Back to Thalia

Three concerned faces gazed down at me as I came around. Jeannie was waving the paper up and down as a fan to try to cool me.

I stood up quickly.

“I think you should sit down,” Alan said, grabbing a chair for me.

I propped myself up on the edge of the table. I didn’t want to pass out again. “I’m sorry. I appreciate your help, but we can’t stay here tonight.”

Cynder gave me a curious look while Jeannie looked stricken.

“Is it something we’ve done?”

“No,” I assured her. I have something I need to do.

Cynder shook his head, guessing what I was going to say. “Charm, what can we do? The article doesn’t say where they are being held. We can’t go back into the capital. Mr. Copper has warned us against it twice now. If we try, we’ll only end up with our own death sentence.”

“You know exactly where they are being held,” I replied, thinking of the damp basement of Luca’s house, “but that’s not where I want to go.”

“Where then?” he asked, looking perplexed.

“I want to go to Thalia. I need to see the king and queen. It’s about time they knew the truth about their son.”

Cynder closed his eyes. I could see he was trying to think of a way to talk me out of it. To my surprise, he didn’t. “Yes. We should go.”

It was not what I was expecting him to say at all. “We should?”

“I know we are hardly the king and queen’s favorite people at the moment, but we have a history with them, you as their daughter-in-law and me as a member of staff. Even more importantly, they’ll be worried about Seraphia. We have to speak to them. The date for the execution has been set for the day after the royal wedding. It’s a weird kind of honeymoon, but there you go. I’m not going tonight though. We’ve barely eaten in days, and we are both exhausted. Please let’s stay here tonight and get some rest. We can make a real plan rather than setting off in the middle of the night. Crossing the border into Thalia isn’t going to be easy.”

I saw Jeannie nodding her head enthusiastically beside him.

“Actually, I can help you there,” said Alan. “I go to a market across the border every Saturday. Luca has started letting the farmers cross the borders again since the Charm Chronicle appeared. It’s his way of making up for not letting us sell things in town. I think he’s trying to win back some approval.”

I nodded. One more night wouldn’t make much of a difference. The execution was still a number of weeks away.

Jeannie made us a magnificent meal which we followed with even more cookies and warm milk. I’d not eaten a decent meal in weeks, and Jeannie was an exceptional cook.

After dinner, we were shown to a lovely room with a view of the city in the distance. The bright lights twinkled, reminding me that all the people I loved were now within the capital’s limits. If only I could go and see them. They were so close and yet so far.

I took a long, hot bath, another luxury I’d been deprived of in the previous weeks and wrapped a white cotton robe that Jeannie had lent me around myself.

I watched the lights imagining how my family and friends were getting on half in the main police station cells and the other half hidden below Luca’s huge house.

A pair of warm arms enveloped me from behind. “They are going to be ok.”

“Hmm?” I didn’t share his optimism.

“We’ll get them out. I know it. We’ll get them all out.”

I turned and looked into his beautiful brown eyes. I’d seen him look out of so many different colored eyes in the past few weeks thanks to magic, but his real eyes were my favorite. They held more truth than the ones he conjured up to mask himself. I could see forever in them.

I twirled a lock of his curly hair around my finger before letting it fall. He responded by picking me up and taking me to the bed.

Exhaustion overcame me. In all my life I didn’t think I’d ever felt so utterly tired and yet when he kissed me, I fought the urgency of sleep and kissed him back.

His lips were warm, soothing my weary soul. I felt my body responding to his touch, waking up, coming alive. He kissed down my neck, sending rivers of pleasure through me and producing goosebumps down my arm. If only this moment could last forever—this moment of perfection in a world of madness.

I murmured lightly, enjoying the feelings Cynder brought to me. Everything always felt new when I was with him.

“I love you, my Lucky Charm,” he said, pulling himself back up to face me. He stroked my face. His eyes glistened as he looked at me. Whatever he was thinking eluded me, but whatever it was, it was filled with emotion. I’d never seen him quite like this. It made me feel protective as though I held his heart in my hands the way he held mine.

“I love you too,” I replied giving him a small smile. It could have been weird or awkward, us proclaiming our love for one another in a warm bed in the safety of a beautiful house, but it only felt right.

“Charm, when this is all over...will you marry me?”

My heart jumped as I took in his words. I’d been engaged twice before, but this was the first time I’d been proposed to. I couldn’t speak with the emotion I felt. Getting the words out was impossible, but he understood completely when I nodded. He took me in his arms and held me tightly, both of us giving into tears. When he placed his head on the pillow beside me, I nodded my answer—Yes! I knew that I’d never have a night without him ever again.

The next morning, Jeannie must have wondered how my mood had changed so completely overnight, but she didn’t ask questions as she served us a huge cooked breakfast.

Three perfectly gorgeous children sat staring at me as I ate. Cynder pulled faces at them to amuse them. Every so often one of them would break into fits of giggles.

“They are awfully good,” I remarked to Jeannie as she took her place at the table.

“They’ve been forbidden to ask you any questions about being a queen,” she replied. “Haven’t you?”

Three cute blond heads nodded in unison.

