Midnight in Everwood(89)
Until he whispered, ‘Come, we must return you to your world.’
The fir trees were shadowed, the snow coating their branches gleaming in starlight. Marietta felt as if she and Legat were the sole two occupants in this world of snow and stars. As they walked through the forest, she glanced up at him to find him already gazing down at her. His smile was a beam of moonlight. It tugged at something deep within her.
Though they maintained a careful watch, Marietta had to admit she had never glanced back upon her arrival and so had not the faintest notion what they were searching for.
‘Doors might resemble anything,’ Legat said after a while. ‘And I have heard tell of a thousand worlds, a hundred other lands a mere door away. Yet I have never heard the slightest mention of a world such as the one you hark from. It seems far vaster than anything I know.’
‘What are you attempting to tell me?’ Marietta asked quietly. She hoped it would take all night to locate her door just so she might carve out those extra hours with Legat. Her theory that it ought to be easier to bid him farewell this way was proving refutable.
‘That if this Drosselmeier is as powerful as you say, then it is entirely possible that he created this portal solely for you. It may not endure once you have crossed it once more. And your world may not possess another door back to Everwood.’
‘I know.’
A short while later, they found it.
A vintage armoire stood half-buried in snow. Surrounded by firs with delicate snowflakes pooling in the engraved roses that graced the pale cream wood.
Legat lifted Marietta, wrapping his arms around her as she memorised each touch, every kiss, each word he spoke, knowing that she would never forget them as long as she lived. Never forget him. Even when she had aged beyond recognition, gazing up at a different sky, a different world of constellations mapped out there, she would think of Legat.
‘This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do.’ Marietta leant her forehead against Legat’s.
‘And I.’ Legat held her close, kissed her deeply. His lips tasted of chocolate and snow, salted from her tears. His too, she realised, as his butterscotch eyes burnt into hers. ‘And I shall never stop thinking of you,’ he said. ‘No matter how many kings and queens come and go, how many stars join the skies, my heart shall be yours forevermore.’
She kissed him in response. Bit his lip to hear his soft growl, their kisses raw and wild, salt-flecked and laced with sweet sweet agony.
‘I shall disregard your warning for I know within my soul that one day I shall return to you,’ she said as he cupped her face, watching her mouth. ‘I have witnessed magic once in my world; now that I know it exists I shall find a way. Locate a door and come back to you. I promise.’
‘I do not wish for you to spend the rest of your days thinking of me. Go out there and chase your ambitions, Marietta,’ Legat said huskily. ‘Do not condemn yourself to a half-lived life. Live your life with all the richness of your dreams. Find someone to love. Though when you do care to remember me—’ He withdrew a hand from his jacket. His fingers uncurled to reveal a small mouse, carved from ice. ‘Perhaps you might keep this close. The ice is enchanted to never melt.’
‘I will find you.’ She smiled through her tears, slipping the mouse into her pocket. ‘We have already said goodbye before; what is one more world between us? After all, you said it was in the stars that we meet again.’
He rested his forehead against hers. ‘Then there is something you ought to know,’ he whispered. ‘If you should ever need it to find me once more, my starname is Vivoch. Each time I look up at the stars, I shall fill my thoughts with you.’
She kissed him hard. ‘I love you, Legat,’ she said.
Then she turned and ran through the door before she might hear him tell her not to come back, hear him say goodbye.
Chapter Forty-Four
The darkness felt thick and sticky, as if Everwood wasn’t quite ready to relinquish its hold on her. Marietta passed between layers of worlds and magic she couldn’t begin to fathom. It weighed her down, muddied her head. A faint chiming sounded in the distance and she stumbled towards it, the crunch of snow beneath her threadbare pointe shoes thinning as the chiming grew louder. Nearer.
The grandfather clock.
One final crunch and she felt the unmistakeable shift from snow-laden fir forest to wooden boards, exchanging the scent of snow, pine needles and sugar for wood and well-oiled mechanisms. A low light skulked round the edges of a rectangular panel ahead. Marietta pushed it open. She staggered out onto the elaborate set that Drosselmeier had constructed in the Stelle ballroom.
The grandfather clock was chiming midnight.
As the final chimes sounded, Marietta watched the clock seal itself shut. When she tried to open it once more, her fingers glided over the varnished wood; the panel no longer existed. She took a deep breath and turned to her own world.
The set was a distant memory. On occasions when her thoughts had turned to home during those months locked in the frozen sugar palace, she had conjured images of it decked out in all its festive glory. An exact replica of the last time she’d set eyes upon it. Yet now she was standing here it was odd that it hadn’t changed. Perhaps her parents had busied themselves with other matters. Or Frederick may have insisted on it; he was the most sentimental of the lot of them. Down to the snow globe with its tiny enchanted visions that she’d left perched on the stage, everything was identical. Except her. Her hair was a wild tangled creature, scattered with pine needles, her dress was still torn from her entry to Everwood and her pointe shoes were tattered. All marked her with the twist her life had taken, down to the scars she wore on her skin like a story.