i just might love you (a hosie royalty au)

Part 19: "If your dance card isn't too full."

A/n: sorry to everyone, but especially those who put this fic on their "waiting for an update" lists💀
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The chapel prayer candles were lit, but the overhanging chandelier was not, leading warm low lighting to fill the large room. Josie marveled at the two large stained glass windows. From her perspective at the door, the scenes looked intricate and vivid with deep red and green shapes dancing together to create a story. There were beasts, no... huge wolves running together in a swirl framing a sword pierced through a crown. A perfect circle was placed at the top of the second window, the glazed pane almost shimmering in the candlelight as it shawn over the brutal image of a battle below. Three subjects lay bloodied and vanquished on the ground below a lone figure, holding an axe up in triumph above their own head, casting a shadow over the other subjects. Josie turned her attention away from that; the history lessons they had taken early on in her time as a suitor gave her the story. She did not need to dwell on the kings bloody rise to power. Instead she looked around at what Penelope had presumably set up.

Somehow the heavy oak pews had been moved to the sides of the room, making the space feel like it was enclosed in some weird wooden bubble. Some people she did not recognize were in the far corner tuning some instruments. There were also barrels stacked together in the opposite corner, definitely filled with alcohol of some kind. Josie walked forward and picked up a tankard, twisting the handle on the spout to fill it up to the brim. The beer foamed, dripping over the edge as Josie held it away from herself, trying not to spill on her dress. Other people started filing in, some staff members from the kitchen Josie recognized, and a majority of the suitors.

Jed pumped his fist in the air when he walked in, asking the crowd if they were ready to party. He went over and introduced himself to some of the male servants, giving them eager handshakes and slapping them on the back, quickly becoming friends. Josie watched as Dana walked in, trying and succeeding to strike up conversations with new people that were bound to become her new minions, if Lizzie were here she would definitely have snide comments to make. Josie sipped the foam off her beer as MG approached the barrels with a noble named Ethan trailing behind him. They were both caught up in an animated discussion about if the occult weren't abhorrent, what supernatural ability they would grant themselves.

Josie drifted away quietly, making her way towards where Penelope was sitting on the stone floor below the stain glass windows. She looked melancholy for a moment, plastering a tired smile on her face once the brunette stood at her outstretched feet.

"Do you want me to get you a drink?"

"Beer's not really my thing." She replied.

"You're the one who organized this party." Josie said incredulously, finding her place beside the other girl and sinking down the wall until they were shoulder to shoulder. Josie took a large gulp from her tankard, knowing that the more she drank the faster she'd get used to the oat-y taste. She absentmindedly glanced around the room, watching as Kaleb was obviously trying to flirt with one of the kitchen staff, and she was definitely interested. "Is Hope going to be here later?"

Josie turns slowly at the sound of the raven-haired knight's laughter. "You really like her don't you?" Penelope's smirk turns soft, yet still with a knowingly arrogant look in her eyes.

Not that she's already drunk, but Josie doesn't have to blame the easy answer on anything she may have consumed tonight. "I do."

As if her feelings can become magic and conjure the person she's fallen for, Hope slips through the doors of the chapel. Despite the fact that she very purposefully shut the doors behind her softly, Josie watches as all eyes turn and land on Hope, who instantly freezes. A needle could drop, a moth could sneeze, and it would be as if a cannonball had smashed directly through the stain glass windows above Josie and through the large wooden doors that Hope was leaning against, knocking them off their hinges and sending splinters in all directions. Even from this far away Josie could see Hope's chest heave, one breath in that never came out, her eyes glinting yellow in the candlelight.