First Kiss (21 page)

I can almost see him vibrating. He
swings his hand behind him, smashing a hole in the wall next to him. It makes
me gasp, and somehow the smile doesn’t flee with the fear that follows the
breaking of the wall. “What are you doing?”

He lowers his face and I realize
provoking him is a bad idea. Of course it’s too late when it dawns on me he
isn’t normal. In my panic I jump him, grabbing his trembling face in my hands
and press my lips against his. I feel one of his arms sweep around me, lifting
me off of the ground and pulling me into him. He falls back into the wall,
crunching the plaster slightly. He growls into the kiss, nipping at my lips a
little. His kiss draws a bit of blood. I can taste it in our mouths.

He pushes me off of him, tossing me
onto the bed with a thud. I watch as his twitching skin rips from his body and
he jumps out of the window half changed. I rush across the room, past the
puddle of blood on the floor.

I look down at it.

It’s not red. I forget the wolf out the
window and run to the table in the entrance of the room. I grab a letter opener
and run back to the puddle.

My breaths are leaving me in heaves.

I slice the blade down my palm,
watching as my black blood runs down my hand. Our blood matches. I drop to my
knees, staring at the design it makes on the floor. His blood seeks mine out,
forming half of a heart. Mine does the same and together they are a whole one.

A black one.

Chapter Eighteen

He doesn’t come back, and once it’s
dark I realize they will be coming for me. I dress in the gown that was left
for me and pull on the mask. Stepping back to look in the mirror, I am stunned
at what I see.

The girl singing for money in the bar
is so far from where and who I am. I don’t even know if I know her anymore.

In front of me is a beautiful woman
with shiny red hair and a flawless face. My cream gown and mask are stunning.
They match with gold embroidery. The mask also has pink hues on the sides and a
bright pink feather. It’s stunning. I am stunning.

I wish someone who knew me, the old me,
could see it. There is nothing worse than becoming something and no one knowing
it.

The door opens. I turn to see the lady
who brought me here. She scowls from behind her mask, “Where is the prince?”

I look at the window, “He went out. He
will be back—needed some fresh air.” I look back at her, or rather the
gold necklace in her hands. “The king asked me to bring this for you to wear.
He assumed your jewels were also stolen.”

I nod, “You are too kind.”

“It wasn’t me, it was the king.”

I almost laugh at how quickly she shot
that from her mouth. She detests me, or well, Baylor. Of course Baylor isn’t
Baylor. What a mess. I lift my hair so she can put it on.
 
It’s cold when it touches my skin. She
does the clasp up and looks at me in the mirror, “So beautiful.”

I shake my head, “You are the beauty in
the room. I adore that gown.”

She looks down at it in the mirror,
“This old thing?”

I chuckle, “It’s beautiful.”

She offers me her arm in an awkward
way, “Shall I escort you down then?” I laugh, “Please. I would hate for this
gown to be wasted on the room. Is it yours?”

She nods, “It is.” I can see in her
look that it was her new gown for the evening. The king forced her to give it
to me. I feel bad. Her dark hair would have looked stunning with it.

I stop, realizing suddenly there used
to be a queen here. I ask, “Where is the queen?”

Her jaw drops. I know Baylor would know
this and try to recover, “Her grave? Sorry. I meant where is she, to pay my
respects.”

“The cemetery, her ashes were placed in
the ground with a white ash tree.”

I try to act like I know all about it
and smile, “I will have to pay my respects.”

She doesn’t look convinced. I’ve blown
it badly. I place a hand on my head, “I still feel so dizzy from being knocked
out. I hope that goes away quickly.”

Her bright eyes grow less suspicious.
“Of course, your head injury. Perhaps you should wait for the prince to
return.”

I open the door for us both, “No,
that’s fine. I’m confident he will be here soon.” Of course he’ll be a scarred
mess. I need to find him. Considering I have never had a cell phone, I find it
amusing the first place I desperately need one is here in Norland.

