A Magical Place
"It's just a little bit farther, princess," Angelo's voice floated back to me on the breeze, "don't forget that you promised me no peeking."
I grumbled a little at that, but continued to let him pull me forward by my sleeved arm, eyes pressed firmly shut. The sound of twigs and leaves crunching beneath my boots was the only way I knew that we were still somewhere within the forest that surrounds the castle and capital city. I had initially tried to keep track of our path, in case the desire to leave on my own should arise, but after various twists and turns, he had my inner compass so turned around that I had lost track of all sense of direction within the first fifteen minutes. That sneaky little–
He stopped walking without warning.
Blind, I stumbled clumsily into his back, but before I could go careening to the forest floor, strong hands found their way to my arms, steadying me, "Careful now," he chuckled, so close his breath fanned out across my face. His touch disappeared for a moment, and I was floored by the sudden longing coursing through me for the return of that proximity, before I felt the warmth of his body against my back as he came to stand behind me a mere hair's breadth away. "We're here," he leaned in to whisper in my ear, earning an involuntary shiver down my spine in response. Why am I letting him affect me this way? "You can look now."
The tinge of excitement in his soft words, filled me with a strange mix of worry and anticipation. I hesitated only a beat before opening one eye, then the other.
Whoa.
"What is this place?"
Before us lay a large meadow, carpeted in an assortment of wildflowers, all swaying softly in the breeze like the waves of the most colorful ocean. The meadow was flanked by a steep cliffside on the far end, while the thick treeline surrounded the remaining perimeter. The field was split in half by the sparkling trail of a creek, winding a lazy path through the vibrant blooms, fed by the thin whisper of a waterfall cascading down the side of the cliffs. Mist rose from where the water met the small pool at its base, and when the clouds shifted, allowing rays of sunlight to shine through, a rainbow appeared for a moment before the sun was once again blotted out by the cloud cover.
I tore my gaze from the view to look to where Angelo now stood a few feet away, only to find him already watching me. "Do you like it?" He asked, voice lacking its usual mirth, eyes scanning my face as if searching for something.
At a loss for words, I could only nod dumbly, returning my attention to trying to memorize each detail of this magical place. "I didn't even know something like this existed so close to home," I finally managed, voice barely more than an awed whisper.
He hummed deep in his chest, before grabbing my wrist in one hand and scooping up the mysterious basket from where he had dropped it to the floor to save me from falling with the other. "Come on," he pulled me gently through the sea of flowers until he found the spot he was looking for, close to the babbling stream.
He set down his basket, pulling a blanket from beneath its lid and spreading it out before us in one swift motion. He plopped himself down, dragging the basket closer and began digging through the contents. "Care to join me?" He drawled, not bothering to look up to where I still stood awkwardly beside the blanket. Was this... a picnic?
I stepped cautiously onto the fabric, sitting down and curling my legs under me. He started pulling various foods from within the basket as I continued to stare dumbfounded: a container of fresh berries, what appeared to be pita and hummus, a charcuterie board wrapped in cellophane that contained at least four different kinds of sliced meats and cheeses each and, finally, skewers of roasted shrimp and vegetables. He shot me a look that was strange to find on his face– could the ever-cocky Angelo be nervous? It was so uncharacteristic, I could only look on. "I wasn't sure what kind of food you liked, so I brought a bit of a variety."
He pulled a small knife from his pocket and used it to slice an apple into slightly uneven portions. While he worked, I picked up one of the skewers and took a tentative bite. "Does it taste alright?" I looked up to find him watching me again.
I chewed and swallowed, all the while aware of his attention on my face. Something held me back from voicing the sarcastic comment that had flown to the tip of my tongue, and instead, I answered truthfully, "It's delicious."
He gave me a warm smile, "I've never cooked for someone else before, I was worried it would be horrible."
My brows shot up in surprise, "Never?"
"Never," he popped a raspberry into his mouth, then laughed as he caught sight of my face, "oh, don't look so surprised. When was the last time you cooked for someone else, princess?"
"As a matter of fact, just last week," I tilted my chin up indignantly, "my mother has a rather unfortunate habit of dismissing the kitchen staff to do their work for them, even whilst pregnant." The last word was still a little difficult to choke out, but I managed it with only the faintest of grimaces.
Angelo looked as though he were going to ask something more, but instead chose to hold his tongue. We remained in comfortable silence while we ate.
