The Wizard Prince's Secret Soulmate

Chapter 7

Matteo woke up early, as usual. He checked the clock and switched off his alarm, that was supposed to go off in a few minutes. He usually didn’t need an alarm, but he set one anyways to put his mind at ease and sleep better, knowing that he would under no circumstances oversleep.

This side of the castle was still quiet, everyone was sleeping, but he knew that on the other side, the staff was already starting to work on the breakfast preparations. He quietly got up and took a shower before he got dressed. Reminding himself that this was not a date, he just put on some jeans and a pullover. He also grabbed a jacket on the way out, it was still March and early morning, it would be cold. Before anyone could notice his absence, he drove away from his childhood home, towards the address Aurora had texted him the day before.

He reached the small cottage on the outskirts of town after a few minutes, just after stopping at a café and picking up coffee. Although he didn’t know the way she drank it, he figured if he just grabbed some black coffee with sugar and milk on the side, she could make it to her liking. He also got some croissants, they were fresh and still warm at this time of the day.

After parking at the curb, he sat in his car for a minute, wondering what he was trying to accomplish here. The smartest thing to do would be to just drive off and forget that woman, but somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to do that. In twelve hours, he would be engaged to someone else, why on earth was he even here?

As much as he tried to, he couldn’t walk away from here. He had to see her again, just this once. One last time, he told himself, knowing that it was a lie, but it made him feel somewhat better thinking that this would be goodbye. He walked towards the door and rang the doorbell, his palms sweaty as if he was suddenly thirteen again and going out with his first crush.

“Good morning, Matteo,” Aurora greeted him as she opened the door, and he smiled brightly at her.

“Good morning, luce mia. Now I’m a little sad that I didn’t get to hear you say that last time,” he teased, and watched her blush.

“So, what’s the plan?” she quickly changed the subject, before he could talk about the night they spent together once again.

“It was cold last night, did you hear the sirens?”

If she was surprised by his question, she didn’t show it.

“Yes, I did. Why?”

“Do you know why there were sirens blaring that early in the morning?” he asked, and watched as she thought about it for a little bit.

“No, and I never thought about it, to be honest. What about them?”

He smiled. Finally, his sister’s monologues about agriculture paid off.

“I’ll show you,” he replied, and pulled her with him to his car, barely giving her enough time to lock her door. They only had a small timeframe to see what he wanted to show her, and he didn’t want to waste another minute.

They got back to the car and he drove out of the town. Aurora was sipping her coffee slowly, still wondering where he was bringing her, when he parked his car close to some apple orchards and got out, taking his coffee with him.

“What are we doing here?” she curiously eyed the trees around them, but he just took a few steps closer before pointing at the apple trees.

“The sirens are there to inform the farmers when the temperature at night drops below freezing temperatures. If that happens, they have to go and switch on the water to spray their trees to save the blossoms. Look,” he pointed at an apple blossom, covered in ice, glistening in the early morning sun.

As Aurora started to look around, she realized that the entire orchard had frozen blossoms. Each one was catching sunrays, reflecting them differently, each blossom wrapped in a cocoon of its own, tiny rainbows caught in ice.

“But how are they not getting damaged like this?” she finally asked.

“Well, that’s the thing. When the dispersed water freezes, heat of crystallisation is released on the plants so that, as a rule, leaves and flowers are protected from frost damage. Then the sun comes up and the ice melts, leaving the blossoms just as new.”

Aurora couldn’t stop herself and reached out to touch one of the frozen beauties, holding it gently in her hands. Just as she wrapped her fingers around it, the ice melted and water dropped to her feet.

“Hmm, the ice must not be very thick then…” she mumbled, and Matteo raised his brow but didn’t comment. Just like yesterday, something was happening and he didn’t understand what. It seemed like neither did she, which was even more frustrating.