We slip down the stairs and through the
halls until we reach the ballroom. It’s disturbingly large. The king is
standing off to the
side,
I would know him with or
without his mask. He’s laughing and slapping a man on the back. He is jovial
and bold and makes my knees weak. The lady on my arm leans into me, “He does
that to me too.”

I smile, “Am I so obvious?”

Her eyes sparkle, “More so since your
head injury. I dare say he will finally steal you from the prince tonight.”

I laugh but cry inside.
Of course.
My mother in her Baylor suit has probably already
had him. He is instantly less appealing. Sharing men with my mother is possibly
the worst fate I could ever imagine.

And as he glances at me, I am getting a
visual of them together and grimacing. He crosses the room in two steps, I
swear. “Are you all right?”

I frown at him, “I’m fine.”

He starts to laugh, “Oh, good to see
you’re back to being your usual self. I almost missed how cross you are at just
breathing air most days.” He gives me a glance, “Your dress is
perfect
—you look stunning.” He looks at the lady who
is clearly in love with him and nods, “I’ll take her from here.”

The lady gives me a soft smile and
leaves us. She seems humble around him, compared to how she was in the
carriage. Perhaps attacking Bash was her way of getting back at me for the
obvious attraction the king has for my mother/Baylor.

“Where is your betrothed?”

I sigh and look around, “I had hoped he
was downstairs, but I guess not.”

“Then I have the moment to tell you how
much I enjoyed our evening the last time you visited.”

I almost gag but he saves me. “You
shoving me away and denying me has only increased my fervor. I know you wanted
the kingdoms to align, but I want you more than anything else.”

I give him a stern look, “Your land is
falling apart. Brigands have taken control of the woods surrounding this once
strong kingdom.”

His bright-blue eyes burn beneath his
black mask. “You think being bold with me will chase me off, but you couldn’t
be more wrong. Us men in the North, we like our women strong.” His hand finds
its way to my stomach, but low on my abdomen. “They have to be strong to birth
our future men.”

I almost laugh in his face, but the
whole thing is actually sort of hot as well as a little pathetic. His wife has
died and he is holed up in his castle drinking and seducing women out of grief.
I almost feel a little sorry for him. He can’t be much older than I am, and he
is a widower. “How old are you?” The words leave my mouth—stumble
actually.

He smiles again and I can see the devil
in it. “Twenty-seven on my last birthday. And you are what—just turned
nineteen?”

I smile back, “Something like that.”

His eyes twinkle and he doesn’t move
back from the close encounter we are having, regardless of how inappropriate it
is. My eyes leave his and I find myself looking for Bash.

The masks on the faces and the people
everywhere make it almost impossible for me to find him. But I do. He has a
slight limp and is making his way toward us. I see him nod his head and duck
into a room. I glance back up at the king, “Please excuse me for a moment.”

He nods and kisses my gloved hand. I
slide past him, almost the way Lune would and make my way to the room Bash
ducked into. I feel like I am sneaking into the room, it is so dark. I almost
don’t see him, except for the fact he is standing in the window under the
moonlight. I rush to him, “Are you okay?”

He nods, slipping his hand under my
chin and pulling me to meet his lips in the dark. I close my eyes and savor the
feeling of us there, together. I think I actually sigh into his mouth. I can
feel him smile against my face as his scars heal. “Did you miss me, Lynnie?”

I nod and lay my face against his
chest. “The king has been trying to seduce my mother all this time so he thinks
I’m her and playing hard to get with him.”

He chuckles, “My cousin is aggressive
in his pursuit of women.”

I look up at him, “Your cousin?”

He nods, “My father and his were
brothers, also twins. They run in the family. So their father split the
kingdom, making two lands for his boys to rule. It was a mistake. The two parts
of the country relied on each other. Now we are forced to trade and what not.
Hence the reason my brother and Baylor are supposed to come here tonight. There
are talks of uniting the kingdom again, but I cannot imagine what my brother
has that will make Erik agree.”

“I can.”

