CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

THE KNIGHTS’ HOUSE WAS DARK. The clocks read 11:29 and 11:31. Just a half hour of her birthday remained.

Mira followed the sounds of conversation to the far end of the house, where windows on both sides of the room stood open to let in a breeze. Mr. and Mrs. Knight and Elsa and Bliss were arranged in a circle of sofas and chairs. They stopped talking when Mira appeared, and looked up at her with their full attention. She felt horribly exposed.

She had to remind herself that they couldn’t see into her head. Or her heart.

“Could I speak to you guys for a minute?” Mira asked her godmothers. “Privately?”

“Sure …” Elsa said. She started to get up, and Mrs. Knight shooed her into her seat as she and her husband excused themselves. When the three of them were alone, Elsa asked, “What is it?”

Mira tried to look upset. “You didn’t get me anything for my birthday. It’s almost like … you forgot.”

“Of course we didn’t forget!” Bliss insisted, her doll face turning fretful.

“Well, my birthday’s today and …”

“Come here, Belle.” Elsa motioned for Mira to come closer, and she did, hoping that no one noticed the weakness in her steps. Elsa took her hand, frowning at the swollen red slashes on Mira’s fingers. “You’ve been through a lot today, haven’t you?”

Mira nodded, glad they couldn’t hear the frantic beat of her heart.

“And you came through it all right. We should celebrate. Tell us what you want,” Elsa said. The fairy’s fingers were cool against Mira’s, despite the heat.

“Could I have a wish?” Mira asked. “Like the gifts you gave me at my christening party?”

“You’re already perfect to us,” Bliss teased. “We gave you everything we could think of then. What more could you possibly want?”

“There’s a lot I want,” Mira said.

Elsa’s mouth curved into a fond smile. “All right. I’ll give you a wish. Just don’t wish for something anyone could give you, like a car.”

“I won’t,” Mira promised.

She took a deep breath, pacing herself. She was afraid to say the words aloud. To make the wish real, and find out it was impossible.

“I want you to soften Blue’s curse,” she said.

They both stared at her so blankly that, for a moment, she wasn’t sure she’d actually spoken.

“You—what?” Bliss asked.

Mira pressed forward. “I know you can’t undo it. But I want you to soften it. Like you did with mine.”

“Where is this coming from?” Elsa asked. Her expression made it clear she felt she’d been tricked.

But honestly, Mira didn’t care. They’d promised her a wish. It wasn’t her fault if their expectations were different; they’d tricked her all her life. To protect her, maybe, but this was for a good cause, too.

And now … she had to tread carefully. Blue’s curse was a secret. The only reason she knew it fully was because she’d entered Felix’s forbidden chamber. If she said too much, they’d demand to know how she knew.

“I know his curse is something bad. It’s painful to him. It’s dangerous. And I want you to make it less of those things. Whatever you can do to help, I want you to do it.”

“Mira, this is really … unorthodox,” Elsa protested.

“It’s what I want,” she said.

Until she had proof that Elsa and Bliss couldn’t do it, she’d stand her ground. She was prepared to beg, cry, make them feel guiltier than they’d felt in their lives—but she wouldn’t accept the no, absolutely not answer they’d given her so many times before.

She’d fight for him.

“I gathered that,” Elsa said. “What I want to know is why you want me to do this. Did Blue put you up to it?”

Mira shook her head. “It’s not his wish. It’s mine.”

Bliss crossed her arms and sulked for a moment. “I thought you didn’t even like Blue Valentine.”

“I don’t have to like him,” Mira said. “I’m compassionate. A fairy gifted me with kindness, remember?”

Elsa sighed. “You’re absolutely sure? Because I can’t give you a second wish if you change your mind.”

Mira nodded, her heart ready to burst. She tried to stay composed. She was afraid that if they could see how much this meant to her, they’d take it back. “I’m sure.”

“All right,” Elsa said. “Then we’d better find him before midnight.”

“Before midnight?”

Mira swallowed. The clock above the mantle read 11:47; that meant she had less than fifteen minutes to find Blue. And she didn’t even know if he was still here. “I didn’t know there was a time limit.”

“Of course there is. It’s a birthday wish. I can’t just hand them out every day.” Elsa rose from her chair; peered through the window that faced the backyard. “Where is he? By the pool?”

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Mira said.

“Let’s be quick, then.”

The party guests were all crowded in or around the pool. They called to Mira when she came out, but all she cared about was finding Blue. Her eyes did a quick search of the pool area and came up empty. He’d been there when she’d gone into the house. But now he was gone.

Mira felt like a fist had been jammed into her stomach.