It was so difficult in these little moments of peace, to remember that Angelo was someone to be wary of, that he could just as easily choose to turn on me as help me. I may be his mate, but was that bond enough to turn his back fully on his family? 'I will not betray my family. Not even for you' he had told me nearly two months ago, but was the clue he had given me about Vito DiMaio not a betrayal already? And what of the one in return for this date? Was he showing me that he could be trusted, or was he leading me into a trap? What do I trust, the words he had spoken with such clear conviction, or his actions to the contrary?
My thoughts turned unbidden to my own lies and deceits. Was I any better? True, all of my sneaking around with Angelo had been in the name of attaining the upper hand in the struggle against the Blood Fangs, but just how many lies have I told Franco for the opportunity to sneak off to meet Angelo, or even simply to keep Angelo's existence a secret? To my mother to hide his true relation to me when we were in the city, even at the risk of endangering her brother and his family? To my father when he asked about my sources for the Cazzico tip-off? My stomach sank from the weight of the guilt. It was becoming far too easy to blur the lines between friend and enemy when it came to Angelo, despite how hard I've fought against the pull of the bond.
Driven by my shame, I decide to try my luck and cut straight to the chase, "Who else from Lupia is helping you?"
He clucked his tongue in a teasing manner, "I'm disappointed in you, princess, did your etiquette teacher not tell you that it's rude to talk business over dinner?"
There he is. I knew it would only be a matter of time before Angelo's more aggravating side would return to rear its ugly head. I narrowed my eyes, but held my tongue, angling my body away from him to watch the water flow down the cliffside.
He chuckled lowly, clearly enjoying himself at my expense as per usual, "Come on, don't be angry," he gently pulled on my upper arm, attempting to turn me back toward him, "I promise I'll give you the information you want, just humor me first."
I relented with a sigh, allowing him to tug me back around. He beamed, both dimples on full display, "There's my girl."
My girl.
Two words, and the butterflies that I had managed to keep at bay so far were raging in my stomach. I bit back a retort about how I was not, in fact, his girl, knowing that resistance would only prolong my torture. It was obvious from the gleam in his eye, that he knew exactly what he was doing. I just needed to keep my cool.
As he packed the remainder of our dinner back into his basket a short while later, I leaned back on my elbows, deciding to play along with his game. "So, I'm really the first person you've ever cooked for?"
The corners of his mouth tilted up slightly, "Yes, is that so hard to believe?"
I shrugged, "You mentioned having brothers once, you've never even cooked something for them?"
His smile faltered for only a moment as an emotion flitted through his eyes, there and gone so fast I couldn't identify it. "No, I've never cooked anything for anyone, not even my brothers," he finally answered, hesitating a moment, before softly adding, "My sister, Lia, would cook for us though. After our mother died, she stepped up to try to fill that void."
I didn't know how to respond. His expression had turned wistful as he spoke of his mother and sister. Those three sentences were the most about his life before coming to Lupia that I had ever learned and I found myself both eager and terrified to hear more.
As if he could sense my thoughts, he cleared his throat, reaching into the basket to pull out one last plate. He unwrapped it and held it out to me, "Dessert?"
I plucked one of the strange oblong balls from the plate, inspecting what appeared to be powdered sugar around the exterior. He caught me examining it, "Don't worry, these I bought."
I popped it in my mouth, closing my eyes to savor the flavor. They were dates stuffed with almonds. "Do you like them?" Angelo asked a moment later, "I brought chocolates as well, just in case."
I waved him off, "These are perfect."
He smiled and we fell back into our comfortable silence as the sunset turned the cliffs orange beside us.
A while later, as the last of the sun's light was leaving the sky and Angelo and I were both laying on our backs only feet apart on the soft blanket, he spoke, eyes never leaving the emerging stars above, "If you could be anything in the world, any profession at all, what would it be?"
I scoffed, "That's easy, Queen of Lupia."
He turned his head to study me then, "Is that because it's what you were taught to want, or do you actually want it?"
I hesitated. What is that supposed to mean? "I want it."
He nodded, taking a moment to mull over my response. Then, as if just making up his mind about something, he rolled onto his side to face me, propping his head on his hand, "Then if that wasn't an option, what would you choose?"
I opened my mouth before snapping it shut again. I had never been asked that before by anyone, not even Franco. What would I be if I couldn't rule the kingdom? I knew the obvious choice, the one that was likely to happen if I couldn't win the council to my side and the child my mother was carrying turned out to be a boy. But, somehow, I knew that wasn't the answer he was looking for. "I don't know," I admitted quietly.
He nodded again, not forcing an answer from me."I always wanted to travel the world," he reached out to pluck a white flower growing just at the edge of our blanket and twirled it between his fingers, "I could play music in the cities I visit along the way and see everything there is."