My statement makes his hands tighten
around me, “Well, that’s not up for discussion unless we give him your mother.”

“No. We have to strip her of her powers
first.”

Bash kisses the top of my head, leaning
into me. “We have to find our siblings. They are coming here tonight. The mask
was my cousin’s idea of a celebration that my brother wore my father down on
giving him the title and announcing their wedding date.”

“What do we do if they show up?”

He pulls back and gives me a look, “I
am to be the king of my land. I will tell Eric I came to visit and assumed he
knew I was alive and well. I assumed father sent word yesterday when we
arrived. “

He grabs my hand and pulls me back to
the party. “Don’t be Baylor here—be the girl who saved my life. Norland
is massive and Erik has been in mourning for a while. He has no idea about what
is going on around here, and Sam is a very common name here. Don’t volunteer
the information but don’t pretend to be Baylor.”

“Okay.”

We enter the party again and instantly
he pulls me to the king. Erik opens his arms, “Cousin, you are well, I
presume?”

Bash slaps him on the arm and does a
half hug. “I am. This is quite the party.”

“It’s all for you.”

Bash doesn’t have a chance to say
anything. Erik turns to me, “May I have a dance with your betrothed?”

Bash shakes his head, “I would give you
anything I have, the shirt off my back if you wished it. But this,” he nods at
me, “I will not give this—ever.” He gives a smile that matches Erik’s and
leads me to the dance floor as Erik blasts a laugh.

When we are standing on the dance
floor, waiting for the song to start, he gives me a look. “You even give him
one sideways glance, and I will lose it. I’ll end up eating everyone in here.”

A scowl crosses my face, “Don’t
threaten me,
Bash
. I didn’t do anything.”

“You found him attractive, I saw it.
You were staring at him like you do Sam.”

I scoff, “The furnishings in the place
find him attractive. You probably find him attractive. He is like a movie star,
on the box with the stories.”

His face is stoic. “Are you mocking me?
Imagine going to a place where nothing makes sense and everything is a wonder.”

I shake my head, “I went too,
remember?”

He rolls his gray eyes and pulls me
into him as the dance starts. I don’t recall the steps perfectly, but I have to
admire his ability to dance. It’s remarkable. “You remember it so well?”

He laughs, “Our mother made us learn
them again and again. She told us one day we would be face to face with the
woman we would marry, and it would be unlikely we would be in love and that
dancing might be able to help.”

“She is a smart lady, the queen.”

He spins me and slips me back into his
arms, “She was married to a man who she didn’t know.”

I can’t help but grin at him, “That
could have been your fate.”

“Could have been, but fortunately I am
marrying the person I love the most in the world.”

My heart soars, and in that moment, I
could almost forget it all, minus of course the fact I am only twenty and
marrying someone sounds insane. But in this world I am almost an old maid. “The
most in the whole world?”

He nods and dances me around. Seeing
him behind a mask is intriguing. A mask that is different than his scars. We
finish the dance and he leads me back to his cousin. I don’t see a resemblance
between them.

Erik is charming a woman and drinking
from a cup that seems to never end. He and Bash laugh and joke. I watch as Bash
drinks as heavily but doesn’t seem to get drunk. He must be like me. A glass of
mulled wine is passed to me from a tray. When I put it to my lips, I smile. It
tastes like Heidi’s, and I can’t help but wonder how she is. The past days have
been strange for me.

I
watch
as
Erik gets louder and sloppier. He’s like the teenagers I drank with. The black
blood must be what makes us impervious to alcohol. It must come from his mother’s
side of the family.

I finish my glass of wine and try to
stifle a yawn but am unsuccessful. I haven’t slept much. My eyes are heavy and
I have that twitchy feeling I get when I’m over tired. I make my way to the
room he had hidden in with his scars beneath his mask, and curl up in a chair.
I give up the fight to keep my eyes open as my mind wanders. His blood matched
mine. He drank loads of wine, and yet, acted no different. He is like me. Could
we be related? The thought is the last thing on my mind as I fall asleep.