Lucky Charm (Reverse Fairytales Book 2)(47)
“You let him order this?” I asked, thinking of the cost. The shoes alone must have been worth thousands.
“He paid for it himself.”
“He paid for this?”
Xavi smiled. “If you look closely, they aren’t real diamonds. It cost a pretty penny, but nowhere near what you are thinking. Now normally, I wouldn’t let you be seen dead in fake diamonds, but it is a pretty dress, and the poor boy was so insistent. I must insist that you wear these real diamond earrings to make up for it.”
She handed me a pair of pear drop diamond earrings. Alezis swept my hair back from my face so the diamonds would show and the make-up girls did wonders with my face. I looked so much more sultry than I had ever done before with the deep purple eyeshadow they’d picked. As I twirled around in front of the mirror, I felt more than a little naughty. If anyone saw me, they couldn’t say I wasn’t dressed in a proper fashion. The dress reached down to the floor after all, but there was something decadent and sexy about it. The fact that it was the color of the Magi didn’t get past me either. Xavi handed me a long purple cloak with a hood. “He said you might want to wear this too.”
I looked down at my watch and realized it was half past six already. I kissed Xavi and thanked the others before taking off awkwardly down the palace corridor.
At the bottom of the stairs was Luca. I suspected he’d been waiting for me for a while, desperate to know what I had in mind for my date with Cynder. His eyes nearly popped out of his head as he took in my sultry makeup. Thank goodness, I’d already put on the cloak, and he couldn’t see what was underneath. The crystals on the bodice part of the dress were sewn onto see-through material, and it was only the delicate positioning of the crystals that hid everything. This was not a dress you could wear a bra underneath.
“You look nice,” He managed to get out. I felt bad for him. I made a mental note to dress up for my date with him next week.
“I’m having dinner out. I’ll be back before midnight, I promise.” I kissed him on the cheek, leaving a perfect print of my lips in the dark shade.
He looked like he was about to say something but then a voice behind me startled the both of us.
It was Daniel. Inexplicably, he was carrying a pumpkin and a cage of mice.
“Could you come and help me with something please, Charmaine?”
I turned to Luca and shrugged. Giving him another kiss, I followed Daniel out of the main entrance to the corridor that would lead us to the back part of the palace.
“Be home by midnight!” I heard Luca call as the door shut behind us.
“What’s going on?” I asked as the pumpkin was thrust into my hands. “It’s not Halloween yet,” I pointed out.
“You’ll see,” said Daniel, taking me to the back door. This was the entrance the staff used to come in and out of the palace.
I glanced down at my watch again. It was a quarter to seven. “I’m sorry, Daniel. I’d like to help you, but it’s going to have to wait. I’m going out with Cynder, and I’m going to be late.”
“Could you put that pumpkin down just there at the bottom of the stairs?”
I looked down to where he was pointing. The long gravel driveway stretched right down to the bottom of the garden to the back entrance. The same entrance I’d sneaked out of so many times last year. I walked slowly down the steps, careful not to trip over my dress in my heels and put the pumpkin down.
Raising my eyebrow, I turned to Daniel.
“This ok?”
“Perfect!” He opened the cage and let the mice run free.
I was going to be late, but something about what he was doing fascinated me so much that I decided to hang around for a couple of more minutes to see what it was.
He pulled out a wand and pointed it at the mice. In a flash, they started to grow. The pumpkin, caught in the blast, did the same. Within a minute, in front of me stood a gleaming white carriage and six white horses. Daniel waved his wand again, and the horses became tethered to the carriage. Daniel held out his hand to help me up the step.
“This is for me?” I asked, astonished. Cynder had told me that Daniel was a Mage, but until now, he’d kept his powers to himself. It was strange to see him using them, especially in such a way.
“Milady, your carriage awaits.”
I grinned at his formality.
He helped me into the carriage, which had orange upholstery and smelled faintly of pumpkin. It clashed horribly with my purple dress, but anything was better than trying to navigate the gravel path in the shoes I was wearing. A slight movement of the carriage told me that Daniel had boarded the carriage at the front, and a moment later we were off. I marveled at the clippety-clop sound coming from the hooves of the horses or mice or whatever they were. Daniel had done an amazing job. There was no doubt in my mind that Cynder had put him up to this. Cynder had been planning this date ever since he got here, nearly a week before. He must have in order to have ordered the dress in time. Why was he doing this for me when he had a wife back home wherever that was?
The journey was a short one, leaving me little time to wonder where his wife was now. As far as I was aware, she wasn’t working at the Castle in Thalia. Maybe they had separated long ago which would explain why I’d never seen or heard of her. It didn’t explain why he’d not told me about her, though.
I couldn’t decide whether I was more sad or angry with Cynder, or whether I was mistaking either of those emotions for excitement. I hated myself for thinking it, but I was excited about our date, even though I knew it was going to end almost as soon as it had begun.