A Hole in the World (20 page)

‘I didn’t know you wanted me to,’ Bianca whispers, crying now, hot tears rolling down her freckled skin. ‘Did you want me to?’

‘
Yes
.’ Alexandra reaches out, taking Bianca’s hands into her own. ‘God, yes. I needed... I need you in my life. You’re the one who rescued me. You looked after me and made me feel so much love I never believed I could feel.’

‘Then why did you leave? Why didn’t you fight to stay?’

‘I wanted you to stop me.’

Bianca reaches out, arms widening, and Alexandra steps into the hug. ‘I missed you,’ whispers Bianca.

‘I missed you too.’

She reaches down, lets her hand rest against the side of Alexandra’s face, brushes her thumb over her lips and tilts her face up to kiss her like she wanted to do so long ago and yet never did. Why didn’t she?

And then there’s something around her waist; thick and strong and dragging her away, slamming her into the wall before she can even open her eyes.

When she
does
open her eyes, she stares down in horror at the creature beneath her; still mostly prince, but with a long tail – which is currently around her waist, pinning her to the wall and
squeezing
– and talons growing from the tips of his fingers, skin turning scaly and green.

Alexandra screams.

‘Kiss me,’ the prince demands. ‘Kiss me and I will be your handsome Prince Charming again. That’s all it takes.’

‘You’re not my Prince Charming,’ Alexandra hisses. ‘
She
is.’ She moves to turn away, but the prince grabs her by the arm, swings her around until her back is pressed against his chest, neck exposed to his lips, which he slides down her skin.

‘You taste so good.’

‘Let me go!’ she shouts. She wrestles in his grip and tries to hit him with her elbows, but he keeps a tight grip on her as he twirls her around to face him.  He holds her upper arm tightly as he releases her with his other hand, his fingers instead sliding up her body towards her face where his long, sharp talons pinch into her cheeks, pursing her lips together.

She shakes her head, twists and turns in his grip, trying to escape.

‘Don’t hurt her!’ Bianca shouts. ‘You’re not the one for her! I am!’

‘Shut up.’ The tail twists around her and slides up, squeezing her chest and constricting her breathing. She wheezes, helplessly, fingernails scrabbling against the scales on his tail.

‘Please,’ she says, through what little breath she has. ‘She doesn’t deserve this.’

‘Oh, I’m not so sure about that,’ he whispers. His words hiss slightly, sending a shiver through Bianca’s body. ‘She seems to deserve it; she waited in this tower for me, after all.’

‘She waited for
me
!’ Bianca tries to shout, but it comes out as a helpless wheeze. ‘She’s
mine
.’

The tail constricts further and Bianca finds herself completely unable to talk as she struggles in its grip.

‘Let’s see if she’s still yours once I do
this
,’ the prince whispers, and brings his mouth down on Alexandra’s for a kiss.

Time seems to grind almost to a halt as the prince’s mouth hits Alexandra’s and the girl goes limp in his arms. There’s a long period in which no one moves, speaks or makes any kind of sound, then the tail starts to let go and the kiss deepens and Bianca sees – to her horror – that Alexandra is kissing back, leaning into the prince and wrapping her arms around his neck.

The tail pulls away and Bianca – previously practically up on the ceiling – slams down onto the ground face-first. The air in her lungs leaves her and she lies, helpless, on the ground as the prince – appearing to be human again now – pulls Alexandra in as close as he can. His hands are all over her, fingers slipping in through the lace of her dress.

‘Get off her,’ Bianca wheezes from the floor.

‘Or you’ll what?’ The prince looks around at her, humour dancing in his eyes as Alexandra steps in to lean against his chest, hands on his waist. ‘Pant me to death?’

‘I’ll kill you,’ Bianca promises. ‘I’ll kill you and spend the rest of my life proving to her why I’m the one she’s in love with.’

Something flickers and disappears in Alexandra’s eyes for a second, but then she’s turning back to the prince, smiling up and him and saying, ‘What should we do with her? We have a royal wedding to make preparations for and we’re running out of time.’

