Forbidden

Chapter Eight - The Guy on the Balcony (part 2)

    Upon entering the center of the forest, Lilith’s was instantly greeted by many of the baby witches and wizards who casually played little magical games that enhanced their capability of performing that magic lever. Malakai immediately noticed Lilith from across the field while talking to some of the modern wizards of the community. “Babe!” Malakai yelled as he excused himself and ran towards her. Lilith jumped into his arms, feeling herself melt away in his comfort and safety. “Oh, have I missed you. Where are the others?” Malakai asked as he set her down on her own two feet and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. Lilith smirked as she grabbed on to his collar and pulled him back down for a deeper and passionate kiss.

    “Kiss me like you miss me.” Lilith said between breaths. Malakai happily obliged as he wrapped one of his arms around her waist to pull her in closer while his other hand was tangled up in her hair. Lilith simply cupped his face into her hands, desperately wanting this to last forever.

    Once pulled apart for air Malakai spoke up, “you’re here to say goodbye, aren’t you?” Malakai asked as Lilith frowned and nodded her head slowly. “Well how about we walk together to the other side of the forest and we can talk about what happened?” Malakai asked as Lilith smiled.

    “Yeah, I would love that.” Lilith answered as they linked hands and walked towards Findara. They talked about what had happened their time away from each other, Malakai went on a rant about how the baby witches are learning their environmental control and Lilith talked about how Asterin is getting prepared for the Findarian ball.

    “Lilith you know you can leave; you have no obligation to stay there after what they did to you. Stay with us in the forest, stay with me. It’s starting to get too dangerous out there and you could also practice your magic!” Malakai pleaded as he held a sturdy grip onto Lilith’s shoulders.

    “Practice what?! My fire magic? It’s such a twisted way of the universe saying to go off myself. The one thing I hate and I’m good at it.” Lilith groaned as she tried to shrug off Malakai’s grip on her.

    “That doesn’t mean you have to use it to hurt others. Fire has healing abilities too! Please I’m scared that you’ll get caught.” Malakai said as his tone got soft making Lilith feel guilty.

    “I… I didn’t know you were scared.” Lilith responded as she wrapped her arms around Malakai’s torso.

    “Babe are you kidding?! I’m petrified every time you go back to Findara. I know you know that you know what you’re doing, but it still scares me that I won’t be able to see you one day.” Malakai mumbled into her hair as he traced circles around her back.

    “Okay just this and I’ll leave Findara. I don’t know how long it will take, but I know King Oliver won’t do anything to me. I’m supposed to be an example that ‘devil worshippers’ can be converted. I promise after this ball situation I will come home to you! We can have baby witches or little forest warriors of our own.” Lilith proposed, making Malakai smile.

    “As long as you come back to me.” Malakai said as he kissed Lilith once more before their departure.

    The next day, the sun poked through the windows of the castle stirring Jack wake. The sun’s rays reflected off the white and gold walls that decorated Jack’s walls. The thin, blue ethereal curtains that surrounded Jack’s significant, blissful bed had no avail to shield out the sun. Jack groaned heavily as he grabbed one of his many pillows and placed it over his head, not wanting to wake up at all. Well at least not wanting to wake up today, out of all days. In the far off corner of the room, where the door to the hallway stood tall and mighty, a group of snickering fairies crawled from underneath the small opening of the door.

    The group of fairies crawled underneath the sheets and started to bite Jack’s limbs. “HEY! CUT IT OUT!” Jack screeched as he jumped up and out of bed, the fairies giggled as they flew away from the angry prince and out of the room from underneath the door. “Get back here!” Jack yelled as he followed the fairies in nothing but his pink cotton pants. Just as he ran out of the room he bumped into a shorter, stronger figure.

    “Ahhh ha ha ha! He wears pink pajamas” Zehra wheezed out as Eris joined in her laughter.

    “Hey cut it out!” Vulpecula ordered as the two immediately listened. “You got quite the day ahead of you Jack. Time to get ready.” Jack nodded his head.