I couldn't keep the smile from my lips as I finally turned my body onto my side to face him, "Your dream is to be a traveling minstrel?"
"Well when you put it that way, it doesn't sound nearly as exciting," he laughed, picking the leaves off of the stem of the flower in his hands. Then he leaned toward me, as if sharing a secret, "Did you know just to the east and south of this continent, there are shifters who take feline form and not wolf?"
I rolled my eyes, "Everyone knows that, but good luck finding any of them, they're as elusive as the animals they take the form of, and twice as wary of outsiders."
"Must you crush my dreams?" I might have fallen for the frown on his lips, if it weren't for the dimple that had appeared on his cheek.
I rolled my eyes again, letting us drift back into silence and thinking of how strange the night had turned out. I wasn't sure what to expect from a 'date' with Angelo, I had never been on a date before in my life, really, unless dinner with Franco in my foyer counted. But, something about this time with Angelo filled me with a strange emotion that was as hard to place as it was unexpected.
"Angelo?" I asked a few minutes later.
"Hmm?" He murmured, turning back over to face me again, eyes glittering in the light of the moon.
"How old are you?" The question had come to me as I realized just how little I truly knew of my mate. Certainly not enough to be able to predict his actions, a fact that has been made blatantly obvious to me countless times over as I tried to do just that.
"Careful, princess," he warned, a cheeky grin finding its way to his face, "ask too many personal questions, and I might just start to think you don't hate me after all."
I groaned, "You're insufferable, forget I asked."
He laughed at that, the rich sound of it echoing through the clearing, "I was only teasing you," he reached out to poke my cheek where I was trying, to no avail, to keep from allowing my lips to tilt up into another smile. "I'm twenty-three."
I finally gave in and allowed myself to give him a genuine smile, watching in fascination as the teasing look he had been giving me momentarily fell from his face replaced by one I couldn't place. His hand reached across the space between us, tucking the little white flower he had been playing with behind my ear as my heart pounded out a thunderous beat in my chest. His words were as soft as the petals of the flower he had given me, "I like your smile."
It was then that the emotion that I had been feeling finally became clear to me.
I was actually enjoying myself.
~*~
I was still smiling as I returned to my rooms, the little piece of paper with Angelo's new clue sitting safely in my pocket, though the two words scribbled across the page were not the most useful. It was a name, and a rather common name at that, with nothing else to help narrow down the search. He was going to make me really work for every scrap of information I weaseled out of him, but at least it was a push in the right direction. The smile soon dropped from my lips when I discovered Franco waiting for me, pacing before the lit hearth.
He looked unkempt in a way that I had never seen on him before. His hair was sticking up in odd angles as if he had been tugging on it in frustration, and half of his dress shirt was untucked from his pants. If he noticed how he must look, he gave no sign. "Franco?" I asked, tentatively, "Is everything alright?"
He looked up at me then, and I saw that his eyes were not the forest green that I was so accustomed to, but instead the green-grey of his wolf form. I immediately went into high alert.
He didn't seem to notice my apprehension as his eyes came to rest on my figure by the door. "Giules," he breathed, the relief in his voice nearly overwhelming as he rushed to stand before me.
"Franco?" I asked again as he took my hands in his trembling fingers. "You're worrying me, what's the matter? Are you hurt?"
He released my hands from his grip to continue his pacing, bringing his up to rub the palms into his eyes. "No," but there was a touch of bitterness to the word. When he pulled his palms from his eyes, I noticed how bloodshot they were, as if he had rubbed them that way many times while he waited for me. "I know, you're probably the last person I should be talking to about this, but I'm losing my mind right now and you've always been the only one in this castle I can talk to."
All of the stiffness left my body at his words and I crossed to where he stood, grabbing his shoulders in my hands to halt his ceaseless moving, "I'm always here for you, Franco, but you need to explain to me what is going on."
"There were so many people," he said, grabbing his head in his hands, "So many. I didn't see her face, I didn't see her at all." He shrugged out of my hands to resume pacing again, and I could only stand and watch him in despair. "She just bumped my arm in the crowd as she walked by. How will I ever find her if I don't know what she looks like? She could be anyone, anywhere."
My brows furrowed, "Who?"
He stopped pacing to look at me then through eyes I hardly recognized, and said the phrase I had never wanted to hear from his lips, "I found my mate."
~*~*~
Here we go y'all, one more chapter to go until the halfway point and things are only just starting to heat up!
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Until next time!