‘I don’t think she’s worth killing,’ the prince says, with a smirk. ‘I think we should leave her to suffer. Her friends are undoubtedly dead by now; if my mother’s trolls didn’t get them the assorted beasts of the wilderness will have and she’s lost you. She should live with that.’

‘You know,’ Bianca says, from the floor. ‘I’m going to
enjoy
killing you. You’re not human, so it’s not murder, and, whereas I didn’t enjoy killing the trolls, I’m going to
really
take pleasure in
your
death.’

‘Mm...’ He gives her a smirk. ‘Maybe I’ll keep you as a pet. With a bit of training, you’d make an excellent guard dog.’

‘We must leave,’ Alexandra insists. ‘We have plans.’

Bianca pushes herself to her feet using all her willpower and most of her leftover muscles and pulls her sword from its sheath. ‘Fight me,’ she tells the prince. ‘For the hand of Princess Alexandra.’

‘My dear,’ the prince says. ‘Haven’t you noticed? I’ve already won. There would be no point.’

‘Then I’ll kill you here and now,’ Bianca says.

‘You can’t. I’m unarmed and you wouldn’t kill an unarmed man.’

‘Watch me,’ she hisses.

He laughs and puts his arm around Alexandra’s waist, leading her towards the window. ‘Come, Alexandra,’ he says. ‘We shall leave now.’

He climbs out of the window, helping Alexandra to move with him, and Bianca just stares after them in horror, physically unable to follow.

*

By the time Bianca regains enough strength to climb down from the window and lands on the new bridge – red brick and six foot wide, leading across to the edge of the precipice – Scotty is there.

‘What happened?!’ he exclaims. ‘I was about to be killed by trolls when they just... gave up and went away. I just got here; your horse found me.’ He gestures at the horse up ahead. ‘So, did you kiss her? Is it over?’

Bianca shakes her head, silently.

‘What happened?’

She shivers and Scotty takes off his hoodie, helping her into it. It’s about six times too big, but it’s baggy and loose and comfortable and it smells of her best friend.  She wipes at her eyes with the sleeve and sniffs.

‘You need to talk to me,’ he says as they walk across the bridge towards the other side. ‘Tell me what happened.’

‘Prince got there first,’ she whispers. ‘I lost.’

‘What?’ Scotty says. ‘How can that be? You’re the one she’s supposed to be with.’

‘I know. She knew. Then he kissed her – he
made
her kiss him – and... and she forgot. She forgot me and she forgot how much... how much she cares about me...’

‘But she doesn’t love him.’

‘Yes, she does now.’ She sniffs, noisily, and wipes her eyes again.  ‘She does. I lost her. It’s over.’

‘It’s not over,’ Scotty says. ‘She doesn’t love him. She loves you.’

‘I told you; it’s him she...’

‘No, she’s been tricked into loving him;
you
she fell for all by herself.’

She looks up at him. ‘What?’

‘She loved you long before spells and kisses. She never kissed you and she still fell for you.
She
loves
you
. And you love her. All the prince has is a spell.’

‘But she’s gone...’ She gestures at the horizon. ‘I let her go... with the prince.’

‘It’s not too late. Bianca, think about it.’ He walks around in front of her and grabs her by the shoulders, staring deep into her soul with those green eyes of his that seem to stare straight into her, like he can read everything she’s feeling. ‘You’re giving up on her and letting her go into a world in which she isn’t loved and doesn’t love, to one day have an heir and be killed for it.’

‘Maybe she’ll have a daughter,’ Bianca whispers.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Scotty says. ‘She’s still going to die. He’s going to smother her with a pillow or kill her in her sleep and it’ll be your fault because you didn’t stop it.’

‘You’re not very good at these pep talks,’ she whispers.

‘This isn’t a pep talk,’ he tells her. ‘This is the truth; the cold hard facts laid out in front of you. Now, you can either come back with me to sit with Daisy until she dies – because that’s what will happen if she can’t ever get out – or, we can ride until we find the prince and Alexandra and you can kill that S.O.B. and then we can get Alexandra to summon Nissa to help release Daisy.’

