Heir of Golden Storms

“What are we going to do today?” Caspian asks. We are at one of the living rooms. He came to the castle this morning, probably because he had nothing to do at the Court of Depths. “It is your last day as a single man! We need to do something fun!”

“I am not feeling it,” I say. My mind still races with what Zephyrus told me yesterday.

Do not worry. I will do it for you. I always knew that you were a coward anyway.

“How come you are not feeling it?” Caspian says as he stands up from the sofa. “Let us drink at least.” He moves to the end of the room where there are a few bottles of wine on a table. He serves wine on two goblets. He hands me one before sinking back on the sofa. “Come on, tell me what you are most looking forward to.”

I take a sip from the wine as I start to think. I have not thought about the bright side of marrying Thalia.

“A new alliance between the Court of Miracles and the Court of Storms,” I say and take another sip.

“No, no, no, no,” Caspian says. “I mean personally. Between all these politics, what makes you happy about marrying the Storm Princess?”

I will get a new kingdom. I will become king once Zephyrus murders Queen Willow. But no. I do not want a kingdom, and even less murder my way to the throne. What I want for my marriage is simple happiness. I want to love someone, even if it never becomes a romance. I want myself to trust her, to feel safe with her. I want her to be my safe net, my shoulder to cry on.

“Thalia,” I answer and take another sip from my wine. She has already shown that I can trust her.

My head suddenly feels dizzy. I look around me, noticing that my vision is getting blurry. I look at the silhouette of Caspian, who is sitting motionless but seems to be swinging. Then, I look down at my goblet. The wine’s color is lighter than what it was when I started with.

“You… poison…” I try to say as I stand up to try to get away from him. I fall to the floor and hear Caspian’s steps approaching.

“I had to,” he answers me, his voice distant. “Do not worry. Everything will be fine.” Then the darkness succumbs me.

***

I wake by the sound of music. I lift my head, feeling my neck sore. When I try to reach for the back of my neck, I realize that I cannot move my hands. They are stuck behind me, tied up with something. I try to move my legs, but they are also tied to the chair that I am sitting on.

Why did Caspian poison me? Did he take me hostage? He does not have a reason to do so. Even my family knows him and will not stop until I am returned. If he truly kidnapped me, then he should have the consequences clear.

As my eyesight returns, I scrape the idea of Caspian kidnapping me for money or miracles. I am outside at some garden. Lanterns with magical flames are standing on each tree, illuminating what the moon cannot. Faeries are dancing to the loud music. I understand that we are not somewhere near the castle for the lack of clothes on each faerie. They are wearing the minimum clothes possible without using their courts’ colors.

“Hello,” Caspian says from my right. He kneels in front of me. “Glad that you are awake. I thought that I added too much of the dose to your wine.”

“Where are we?” I ask, voice coming with as much hate as I can put in.

“Loosen up,” he says as he takes a knife out from one of his boots. I stiff and try to get free from the things that are binding me to the chair. “I am only going to cut the ropes restraining you!” He leans in.

“Get away!” I warn, still struggling to break free.

“You are scaring him, Caspian,” Hesperia says as she slaps the back of Caspian’s head. Caspian stands up rubbing the back of his head with his free hand.

Hesperia is also wearing less clothes than normal. She is wearing a crimson short skirt that covers almost nothing of her thighs. She wears a lighter red shirt that breaks between her breasts and unites itself again above her stomach. I can see her two pairs of clear yellowish wasp wings laying low behind her back. A series of gold and silver earrings start from the ends of her pointy ears, creating a path to the beginning of her ears.

“This is your bachelor’s party!” Hesperia says.

She snaps at Caspian and with a swift move from his knife, he breaks the ropes restraining my hands. I move my hands in front of me and rub my wrists. Caspian then cuts off the ropes around my legs. I stand up as Hesperia hands me a golden goblet with red gems on it. I stare at the wine inside.

“Calm down, it does not have anything. It is just plain wine,” Hesperia says.

“How can I trust you?” I ask, but then remember that she cannot lie. I take several gulps of the wine and end it before she could answer. “Another one and I am ready to party.” Dancing is my weakness.

“That is the attitude!” Hesperia shouts as I steal a brown goblet from another faerie and hand him my empty one. I gulp that one quickly too and put the empty goblet on the chair.

“Let’s go,” I say as I join the dancing on the grass.

Faeries start shouting as I enter the dance floor. If I know someone, I do not salute them. I am not paying any attention to faces, only bodies as they dance. The music takes me, pulling me to every person.