    “Good morning to you too.” Jack greeted the trio.

    “You wouldn’t have gotten up any other way and you know it.” Eris noted as Jack rolled his eyes knowing they were right.

    Vulpecula was right, Jack did have quite the day ahead of him. It started off with breakfast and listening to the Asterians’ complaints. Luckily for him they were simple complaints like ‘will there be more jobs coming soon’ or ‘if they could trust these Findarian runaways’. With the new information Jack received in the past days, he properly educated his people on what to expect and that they should not be afraid. This calmed the nerves of many people and the rest of the morning went smoothly for everyone.

    Around one in the afternoon, Jack took a quick visit to see his dad after Emily and Sam were done doing another healing treatment. It was a comfortable, casual conversation that they exchanged. Jack noticed his dad being in better shape, but still not the best shape to be walking around. King Harry told his son of the wonderful adventures he used to have with Sellandia and Drayde, and how he met his mom… that would be a story for the wandering traveller for another time. King Harry also expressed how proud he was of Jack of taking control of this situation and taking his first steps into being a true ruler.

    The hour before the ball started Jack stared at himself in his mirror. His heart started to race badly, he knew he was about to enter a whole different world within the next hour and Jack didn’t know if he was ready for that. A small group of young men and women stood around Jack as they admired their work on him. The mirror reflected a subtle yet bold look. The jacket Jack wore was a dark blue with a simple gold design that looked like branches and gold buttons to hold the jacket closed. His pants were white with a gold line on the side of the pants, nothing overly standoffish but nothing under dressed either. Jack tucked away any strands of hair popping out of place that was cut off for the undercut.

    “Thank you, seamstress and seamsters. Beautiful job as always.” Jack thanked as he placed his gold crown on top of his head gently. The group giggled and awed over him as he left the small shop and walked outside. Jack stood in pure admiration of the sight in front of the small group surrounding the carriage. Zerah had her hair curled up in an angelic way that complimented her long, flowing, baby blue dress with translucent bishop sleeves. Vulpecula had half of her black, wavy hair swept to the side that covered one of her eyes. She wore a navy-blue dress that hugged her figure tightly. Then there was Eris and Leo Percy who wore their formal guard attire.

    “Take a picture, it will last longer.” Zehra said as Jack snapped out of it.

    “Wow. I just never seen you two this well dressed before, you both look beautiful.” Jack complimented.

    “This is the first and last time you will see me dressed up for anything.” Vulpecula said as she quickly got a burst of excitement. “But look what they did for me!” She said excitedly as she extended her left leg to show a slit in the dress, but she pulled the clothe back to reveal a strap of knives and daggers attached to her thigh.

    “That’s killer!” Leo Percy said as he looked at the design of the strap just as Emily and Sam arrived.

    “Alright let’s go.” Jack announced as they all got into the carriage and left for the ball. The hour ride to Findara would have been a drag if Jack had travelled alone, but with his group of friends attending as well made the ride feel like fifteen minutes long.

    “Hey you all might want to check this out.” Eris said from outside the carriage as they and Leo Percy made the horses come to a halt five minutes away from the gates to Findara. Jack didn’t know if he should feel inferior or not as he looked at the massive kingdom. Asterin must have been the same size as Findara but nowhere near as welcoming.

    “Alright, we’ll display an illusion of a meteor shower once we meet up with Drayde.” Sam said as he hopped out of the carriage and wore her cape.

    “Try not to have too much fun!” Emily added as Sam helped her out. The carriage continued its way towards the castle where music and laughter could be heard from the gates. Zehra we repulsed by the way everything was set up in the Slums. She could tell the run-down houses built with very little materials were given as much love as they possibly could be given, but it was still no excuse for anyone to be living in that. As they passed through Silver City the environment seemed to have a significant change. There were people walking around from one store to another, lively chatter, and a lot of stare towards their direction as the carriage entered Paradise Gardens. That’s where the most dramatic change of scenery happened, and man was Lilith not kidding about the fashion statement of Findarians.