‘I guess option B?’ Bianca says, quietly, as though still not sure.

‘That’s the one I’d choose.’

She nods, slowly. ‘Okay then,’ she says.

‘Are you actually with me on this or are you just agreeing for the sake of agreeing?’

‘Bit of both.’ She’s finally coming back to herself, smiling just a little bit.

‘That’s the Bianca I know.’ Scotty walks straight across and climbs onto the horse, offering his best friend a hand up.  Once he’s pulled her up onto the horse and she’s got her arms wrapped around his waist from behind, he rides off in the general direction the prince and Alexandra left in.

*

They ride for a long time. Scotty suggests Bianca naps against his back, but she’s too nervous to consider sleep and in too much pain from her many bruises to manage to drift off.  Instead, she rests her cheek against his spine and watches the scenery flitting by, wondering how he even knows where they’re going and plotting her plan of attack.

‘When we get to the castle,’ she says, breaking the silence, ‘I’ll get off the horse and go for the prince.  I want you to get Alexandra and take her into the woods.  Find a clearing or something and just hold her there.’

‘Have you
met
Alexandra?’ Scotty says. ‘I’ll be lucky if I can hold her long enough to get her two feet away.’

‘Scotty, please.’ She touches his shoulder with her lips, looking at his face sideways. ‘I need you to do this for me.’

He sighs. ‘Okay,’ he says. ‘But on one condition.’

‘What’s that?’

‘If you get into difficulties... you call.’

‘You’ll be in the woods,’ she points out. ‘How will you hear me?’

‘Because you’ll set this off.’ He hands her his phone. ‘It’s got one of those sounds only teenagers can hear and it’s really loud on my phone.  I’ll be able to hear it and no one will know you’ve set it off.’

‘Unless there are teenager spectators.’

‘Do you really think they’ll know what it is?’ He gestures at the button on the side. ‘I set it up as a hot key earlier; press it once and the sound will start and it won’t stop until you deactivate it.’

‘Okay.’ She slips it into the pocket of his hoodie, zipped up to her neck now, and snuggles inside the soft material.

‘What do I do if I don’t get her back?’ she whispers, after a moment.

‘Don’t think about it.’

‘No, but really, Scotty... What do I do? I’ve spent the last two years of college wishing she was there... I failed all my A Levels because of it.’ She runs a hand through her hair. ‘I’ve been living for this and now...’

‘If you don’t get her back, we’ll all go home together. Daisy included,’ he says, before she can interject anything, ‘because we
will
find a way to get her out.  And we’ll find a way to have you retake your A Levels.  Even if we have to put up with you being our roommate or something.’

‘How long do you think it’s been? For everyone back there, I mean...’

‘I don’t know.  A few days here was, what, three years for us? And it’s been at least four days since we set off... Maybe even five...’

‘It’s been a long time then,’ she whispers.

‘Yeah, it has.’

*

‘I’m scared,’ Bianca whispers, as they trot, slowly and quietly towards the castle.

‘It’ll be okay,’ Scotty promises.

‘Okay; here’s the plan.  We go in full-tilt. All guns blazing and...’

‘Care for some assistance?’

She turns towards the voice and her eyes land on a horse approaching with two riders; Cory and Daisy.

‘Daisy!’ She leaps off the back of the horse and throws herself in the direction of the redhead.  Daisy squeals and half-falls, half-flails her way off
her
horse as she struggles to get a good hugging grip on her friend. ‘How?! When?! What did Cory do? He didn’t do something weird, right?!’

‘Hey!’ Cory exclaims. ‘What weird thing do you think I did?’

‘I don’t know... I just have visions of you sacrificing yourself for her but you’re both here!’ She squeals and launches herself at Cory, hugging him too.

‘So,’ Daisy says, after a second. ‘Wanna tell me why we’re a blonde short? A short blonde short, in fact.’