Chapter 2 - In the Garden

I step forward to the crystal doors to the palace, nodding to the Gamma who announces, quite grandly:

“THE CELESTIAL EVERLEIGH DE SILVA.”

The Celestial Entrance to the palace is beautifully structured for moments just like this. It’s a long walk up the marble stairs outside, but the climb allows you to enter the ballroom at the top of a sweeping staircase that overlooks the sunken dancefloor beneath. 

You have two choices once you’re announced. You can either hurry to the left and lose yourself in the crowded balcony that rings the dance floor, or, as most choose, you can walk slowly down the long marble staircase, letting everyone get a good look at you as you descend.

The staircase is a gift, really, to women who seek Alpha husbands, as every Celestial has a chance to shine like a jewel. This staircase is the whole reason why Celestials have a separate entrance from the Alpha men - so that prospective husbands can take their time surveying a woman before ever having to say a word to her.

No extra points for guessing which option I choose tonight as I step to the top of the stairs, dropping into a deep curtsy and holding a hand to my breast to show the obligated respect to the King and the nobility filling the room. 

A few people glance upwards, their hungry eyes flickering over me, but not too many. My heart pounds as I scan the room for him – the one person I very much do not want to see tonight. I know that I’m most vulnerable bowing here, alone, with everyone’s eyes on me. But maybe I got lucky – maybe he’s in another room –

I quickly spy my sister, who stands out like the ruby jewel she is, waving up at me from a crowd of friends. In the distance, I can see the King holding court with his favorites, not even glancing at all of the women he ordered to attend tonight.

But the Goddess is on my side this evening and he – the one I absolutely want to avoid - is nowhere to be seen. Huffing a sigh of relief, I rise from my curtsey and give Calli a little smile she probably can’t see. Then, I quickly make my way to my left, losing myself amongst the crowds of Alphas and Celestials enjoying the food and drink being served up here while those below dance.

Maybe, just maybe, I can get out of here unscathed tonight.

As I move through the crowds to the garden terrace that I know presses against the ballroom’s southern wall, I grab a glass of champagne from a waiter’s tray. I take a sip as I go, looking down at the golden bubbles to avoid as much eye contact with other people as I can. My parents are here somewhere, probably conniving with their Alpha friends to make a match for Callista. I have absolutely no interest in getting caught up in those conversations.  

I breathe out a long, relieved breath as I reach the ornate copper-and-glass doors that lead to the terrace, stepping through them as quickly as I can. There are fewer people out here, as there always are. Everyone wants to be inside, with the food, the action, and the romance. But I am very happy to let my evening pass out here in solitude.

As I walk along the terrace lit with the fading blues and lavenders of dusk, I take a deep breath, suddenly hit with a wave of nostalgia that instantly takes me back five years.

Angeline and I had walked these gardens daily when we’d lived here, and we had both been incredibly happy. We had grown up together, always best friends, but she’d asked me to join her here at the palace as her handmaiden just after the King had chosen her as his second bride. It wasn’t a hard post, really – mostly just drinking too much champagne and laughing in our favorite secret garden niches when she wasn’t at the King’s side.  

I smile as I walk, remembering how we would lay ourselves down beneath the rose bushes to gossip about who was sleeping with whom, and why, and where, and how. I close my eyes, breathing in the familiar scent of this place, allowing myself to imagine, just for a moment, that I have my friend back.

She was so bold, so full of life, and no one could make me laugh like she did.

God, I miss her.

I open my eyes and blink rapidly, tilting my head back to keep the tears from falling down my cheeks. Angeline would tease the hell out of me if she saw me crying at her memory. I smile, remembering her particular sharp verve for life as I walk down the stone steps from the terrace into the gardens themselves. There’s a waiter at the bottom who refills my champagne, and then I set off onto those twisting paths, sorting through my memories of her.

Minutes pass as I wander deeper and deeper into the garden mazes, hidden secrets tucked behind each new hedge. I smile as I watch the gardeners move slowly through the twisting gravel paths, lighting little lamps as the night darkens. But they quickly finish their work and I am blissfully alone, the crunching of the gravel below my feet the only sound as the noise of the ballroom fades away behind me.

The evening has progressed into twilight now and the fireflies are starting to shake the sleep from their wings. I smile, lifting a hand to trace one’s path as it gently drifts through the air. Quite suddenly, I remember a very specific, very rare variety of rose that only opens its flowers at night, one of Angeline’s favorites.

Curious, I start to look for that flower, wondering if I can still find my way to its particularly hidden little alcove. I do my best to follow my nose and feel a little thrill when I stumble into their sweet little alcove, where the white roses climb up both the walls and the sides of the stone fountain at its center.

And that’s where he finds me, the Alpha King who claims me. Who changes my life forever.

And now, from whom I run – desperate to get away –

But as I sprint through the gardens, past the hedges and flowers, I hear the King pounding behind me, gaining ground.