23. Amelie #2
“Amelie, you are my way home.” I smiled at that, he felt like home to me too.
“No, you are how I break my curse.” My smile escaped as fast as it came. “That’s what locked into place during our kiss alongside the mating bond.”
It was my turn to sit in silence. That couldn’t be right, the prophecy was so clear.
It had been told for many, many years that the Prince and the Princess would save each other.
The dreams I had for so long, Ethel explained them.
She told me that my mother’s bloodline held an abundance of magic, unable to be learned, only awakened.
My dreams though, that was a Bloch trait.
The way God watched over us and the Witches fated us, Bloch bloodlines could dream of a new world, live there if they wanted to.
They could let people in, chase people out, things that happened in their dreams happened in the real world.
A lot of the strange happenings in the Forest were a direct result of my dreams. I’d spent the entire time since leaving Ethel trying to remember every dream I’d had and wondered if I created Kiaran somehow.
I told her about the fire in Kiaran’s garden, she said it was likely to have really burned down. Adan could’ve perished in that fire.
She also told me that she no longer got along with Al because he’d been trying to find Evari since she disappeared. Using his dreams to try and change what was done. It caused a riff, Ethel swore to protect Evari’s whereabouts, Al wanted to find her.
The prophecy, though, never changed. It was a tragic romance of hardship and two broken hearts meeting each other and turning the world upside down. But it had a happily ever after, it wasn’t the breaking of a curse. I wasn’t a means to an end in that story.
Reality washed over my body like a thick mud, coating my skin and weighing me down. Winter Solstice was only a week away. We hadn’t talked about it and I wasn’t sure what would happen but Kiaran had known what he had to do and it was to give me up.
“So what,” I started, voice cracking as a tear slid down my face, “you were just going to lie to me for the next seven days? Kiss me, tell me you love me, fuck me? Then what Kiaran?” I paused and he almost got a word in but I didn’t let him.
“What was your plan?” I let out an aggravated breath. “I can’t believe you!”
My chest heaved as I took in the date he’d planned for us tonight. “My father’s anniversary is next week.” I realized.
He nodded.
“I won’t be here next week.”
“Amel–”
“I returned from Ethel’s thinking we had forever. That it was a cruel joke God had played my entire life making me live the way I did, then to bring me to you and show me the life I wanted. Now after only months of reprieve, I’ll be gone in a week.”
Kiaran’s eyes close tight as his shoulders shrugged in defeat. I got to my feet and moved for the window.
“Amelie, please. It’s none of those things.”
“I’m having the girls over tonight.” I blurted out. God, I hoped they didn’t have plans.
I scrambled through the window, wanting to get out of the cottage as fast as possible.
Apparently dreaming of it alone was enough to get me there because in an instant, I was standing on the front porch of the cottage.
With little time to think, I bunched up my skirt and ran to find Ethel, Naida, and Poppy.
I didn’t even let Ethel fully open her front door before my anxiety, fear, and rage poured out of me like vomit. Ending the story with something like, so I need you, Poppy, and Naida to sleepover, so I can avoid him.
I didn’t have to ask my friend twice.
Before we were halfway back, our winged counterparts found us and now we all sat cross legged in a very lopsided circle on the plush rug in the sitting room of the cottage.
Kiaran banished himself to the attic.
Good.
Within the walls of the cottage, our bond worked and he’d been pleading to me from the moment I got back.
I’m sorry.
Please talk to me.
I love you.
None of which I replied to. If I did, I was sure I’d poison him with my words. No nice things were coming to mind at the moment and I prayed that feeling would pass.
The events from earlier were on repeat in my mind and each time I thought of the reaping that was our fate, my stomach somersaulted over my heart, tangling my vital organs and making it hard to fucking breathe.
Sprinkle in that he’d told me he loved me, I was a mess.
An absolute fucking mess. Because even though I was pretty sure I loved him too, I’d never said that to anyone outside my brothers and parents.
I wasn’t sure love even existed outside the obligatory kind.
Until now. But of course I fell in love with the man who was going to kill me. Sorry, sacrifice me.
“Amelie, I think you should invite the boy down here,” Ethel interrupted my inner thoughts .
“Absolutely not.” I took a bite of the warm cornbread Fern had set out for us.
Poppy and Naida giggled to themselves and Ethel popped a brow at me.
I just shrugged back. Even if I wasn’t mad at him, what would he do down here? Join in on a hair braiding train?
Actually, he’d be great at that.
But still. No.
“What does your magic feel like?” Poppy inquired, sliding on to her tummy and resting her face in her palms, her blonde hair fanning over her shoulders. She and Naida were perched on the tea table so they could be eye level with Ethel and I.
“Like my eyes are lighting on fire.”
Naida audibly gasped, shocked and scared at the admission. She covered her mouth with her hand and her eyes went completely round. “That sounds horrible,” Naida choked out, tugging her knees to her chest.
“It sounds worse than it is,” I assured, setting another couple cubes of cheese on the table for the Fae.
“You and Orla are so similar. You even look just like each other, except her hair was white as that cold stuff the humans get.” Poppy looked at Ethel, they nodded in agreement.
“Snow?” I laughed, realizing they’d never had to bear a cold winter and feeling thankful my friends called the Forest home.
