Page 75 of Wickedly Ever After
“I’m quite sure common men will jump at the chance. What I’m not sure about is how the committee will feel about it.”
“Committee? What committee?”
She set the blood orchid bloom down on the bench as it had started to drip. The fledgling bat lily bud crawled over from behind a weeping fern to investigate. “Do you remember when I brought that petition to the Council about the commoners wanting to streamline the process of choosing the princess?”
“Vaguely. I believe there was something about the whole picking up grains of wheat and your enchanted mice being a little frightening?”
She waved her hand dismissively. “They set up a committee to process applications and added a long questionnaire I wrote up, yes. But it didn’t stop there, Hector. For the last few Happily-Ever-Afters, the committee has chosen the Common Princess.”
“I see.” He rocked back on his heels. “Well, I wish you’d told me, but it actually might make our explanation to the Council easier, if common people, and not you, chose Amber. She’s the wrong princess.”
“No, no, no, Hector. She’s not the wrong princess. I wish she were.” She folded her arms over her chest and turned away, as if she couldn’t bear to face him. “I let the magic choose, and it chose Amber. The magic itself chose the princess.”
34
Ida
There are times when turning someone into stone would solve so many problems.
Mischief and Mayhem: A Thousand Years of Happily-Ever-After
Ida North
He ought to scream at her. He ought to at least step back as if completely stunned. Or look outraged. Anything besides just staring at the pea-gravel floor with both hands jammed in his robe and ficus leaves poking out of his pockets. His mouth worked for a moment, like he couldn’t decide whether or not to curse. He’d obviously come to the same conclusion she had and didn’t know how to process it. But she already had come to the inevitable answer.
“It’s not that our choices alone were flawed,” she said quietly. “You yourself said we were fallible, and for that, we could make amends. We could get the princess, the dragon, and all go back to the castle and sort things out, that’s true. I’m even willing to bet that if the prince marries his Common Prince, the magic will be fulfilled and we can go on thinking everything is right. But it’snot. If the magic can’t make mistakes, then how do you explain Amber? I can’t. And it absolutely chose her, Hector.”
“I don’t see that you gave it much choice,” he said.
“If that’s so, why didn’t the rose simply wither in my hand? The magic made a mistake—and if that’s the case, what if we haven’t been monstrously wrong all this time? We’ve been insisting that the prince marry a commoner since the very inception of Happily-Ever-After—two hearts for the peace of the world—because it seemed right to us and because magic of this nature requires constant maintenance. But we manufacture that love—you with your monsters to test the courage of the royals, and me with my potions and charms to make everything end happily-ever-after for the common people. Without that, do you seriously think that any prince we’ve ever married to a Common Princess would have chosen that union?”
“Of course not. That was the whole point.” Hector jerked his hands out of his pockets and leaned on the orchid bench, staring into the forest of green leaves and crimson flowers dripping that deep purple-red nectar all over the ground below, creating a slick of blood that pooled around his feet. “We couldn’t count on anyone to do the right thing but ourselves. The royalty had practically salted the earth—you haven’t forgotten that and neither have I. They deserved to have their choice taken away from them!”
“How was that fair to the common people?”
“Happily-Ever-After wasn’t ever intended to be fair. It’s there to hold the world together, to keep the peace. What’s not fair is to ask an entire world to suffer because two people object to being in love.” His voice carried a distinct chill.
He was angry. Well, so was she.
Ida pulled her arms tighter around herself. “Three objections now. I’d hoped it would be four. Can’t you see how wrong it is? I thought you were better than that, Hector.”
“Better than—Ida, I was there when we cooked that magic up. Believe me, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind—including mine—that it was necessary. Why else would we Cardinal Witches give up so much for it? Don’t presume to lecture me about sacrifice. I know what I lost, the same as you do.” He leaned heavily on the bench, long dark hair sweeping into his salt-and-pepper beard like the night sweeping into the stars ahead of a storm. She’d never thought of him having any regrets about a life without love, without family—a long life of loneliness. She’d always thought he might as well have been born heartless. A sudden sadness filled her. He’d missed as much as she had.
She touched his shoulder gently. “Well, maybe I think it was all a little much to give up for something that would force people to fall in love where they have no natural inclination.”
Hector rounded on her. “The alternative was an eternity of war. I don’t think the desire of two people—or one witch—outweighs the need of an entire world for peace. And I can’t believe you’d think that now.”
She drew back from him in horror. “You would force the prince and Amber to marry?”
“Did I say anything about forcing them to marry? No! We’ll find Alistair and Amber, get them all together with the prince and the captain of the guard, and we’ll work something out. You can pick a few more roses, put them in the right hands, and we’re done talking about this.” He turned, heading for the door.
She stalked after him. “No, we’re not done talking about it! Just putting people to rights won’t fix Happily-Ever-After. Wewere wrong! The magic itself is wrong! You can’t ignore that, Hector.” She grabbed his arm, stopping him.
He was breathing through his nose like he’d just been running from a griffin. “No one is pretending we can’t make mistakes, Ida, but the moment you go blaming magic that has worked perfectly for a thousand years—”
“Maybe itneverdid! Did you think about that?”
“Next you’ll be saying you think the world would have fixed itself without Happily-Ever-After. After how many people died, though? After how many acres were forever ruined? After the royals hunted every magical creature to extinction, looking for the secret ingredient that would give them a potion that would make them invincible?”
