinked a few times as my eyes got accustomed to the brightness of the room. It was painted all white and was unfamiliar to me. Cynder looked down at me. I could see him so clearly. His beautiful brown eyes, the curls growing way too long. A smile. We were alive after all.

“Cynder, where am I?” The last thing I remembered was Luca laughing as I fell to the ground.

Cynder pulled me up into a sitting position. As I looked around, I could see that I’d been wrong about the room. It wasn’t all white. The ceiling and walls were, but hundreds of flowers of every color filled the room. My eyes settled on one bunch in particular.

“The tulips,” I said looking at a golden vase filled with the most beautiful flowers I’d ever seen.

“A gift from King Theron and Queen Sarina. They sent a card too. They hope to visit you as soon as you are well enough to take visitors. If you look, there’s another tulip arrangement there from Tomas and Seraphia. You can tell Seraphia had something to do with them because they keep changing color.”

“What happened, Cynder?”

He picked up my hand. I could see tears in the corners of his eyes. “You got shot. The doctors weren’t sure if you were going to make it, but the best surgeon in the kingdom operated on you. You’ve been in a coma for three weeks.”

“Three weeks?” I asked, startled.

“You are going to be fine. The operation went really well. You just need to rest. I should go and tell a nurse that you’ve woken up.”

He stood as if to leave, but I wouldn’t let go of his hand.

“What happened after I was shot?”

Cynder looked directly at me. I could see he was wavering between telling me what I wanted to know and getting help.

“Please,” I whispered. “I have to know.”

When Luca shot you on live TV, everyone saw it. It was shown on the big screens outside the cathedral, not to mention in the homes of everyone in Silverwood and the surrounding kingdoms.

I think people were in shock. No one knew you were alive. Almost the second you fell, the cathedral filled with people. All those that had been watching the wedding outside were horrified. The cathedral was flooded with people. They were fighting for you, Charmaine.”

“They were fighting for Silverwood,” I smiled. “What happened to Luca?”

He was surrounded by a thousand people in no time. Even with his guards shooting, they were hopelessly outnumbered. Chief Inspector Copper was able to go in there and arrest him. You should have heard the people as he was led outside in handcuffs. Hundreds of thousands of them cheered. It was amazing. I just about heard it as we put you into a carriage to bring you here. We are at the hospital. If you look outside now, you’ll see thousands of well-wishers, just waiting to see if you are ok. They’ve been camped out there for three weeks.”

I smiled at the thought of it, but I could see in Cynder’s face that he had bad news. My mind flashed to the bodies of Daniel and Dean.

“Daniel!” I sat up away from my pillows.

“Daniel is fine. He had the room next to this, but Dean took him home a couple of weeks ago.”

“Dean is ok too? I thought they were dead. I saw their bodies.”

Cynder sighed. “I’m not going to lie to you, Charm. There were a lot of casualties—over a hundred on both sides. The hospital here is full of people who are injured. A lot of Luca’s men have been arrested; some have fled.”

I closed my eyes. So many lives had been lost. Silverwood had hit rock bottom and yet there was hope in the story. The thousands of people outside attested to that.

“Maybe you should get the nurse now,” I said. My eyes were heavy and it was a lot to take in.

“There’s just one more thing, Charm.”

I could hear it in his voice. Whatever he was about to tell me, this was the bad news.

“Hmm?”

“Luca did put the crown on a split second before you went on air. He is officially the king of Silverwood.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Having the title of Queen was not something I’d ever really wanted, but with him being the king, he was still entitled to murder all those people. My eyes widened as I realized the consequences. The mass execution was supposed to be two days after the wedding. That was three weeks ago.

A sharp pain tore through my side as I pulled in a deep breath.

“It’s not happened yet,” said Cynder quickly, reading my mind. “But it could happen.”

“Could? It will happen. I’m only surprised he’s not done it yet. Why has he waited so long?”

“Because he doesn’t know he’s the king yet. We’ve told him that it was so close that we’ve had to review the footage. It’s taking a long time.”

Cynder’s face broke into a grin. I wanted to smile along with him, but I couldn’t. The consequences of this were massive. Luca had been right about one thing. If he was king, he was still in charge of the police. He’d have complete control. Once he got out, he’d not only kill all those that he’d already planned to, but also all the officers working at the police station.

“What are we going to do?”

Cynder shook his head. “We don’t have to do anything. Jason Copper is now the chief inspector again. The man Luca hired to replace him died in the cathedral. Inspector Copper has told his staff to hold Luca until they get confirmation that he’s king.”

“But you have confirmation,” I argued.

“Yes,” replied Cynder, his face beaming. “but they don’t know that.”