“I don’t think he’s here, Mira,” Elsa said. “I know you wanted to do something good for someone … but how about a wish for you?”

Mira shook her head, refusing to accept it.

“I’ll find him,” she insisted.

Freddie stood on the concrete patio beside the pool. His sword belt was buckled over his swim trunks, and he was talking to Layla, who was perched on the edge of a picnic table, her beach towel wrapped tightly around her torso like a minidress.

Mira hurried toward them. “Freddie!” she cried.

Freddie’s head jerked up. He knew her voice well enough to recognize when something was wrong. “Mira?”

“Do you know where Blue is? Can you get him for me? Please?”

“Frederick,” Bliss said. “Do you always bring a sword to a pool party? You are familiar with the concept of rust, I hope.”

“I—yes, of course,” Freddie said, looking as if he wasn’t sure whom to answer first, but deferring to the fairy out of respect for his magical elders. “I have it in case there’s trouble, and I need to decapitate Fel—er, someone. Anyone, rather. Anyone in need of decapitation.”

“Frederick, that is very disturbing,” Bliss said. “I do hope you’re joking.”

“Where’s Blue?” Mira shouted.

Freddie blinked at her, shaken. “He … left. I thought he told you.”

“Apparently not,” Elsa said. “We’re looking for him.”

“We have to find him before midnight,” Mira filled in.

“I can call him….” Freddie turned and started toward the house, looking slightly disoriented—of course he had his sword at the party, but not his phone—and mouthed what’s going on? to Mira. She didn’t have time to answer; she just waved her hands in what she hoped was a hurry gesture, and did some extra pleading with her eyes, until he took off running. She glanced around quickly to see if anyone else had a cell phone, but they’d all left their belongings in the house.

“Even a car would be better,” Bliss said. “You could wish for a really exclusive car.”

“You’re making a wish?” Layla asked, perking up.

“Trying to,” Mira said. “For Blue.”

“I didn’t know that was permissible,” Layla said.

“It usually isn’t,” Elsa said. “But Mira’s our girl, and sixteen is an important birthday. So I can make it work. But mid-night’s the cutoff.”

“Oh,” Layla said, growing quiet. There was barely any time left.

“Eleven fifty-four,” Elsa said. “Sweetie, I don’t think he’s going to make it. Why don’t you make another wish, just in case?”

“Animal magnetism,” Bliss suggested. “Or serenity.”

“I don’t want anything else,” Mira said.

Time kept passing. The world kept turning.

The clock inched closer to midnight.

Mira glanced at the house, twisting her hands, wondering what was taking Freddie so long. Any other time, she would have gone after Blue herself. But she didn’t have the strength, she didn’t know where he was, she wouldn’t get to him fast enough. “What time is it?”

Elsa laid her hand on Mira’s shoulder. “Eleven fifty-eight. He’s not coming, Belle. Make your peace with it.”

Things could have been better. Blue could have had a chance. She’d come so close, only to end up with nothing.

She shrugged away from Elsa; turned her back to her godmothers in case she started crying. She didn’t want them to see her fall apart. She clung to the razor-blade necklace, and she brought the flat of the blade to her lips, shivering as she did. It smelled metallic, like steel and blood. She kissed it where Blue had kissed it.

She locked him away in her memory. That was where he would have to stay.

If he couldn’t get here by midnight, it was better that he didn’t come at all. She’d have nothing for him then—nothing that could change things, nothing that would save him. And she couldn’t bear to watch him leave a third time.

She started toward the house to tell Freddie not to bother.

Tears streamed down her cheeks and she rubbed them away with fingers that stung with salt, sweaty from when Blue had gripped them in his. She was barely paying attention to where she was going, too busy wiping eyes that kept clouding with tears—when someone seized her arms. Hard. She choked out a cry.

It was Blue—staring at her intently, his gaze demanding something. His palms were slick against her skin. The front of his shirt was damp. He’d run through the heat to get here.

“What is it?” he asked. “Freddie called me. He said something was wrong. That you needed—me.” His voice grew lower, softer. “What do you need, Mira? Tell me.”

“I need you to be okay,” she whispered.

And as she said it, she heard the first somber bong of a church bell tolling the hour—the first of twelve.

Tonight was shifting into tomorrow. Midnight was descending, and Mira’s birthday was at an end.

She thought the second bell would steal her breath, the third would stop her heart—and the twelfth would kill her. The bells were long, each tone stretching out over seconds, their solemn music lingering like they were signaling a death, not a new day.

But at the third bell, someone separated her from Blue. It was Bliss.