    “Are you ready?” Zehra asked as the carriage came to a halt in front of the main castle doors. Leo Percy and Eris opened up the doors to let them out. Many Elites and other guests from neighboring kingdoms stopped to stare at Jack as he walked up to the doors. The designs and colours of the castle made Jack’s stomach feel uneasy. He could obviously tell who was wealthier due to their bold dresses and headpieces. The Findarians wore a lot of black, red, and silver colours to stand out to the rest of the kingdoms that showed up that night. No one wore pink and purple from Petrina or yellow and orange from Caspin. None of Asterin allies were here, only Findara’s allies. Zehra and Vulpecula were holding on either side of Jack’s arms, Leo Percy was walking behind the trio, and Eris was guiding the group through the dimly lit castle to the ball room.

    Everyone was whispering to one another while Jack and the rest passed through. “From Asterin, Prince Jack and his women; Lady Zehra and Lady Veronica.” A very tall, brown haired guard announced as all eyes laid upon the group.

    “Veronica?” Jack whispered over to Vulpecula.

    “It my alibi, just go with it.” Vulpecula said as they walked down the stairs to the main dance floor. The moment Jack let go of the girls and let everyone take on their given roles a wave of girls from other kingdoms surrounded the prince. Not only were there young ladies or princesses surrounding him but some Elites and servants trying to make him comfortable surrounded him as well. Jack was finding it hard to breath and to talk as the overwhelming scent of perfume and high-pitched squeals took a hold of him.

    “Ladies, ladies! Please let the man breathe!” A voice called out making the group around him calm down. A small girl with big, curly, blonde hair pushed her way through the crowd and took the hands of Jack. “May I have this dance prince Jack?” The girl asked and Jack quickly followed her to the ballroom’s floor. The music just began when the girl and Jack started to dance, but a white-haired boy caught the attention of the young prince. How can someone’s hair be so naturally white? Jack thought but immediately disregarded it as he swayed from one side to another with the girl in a flowy red dress.

    “Thank you for helping me out back there…” Jack said as he elongated the ending.

    “Persephone! Lilith told us that you would be arriving today.” Persephone said as Jack dipped her gracefully.

    “Ah, anyone Lilith trusts is a friend of mine.” Jack noted as Persephone smiled ash she twirled in Jack’s hands.

    “It was really hard for me to get her trust. If you want, I could list off the names of people I trust.” Persephone offered as Jack dipped her gracefully.

    “That would be a lot shorter than the list of people not to trust.” Jack laughed as well as Persephone. As the two continued to dance they had a light chatter of the few people that could be trusted and other facts about the kingdoms as well.

    “Well thank you for the dance.” Persephone bowed.

    “Please, I'm the one that should thank you.” Jack bowed back as he nudged his head over to the group of girls watching him.

    “If you want to get some fresh air the balcony is over there. I’ll create a distraction for you if you want? I’m sure this is all too much for you since this is your first time here.” Persephone suggested.

    “Thank you so much Persephone-” “Please my friends call me Perce.” Persephone interrupted.

    “Hey I have a Percy too! Except he only goes by Leo Percy.” Jack said and Persephone’s face lit up.

    “Maybe we’re related!” Persephone joked as Jack gave off a light chuckled. “Anyways, let me give a quick distraction for you.” She added as she noticed the group of women approaching them again.

    “That would be much appreciated.” Jack nodded as she looked over to the group of girls.

    “OH MY! IS THAT NATHAN MCMILLAN?!” Persephone yelled as she raced across the ballroom floor followed by a bunch of screaming from the ladies to see this Nathan Mcmillan guy. Jack took this opportunity to walk over past the towering columns and onto the balcony.

    The cool October air helped calmed Jack down as he felt his anxiety get blown away. Jack looked up to the sky and was about to peek over the balcony to see the autumn coloured trees, but in that exact moment Jack was hit in the face by some frosting.