Lucky Charm (Reverse Fairytales Book 2)(17)
He kissed my cheek and unlocked the door. Without another word, he was gone. The weight of Cynder’s words was etched into my brain, and the feel of his lips would stay burned on my own for a long time to come.
The Ball
I couldn’t sleep after Cynder left. I just lay on the bed, going over everything over and over again in my mind. I’d made a conscious decision to spend my life with Luca, and in my head, I’d done it for all the right reasons, so why did I feel so lost and wretched? In the end, I decided to get up and speak to Seraphia. If I was going to make Silverwood a stronger, more tolerant kingdom, I was going to need some help.
I knocked on her bedroom door. Tomas answered. A tall reedy man, he clearly took after his mother just as Luca had, although, unlike his brother, his hair was thinning slightly in places and he didn’t quite have the same sex appeal. He seemed surprised to see me there. He was already in his royal attire for the ball and looked thoroughly harassed. I suppressed the urge to straighten his tie that looked like it had been put on in a rush and was now hanging at least twenty degrees to the left of where it should have been.
“I’m here to see Seraphia if she’s available.”
“Thank goodness you are here. She can’t decide what to wear, and she keeps asking me as if I know what color shoes match a scarlet dress like I’m supposed to know.”
I almost laughed at his expression. He looked hopelessly lost.
“I’ll help her. Why don’t you go and see if Luca wants some company?”
“Brilliant idea.”
He strode past me, seemingly relieved not to have to talk about clothes anymore. I wandered into the royal chambers to find Seraphia looking exasperated on the bed, surrounded by dresses and shoes and jewelry.
“Charmaine! I’m so glad you are here. Does this go with this?” She held up a pair of red velvet shoes and a red dress.
“I’m no expert on fashion. I usually have someone else to dress me,” I replied. “But the shoes are a different shade of red.”
“You are right. I didn’t want to wear the red in the first place, but Tomas said he liked it. I don’t know why I get myself into such a fluster over these events.”
She could have worn a paper bag and still looked stunningly beautiful. With her long dark hair and pretty face, it didn’t really matter what she wore. I picked up a pretty pale pink dress and held it up.
“This is nice. It would go with those shoes,” I said, pointing to a pair on the floor.
“Great idea. That was my first choice too.” She took the dress from me and pulled her robe off, quickly throwing the pink gown over her perfect body. She looked adorable and sexy at the same time. They were not two words I’d usually put together in the same sentence, but she somehow managed it. I wondered for a second how easy life would be if I was as effortlessly beautiful as she was.
“How are you feeling now? Did you have a nice nap?” she asked, looking at me through her reflection in the mirror.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I replied honestly, although I didn’t tell her the reason why. My stomach was wound up so tight that physical pain was shooting through my body.
“Don’t let the media people get to you. There are always going to be haters. When I first started dating Tomas, there was an uproar. It was in all the papers and magazines how I was going to try and take over the kingdom. As if. I can hardly pick the right dress to wear for a ball.”
“I didn’t realize there was anti-Magi prejudice here as well.”
“There isn’t so much anymore, but there used to be. It was never as bad as it is in Silverwood. There were never laws here to prevent the Magi doing the same things as anyone else, but a lot of people didn’t like it.”
“You said Luca didn’t like it,” I said, remembering what she’d told me last night. It was hard to imagine Luca not caring about the Magi. He was as passionate as I was about their rights.
“Did I say that?” She asked, blushing. “I guess I had a little too much to drink. When I first started dating Tomas, he really hated me because of what I was. I think he was jealous of Tomas too, the fact that Tomas was going to get the throne because he was the elder son.”
I remembered Luca telling me he envied his brother’s chance to rule a kingdom. Seraphia turned round to speak to me rather than my reflection.
“I think he was mad that a Mage would help rule Thalia one day,” she continued. “I remember the arguments he had with Tomas, with Theron and Sarina. It took him a few years to come round to the idea, but then early last year things began to change. I don’t know what prompted it, but he came to me to apologize. He asked what he could do to help with Magi rights. Since then, he’s really turned over a new leaf. It’s been great watching how interested he’s been in the Magi, even more so since being with you. You are having a great effect on him. Other people haven’t been so nice, but I guess that’s true for any princess. It’s a lot better now than it was a few years ago.”
She turned back to her mirror and started to apply her makeup.
“How did you get over that?”
“Theron and Sarina welcomed me with open arms and have always been on my side. They let me have free rein talking about my life as a Mage to the media. With their backing, I set up support groups, mixers and promoted Magi rights whenever I could. I was lucky that the people ignored the press and came to love me. The press had to follow suit if they wanted to sell their papers. There are still some that don’t like the Magi, but you can’t change everyone’s mind.”