“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “I like it, especially when it sparkles and moves sometimes.”

What? “Define sometimes…”

“Whenever I’m alone or reading,” she says. “It hasn’t done it in a while, though. It probably isn’t a fan of you being around.”

“I doubt that.” I smile, returning it to her bag. “I’m personally shocked you didn’t throw it away after I left that day.”

“It’s the only gift I’ve received in over a decade,” she says.

“You mean, outside of birthdays and holidays?”

“No…” She shakes her head. “After my mother passed, my father never celebrated anything on my behalf. And, of course, no suitors ever offered anything to me either. I mean, not like they knew I existed, but still. It really was my first gift, even if it was from you.”

I tilt her chin up with my fingertips. “Have I really been that terrible?”

“Yes.”

I slide a hand inside my coat, plucking a few more blooms from a stem before handing them to her.

“You should’ve told me that sooner,” I say. “I would’ve given you something else on that day as well.”

“Manners, right?” She smiles. “Submission?”

“If you’re secretly the submissive type, you should let me know now…” I watch as a blush creeps across her cheeks. “I was referring to an actual gift.”

“Well, whenever we find my sister, you can give me a goodbye one before you let me go. That’ll make things right, I think.”

“Belle…”

“Gabriel.” She forces a smile and steps back. “Sola is waiting for me near the back. Goodbye.”

“Goodnight.”

A Hidden Kingdom

Belle

I’ve always been taught that our world only has seven kingdoms, but there have always been rumors about an undisputed eighth. Through folktales I’ve gathered through the villagers’ gossip, they mused about an “awful, forgotten place” and made up stories about a hostile beast who devoured anyone who dared to visit.

The stories ranged from the unbelievable to the truly absurd, but as I stand in the middle of an abandoned causeway, I’m determined to spend my night writing down all the tales I remembered.

Not because they were right, but because they were wrong.

Dead-ass wrong.

The golden gate ahead of me bears the words, “The Ninth Kingdom,” and the imposing castle behind it is far more threatening and gloomy than anything I’ve ever heard about the abandoned one in the eighth.

Sheathed in dark grey stone, its walls are covered in overgrown ivy, and the inside holds no light.

A faint layer of fog floats over its towers.

My borrowed horse whines and stomps his hooves against the cobblestone, begging to be led away from this place, but I can only stroke his mane.

“There, there,” I whisper. “I don’t like this place either…”

“This is where we’ll strategize our attack on the Eighth Kingdom for the next two weeks,” Gabriel stands in front of us. “If you’re not prepared to die to bring this kingdom back to life, to restore things as they should be, leave now and don’t ever come back.”