He took her hand and they walked amongst the trees, watching as the sun was slowly setting the blossoms free, taking sips from their coffee and occasionally stealing kisses. Even when they didn’t talk, he felt at ease with her, there was no need to fill the silence with useless words, and he had to admit that in this moment, there was no place he’d rather be and no person he’d rather be with.

After spending some time together, they hesitantly turned around to go back. He had to go home to his family, and she needed to get ready for work. Back at his car, he took the bag with the croissants and offered them to her.

“I didn’t know what you liked, so I got vanilla, chocolate and empty ones…” he couldn’t even finish his sentence before she quickly snatched the one filled with vanilla cream.

“Alright, guess I have to get two vanilla ones next time,” he laughed and picked the one with chocolate.

“They’re the best! Why did you even get an empty one?” Aurora asked him between two bites, careful to not cover the interior of his car with powdered sugar.

Matteo shrugged. “You didn’t give me the opportunity to have breakfast with you last time, how would I know what you like?”

She slightly blushed again, but hid it by stuffing her mouth with the delicious pastry.

“Will you tell me why you left without saying goodbye last time? Did I do something wrong?” Matteo had to know, never before had he felt so disappointed when he woke up alone in his apartment. Usually, he was glad when his one night stand left without any drama, but this time, it hurt.

It was her turn to shrug now.

“I had to go get my stuff and get back home, and I didn’t want you to think that I expected you to make breakfast for me, or something…” she mumbled.

The truth was, she didn’t know why she snuck out like that. In that moment, that seemed to be the best thing to do, and it was what she always did after spending the night with some guy. She didn’t want to wait for him to wake up and find some excuse to get her out the door, so she just put her clothes back on and left before that conversation happened. She had learnt that, even if they seemed to be fine in the evening, and more than fine during the night, as soon as the morning sun was shining through the window, it usually got really awkward really fast.

“Ah, but it would have been my pleasure to make breakfast for you, luce mia. But I hope today I was able to make up for it,” he smirked, and she felt her heartrate accelerate.

“I think you did. Breakfast and a lesson in agriculture, what more could a girl want?” she retorted, making him laugh as he started the car and drove them back towards Dorf Tirol.

“Well, I aim to please. Don’t hesitate to call me if you need any further lessons, agriculture or otherwise,” he teased her as they got closer to her home.

“When are you available for further… lessons?” Aurora enquired, trying not to sound too eager to jump at his offer, but she couldn’t help but hope that he might be interested in seeing her again soon.

“I’m busy tonight, I got a family function,” he answered, and she noticed that he didn’t look happy about it. “But if you want, I’m free tomorrow?”

“That’s great, I’m off on Sundays, so I’m free as well,” she replied, but then she realized that he said he was studying in Milan. “When do you have to leave, though? Don’t you have university on Monday?”

He waved her off, as if it wasn’t important. “Meh, I have one class on Monday, but the teacher likes me and won’t let me fail.”

What he didn’t tell her, was that he had a bet running with his professor. If the perpetual motion machine he had designed and built would run until the last day of school, he would pass, no matter what his attendance or his other grades. Of course, Matteo made sure that his contraption would run basically forever, even if the design itself was in principle the same as all the other so called perpetual motion machines, an overbalanced wheel based on Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawings. But thanks to a little bit of magic, his wouldn’t stop moving, thus ensuring that he didn’t have to attend his Monday classes if he didn’t feel like it.

He loved playing little pranks like these on his teachers. After all, he studied Mechanical Engineering, or “Magic for Humans”, as he liked to call it. It was fascinating, how humans came up with ideas on how to solve problems, or even do things like flying, without the help of magic. But sometimes, he would make something work, that was absolutely not supposed to work, just to confuse his professors, and feign ignorance when they started to ask him how he did that.

Aurora didn’t feel like arguing with him, and just accepted his explanation. Who was she to tell him that he had to go to school, that was certainly not her job.  

“Alright, then call me if you have time,” she gave him a quick peck on his lips and got out of the car before he could answer.