Sign of the Throne: Book One in the Solas Beir Trilogy (23 page)

Then he heard someone calling her name. “Abby?” The woman’s voice drifted down to them from the patio.

“Oh no,” Abby whispered as she pulled away from David’s embrace. She smiled apologetically. “I have to go. Thanks for the dance.” She whirled away and up the steps.

“Wait,” David called after her. But she was gone.

Out of breath from hurrying, Abby reached the top of the steps where Cassandra was waiting.

“Oh!” Cassandra exclaimed, looking surprised by Abby’s sudden appearance. “Hi, Abby. It’s almost midnight and Moira is getting tired. We need to get her home.”

“I understand,” Abby said.

David appeared from behind Abby and placed his hand on the small of her back. He held out her shoes, the ankle straps hooked over one finger. “You forgot these.”

Cassandra looked from the shoes down to Abby’s bare feet, and then back up to Abby’s face. Abby grinned sheepishly.

“Actually, Cassandra,” David continued, “I can see Abby safely home.” He met Abby’s eyes. “If she wants to stay.”

Abby smiled. “I’d love to stay a little longer.”

Cassandra nodded. “No problem. Jon and Marisol are staying a bit longer too. Well, have a nice night.”

“Thanks, Cassandra—I had a wonderful evening,” Abby said.

“I’m glad,” Cassandra replied. Winking, she turned and walked back into the ballroom, pulling the French doors shut behind her.

“No curfew?” David asked.

“No, my parents trust me,” Abby said. “I’ve always been self-regulating—I don’t even think they ever set a bedtime for me. I was just one of those kids who got tired and went to bed at a reasonable hour.”

“Really? You must have been an easy kid to live with.”

Abby shrugged. “I guess so. Come to think of it, I don’t think they ever grounded me either. I think I actually grounded
myself once, and my mother told me to go outside and play.”

“Wow,” David
chuckled, taking her hand. “I had no idea I was in the presence of a saint.”

“Hardly,” Abby laughed.

“Oh?” There was that eyebrow thing of his again.

“I can be delinquent,” Abby said.

“
Sure
you can,” David teased.

“No really, I can,” she insisted.

“Careful—I’ll make you prove it.” He slipped his arms around her waist. His eyes burned into hers.

She held his gaze, daring him. “Go ahead,” she tempted.

“Maybe I will,” he replied, and pulled her closer to him. She could feel the warmth of his hands on her skin as he held her tight against his chest. Her pulse quickened. He leaned in close, his lips grazing her neck. “But not tonight,” he whispered in her ear.

Her pulse slowed. She pulled away and looked up at him, pouting teasingly. “You’re no fun.”

David laughed and shook his head in disbelief. “Take a walk with me?”

She smiled. “I’d love to.”

He took her hand, and they moved to a stone bench on the edge of the patio. “Here, you’ll need these.” He held out the shoes again. She sat down on the bench and he bent down on one knee. She raised her skirt so her feet were visible under the yards of fabric. He held her foot by the heel in one hand and slipped on the shoe with the other.

“The glass slipper—it fits!” he gasped in mock surprise.

So he’s cheesy too.
Abby didn’t even mind the cliché.

“And I don’t even have to run away at the stroke of midnight,” she said, trying to be cool and not the giggling dork who threatened to reveal herself at his every touch. She succeeded—mostly—as he slipped on the second shoe and buckled the straps.

“So there
is
magic in the air,” David said with a goofy grin, pulling her to her feet. He took her into his arms and kissed her forehead.

Then, taking Abby’s hand, David turned toward an opening in the wall of red and pink oleanders that marked the entrance to the inn’s garden; passing through, they entered a charming path. Wooly thyme filled the gaps between the path’s flagstones, creeping over the surface of the stones like
a velvet carpet. They passed under a pergola covered in a canopy of yellow roses and made their way to the center of the garden.

Their route was lit by white lights twinkling among the silvery green leaves of the olive trees lining the twisting path; the branches of the ancient, gnarled trees arched high over the flagstone. The garden was lush, the grounds covered with a variety of shade-loving plants. Blue hydrangea, pink foxglove, and wide-leaved hosta were thriving in the shelter of lavender crepe myrtle and white oleander trees, and ivy was creeping up the trunks of the trees into the branches. The moist sea air carried the fragrance of flowers.

At the center of the garden was a circular Spanish colonial fountain. Bubbling water coursed musically over stones into a pool that reflected the lights in the trees like shimmering stars.

David led Abby to the fountain and encircled her in his arms. “So…” he began.

“So…?” Abby smiled, waiting.

David furrowed his brow. “So, I need to tell you something.”

“Okay.” The sudden seriousness in his voice worried her.

“I think I—” He stopped mid-sentence. “I don’t know how to say this,” he said, frustrated.

“It’s okay—whatever it is, I won’t judge you,” Abby said.

David looked at her, doubtful. She smiled, trying to reassure him.

“All right—here it is, dramatic as it may sound. I think I’m having an identity crisis,” he said.

“How so?” Abby asked.

“Well, I thought I had my life figured out,” David admitted. “You know how I told you that all my life my father has been grooming me to join his firm, to head up one of the branches?”  Abby nodded. “I finished school last spring, went off on my own over the summer to travel, and then…” He paused, as if he were unsure he should continue.

“Then?” she prompted.

“Then I came home and met you,” he finished.

“Oh.”
What does that mean?
Abby thought, frowning.