I closed my eyes. It was too much to take in. Officially, Luca was now the ruler of Silverwood, and yet, thousands of people were cheering for me outside my hospital window. It had been the people of Silverwood that had come to my rescue, both Magi and non-Magi alike. If Luca was told the truth, a death sentence would hang over all of our heads, but if he wasn’t, I’d be gaining back the monarchy by deceit. I mulled over the two options as Cynder brought the nurse to check me over.

By that night the dilemma was still taking over my thoughts. It would be so easy to leave Luca where he was. He certainly deserved no better, but if anyone ever found out what I’d done, I’d be taking his place in the cells.

I could now hear the people outside. They were singing the national anthem. It brought a smile to my lips, but it was a sad smile. I wanted to do what was best for them. It was all I ever wanted.

The next morning, I had an unexpected visitor before official visiting times.

“My darling!” Jenny rushed over to me and handed me a bacon sandwich. “I was going to bring you flowers, but Cynder insisted I bring you this instead. I can see why now”

I took the sandwich gratefully. It was possibly the most delicious thing I’d tasted in all my life. Much better than the hospital breakfast of cereal and toast I’d eaten earlier.

“What’s wrong?” Jenny asked. I’d had a smile on my face since the second she stepped through the door. She’d always known me so well. Better than I did myself most of the time.

I explained my dilemma. When I’d finished, she crossed her arms and huffed.

“He deserves to rot in that jail cell forever. I can’t believe you are even considering letting him know the truth. You should see how the people are coming together since he’s been in the cell. People are inviting the Magi into their homes. People who up until a few weeks ago were self-proclaimed haters of the Magi are now putting on fundraisers to build them homes.”

I sighed. “I understand that putting him back on the throne is madness, and yet being the queen under false pretenses feels wrong. I’ll be breaking a law of my own kingdom.”

“Charmaine, I’ve known you since you were a baby and I’ve brought you up to be honest. If I’d have known this was going to happen, I’d have brought you up to be a liar and a cheat.”

I snorted and gave her a playful swipe. “No, you wouldn’t.”

“Ok, no, I wouldn’t, but look at it this way. You’ve finally gotten what you always wanted for Silverwood. Everyone is coming together, and they are all on your side. They need you now more than ever. Do you really want to spoil that for the sake of half a second?”

“Is that all it was? Half a second?”

“Half a second. If you’d have shown yourself on camera just a fraction earlier, you wouldn’t even have to worry about this.”

I knew that she was right and yet the whole thing weighed heavily on my mind. Luca had hardly played fair from the start, but this wasn’t a game, and I wasn’t in the habit of playing.

“Jenny, can you get me the footage from the day of the wedding? I want to see for myself.”

Jenny looked uncertain. “I don’t think it would be a good idea to relive it, you’re still not well.”

I stared at her heavily. “I want to see it. Please go to the TV station and ask for it. All of it. I want a TV brought into my room so I can watch it.”

Jenny clucked and fussed around, but eventually, had to agree. She knew if she didn’t get it for me, someone else would.

“Good morning.”

Cynder came through the door. As it had been the day before, his expression was dour.

“What’s happened?” I asked. Cynder never looked like that unless he had reason to. He pulled up a chair and sat next to Jenny.

“You remember what I told you yesterday? Chief Inspector Copper has just told me that tomorrow is the last day we can hold Luca. By law, we either have to release him or charge him. He’s going to be charged with attempted murder whether he is king or not, but if he is the king, he can change the laws as he sees fit. He’s already told the chief that he intends to change the law over murder and attempted murder. When he finds out he’s king, he intends to make it legal.”

I closed my eyes. How could he legalize murder? “I need to go and see him.”

Both Cynder and Jenny acted exactly as I expected them to act with such a proclamation.

“No!” they both shouted at once.

“You are not going to see him. What do you think you’ll accomplish?” asked Cynder.

“You are too sick to leave the hospital,” added Jenny.

There was no point arguing with either of them. They were both as pig-headed and stubborn as I was. I just wasn’t going to give them any choice in the matter.

When the footage from the cameras came that night, I sat up in bed to watch it. Seeing Luca cackling like a maniac all over again and knowing I was going to see him pull out a gun and shoot me made me feel uncomfortable, but I made myself sit through the whole thing. I watched the footage of Luca first, following it with the footage of me jumping in front of the camera. Jenny was right. Luca had forcefully taken the crown from the priest and jammed it on his head just a fraction of a second before I appeared onscreen. If only I’d have run quicker, or not stopped to help Theron, Sarina, and the others, this nightmare would be over now. But it wasn’t. The proof was there onscreen in front of me. Luca really was the king, and there was nothing I could do about it.