“Let go of her,” Blue snapped. He was completely misinterpreting things; he made to grab for her arm and Bliss held on tight and pulled her out of his reach.

Elsa stepped between them.

The fourth bell tolled. The night was slipping away. …

“Please be respectful—and quiet,” Elsa said. “I don’t want to lose my concentration.” She was wielding her wand, holding it aloft like a conductor’s baton—and the gesture seemed so familiar that Mira knew she was seeing magic.

Maybe, if there was time—

The fifth bell tolled, its round, full sound rolling through the night.

“Get away from me,” Blue said.

He was afraid. Afraid because of the way they’d threatened him earlier. Afraid Mira had told them. Afraid they were doing the only thing they could do to protect her—

“Blue, it’s all right,” she insisted, her voice high and strained, hope warring with impending hopelessness. There wasn’t time, there couldn’t be, how much time did Elsa need?

The sixth bell tolled, and already, it felt like midnight in her soul.

Elsa’s thin glass wand lit from base to tip, a surge of iridescent light shooting toward Blue. Fear flickered in his eyes. He looked, for an instant, like a cornered animal; and then he relaxed. His muscles went slack, and he spread his arms out. He was surrendering.

He thought they were destroying him. He didn’t care anymore.

The seventh bell tolled.

“Do it,” he said.

Elsa touched the tip of her wand to Blue’s chest, and his skin lit with the same rainbow-colored glow, like the magic was racing through his veins. Blue trembled. He gasped.

The eighth bell tolled.

Bliss hugged Mira harder.

“I lack the ability to undo this curse,” Elsa stated. “But I have the power to soften it.”

Blue’s terrified eyes met Mira’s. “What is she doing?”

“It’s for you,” Mira said. “To help you.”

The ninth bell tolled, silencing them, like thunder.

The light that lit Blue faltered as Elsa paused, distracted. It flared to life again as she began to speak.

“Instead of draining his beloved’s life force with every kiss and caress, the Romantic will love as a normal man.”

Blue was watching her, openmouthed. Neither of them really knew what was happening, what this would mean for them. They could only imagine how it might change things.

The tenth bell echoed through the night.

“He will take no strength from his beloved, but neither will he require it to survive.”

The eleventh ring was already sounding when Elsa moved on to the second part of the wish, her voice and her wand trembling as time began to run out.

“The punishment for invading the Romantic’s chamber—”

The iridescent light faded from the wand. It faded from Blue’s skin like Mira’s strength had faded when he kissed her. Until all four of them were left standing in the dark, lit only by the moon and the stars. The twelfth bell stole their voices, their breaths, and marked the end of the night, the end of

Mira’s birthday, the end of the magic.

“But what?” Blue asked. “What about the room?”

Elsa shook her head. “I didn’t manage to change it. There wasn’t time. You’ll still have to give out the key. And bring an end to any trespassers …”

“It just won’t be a clean end is what you’re saying,” Blue said bitterly. “Because I’ve lost the ability to siphon life. I’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way—make the room into a bloody chamber.”

Elsa nodded. “It’s unfortunate, and I’m sorry. I meant to soften that.”

“So I’ll still be—I’ll still be a murderer. If anyone enters the room …”

Mira’s eyes flooded with tears. Blue’s kiss couldn’t kill any-more—but it didn’t matter. If he might have to murder the girl he loved, he’d be too afraid to really live. She couldn’t stand it.

“It’s not fair!” she burst out. “How can you leave him like that?”

“Mira, I’m sorry,” Elsa said. “But the day has ended. There’s nothing I can—”

Bliss raised her wand, and magic screeched through it like nails on a chalkboard. Her jaw was set, her eyes narrowed, and she was staring right at Blue. Mira’s mouth opened in horror. Did Bliss know about them? Was she going to punish him? “Wait!” she cried. But it was too late.

Bliss raked her wand in a hard circle through the air, wrist jerking counterclockwise.

And the church bell bonged again. Rich, funereal—and familiar.

Elsa’s wand flared with new light. Her mouth pulled into a thin, disbelieving line. “Bliss … what did you do?”

“Hush,” Bliss said fiercely. “Allow me to worry about the trouble I’ll be in; you won’t have broken any rules. Now go on and finish. You only have eleven more bells.”

The second bell tolled for the second time that night. A second midnight.

Elsa took a deep breath. She touched the wand to Blue’s heart, and he shivered as the iridescent light poured through him again.