“No, don’t get me wrong—I’m
glad
I did,” David reassured her, caressing her cheek. “The thing is, the first time I saw you, it was like something in my mind shook loose. Like there is something really important I need to remember, but I just can’t. I started thinking about my life, this plan that has always been laid out for me, that I’ve always accepted but never actually consented to, and I thought, is this it? Is this all there is? Suddenly everything about my life felt so surreal—totally strange and foreign. You were the only thing that felt familiar—like you’re an anchor to something more, something real.”

Abby was silent, thinking.
Do I tell him now? Say, ‘You know, it’s the funniest thing—the reason you feel that way is you’re the only heir to the throne in a world you don’t even know exists. Your aunt kidnapped you as a baby and kept you from your destiny as a supercharged hero, complete with all kinds of cool powers. You’re super strong, practically invincible, and I think you can even fly. Oh, and just a heads-up—if you don’t return home soon, evil creatures are going to take over the world and kill us all. Good luck with that.’ No, that’s not going to freak him out at all…

He was staring at her. “Abby?”

Okay, baby steps,
Abby thought.
Forgive the detour, Eulalia—relationship first, then destiny.
“So, it sounds like you’re having this internal conflict—but what about London? Are you still going to move there?”

“Maybe. Maybe not,” he said. “I’m supposed to get on a plane in two days, but I don’t want to go anymore.”

“Why not?” she asked.

David looked at her. Sighing, he cupped her face in his hands, pressing his forehead against hers. “Don’t you know?”

Abby placed her hands over his. She closed her eyes. “Maybe. But tell me anyway.”

“Because of
you
,” he said. He kissed her forehead again, and Abby opened her eyes to look at him. “I know it’s crazy. I mean, we haven’t known each other very long—”

“I don’t think it’s crazy,” Abby said, shaking her head. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek.

David smiled. “That’s good. But my parents would think it’s crazy, which is why I haven’t told them anything yet. I really like you, and that’s part of why I don’t want to leave.”

“I like you too,” she said. “And I don’t want you to leave. But you said that liking me is only part of it. What’s the other part?”

“The other part is the
really
crazy part,” David said. “When I met you, it was like I’d seen you before, like I’d always known you, when I know,
I know,
I hadn’t. I couldn’t make sense of it. And all of a sudden, leaving felt wrong. I just had this sense of dread I couldn’t explain. And then you were wearing this,” he gestured to the silver seashell on the chain around her neck, “and I knew we were somehow connected—that what I feel is real.”

She reached up automatically to
touch the Sign of the Throne. “You said you’d seen my necklace before. Did you remember where?” she asked.

“I did,” he said. “I have a pendant just like that at home. But I don’t know where it came from. I never used to dream as a kid, but one night, I had this horrible nightmare—some kind of monster was in my room. When I woke the next morning, the silver seashell was under my pillow. I asked my parents about it, but they had no idea what I was talking about. They swore they didn’t put it there and probably figured I made the whole thing up. I put it in a dresser drawer and forgot all about it until I saw your necklace.”

“And you still have it?”

David nodded. “Yes. It’s still there.”

“Did anything else strange happen?” Abby asked.

“No, that’s just it,” he said. “Everything in my life has been perfect—too perfect. I don’t remember any other weird experiences. At all. I feel like my whole life has been some kind of dream, like I’ve been in a…a fog for the past twenty-two years. I don’t think anything bad,
truly
bad
,
has ever happened to me. I’ve never broken a bone—I don’t even recall ever being sick.”

“Everyone gets sick sometimes,” Abby said. “Everyone has bad things happen.”

“I know,” David said. “Everyone but me. It’s like my life isn’t even real. Like it’s all been scripted, contrived.”

Now’s your chance, Abby.
Abby didn’t know if that was her own thought or Eulalia’s, but she understood—it was time. “David, do you trust me?”

He reached up and gently brushed away a stray curl that had fallen into her face, and then looked into her eyes. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

“What if—what if I know what’s happening to you?” she asked. “What if I told you a story that may be really hard to believe but is true? Absolutely true.”

David looked unsure. “I guess I’m at the point where I need some answers.”

“Then promise me—just listen and don’t freak out,” Abby said.

“Okay,” David nodded. “I promise. No freaking out.”

“All right,” Abby said, staring into his eyes, willing him to believe her. “Then you should know that you weren’t exactly adopted.”

“What?” he asked. He had been holding her close, but then, as the shock registered on his face, she felt his arms go slack, his hands settling loosely around her waist. That couldn’t be good.

Still, she had to press forward. “You were stolen,” she said.

He stepped backward, away from her arms. “What?!”

“But not by your parents—they just found you and then had to pretend to adopt you—they didn’t know that you were kidnapped.” Abby stopped, realizing she was making things worse. “You promised not to freak out,” she said.
Like that helps,
she thought.
He
is
freaking out. I screwed up. Again.

David stared at her intently, his arms crossed over his chest. “And you said you were going to tell me the truth.”

“I
am
telling you the truth,” she pleaded, stepping toward him. “I swear I am.”

David studied Abby’s face. Again, she willed him to please,
please
believe her.

“Sorry,” he said, “it’s just…no, I’m sorry. Continue. Please.” He put his arms around her again.

“Okay,” Abby said, relieved that he wasn’t going to run away. “I
know
this sounds crazy. I do. But I swear to you, what you have been led to believe about your life is
not
true. It all started…wait…” Abby paused. Out of the corner of her eye, she had seen something move in the olive tree on the other side of the fountain.

There was a dark shadow perched on a branch. Abby stared hard, and then recoiled when she realized that the dark silhouette had a feline shape, and that two of the twinkling lights in the tree were glowing red. Abby shivered with fear.

“Abby, what’s wrong?” David stared at her and then looked quickly behind him, following her gaze. “What are you looking at?”