I know that I start dancing with Hesperia and Caspian, but at the night goes on, I continue dancing with different people and drinking until my heart aches. I move to a group of friends, dancing the same way as they do. I break a couple apart to steal a woman to dance with. I even end up between a group of women, taking turn to dance with each one.

At one point of the night, Hesperia steals me away. She pulls me towards the chair that I was tied in. She pushes the goblet I left on the chair and shoves me to the chair.

“Ladies! Do your thing!” Hesperia shouts.

A group of female faeries start dancing their way towards me. The first one, a dark skin faerie, sit on my lap as the rest of the ladies continue dancing around me. She starts moving, dancing to the beat. I catch a glimpse of Caspian smiling at me as the faerie switches for brunette faerie.

When each faerie danced, they leave to the dance floor. I stand up as Caspian approaches smirking, but Hesperia pushes me back on the chair. The chair almost falls with my drunk self, but it stays. She sits on my lap, back towards me. She dances as my eyes expand. I look at Caspian who is also surprised.

Her wings brush softly against my face. When she lowers herself in her dance, I cannot stop staring at her shirt going up and exposing her lower back. When she goes back up, she stands up, turns and sit back facing me in one swift move.

Before I know what is going on, she leans in and kisses me. Her hands are on my hair, pressing me against her. My lips give in, kissing her as one hand goes to her lower back and the other to her blonde hair. She stops kissing me and puts her face next to me. Her lips caressing my left ear.

“Do not marry her,” she whispers. “I love you.” Before my body can react, she stands up and melds with the crowd.

***

Faeries love different than other creatures. We can only fall in love in two ways. The first alternative is to fall in love the first time that we see them. We believe in love at first sight. It is an intuition, something inside us that tell us that that person is the one that we will live with for the rest of our lives.

Sometimes only one person feels the love first, but it does not mean that the other faerie does not or will not feel it. It is the charmed faerie’s quest to earn the faerie’s love. When they do, their love will never die, even after death. This is the second way to fall in love.

That does not mean that faeries cannot love more than one person. Sometimes they are more than one faerie that they are meant to be with. In that case, faeries renounce to one love for another or become a bigger group if the other faerie loves them too.

Marrying someone without love will not create romance in their relationship. If none of the faeries in the couple feel the love, then they will never fall in love with each other. This happens because none of the two rules of love were followed.

I did not feel the love at first sight with Thalia. If she did not feel it too, then we will never fall in love with each other.

A knock on the door interrupts me. I glimpse at Caspian, who stands up and walks to the door. I continue in front of my mirror, trying to comb my black hair so that it does not look messy. I hear Caspian open the door.

“You requested my presence, Your Highness?” North says, standing at the door. She is wearing a dark purple dress, the color of Thalia’s court. She has been invited to the wedding by Thalia.

“I did,” I say as I gesture towards the sofa where Caspian was seated. “Can you wait outside for a moment, Caspian?”

He gives glares at me through the mirror but heads out anyway. I turn, throwing the comb on the bed. I take my silver crown and lay it softly on my head.

“I need you to deliver a message for me,” I tell North. “I do not trust anyone with this kind of information, but I know that you will not say anything for the sake of Thalia.” North nods a little worried.

“If you do not mind me asking, why don’t you deliver the message yourself?” North asks.

“I cannot see my bride before the wedding,” I say as I try to put my dark purple blazer on in front of the mirror. “I need you to tell Thalia to keep an eye out for her mother. Zephyrus and father are planning on killing her.”

“What? Why? How?” North asks alarmed. “How are you so calm with this?”

“We must not lose our heads, North,” I say as I look at her, but her head is down, white hair covering her face. “I do not know how they are going to do it, but knowing them, they might do it today after the wedding. I need you to keep an eye on her too. Do not let her drink, eat or smell anything. Any weird suspicion, you go to Thalia or me. Do you think that you can do that?”

“Of course,” she says, after some seconds of silence. She stands up. “Is that all?” I nod and she opens the door. As she leaves, Caspian walks in.

“Can I ask you something?” he asks as he closes the door.

“No,” I say, turning around to grab my shoes. I know what he is going to ask.

“I am going to ask it anyway,” he says. “What did she tell you last night after… you know?” He is referring to Hesperia.

“Can we not talk about it?” I ask.

“But we need to talk about the… you know.”