Elsa repeated the softening of the curse, reciting it quickly now. And when she reached the second part of the wish, just as the church bells were tolling the sixth ring of the midnight hour, she said, “The punishment for invading the Romantic’s chamber will always be death. However, the Romantic will no longer be forced to tempt his beloved into betraying him. From this moment on, he will not be required to give his beloved a key to the forbidden room, nor to disclose the room’s location. The secret remains with him.”

The light broke over Blue like water, and fizzled away well before the twelfth bell tolled. It was done. The wish was complete.

“There,” Elsa said, letting out an exhausted sigh. “I couldn’t do anything about the room—that will always be taboo. But the curse is effectively harmless.” She smiled, and Mira smiled back, determined to keep a pleased expression on her face.

She couldn’t possibly tell them that Blue’s curse was harmless to everyone but her. Or that she had the last key Blue would ever give out.

She could sense the passkey in her pocket—the same phantom cold she’d felt when the razor blade had first touched her chest. She shivered at its dark promise.

“Thank you,” she said, pulling her godmothers into a hug. “It’s perfect.”

“I don’t like him,” Bliss whispered in Mira’s ear. “Just so we’re clear. But I love you. And I know this is what you wanted.”

“Will you get in trouble?” she asked Bliss.

“Maybe,” Bliss said. “But I’ve heard fairy godmother prison is very nice.”

“Hush,” Elsa hissed, and Bliss giggled.

“Happy birthday,” they said.

Bliss and Elsa left her alone with Blue. He closed the distance between them and took her hands, careful not to crush her wounded fingers.

“That wasn’t just an elaborate light show, was it?” he asked. His breathing sounded shaky. He was looking down at himself—like he expected to have changed on the outside, too. “I’m a little afraid to believe it. It feels like it can’t be real.”

“It’s real,” Mira said. “It was my birthday wish—that they soften your curse, like they softened mine.”

“You had a birthday wish? And you wasted it on me?” He grinned at her. It was the first time she’d seen him smile like that in a while, and she lit up, grinning back.

“What was I thinking?”

“Can we work out some kind of trade, so I can make it up to you?”

“There is still something I want for my birthday.”

“Anything,” he said.

You, she thought.

She draped her arms around his neck, feeling excited, and nervous, and afraid.

It was exciting to think they had a chance now … and scary to know their fates were in her hands. She was the one girl who could betray him. And if she did, she’d make him into a monster. He’d be forced to kill her, and it wouldn’t be soft; it would be violent. The risk of death had always been between them … but now he could walk away from her, and never have to risk that again. She was nervous that he would want to.

“Mira,” he said. “You know I trust you, don’t you?”

“I know,” she said. “It’s just … you’d be safe with anyone else. You wouldn’t have to worry—at all—and—”

“Mira.” He took her face in his hands. “I’m not worried. You know what’s there. You’re not going to go in that room.”

“I know, but—”

“And this is real, right? What your godmothers said. My curse is …”

He kissed her lightly on the nose, and she laughed. Blue eyed her with faux seriousness. “How was that? Any weakness?”

“No. But I don’t think there would have been anyway.”

“Well, then, how about this?” His lips brushed hers, his mouth teasing her lower lip, and her eyes closed and she shivered as his fingers caught in her hair. And then suddenly, there wasn’t any space between them. The sensation of drowning was there, but it wasn’t like her strength was leaving her. It was like she wanted to be part of him. Like she didn’t know or care where she ended and he began.

When they drew apart, she whispered, “No weakness.”

“Really?” he said. “ ’Cause I’m feeling a little weak.” She felt him smile against her mouth. And they both laughed, shook with it. Their faces were too close, noses and cheeks pressed awkwardly together, but neither one of them moved. She tightened her arms around him, and he held her just as tightly. His breath murmured against her cheek.

“You’re safe with me, Mira. And I’m safe with you.”

He kissed her again to prove it. And when the clock struck one—that lone, ominous tone hovering in the dark—they were still kissing. Her razor blade had snagged his shirt and nicked his chest, and they’d ended up lying in the grass, hidden inside a shadow, ignoring their names whenever someone called them. He traced her mouth again and again, like he still couldn’t believe it was real.

There would always be a part of him she couldn’t know. A secret place where his heartbreak was stored, where lost innocence and regret filled the air like smoke. She had no desire to open that door … but she didn’t know if that would change one day. If the key would tempt her, if a fairy would manipulate her or she would just be curious. But she had to believe she could be strong enough to resist. That what she wanted—what they both wanted—mattered more than the path that had been laid out for them.

She let her hand slip under his shirt to touch the heart mark on his back, and he brought her other hand to his lips, and kissed every finger he’d entrusted with the key. He was so much more than his curse, and she was so much more than the girl who could betray him. Together … they could be anything.