And there was one outcast walking with the group of guards, she noticed. A sad, little girl with tight, brown curls and a doll-like complexion. Charlotte frowned at this familiar face.
Aiden swung open the door to her bedroom and flung her to the ground. He glared at her. “You can’t leave this room until we are married.” Charlotte noticed in his angry young face he was hiding some other emotion. Flashes of fear colored his eyes.
“Charlotte, I will not lose you again.” He spoke more softly, but instead of leaving, he stepped closer to her, closing the door behind him.
She scurried away, tripping over herself to the bed, afraid. But Aiden’s long legs were quickly moving in on her again, grabbing her by the back of her dress, spinning her around to face him. He cupped her face in his hands and violently pressed his mouth to hers. She tried to pull away, crying out in protest.
“You’ve always defied me, Charlotte.” He pushed her down on the bed with his body. “The whole time I watched you grow up, you were impossible to control.”
Hot tears streamed down her face as a distantly familiar pair of blue eyes flashed in her mind. They belonged to those hands. That was who she really loved. Realization slammed into her. A Vampire, she thought. That was what bothered her so badly this morning. She was sure of it. Memories began flooding back to her instantly as she grasped her necklace again.
Aiden removed his jacket, throwing it to the floor. He was over her again, forcing his lips against hers. She tried to pull her face away, but his large hands kept it there. He started to undo the front of her dress.
Just then, the door to the chamber swung open, causing Aiden to immediately pull away from Charlotte, who remained like stone on the bed.
In the doorway, a petite woman appeared. She was dressed in the garnet-colored uniform of the palace, and in her hands was a silver tray.
“Lunch!” the melodic little voice rang out. Curls poked out from all sides of the handkerchief across her head.
Charlotte, upon recognizing that voice, sat straight up in her bed. She knew who this face belonged to. She opened her mouth to yell her name, but the Witch brought a single finger to her lips to quiet her.
Distracted, Aiden ran a hand across his bangs. “Y-yes,” he began nervously.
“Good.” She turned back to Charlotte. “Well, Charlotte, I trust you will obey me from now on. I will see you tomorrow.” He turned on his heel and left the room.
As soon as the door closed, Sarah dropped the empty tray, sprinted over to Charlotte and wrapped her in her small, delicate arms, and Charlotte did so in return. Sarah could not say anything, but merely began to sob.
“Sarah…” Charlotte started, running her hand up and down her back, astounded she actually remembered this person’s name. “Sarah, I’m here. It’s okay.”
Sarah looked into Charlotte’s cleaned face, wiping at her eyes. “It’s not okay, Charlotte! They have captured us! They’ll kill us tomorrow morning unless we find a way to get out of here.”
Charlotte reached for her whistle again. “You gave me this,” she said.
“No. Valek gave it to you. But I gave it back before you were taken. It protects against Elven magic,” she explained through sobs. “It causes it to wear off.”
Charlotte reached around her neck and unclasped the thing in her hand. There was that name again. “Who is Valek?”
Sarah looked mystified at her. “Valek. The one you are fated to.” She grabbed Charlotte’s hand and turned it over, pointing out the lines there. “Remember? Your father. Your lover.”
It slowly came back to Charlotte in small pieces. She continued to stare at the whistle.
“They put you under a spell, Charlotte, so you would forget. But it’ll all come back to you, I promise.”
“Here. You need this more than I do now. I was able to remember you because of this. You need to give this to the Vampire. Perhaps now it can protect him.”
Sarah smiled faintly before clasping the necklace around her own neck. She lowered her eyes. “I was so afraid we would not see you again,” she whispered, and took Charlotte’s hand in hers, turning it over again. “But I forgot what fate told me.”
Charlotte looked down at the lines in her palm once more. One of them began to shrivel and disappear, until only one of them was left. She looked, eyes wide, at Sarah, who was now smiling.
“The whistle protected you against Meredith Price’s spells. That fate line must have been placed there a long time ago by magic. It is fake.” Hope filled the place where fear had been living.
“And where is…?” Charlotte struggled to remember the name. “The one that I love?”
“Valek,” Sarah reminded. “The guards have placed the coven down in the dungeons until sunrise.”
“But I am getting married at sunrise,” Charlotte whispered.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Equinox
A full moon lifted high over the horizon, casting a diamond glow about the frost starting to cover the autumn leaves. It was the signal for the Autumnal Equinox — the beginning of the time of darkness. But the Regime would not let the dark take its rightful place on the throne now. Light would always rule over the world.
Aiden was still awake in his lonely bedchamber. He paced the stone floors, nervously glancing toward his empty bed every so often. In just a few hours he would be prime ruler of not only the secret, magic Occults, but the human race as well. The pressure weighed like a brick of lead on each shoulder, and he spread his arms out wide on the face of his desk. He looked at his reflection in the mirror on the far wall. He aged more and more each day. He looked back at the messy bedclothes from his sleepless night.
Charlotte was also still awake, dressing in one of the intricate dresses made for her by Meredith and the other wives of the high Wizards. The one she chose was one of the simpler ones — black. Sarah, who’d remained disguised in the palace keeper’s uniform, hurried her from the doorway. “Come on! Valek will be awake now.”
Sarah grabbed Charlotte by the wrist as the crept quietly down the pitch hallway, listening carefully for guard footsteps. The two made their way, ducking out from the torchlights that hung on the walls by dim tapestries.
“Do you know where you’re going?” Charlotte whispered.
“Stop!” a gruff voice shouted after them.
The two lurched and froze, turning to see an approaching guard. Charlotte’s heart leapt into her throat.
“Oh!” The guard straightened up, startled. “Pardon me, miss. I had not realized it was you.”
Charlotte and Sarah looked at each other. “Uh…yes,” Charlotte stammered. “Um…carry on. As you were.”
The guard nodded at her once before walking in the opposite direction.
They began again through the palace, down the stairways, through different corridors. They rounded one corner when their gaze met with a tall, cloaked figure slightly hunched, a metal claw protruding from one sleeve. He had his back to them and was speaking with Aiden’s father.
Sarah gasped. “That’s….”
Charlotte hushed her quickly as she strained to hear what the two were saying.
“That despicable little rat is clouding the mind of my heir, Danek,” Vladislov grumbled tiredly. “I want her dead not far after the wedding.”
“Understood, my liege. But if Aiden finds out, you may have another war on your hands.”
Charlotte covered her mouth to suppress any sort of noise.
“Aiden shall not find out. The girl will die by ‘natural causes’,” the High Wizard said. “As we agreed, Danek. The empire may have a new face, but I will see that my original law of keeping our existence a secret will live on forever.”