“You know that you can say kiss, right?” I say as I put my first shoe on.

“Kiss? No, man, that was not a simple kiss,” Caspian says as he readjusts the sleeves of his clothes. He looks odd in white as if it is not his color. “I have been with plenty of faeries and that kiss was something different. I have not kissed anyone that way.”

“Noted,” I say as I take my second shoe. I neglect looking at him.

“What did she tell you?” he asks as I stand up. I do not answer as I look for the Cursebreaker. When I find it, I consider not taking it with me. I will not need it. “Come on! Tell me!”

“She asked me not to marry Thalia,” I say as I move towards the door. I put my hand on the knob. “And that she loves me.” I open the door, ending the conversation.

As I walk faster than Caspian, I spot Zephyrus coming from the other end of the hallway. Tinley is with him. They both did not bother to pick new clothes. They are wearing the same white clothes that they wore on Easton’s wedding.

“Let’s get this over with,” Zephyrus says. He does not ever bother to stop walking. He and Tinley start walking down the stairs.

“Get this over with?” I ask. He did not act this way on Easton’s, Ailsa’s, Marin’s, nor his own wedding.

“I have things to attend to,” he says. “The faster we do this, the better.” I hear Caspian inhale. He has a lower temper than me. He will punch Zephyrus on his face if he continues.

“Zephyrus, it is my wedding,” I say, walking the last steps to the main hall, where a lot of people are gathered. “I would ask you to at least pretend to be happy for me.”

Zephyrus stops and turns to look at me. “Listen, little brother, I do not care about your wedding. No one here cares about your wedding. You are the fifth born and the third prince; you will never be the heir to our court. You are useless. The only reason that I agreed to father’s plan is to get you away from here as soon as possible. It would give you a court, but you will always be under father’s or my grasp like the little roach that you are.”

Caspian moves from behind me, but before he could hit Zephyrus, my fist meet Zephyrus’s left cheek. Zephyrus looks surprised for a second. Then, he launches towards me, but knights are already pushing him back and others are pulling me back.

“You will pay for this!” he yells at me. Tinley has moved away and now people are looking at us. “Even if it costs me everything, I will make you pay!”

“Bring it on!” I yell at him. I turn around, jerking myself free from the knights. Caspian is right beside me. I readjust my clothes. “Come on, Caspian, we have a wedding to attend to.”

***

As I stand on the gardens, Caspian as my best man right beside me, I catch a glimpse of Hesperia. She is sitting on the front row on my side, right where my family sits. I have known Hesperia since we were kids and Zephyrus is married to her sister. We are family.

She is wearing a white dress. Her blonde hair is loose, covering her ears. I can even see her freckles on her cheekbones from here. Her wings are laying low, probably held in place by the dress. She looks innocent, even pure. She looks beautiful, but that is because ever since last night, I cannot look at her with best friend’s eyes anymore.

I shake my head, making myself forget about Hesperia. It is not the time to consider anything. I scan the crowd on Thalia’s side. I find North. She is sitting on the first chair of the second row, right behind an empty chair that I know is Queen Willow’s chair. North catches me staring, and I nod, which she returns.

I search for Zephyrus as I open and close my right hand. My knuckles hurt but it was well worth it. He is talking to father, maybe whining out how I hit him. He does not bother taking a glance at me. Good. I am tired of him.

“Rowan!” Marin shouts, walking towards me with her husband. She hugs me. “I have heard what happened between you and Zephyrus.”

“Do not worry,” Blaise says before I can speak. Then he leans in. “Between us, that guy had it coming. I am just disappointed that it was not me.” He winks as Marin giggles.

“I saw Thalia a few minutes ago,” Marin says, changing the subject. “She looked lovely! Right, Blaise?” Blaise cheeks flush and Marin laughs. “It is not a trick question. You can answer.”

“Oh, then yes, she did,” Blaise answer. “She was dazzling.”

Marin opens her mouth to say something more, but the musicians start playing. She hugs me, kisses my cheek, and walks away. She sits in the front row, next to Ailsa, who she starts talking to. Blaise sits beside her and beside Easton.

Queen Willow appears from the end of the garden, rushing through the hall. She is wearing a long dark purple dress. She glimpses at me and smiles before sitting in front of North and beside her youngest daughter, Breeze.

The first one to walk through the aisle as everyone stands up is Thalia’s sister, Kalani, who is her maid of honor. She is one year younger than Thalia. Just like Thalia’s family, they all share the same dark purple, almost black, hair. Kalani has her mother’s golden eyes. She also has freckles, like Thalia, under her eyes. She is wearing a simple dark purple gown.

