A Royal Rose

Chapter Sixteen

Blood trickled from a small gash on Easton’s forehead, the sight of it sent shivers down Rose’s spine, she couldn’t bear to see him hurt and kissed the unhurt side of his head softly.

“I’m so glad you’re alright. Lux and I thought you were done for when Mara had you trapped in all that water!” Easton said, holding her close to him and stroking her blonde hair as they embraced. Rose loved being so close to him, his chest against her cheek and the woody smell of his neck.

“I’m so glad my mother arrived! If it wasn’t for her, I dread to think. I’ve just had the biggest hug with her to thank her for saving me. I think she’s talking to the newspapers now” Rose replied.

“Sorry I didn’t do anything, I froze, and Lux was cowering behind me in fear. My sister hates confrontation.” Easton apologized.

“It’s fine, honestly, what’s done is done and hopefully that’ll be the end of it all!” Rose said, scratching her chest. Strangely, she could feel an itch in her bra, something small and grainy was falling into her bra. Investigating, she reached into her bra and pinched a small amount of the grainy material in between her fingertips. Bringing it up to eye level she examined it closely to see it was green and looked like fine herbs.

“Oh, no…. Mother…! Come look at this!” Rose called; her voice audibly worried.

Aine span around from her conversation with a random man in a fedora style hat. “Coming!” her mother said as she walked over, making apologies and quickly finishing her conversation.

Showing Easton and her mother in the nearby light from a lantern, Rose held the glass locket up into the air, it had a small c***k with a tiny hole in the front of it and watched some herb fall out of it. “It is broken, it must have happened when she tried to suffocate me,” she said as she gave it to her mother to get a closer look. Aine took the locket to examine the damage. “I hope it can be repaired. What if it cannot? I’ll have to go back” Rose panicked.

After examining the locket for a minute or two, and trying various tricks with her wand, Aine said with a sigh, “It was only meant to last a short while and I was hoping that when the magic was wearing off to ask you to choose whether you wanted to return back to the human world or not. Now you’ll have to choose sooner than I planned…”

Looking around at the people around her, Rose knew her decision, this was the place she wanted to be “What happens now?”

“You’ll have to go to the veil at sunrise and go into the Fae Church tree. Inside is a magical stone that you must touch to be made Fae/human. The same one used on Choosing Day”

“But what about the locket? Will the magic last till sunrise? Can we repair it temporarily?”

“You could my darling, but the magic has been affected, it will wear off at some point in the next six or so hours. Here” Aine said, waving her wand and glueing the glass together, “This should hold in the contents, but you will have to watch what you do between now and sunrise”. Rose thanked her mother, but she had a sinking feeling in her chest. What about her belongings in the human world? What if Sarah had reported her missing? She thought

“What about my human life? What about my things? Won’t people notice I’m gone?” Rose asked.

“You can go back to collect them - you go through back the veil of Faeries; I will get a bird who will drop you home – the second you remove your locket you will be human again. Take the belongings you can carry and come back to the Holt. Most Fae retain their memories of the Holt for twenty-four hours, but they fade slowly hour by hour until you cannot remember being Fae. This happens to a Fae on Choosing Day too so we can protect our secret. However, you are a Faeman, half human and I haven’t got a clue how long your memories will last. Could be twelve hours… could be three… it could even be 24 hours. Whatever you do, you’ll have to collect them, and you will have to act fast or you’ll be in danger of forgetting us.”

Rose lifted her head back in exasperation, “If I leave and don’t make it back before I forget the Holt or my way back - I risk never seeing you again?”. Holding Easton’s hand tightly, she thought about everything I don’t want to go back to my old life, back to the bedsit with the six days a week factory packing job, never meeting anyone that was even a patch on what I felt for Easton and most importantly, forgetting her mother – being loved by someone again unconditionally. A tear slid down her cheek, wiping it away Rose could feel how sore her face was from her run-in with Mara. The salt from her tears stung a scratch on her cheek. Easton who was stood next to Rose saw she was upset, and he pulled her in close for another cuddle.

Aine held her arms out for a hug and Rose broke away from Easton to cuddle her mother. “I’m sorry darling. I really am” Aine told her daughter, “If you stay here, your memories and existence will be magically removed from the human world. You don’t have to go back if you don’t want to, you could touch the stone once and then again straight afterwards. Your belongings would disappear and your existence in the human world would too so you wouldn’t need to go back. However, you can’t magic your belongings back. Not unless you physically brought them back with you through the veil in your human-sized hands” Aine told her daughter.

“The only things I’m wanting to keep that are precious to me that I couldn’t bear to lose are a picture of my grandparents and father holding me. I also have a pair of my father’s cufflinks. I didn’t manage to leave my old house with much more than I could carry back then but I made sure I had those. I’m sorry if that seems daft!”

“Not at all my darling, I look forward to seeing your father’s face again… embarrassingly, I can’t recall it much from our encounter, but he must have been handsome to have helped me create something as beautiful as you”

Smiling back at her mother, she said, “Let’s go to this magic stone then. I’m ready.”

The sky was pitch black now and the little lanterns hanging from nearby trees lit the way through the Holt. It was shadowy and slightly chilly thanks to the light breeze. Walking from outside of the palace and the pool of Mara’s blood, the three of them walked to the edge of the Holt and towards the sparkling, shimmering curtain of light. It reminded Rose of a curtain of Christmas lights and every time she saw the veil; she admired its beauty. Aine interrupted Rose’s thoughts as she whistled loudly, and an owl flew down landing beside them.

The owl was a beautiful creature, Rose had never seen one this close before, it hopped around them. Aine reached out and stroked its neck. “You have to get the bird’s trust. I still cannot believe my beloved Merula is dead” Aine said, her eyes filled with tears as she fussed the owl in front of her.

Rose mounted the bird and held on tightly to its feathers. “I wish Merula was still alive too…” she said sadly. Aine stroked the other side of the owl’s neck and the sad look in her mother’s eyes they were all red and bloodshot, “Thank you for saving me earlier. If I don’t manage to come back. Know that this small period of my life has been the best I’ve experienced” she told her mother.

Aine looked at her with a smile, “You will return. I have every faith in you”

Easton came up to the side of the bird and pulled Rose gently to one side “Time moves differently here Rose” he said, “One hour in the human world is a few days here. I am gonna miss you so much. Just in case things don’t go to plan, I love you”. Easton removed his silver signet ring and offered it to Rose. The ring was a chunky one with a monogrammed design on it, from what she could see in the dim light it was an expensive piece of jewellery.

Slipping the ring onto her finger she beamed, “I love you too!” and suddenly, the small owl took off the ground and soared off through the veil into the foggy night.