5. Chapter 5
Chapter 5
M y heart pounding, I try to assess the situation as quickly as possible. There are still a lot of students in the Hall — I can feel their looks and hear their excited murmurs. At least one of the three men surrounding me is a vampire, meaning there’d be no point in trying to run even if I managed to get out of the tight circle they have me in.
Most importantly, I don’t have any powers to defend myself from whatever they’re about to do.
Damn it.
“Gentlemen,” I start out loud, seeing stalling as my only viable option. I even make myself smile. “What is this regarding exactly?”
But the middle one is already grabbing me by the upper arm and roughly turning me around. I see a wall of students straining to take a better look at me, only broken by the figure of the prince, his arms folded and his eyes fixed on me in appraisal.
Then the crowd parts at yet another spot, a woman closing the distance to where they’re keeping me, slowly and looking at me as if I were prey. The Pied Piper herself.
“Who is this woman?” she asks when she comes to a stop in front of me, cold suspicion in her eyes.
I open my mouth to say Anyi and improvise from there, but I don’t get a chance to say a word.
The prince appears right next to me, making both the Pied Piper and myself frown. He leans to whisper, “I think I’ve decided what to do with you.”
Then he pulls away. “ The woman … is my fiance.”
He doesn’t even raise his voice and still I hear loud gasps from everywhere around me. The guard still holding me by the arm quickly snatches his hand away.
But the words that come out of the prince’s mouth are so absurd that I just turn to blink at him stupidly.
Why is he helping me? And why is he choosing such an idiotic way to do it?
There’s a moment of dead silence before the Pied Piper clears her throat, making me turn to look at her. “Well,” she starts, staring at the prince for another moment before she turns her gaze back to me , “there must be something wrong with my eyes today. Now, my son’s intended and I…”
What the… No, this all must be some kind of crazy dream.
The Pied Piper keeps her eyes fixed on me as she continues, “We have lots of catching up to do.” She cranes her neck, barely even looking at the wall of stupefied students behind her. “So why are you all still hovering?” she demands.
Not wanting to make my situation worse, I just keep standing where I’ve found myself. It amazes me, how quickly the crowd disperses, leaving only me, the Pied Piper, her son the prince, and…
I frown when I spot them approaching the Pied Piper. The twin princesses.
While the shy one remains in her shadow, the other one shoots me a disgusted look.
I quirk an eyebrow at her.
“His fiance ?” she spits out. “He can’t be serious, Mother.”
To my surprise, and at the same time completely predictably, the mother gives her a cold look, saying, “Off to bed with you, girls.”
Also completely predictably, all of her daughter’s arrogance crumbles right before my eyes. Refusing to look at me again, she just grabs her sister by the hand and the two of them disappear from the Dining Hall.
I guess Movement runs in the family, I think to myself as I gaze after them longingly. It’s also making it an extremely stupid idea, to try to make a run for it.
“I don’t like to be made a fool of, Orpheus,” I hear the Pied Piper tell the man who apparently really is her son.
I turn to see him fold his arms, giving her a look I can’t seem to decipher. “You’ve been away.”
“And this is what you’d have me return to?” she demands as she waves a hand in my direction.
“ This? ” he echoes. Letting out a scoff, he takes my hand in his, the touch sending a jolt through me.
Reflex kicks in and I move to pull it away, but he only grips it tighter. He interlocks his fingers with mine and lifts our hands up for her to see. “ This is love, Mother. That one true love everyone dreams of. Can’t you tell?”
The mother turns to look me in the eye for the first time since the crowd dispersed. “Leave,” she says coldly. “I wish to speak with my son in private.”
Finally. I’m already moving to do exactly as she says, but her son only pulls me closer, not letting go of my hand. “No,” he replies in a final tone of voice. “This is in private.”
Damnit.
The Pied Piper lets out a sigh and turns her eyes onto me again, dragging them up and down my body with contempt twisting her features. “Tell me my eyes are deceiving me and you’re not , in fact, a commoner.”
“I am a commoner…” I stop to search for the words to address her. Queen?
Raven whispers, “Dowager Queen. She’s all in black.”
“Dowager Queen,” I repeat, thinking I got it right.
She lets out a scoff. “Within these walls, girl, it’s veneranda . I am the Pied Piper after all.” She doesn’t let me respond, turning to look at her son again. “And you , my darling, royal son, I’d like to know what exactly you’re rebelling against.”
He lets out a dragged-out sigh. “Won’t you get to the point, Mother.”
She gets the hint. “I’m saying I’m sure this one you could easily have even without driving your family to ruin.”