Then, Thalia enters the garden between the hedges with flowers at the end of the red carpet. I cannot help but let my jaw fall. I thought before that I could get used to seeing her in white, but no. I love seeing her in white. Her white dress is long, even longer than Gracin’s wedding dress. It has white flowers embodied on her dress arranged mostly on her chest to her waist and dividing themselves as they go down to the floor. She does not have a veil, and I do not miss it one bit. She has her long night hair laid loosely with white flowers organized randomly with spaces between each of them.

She curves a smile when she catches me with my mouth opened. I close it quickly, trying to look myself entertained with her dress instead of her. I extend my hand when she reaches me. She places her hand gently and I level it up to my lips. We turn to look at the marriage officiant while the crowd sits down.

The wedding goes fast. Right after the vows, that is the same verses on every wedding, and right before the kiss, father stands in front me with a golden bowl in his hands. I take my dark purple blazer off and hand it to Caspian. I unbutton my black shirt underneath, exposing my chest, and hands it to Caspian too. This is the time to do my first miracle.

Father dips two fingers on the golden liquid in the bowl and starts tracing lines. First, he goes to my face, tracing lines on my foreheads and cheeks. Then goes to my chest, stomach, and ends with my back. When he is done, he smiles at me as Caspian hands him a white cloth where he wipes his hands. He then lays his right hand on my head and holds my right hand with his left hand.

“I give you the court’s blessing,” the king says. He smiles, lowers his head, and walks away.

I take a step towards Thalia and holds both her hands in mines. “What miracle would you like me, your husband, to grant you?”

“I wish for us to be in love until death do us part,” Thalia says. I blink. I want to smile at her wish. I do not mind that wish.

“In order to grant your miracle, I need to collect love from someone else,” I tell her.

“I know,” Queen Willow says as she stands up. She walks towards us and smiles at Thalia before standing still and looking at me. “I will like you to take my love for Thalia’s father and use it for her miracle.”

“Mother, no,” Thalia says. She let’s go off me, but Queen Willow grabs her hands.

“Thalia, look at me,” she says. “This is my gift to you. I want you to live the happiest. Let me do this.”

Thalia takes some seconds but then nods, her eyes watering in the process. Thalia brings her hands back to me. I close my eyes and lower my head, exactly how I have seen Marin, Zephyrus, and Ailsa do at their wedding. I concentrate, drawing power from my heart. I feel my skin burning. Maybe it hurts making miracles.

“Rowan,” Thalia says.

I open my eyes. Everyone is staring. I look at my chest. My skin is burning where the golden lines are. The golden liquid is eating up my skin. The same thing that is supposed to help me grant miracles is damaging me.

“He… He is not my son!” the king says in disbelief.

“What?” I manage to ask. All I want is to remove this liquid from my skin.

“He is not my son!” the king yells louder.

“Imposter!” Zephyrus yells. “Guards grab him!”

The people stand up. Knights run to me. I look at Thalia, her eyes are wide in terror. One knight pushes me down to the floor. I try to break free but the knight, with a few other knights, pull me up.

“I am not an imposter!” I yell.

“Yes, you are!” Zephyrus yells at me. “Every son of the High King can grant miracles! You cannot!”

“But – But,” I say, trying to look for words. I look at father, who is standing behind Zephyrus and acting afraid of something. Afraid of me. “Father! I am your son! I have always been your son!”

“You are son to no one!” Zephyrus yells as he walks towards me. He knees me on my stomach. Pain explodes, more than the pain of my skin, and I groan. He grabs me by the hair and forces me to look at his face. “I always knew that there was something wrong with you! You are filth! You are no one!” He punches me with his free hand on my stomach. I groan again as my knees fall but the knights still hold me. He pulls my head up by the hair. “I said that you were going to pay for this, and this is just the beginning.”

“Knights, take him away!” Zephyrus says.

No. This cannot be happening. Something inside me sparks to live. A monster has been born inside of me. I stand up, forcing myself to walk towards Zephyrus as the knights pull me back.

“I curse you,” a voice says. It takes me a moment to realize that it is me who is talking. Zephyrus looks taken aback. “As long as you live, you will never see a crown on your head. You will never own a court. You will never be happy, and your dreams will vanish in your sight.” The knights take me away as I feel the monster vanish from me.