“Nearly ready!” cried Alan, coming through the door and kissing his wife, then his three children’s heads, before grabbing a piece of bacon from the youngest’s plate.

Cynder and I gobbled down our breakfasts, keen to be off. I hugged Jeannie and promised to visit again, hopefully, in better times.

Outside the front of the house was a wagon filled with produce. I hopped up to the front, followed by Cynder and Alan who took the reins of the three horses. Three because we needed to take ours to get from the market to the palace. Jeannie and the three children waved us off as we headed out into the country lane. It wouldn’t take much time to get to the border, but it was quite a journey on the other side. I’d done it a couple of times before and wasn’t particularly looking forward to it.

About a mile away from the border, Alan stopped the wagon. He’d piled boxes of fruit, vegetables, and meat (all grown on his farm) in boxes, leaving a small space for Cynder and me to crawl under. It was a tight squeeze, especially when he lifted another box on top to cover us, but it was the only way we’d get past the border guards undetected.

I felt each bump in the road as we meandered up the dirt track to the border. My bones physically ached, and my fingers and toes were beginning to go numb in the cramped space. It seemed to take an age to get to the border, but really it was no more than fifteen minutes. I heard the sharp voice of the border guard demanding to see a permit to cross.

“I cross here every Saturday,” stated Alan.

“You know the rules,” replied the border agent gruffly.

I crossed my fingers and prayed that Alan had remembered whatever permit was needed these days to cross. I couldn’t stay cramped up in the tiny space much longer.

He must have shown the permit because the wheels began to turn on the wagon once again. Ten minutes later, Alan lifted the box from above us enabling us to stretch out.

“I think my feet are going to drop off,” I exclaimed as I jumped down from the wagon.

Alan grinned at me as I hopped about, trying to get the blood flowing to my legs again. “This is where we part ways. I wish you both the best of luck, and if you ever need somewhere to stay again, you know where we are.”

I gave him a hug as Cynder unhooked our horse from the wagon. Hopefully, the border guard wouldn’t notice he had fewer horses going back than coming in.

Having recharged his magic thanks to a good night’s sleep and a great breakfast, Cynder was able to pick up his wand and, once again, change our appearance. He lightened his hair and darkened mine to a similar auburn hue.

“If anyone asks, we are brother and sister, heading to the Thalian capital for a vacation.”

The journey was even rougher than I’d remembered. I’d made this particular journey once before with Luca. Back then, we’d had a carriage to shield us from the weather. Now, at the beginning of November and with nothing to shield us, we plodded along at an excruciatingly slow rate. I insisted we stop at inns along the way, both to rest and enable us to be ourselves each evening. Cynder only agreed when I pointed out that the horse needed to rest too. It also gave us the opportunity to eat warm meals – sorely needed after a day in the cold.

Three days later, we finally arrived in the capital. The imposing Thalian castle with its red slate-topped turrets stood magnificent as always. A thrill ran through me, as I remembered the happy time I’d spent here, spoiled only by Pittser trying to kill me.

I’d left on horseback behind Cynder, just as I was arriving today.

With no way to contact the royal family in advance, we had no choice but to speak to the guard on the front gate and ask to be let in. It was only when Cynder waved his wand in front of my face to make my own features reappear, that the guard took notice. He opened the wrought iron gates quickly, understanding my urgency, and led us under the portcullis into the central courtyard.

My heart hammered in double time as he walked up the stone steps to speak with a guard at the door. The last time I’d come here, I’d been greeted by Queen Sarina herself. Now, I was forced to wait until the door guard went to fetch her. I had no way of knowing how the queen, or the king for that matter, would react to me being here. For all they knew, I was dead, killed by Cynder. My pulse rose as the minutes ticked by, and no one appeared.

The original guard was now waiting by our sides, probably on the order of the door guard. I could understand why everyone was suspicious. I’d be suspicious too if a dead person turned up at my door with her murderer in tow.

A curtain twitched, and I caught Sarina peeping out. It was only for the briefest of seconds, but it was enough for me to catch the expression of shock on her face.

A minute later the door guard emerged from the palace and nodded at the gate guard. As Cynder and I climbed the stone stairs to the Castle’s main door, the door guard held up his sword to us. Inside a second guard greeted us in the same way. Fear ran through me as I wondered if we’d made a terrible mistake. The two guards led us to a room I’d not seen before. It was smaller and less grand than the rest of the castle, but it was cozier. To one side was a beautiful chaise lounge covered in a royal red fabric and to the other was a mahogany desk. Sitting behind the desk was an ashen-faced queen.

“Your Majesty,” I curtsied. Cynder followed suit.

“Charmaine?” she asked, bringing her hand up to her mouth. “Is it really you?”

I nodded and gave her a shy smile.

Her eyes widened. “I can’t believe it. I’m in shock. I thought...”

“It is me. I’m alive.”

She gasped, uncertain that what she was seeing was real. “It can’t be!”

“I assure you it is,” replied Cynder.

For the first time, she saw who it was I was traveling with. Her eyes, already wide with the sight of me, widened even more at the sight of Cynder.

Her already white face paled even more.

“He...he...” she stammered, her beautiful features contorted in fear. She found her voice and shouted. “Guards!”