The prince and I speak almost at the same moment. “Excuse me?”
“Careful, Mother.”
Me, she ignores. “I have countless women much worthier than her,” she tells her son, “all of them eager to marry you.”
“And I haven’t even the slightest interest in any of them,” he drawls. Then he cranes his neck to look at me, lifting my hand up again and stroking my skin with his thumb, his lips curling into a sly little smile. “But if you’d prefer it if we waited so you could be sure of the purity of my love for my fiance…”
I frown, but his words seem to have an immediate effect on his mother. I watch her grit her teeth, something indecipherable flashing through her eyes. “I’ve no idea what accommodations you’ve arranged for her and I don’t wish to know,” she says coldly. It makes my eyebrows shoot up. She moves to walk away. “I want you to send her to your sisters’ quarters, immediately .”
“Why of course,” the prince says sweetly.
She stops, as if she’s remembered something, and cranes her neck to squint at him. “And Orpheus?”
“Yes?”
“Tomorrow,” she says in a commanding voice. “If you’re serious about it, the wedding will take place tomorrow afternoon.”
“Splendid,” I hear him say. “We can’t wait.”
And with that, his mother, the Dowager Queen and the Pied Piper of Grimm Academy disappears.
For a moment, I remain frozen in place.
Then I come to my senses, realizing the prince is still holding my hand and breaking it free the second I do.
I don’t know what the hell just happened, but this is my chance to retreat and execute the current plan.
I turn to face the prince, my mind already on the archway leading out of the Dining Hall. “It wasn’t necessary,” I tell him, “but I do thank you for this. I hope it won’t cause too much trouble. Good night.”
And I move to leave.
Only to have him block my way.
*
I let out a low groan.
“I’d find it hard to believe you know where my sisters’ quarters are,” he says.
It takes me a moment to process what he’s saying. I frown. “I’m not actually marrying you, you madman.”
He pushes his chest out, folds his arms and tilts his head at me. “Yet you didn’t object when I said you were. Were you that afraid of the Academy Guard questioning you? And why?”
For a moment, I just look at him. He seems to be too intelligent and observant for me to be able to get out of this without giving him something at least. “Alright,” I reply with a sigh. “I’m not a Librarian here. I came in the hopes of becoming one, but…” I make a face, folding my arms. “Apparently lowborn people don’t stand a chance.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “So you decided to trespass by joining the students for the Opening Ceremony?”
“I was stalling before I had to leave the castle, trying to come up with a way to turn things around.”
“Well, if you’d been found out, you certainly would’ve gotten in serious trouble.”
I shrug. “What can I say? I really wanted the position.”
To my surprise, this seems to please him. “Alright,” he says with a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “I will arrange for you to get what you came here for. If you so wish, you’ll be able to start your new position as soon as the day after tomorrow.” He pauses to throw me a pointed look. “After the wedding.”
“You can’t be serious,” I say with a laugh.
“You were planning on spending the following year here anyway, right?”
“Yes.”
“Divorce me at the end of it,” he replies with a shrug. “You’ll be able to keep the position or move on, whichever you choose. In the meantime… you’ll be required to attend a function now and then, but the rest of your time would be your own. It would hardly be a prison sentence.”
I squint at him. “Why would you do this?”
He lets out a scoff. “It’s very simple. I’m being pestered into taking a wife. So I’m in need of one who will leave me be.”
He throws me a look that makes my skin hot. “And judging by how eager you were to get away from me earlier,” he adds in a lower voice, his lips curling into a smile, “you seem to be the only suitable candidate.”
I shake my head, frowning. But i
t might actually work in my favor. The wedding would be tomorrow afternoon — plenty of time for me to find Lorcan and the plant and to get the hell out of here, even with a few hours of sleep thrown in, especially if...
“What benefits does being the prince’s wife come with?” I ask.
He clicks his tongue. “Such a cold, calculating mind.” He observes me for a second. “Well, you’d be appalled to learn how much my sisters spend solely on ribbons. As the prince’s wife, I assure you you wouldn’t want for anything.”
I wave my hand in dismissal. “ Researching ,” I enunciate. “I’d be allowed the freedom to roam the grounds doing my research, wouldn’t I?”
His eyebrows shoot up. “Research? And where do your interests lie exactly?”
“Oh I’m sure you’d find them trivial. Well?”
“You’d have greater freedom than you would as a Librarian.”
I think for a second. “Alright,” I finally say. “I’ll do it.”
“Is that so? Without a single question except the one about research?”
