The Wizard Prince's Secret Soulmate

Chapter 5

Matteo was driving back home. He didn’t take any breaks, because he knew that if he’d stop, he would probably turn around and go back to Milan. He hated this, the fact that he had no way of getting out of a situation that was completely out of his hands and that he desperately wanted to have no part in. But what he had always been able to shrug off as a distant future, had now become a reality he had to face.

Obviously, at the party he would meet his future bride, and just the thought of marrying someone that wasn’t destined to be with him made him want to throw up. His mother had taught him well, he would not let her feel unwanted or be rude in any way, but behind his perfectly gentleman-like behaviour was a man, who wanted nothing more than to push the woman he was supposed to embrace away.

After driving for nearly four hours, he reached his hometown, Dorf Tirol, and thought it would be safe to stop and stretch before meeting his family. He parked next to a café close to the centre of town and got out of the car, enjoying the way the cold winter air refreshed him, and he just stood there, taking deep breaths for a couple of minutes, before he walked inside to get his caffein shot.

He could feel the change in the air before he saw her. What was Aurora doing here? She had turned around to welcome her new guest, and her eyes grew wide when she recognized him. She quickly walked over and grabbed his arm, pulling him into a corner.

“What the hell are you doing here? Are you stalking me?” she whisper yelled, her blue eyes glowing with anger.

For the first time in weeks, all he could do was laugh. Here he was, about to get engaged to someone else, and the woman who had been haunting his dreams for the past few weeks was standing right in front of him. This had to be a joke.

“What is so funny about that? I am working here, you can’t just waltz in here like that!” His laughter just made her angrier, and Matteo took a deep breath to calm down.

“Actually, luce mia (my light), I am visiting my family, who just happens to live in this town. I can assure you that I didn’t know that you work here, but I have to admit, I am happy that I found you. You just left without a trace, did I do something wrong? I thought you enjoyed our night together as much as I did,” he smirked when he saw her blush.

“Listen, Matteo…”

“At least you remember my name, I’ll take that as a good sign,” he interrupted her, and Aurora had to bite a few curse words back, reminding herself that she was indeed at work.

“Please, I need this job,” she looked at him, trying to make him understand that not everyone had an expensive car and a big apartment in the centre of Milan. Some people had to actually work to get food on the table.

“Aurora, I swear, I’m not here to jeopardize your job. I honestly just wanted to get some coffee before facing my father.”

She looked at him, trying to figure out if he was lying, but all she could find was the truth shining through his eyes. Sighing, she finally let go of his arm and turned to walk towards the bar.

“Fine, what can I get for you, then?”

Matteo sat down on one of the chairs in front of her and ordered an espresso for himself. He didn’t need milk, but he added a ton of sugar, and Aurora looked slightly disgusted as she watched him stir his coffee.

“I should make you pay for the sugar and give you the coffee for free, I’d make more money that way,” she noted and he laughed again.

“You don’t have to drink it, and I like my coffee the way I like my women… sweet.”

He could see that she wanted to smack him, but being at work, she settled on just rolling her eyes.

When she was about to reply, another waitress interrupted them by asking her to prepare some drinks for other guests, and Aurora turned around to get the coffee machine started again, when she accidentally knocked over the milk carton that was standing next to her.

If Matteo hadn’t been watching her carefully, he wouldn’t have noticed. But the milk carton stayed still in mid-air for a fraction of a second before she caught it, and to anyone else it might have simply looked like she had great reflexes. But he knew better. 

She carried on preparing the order as if nothing happened, leaving Matteo wondering if he should say something. No human could do that, she was a witch, that was the only reasonable explanation. But what was she doing here, working in this café? And why didn’t he notice when they met? He could usually feel it when someone was like him, but with her, he didn’t. Or maybe he was just too busy, he thought to himself, but at the same time he knew that there was no way he would have missed it. Even now, she still seemed human to him.

“I would like to meet you again,” he told her after the other waitress took the tray with beverages away. “Not… like that. Maybe we could go out for a walk tomorrow?”

He saw that she was pondering over his request, but after a while, she relented.

“Fine. But I have to work at 10, so if you want to meet up, you’ll have to pick me up early.”

He would not sleep anymore for the rest of his life, if that’s what she wanted of him, but he just nodded.

“I’ll pick you up at 7 then.”

He wrote his number on a napkin so she could text him her address, paid for his coffee and left, before she could change her mind.

Just minutes later, he slowly drove through the imposing entrance into the inner bailey of Castle Tyrol, the home of his family. The castle that gave its name to the surrounding region had been built 900 years ago, but over the centuries, it had lost its importance and fallen into ruins, until it had been purchased by Matteo’s ancestors from the Bavarians, who were allied with Napoleon, and they slowly restored it and turned it into what it was today.

The East Palace was the family wing, where Matteo grew up with his parents and his younger sister Altea. While the first two floors housed the kitchen, laundry, and other service rooms, the third and fourth floor consisted of their suites and the smaller family dining room.

The South Palace was unused, unless there were large gatherings, as the big meeting rooms were there, as well as the knight’s hall, a ball room used for celebrations. In the corner between the East and the South Palace, a few suites could accommodate selected people and families, who were important enough to be kept close to the family rooms, but there were more guestrooms on another side of the building.

The castle was built to impress and to show everyone, that the people inhabiting it were ruling over them, whether they liked it or not. For Matteo, it always seemed a bit pompous, but still, he had wonderful childhood memories of him and his sister running around in the yard, nannies chasing them with no luck, or how they sneaked into the kitchen to steal pastries.

Today was the first time he didn’t want to step foot into his own home. Unfortunately, his sister came running out after hearing him arrive, and quickly jumped into his arms. She was just 19 and studied at the university in Bozen, so she lived at home and commuted.

“Matteo, I missed you!” she yelled too close to his ear, but he didn’t mind and hugged her back. Although they were siblings, they rarely fought and they always had each other’s backs. She was one of the few people, he was always truthful with, and even though she teased him mercilessly, he knew that she never judged him for his decisions.

“I missed you too, sorellina (little sister),” he answered and let her go.

“Why are you never coming home to visit me?” she frowned and he smiled.

“Why are you never coming to Milan to visit me?” he asked back, and she scoffed.

“Well, anyways, the wicked witch of the West has arrived and is talking to father as we speak, so if you want to sneak into your room, you have to be careful.”

Matteo raised an eyebrow, wondering who she was referring to, to which Altea sighed.

“Your future bride, scemo (i***t). And her parents, of course.”

Upon hearing that they were already present, he quickly pulled Altea into the old keep. Nobody would disturb them there.

“Did you meet Emma already?” he asked her, unsure if he wanted to hear his sister’s evaluation of his fiancée.

She nodded solemnly, and all his hope was gone.

“She is beautiful, breath taking, even. But she is so boring. Actually, more than the wicked witch, she’s probably the scarecrow…”

“You are awful, sorellina, I love you.”

Matteo now dreaded meeting her even more, but he knew that if he showed it, his sister would immediately call him cowardly lion, her love for the Wizard of Oz knew no bounds.

So, he just took her arm and together they walked into the East Palace, the one place on earth he did not want to be in.