Lucky Charm (Reverse Fairytales Book 2)(10)

No one else noticed that my heart had nearly leapt out of my chest. The whole room seemed to go silent around me. He looked exactly how I remembered him except he was more careworn. Even from across the room I could see scars on his face, and even though he was fully covered from the neck down, I knew there would be more scars underneath. I wanted to jump up and run to him, but how could I? No one knew about us. He wasn’t even looking at me now.

Someone brought in a huge tureen of soup, and the waiters took it in turns to serve. First the king, then the queen. I watched where Cynder went, hoping that he would head straight to me.

“Charmaine!” I jumped at the sound of my name. Luca, sitting next to me, squeezed my hand. “You were daydreaming. Are you ok?”

I looked at Luca. “I’m fine...sorry,” I replied, feeling flustered.

“You were miles away.”

“I’m just tired after the journey,” I replied, yawning for good measure. “I’ll be fine.”

“I was just introducing you to Tomas and Seraphia.”

Tomas, Luca’s brother, nodded his head curtly, but Seraphia gave me a huge grin.

“And these two little monsters are Jacob and Michael.”

The two boys stuck their tongues out at me again, but I was too confused to care. Instead, I smiled at all of them at once and said hi.

A dish of soup was laid down next to me. I jerked my head to the side to see who had served it and found myself looking at a kindly old waiter who smiled at me. Looking back around the room, I saw that many of the waiters had already left, probably back to the kitchen to let us eat in peace. Cynder was one of them.

Why had he not served me? Was he mad at me? I could only assume he was. Why wouldn’t he be? I’d told him I loved him and then promptly gotten engaged to someone else. Even though I’d hired a private investigator to find him, he’d come up with nothing. Six months ago, Cynder had completely vanished into thin air. I wondered how many of those months he’d been here.

“It’s so lovely to meet you,” Seraphia leaned across the table and spoke directly to me. “We should meet up after dinner. I’ve been really looking forward to meeting the one that finally got Luca to settle down.”

“I’d like that,” I replied, absent-mindedly and went back to eating my soup. When the main courses came, I sat up straight, waiting for Cynder, but he never reappeared.

After we had finished eating, we were all invited into a small wood-paneled room for drinks. A fire roared at one end with a couple of leather sofas and two matching leather chairs all pointing towards it in a kind of semi-circle. The smell of the burning logs filled my nostrils as a glass of whiskey was thrust into my hand by Theron.

I saw Seraphia winging her way towards me, but it was Luca that got my attention by pulling me back outside to the hallway.

“What’s the matter?” he barked.

“Nothing. Why?”

“You’ve been acting strange all during dinner. You barely said a word to anyone. It’s not like you.”

I immediately felt bad. He was right. I’d been so caught up in Cynder that I’d not paid attention to anything going on around me.

“I’m sorry. I’m always nervous around people I don’t know. I guess I felt overwhelmed.” It was partly the truth. “I’ll go back in there and talk to everyone.”

“Thank you.” His voice softened. “My parents love you. You know that. I want Tomas and Seraphia to love you too.”

“I’ll try,” I promised, turning towards the door. Luca pulled me back around and tugged me into an embrace. His tongue teased my lips apart, but I resisted.

“Not here,” I said, pulling back. Your family is in there.”

“So?”

“So, we should go and talk to them.”

He looked so downhearted, and yet, I couldn’t bring myself to pretend. I’d made a promise to myself to visit him in his room that night, but now that I’d seen Cynder, I knew I’d not be able to bring myself to do it.

When I went back into the parlor, I was the life and soul of the party. It was my way of making up for everything. I hated that Luca was disappointed in me. He deserved better. I sipped lightly on my whiskey, hoping the burning sensation it produced would drown out the pain I was feeling inside. King Theron grabbed my waist and pulled me into a sideways hug, almost crushing me in his bearlike arms. All the while, he jovially talked to the others about how proud he was that Luca had finally found the right girl.

I’d not really noticed it when we were sitting around the table earlier, but he’d used the same word that Seraphia had. “Finally.” Both of them had used it when describing Luca. It was almost as if they thought that Luca would never settle down.

After quite a number of whiskeys on Theron’s part, I was finally able to escape his clutches. He was being nothing but lovely to me, but after drinking so much, he was beginning to repeat himself. I think he was more excited about our wedding than my mother was, and that was saying something.

I walked across the room, glad to be away from the oppressive heat of the fire. Seraphia took the opportunity and came over to me.

“Don’t you like whiskey either?” she asked, nodding at my still mostly full glass. “Theron never asks, he just gives you alcohol. I think if everyone else drinks it, it makes him feel better about drinking so much of it himself. Would you prefer some champagne because I know I would.”