Fantastical (Fantasyland #3)(23)
“It’s gorgeous,” I breathed.
“It’s a village, Cora,” Tor informed me and I twisted quickly to look at him.
“No, honey, it’s gorgeous,” I whispered, watched him blink, slowly again, then I turned back in order not to miss anything.
We made it to the edge of the village and even though night had fallen, people were wandering the side of the road.
“Heya,” I said on a smile when a man looked up at us and started.
“Well, uh… hullo there,” he replied hesitantly as we trotted past.
“Cora,” Tor said low.
“Yep,” I replied then a woman lifted her head, looked at us and she started too but I caught her eyes and called, “Hello!” and capped it with a wave.
I turned, looked around Tor’s body and kept waving until I saw her lift a hand and a tentative smile hit her face.
“I’m seeing we need to make a deal,” he remarked.
I straightened and looked up at him. “A deal?”
“You need to be smart in the village. None of your games.”
I stared at him and I felt my light heart drop a notch.
“My games?”
“You’re Cora Hawthorne here.”
“Who’s that?” I asked.
“You,” he answered.
“I’m Cora Goode,” I told him.
“Yes, love, you were until you took my name.”
Oh. Right.
And his last name was Hawthorne. Noctorno Hawthorne. All together that was a pretty badass name.
“So, what I’m saying is, you’re Cora Goode Hawthorne here,” he went on.
“Well, I’m kind of Cora Goode, um… Hawthorne everywhere.”
“No,” his face went ultra serious, “you’re this world’s Cora Goode Hawthorne.”
My heart started to feel heavy.
“What?” I whispered.
“I think you understand me.”
“These people know me?”
“You’re Cora Hawthorne,” he explained without explaining.
“You mean,” I moved closer to him and whispered, “they know I’m a bitch?”
“No,” he answered.
Oh man!
My heart skipped.
“You mean they know I started the curse?” I breathed.
He sighed in a way that indicated he was seeking patience and he replied, “No, Cora, they know you’re a Hawthorne.”
He pulled back on the reins, Salem stopped but I felt my brows draw together.
“What does that mean?” I asked but he didn’t answer.
He swung his leg around, dismounted with practiced ease then his hands spanned my waist and he pulled me down and set me between him and Salem.
Close between him and Salem.
Then he tipped his chin down, caught my eyes in the bright lights of the gaily lit lanterns and muttered, “Right, your game.”
My previously light heart sunk like a rock.
I wasn’t convincing him.
Damn.
“Tor,” I whispered but said no more when his big hand came up and curled warm around my neck.
“It means, love, that you’re mine and what’s mine is part of me and I’m royalty.”
My body jolted and my voice was a muted shriek when I cried, “What?”
“Quiet,” he clipped, not releasing my eyes.
I got up to my toes and whispered, “You’re royalty?”
“Yes.”
“Royalty,” I repeated, just to confirm.
“Yes,” he forced out through his teeth.
“Honest to God, blue blood royalty?” I kept at it, not taking it in.
His brows shot together as he replied, “Gods, woman, my blood’s red just like yours.”
“You know what I mean,” I returned on a hiss, going further up on my toes and my fingers curling into his shirt to keep myself from toppling over at my precarious position and at the shock of his news.
“No, I don’t.”
Shit. They didn’t have the term blue blood here either.
All right. Moving on.
“What are you? A baron? A duke?”
“A prince.”
A prince!
“What?” I shouted.
His fingers at my neck squeezed and his face got to within an inch from mine. “Woman, quiet.”
“What?” I whispered.
“Can we not do this?”
“You’re a prince?”
He looked over my head. “I see we’re going to do this.”
I shook my head in shock and disbelief while chanting, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” over and over again.
“Cora.”
“Oh my God.”
“Cora.”
“Oh my God!”
“Cora,” he clipped, “stop saying that or I’ll kiss you quiet.”
I snapped my mouth shut.
“Get hold of yourself,” he ordered.
I stared up at him. Then I asked, “Your father is the king?”
“Yes, love, that’s what being a prince means,” he answered with waning patience.
“Holy crap,” I whispered.
“Cora –”