Brielle lifted her head towards where Luci lurked, and for a moment, she wondered if she knew she was there. If she sensed her. It felt like the precipice of something that would change the trajectory of their lives. Something they wouldn’t be able to take back.
“I should tell you that while I am truly flattered and grateful for your proposal, I can’t-.”
“Before you reject my proposal, I wonder if you might be gracious enough to listen to my story. If, after, you still don’t want to marry me, I will respect that. I’ll leave and never darken your doorstep again and do my best to put last night and how you felt next to me out of my mind forever.”
Luci swallowed the lump in her throat and reminded herself he wasn’t talking to her. Those honeyed words were Brielle’s, not hers. After all, was it really a connection if he couldn’t tell he was giving his words to another woman? Everything looks different in the light of day once the spark and glow of midnight dances fade.
“I will hear what you have to say,” Brielle said, folding her hands together.
Maybe Luci imagined the way his face fell; maybe it was a hope that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.
“Every fairytale has a bit of truth in it made more colorful over time,” he began. “You joked that the spoon was my great great great great grandfather’s, but you were more right than you could have known. My ancestor was a brute of a man who felt little respect for the magic around him. There was a time when magic was everywhere. Fairy godmothers roamed freely,granting dreams and guiding their chosen heroes. When my ancestor came to power, he felt like he was owed the magic they possessed. When he demanded it, and they declined, he raged. He sat in his lonely castle and pushed everything and everyone away until they all whispered he was cursed.”
The air hummed around them as if begging for the words to be placed in a tight box and placed under floorboards till it was long forgotten. Luci had the feeling that once he finished his story, everything would change. Nothing would be the same. Yet, she couldn’t help the incessant beating of her heart that begged him to continue.
“So he bided his time and watched from his cold darkness till he learned of a maiden in a nearby village who was blessed by a fairy godmother. In the dead of night, under the protection of a cloak, he stole her away and brought her to his castle, where all he had to do was wait. Her fairy godmother came, and he demanded she make a magnificent castle for him. One filled with the finest furniture and every extravagance imaginable. If she complied, he would spare her heroine. So she did. Her blood, sweat, and magic went into every aspect of the castle. There was some defiance in the magic she laced throughout, but still she created until she was exhausted and her magic was spent.”
Prince Ira took a long breath and tapped his fingers against his thigh, one, two, three. A nervous gesture, she realized. One crack in the perfect prince’s armor. Which meant he wasn’t sure about sharing the rest of the story. Luci tried to mirror the images she saw last night with the words he was speaking, but they still felt like two separate entities.
“By the time she was done, my ancestor had convinced himself he was in love with the heroine and refused to release her. With her magic spent, the fairie godmother could do nothing. Others heard of what the king had done and vowed that they would not stand for the treatment of fairies in this way. He was a selfishman, but also a clever one. In his time with his captives, he had learned much about fairy magic. He lured fairy after fairy with his captives, and one by one, he used them till they were drained of magic. Horrified by what had been done to her race, she lost all the will to fight back. So when the king forced her to create a room of mirrors where he could see his future, she didn’t argue. In fact, she believed it was her fate to serve the man who had taken everything from her. So she created her own prison in a room of mirrors. In one final act of defiance, she showed the king the future of his legacy. That one day a woman would come, the Cinderella, she would embody everything he never could be, and brick by brick she would undo all he had created. Over the ages, this story was passed on down his line as a warning. Beware the Cinderella.”
Yet he had called her that. Had brought her to a room that was a prison. What she had seen-. Oh, light above, the trapped fairy was the one who had shown her those images. A future-. A future. Brielle had been healthy and well in those visions. It wasn’t just a projection of what she wished would be, but what could be. It was like she couldn’t take a full breath, but just as she was prepared to march down there and tell them all it was her, Brielle stood.
“You seek to imprison Lu- me through marriage because you think I am some prophesied doom to your family.” Her voice held a rage Luci had never heard from her before, and she knew it was on her behalf.
Prince Ira’s cheeks flared a crimson red as he stood, holding out a hand as if staying a wild beast.
“No, not at all. I believe that what was once a warning is a promise for a better day. Max- he’s spent a lot of time combing through fairy tales, and once I told him about last night, he agreed that this was a chance to undo a wrong our line created.”
Luci snorted. He was basing all of this on a seven-year-old’s theories. A precocious seven-year-old, but a child nonetheless. Yet, there was no denying what she had seen last night.
“I’ve stood in front of those mirrors all my life, looking for a message, a purpose. Just like all my ancestors before me, there was only silence and my reflection. Until you, you stood in front of those mirrors, and I don’t know what you saw, but whatever it was, I know it was the answer to how to undo a wrong my family is responsible for.”
“You want to bring back magic. Bring back the fairies,” Brielle whispered.
His answering smile was dazzling. All white teeth and perfect stolen moments.
“We could change everything.”
All of Luci felt like she was on fire. Desperate to scream for Brielle not to say another word. To think before she jumped headfirst. Because Luci knew Brielle better than she knew herself and saw the ending before it had even begun.
“If we marry,” she said.
“To protect your honor and provide a reason for us to work together. Once we have brought magic back and undid the wrong, if you aren’t in love with me, I’ll dissolve the engagement and place myself at fault so your reputation remains intact.”
No. This is a terrible idea. A gilded trap.
“Then I accept your proposal,” Brielle said.
The prince smiled.
Luci swore.
Chapter nine
The Prince
Though many a prince has swept a maiden off her feet with charm, beware the prince who values power over their own people.