“I’m not a complicated woman. Now point me in the direction of your sisters’ quarters.”
He shakes his head. “Your full name, my lady. I believe it’s the least I should know about the woman I’m marrying.”
I hesitate for a moment. “Anyi Novak.”
“A strange name for a fae,” he whispers.
I throw a glance at the rings on his fingers. “A strange way of life for a fae,” I reply when I look back up, “when you stop to really think about it.”
His eyes narrow. “I assure you,” he drawls, a touch of defiance in his voice, “you know nothing of the way I live.”
It startles me, when the next second, I see him freeze, his eyes darting to a spot somewhere in the distance, way above my head.
“Is there something wrong?” I ask in a tense voice.
“Wait here,” he replies somberly.
I watch him disappear into the Entrance Hall. First, I force myself to turn around, following his gaze. The moment I spot it — the strange contraption resembling a telescope hovering in the air above me — it falls to the ground with a loud thud.
I rush to follow the prince, stopping midstep as soon as I see what’s going on. His back turned to me, he’s pulling his older sister by the ear, making her duck her head and twist at the waist in an effort to get away from him. “Orpheus,” she grits out between two angry winces, the younger one standing close by with a hand on her mouth.
“I seem to recall you two being sent to bed,” her brother drawls scoldingly. Then he freezes, lets go of her ear and turns to look at me. “And I thought I told you to wait.” The tone is different, but it’s scolding nonetheless.
I fold my arms. “You did. I chose not to.”
For a moment, he just stares at me, this indecipherable look in his eyes. Then his lips tug into a smile. “Sylmarilla, Farryn,” he addresses the sisters without taking his eyes off me, “it’s my pleasure to introduce my fiance.”
While Sylmarilla remains where she’s standing, throwing daggers at me, Farryn hesitates for a second, this spark appearing in her eyes just before she picks her gown tail off the floor and moves towards me.
“No,” the prince stops her, “no ceremonies. Take her to your quarters.” He turns to look at me again, his eyes sucking me in. He pauses for a second before he says, “It’s tomorrow that we’ll be married.”
“Tomorrow—” I hear Sylmarilla start, but she breaks off as soon as she sees him disappear, leaving Raven and myself alone with the two of them.
*
Sylmarilla comes to stand in front of me, her arms folded and her face scrunched up in contempt. “I presume you don’t have Movement?”
I guess I’ll have to tolerate this arrogant little princess for a while longer. “Sadly, no.”
She lets out a scoff. “Well, I for sure and certain am not walking with you.” She turns to her sister. “Farryn, take her. And I don’t want you two talking amongst each other.”
“But—”
It’s the first word that’s not ‘Syl’ that I hear come out of her mouth, but it’s definitely not the first time I hear her sister mercilessly cut her off. “Mark my words, Farryn, there will be no wedding.” She pauses to throw me a look filled with disgust. “In fact, come daylight, the girl will be long gone, along with our silver.”
I have to suppress the urge to let out a laugh, until I see the look on Farryn’s face and I immediately turn serious. “I won’t steal your silver,” I tell her, a little surprised that I even have to.
Sylmarilla lets out a scoff. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter.” Then she takes a step closer and lifts a warning finger. “But if you choose to stay, do not wake up puffy. If you do, Mother will have my head, and I will have yours . Do we understand each other?”
“Of course, princess,” I say with a smile that does nothing to melt her ice-cold demeanor.
She just lets out another scoff and disappears.
And now it’s just me, Raven and Farryn. I only exchange one hesitant glance with Farryn before I realize she’ll be very serious about following her sister’s orders.
It’s in absolute silence that she leads me to the Door and into the Ydril Tower.
Mostly impatient to be left alone and be allowed to get some much needed sleep, I still find myself curious enough to try to find differences between the Ground Floor now and in my own time.
More lavishly decorated, that’s the main one.
We climb the stairs all the way to the top, finally seeming to enter the sisters’ quarters . It doesn’t take me long to realize the term is justified. They seem to have the entire floor for themselves, the hallway we’re walking down branching out into a web of rooms, some with doors and some with archways. And everywhere I look, it’s sheer mid-nineteenth century opulence — intricate wood-paneling, mahogany furniture, marble fireplaces…
Without a word, Farryn makes me stop, opens the door we’re standing in front of, and gestures for me to get in.
“Thank you,” I mouth, not wanting to make her uncomfortable, but feeling uncomfortable myself at the very thought of not even addressing her.
She presses her lips tight, but there’s such softness in her eyes as she does it. She gives me a nod and the slightest, charming smile.