“Did you just slur your words?” Poppy snickered.
I shook my head and furrowed my brows in confusion—Sno—oh.
“No, s-n-o-w. That’s what the white stuff is called.” I covered my mouth with my hand while another giggle escaped me.
“I bet you like the white stuff here better,” Poppy said while repeatedly popping her brows. Naida’s mouth gaped open and I burst at the seams with laughter, Ethel rolled her eyes .
“Enough of that talk, girl,” she chided the dirty minded Fae.
I took Ethel’s redirection seriously.
“What was she like? Orla, I mean.” We were still suppressing our laughs when the energy in the room shifted.
Ethel’s eyes immediately pricked with tears, I knew she loved my great grandmother. Ethel and Evari were good friends, I often wondered if Ethel’s endearment for Orla was that of a mother’s.
“She was a force to be reckoned with, no doubt about that. I remember Niklaus being head over heels for her, half the time I think that was because the girl moved so fast he couldn’t keep up.
She was constantly honing her magic. Evari left me with that journal I gave to you, she had generations of notes in it all about Morgenstern magic.
Orla took it further though, pushing herself endlessly and learning how everyone’s magic worked.
I think it bothered her that she didn’t have the fundamentals they learned back in Avonya. ”
Poppy took over then. “And she was beautiful .” She drew out the last word.
“Absolutely radiant,” Ethel agreed.
“And very kind. She’d do anything for anyone, no matter their kind.
All of us Fae live within twenty hollowed out oaks and a few of them were struck down by travelers.
Orla heard the awful news and put it all back together.
We’d been working tirelessly for days to clean up the mess those men made, but Orla came and her eyes did the thing yours do and poof, our homes were rebuilt and better than ever. ”
I put my hand over my heart, feeling so connected right now to my strong maternal genes. So much of the Morgenstern history felt so devastating, but so far, all I knew of those women was that they deserved so much fucking more than they were given.
“Oh, and I think she killed the men,” Poppy added, biting down on a piece of cheese .
A smile crept across my face. I tried to roll my lips together to hide the fact that I was smiling at the men’s demise. They crossed a Morgenstern woman and the people she loved, I understood that rage completely.
“Ack,” Ethel sounded, “nobody missed ‘em. Good riddance.”
We all broke out into a laughing fit. Even Naida. She rolled onto her back, holding her stomach as she wheezed. Poppy ribbed her, encouraging her shy friend and it sent Naida laughing even harder.
Soft snorts came from her as she tried to catch her breath which made the rest of us nearly die from how hard it made us laugh. Naida’s cheeks blushed but she couldn’t stop the fit.
Unsure footsteps creaked the stairs, stalling the joy that filled the room. Everyone went silent, save for Poppy, who was stifling a giggle at the awkward shift.
Kiaran’s bobbed on his feet at the bottom of the stairs, his fingers twiddling with a vine wrapped on the rail.
“Ladies.” He nodded to us with a tight smile.
Poppy was literally about to explode from how hard she was trying not to laugh.
Naida was prodding her to stop, but that made Naida laugh again.
I loved seeing the two of them together, it was so obvious that Poppy was Naida’s home. It didn’t matter where she came from, the pair of them were sisters regardless.
Kiaran walked to the kitchen, acting like there was anything in there that he could just grab. He was rummaging through the cabinets and the girls all looked at me. I shook my head at them, hiding my own smile then rolled my eyes.
Poppy stood up on her perch, put her knuckles to her hips and cleared her throat.
“Ladies,” she said in a low, mocking voice as she gestured her hand forward like she was bowing to a queen.
We all burst at the seams again, clearly having a case of the unstoppable giggles.
Kiaran was standing with his back to us, but I could feel that he was in tune with whatever was happening over here with us.
His shoulders began shaking, and I swore I heard him take a sharp breath, the one he took when he was stifling a laugh.
“Come over here, boy. You’re being strange,” Ethel called through her own laughter.
When he turned to us, his smile was on full display. His eyes found mine immediately.
I love seeing you enjoy yourself.
A warmth settled over me and the butterflies in my stomach took flight.
“What’s so funny over here?” he prodded as he plopped himself down on the couch.
Poppy, being Poppy, cleared her throat and mocked him again. “Ladies.”
He looked at me with narrowed, twinkling eyes. A smile crept over his face as he realized they were making fun of him. I felt kind of bad for not letting him enjoy our company. But I hadn’t forgotten the tension that could cut the laughter in the room in a heartbeat if it was brought up.
Poppy and Naida were laughing again, which bled onto Kiaran. The harder they laughed, he laughed.
Ethel and I watched the three of them crack each other up, Poppy kept puffing out her chest and mimicking Kiaran’s awkward walk to the kitchen.
I swore there was never a room more filled with joy. I’d never seen Kiaran laugh so hard, he even started snorting like Naida.
If I could, I would sit in this moment forever.
It was a lot lighter to be here than in my head.
My dreams always took me to this Forest. I’d defeated so many monsters and villains here before, and I was beginning to think those weren’t great adventures but rather preparation.
Because in less than a week, I would have to defeat the greatest villain of them all, and I think I knew exactly who could help me with that.
The last few nights, my father had been visiting me in my dreams. He’d walk in the background, give me a fond smile, then disappear. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but something told me that it might be the key.