I get inside and close the door behind me, finding myself in a room with a richly carved four-poster bed at the center of the opposite wall. There’s an enormous closet to its left and a paneled window to its right, a vanity and a settee on either side.
I sense Raven fly off my shoulder. I watch her land on the vanity table and turn to tilt her head at me. “What do we do now , Anna?”
I walk over to her and throw an anxious glance out the window. “Do you think you could try to find Lorcan again?”
“I will, but don’t worry about him. He’s a shifter after all.”
“Still,” I just say. I rummage through the vanity drawers and get a piece of paper, an ink bottle and a quill. “Come to the Ydril Tower,” I write. “Tell the servants you’re the prince’s fiance’s father. I’ll explain everything first thing in the morning. I hope you get some rest. Anna.”
Then I remember to add, “P.S. We’ll need more monkshood plant, so please keep an eye out.”
I ask Raven’s permission to tie the piece of paper around her leg. “Be careful,” I urge before she flies out of the window.
As soon as she’s gone, I walk over to the bed and throw myself on it, straight on my face. I let out a dragged-out groan, the way my muscles start throbbing at the contact with the mattress making it finally hit me…
Has all this really happened in the space of a single day? It sure doesn’t feel like it. In fact, it boggles the mind, just thinking that ‘this morning’, if I can even say that, I woke up in my straw bed in the hideout, and now…
I don’t let myself think about it. I just anxiously keep lying there until I hear the soft sound of the flap of Raven’s wings.
I pull myself up and turn to her with a question in my eyes.
“I can’t find him,” she says weakly.
It’s fine, I tell myself. “It’s fine,” I tell her. “He’s probably taking a nap in the Lycan Forest. We’ll find each other first thing in the morning.”
There’s a moment of silence. “Do you think you’ll be able to do it, Anna?”
She doesn’t have to say it. I know it’s the portal she’s talking about.
In an effort to hide my anxiousness, I run my hand down my face then give her a confident smile. “I’ll do whatever it takes, Raven. Now get some sleep, you probably aren’t even aware of how tired you are.”
She nods and, to my surprise, comes to land on my other pillow, immediately starting work on making herself more comfortable. I smile and get settled in myself, clasping my hands on my chest and fixing my eyes on the canopy overhead.
This time, I don’t manage to push the thoughts away.
I can’t help but worry that something will go wrong and I’ll make yet another mistake. Even when you put aside the matter of time travel, I can’t help but worry about Raven, Lorcan, Alaric and Jaeger, and what this might do to them.
But there’s not just the danger of something going wrong with the portal.
I frown. There are the Grimms as well.
Because there has to be something weird going on with that family, right? I’m in a somewhat weird situation myself so this keeps slipping my mind, but it’s true.
I try to imagine a family portrait, of which they must have plenty. The perfectly put-together, pale, blonde woman times three, and one disheveled, tanned, dark-haired man.
Within that family, I have two separate concerns. The self-interested, potentially dangerous mother who opposes her son’s marriage one minute and orders for it to be held as soon as possible the next.
Then there’s the son. There’s something strange about the man for sure. I just can’t pinpoint what it is. I’m not even certain it’s the fact that he’s choosing to do this — rush into a marriage with a complete stranger.
Maybe it’s about the way people are treating him, especially women. Scared he’ll look in their direction yet lining up to marry him?
Sure, he’s a prince, but this is fae society we’re talking about. Even in this particular point in time, it’s not like it was for human women. There’s no sexism that would make even a bond with a dangerous man preferable to spinsterhood.
Unless I’m looking at it the wrong way, forgetting all about the allure of being with a dangerous man, no one daring to even look at you while he’s by your side. But in most cases, that’s exactly what that is — a fantasy.
Then again, this particular man seems to have a lot going on for him. He’s someone who could be described as a quite devastatingly handsome, aloof prince, with plenty of contradictions to lend him an air of mystery — athletic yet intellectual, quiet yet eloquent, calm yet dangerous, wealthy yet uninterested in showing it…
The more I think about it, the more sense it makes that there’d be plenty of women who’d find him irresistible… and think they’d be the ones to change him, of course.
Which all leads me back to the question of why he’d be doing this, because I somehow don’t believe what he said about being ‘pestered into it’. Which leads me all the way back to feeling unsettled about the family I got involved with.
Doesn’t matter, I tell myself. I’ll fix this and get us back first thing tomorrow morning.
I have to. For everyone, especially Jericho.
My Jericho.
I move to pull my phone out, but my hand won’t listen. Crushed after the day, I’ve already started drifting off.