The Inner Circle | A Midnight Quartet

Chapter 25 | Aspen Cooper

 "Miss Aspen?" A young boy's voice calls through the doorway. Aspen sits at the vanity, combing her hair in her borrowed room as she beckons him to come in.

Charlie walks in with a tray in his hand, his short and stout body coming towards her. Aspen can't believe she somehow remembered his name, what with her sleep deprived delirium from the night before; she had briefly met her servant before falling asleep in the comfiest bed she had ever slept in. For once in her life, Aspen feels spoiled. "This is for you, Miss." The tray is extended towards her and Aspen takes the small card off of it.

"Thank you, Charlie."

"Of course, Miss. Do you need any help this morning?"

She smiles at the boy. "No, thank you. I'm quite used to caring for myself. I was always the one to help someone else with their needs, so it's an interesting development to have my own helper."

He bows briefly. "It is just my duty, Miss." He turns back to the door.

"Please, just call me Aspen." She stops him in his tracks. "And before you go, do you happen to know why the King and Queen are giving us such a fine treatment? I appreciate it, but I've been pondering how they could spare each of us our own servants and beautiful guest bedrooms."

Charlie turns back. "I have not been given that information, but I'll give it my best guess. You four are friends with Princess Irena, who has been working with the Kingdom of Aurelia for a while now. She speaks very highly of you. You were also brave enough to stand up to King Irving, which is a feat in and of itself." Aspen's face twists in slight confusion at the use of Charlie's present tense when talking about Irena, but maybe her death hasn't sunk in with the servants here yet. "I suggest reading that note, Mis-sorry, Aspen. I'm sure Miles would not want to be kept waiting for his breakfast."

Aspen's eyes brighten as she unfolds the small note. "Meet me at the fountain in the garden. Breakfast will be provided." She can hear his own voice speaking those words as she reads them: quick and to the point. A large smile comes onto her face and stays there. She turns back to Charlie and thanks him for the note. He rushes out of the room and Aspen walks over to the walk-in closet--the first one of her life--and looks at all of her options for what she can wear today. She's never had this many dresses at her disposal to wear, causing her to feel overwhelmed. Most of them look a bit long for a morning breakfast, but as she continues to browse through the patterns and colors and fabrics and necklines, she finds the perfect dress. It's a yellow plaid fabric for the main parts with white puffed sleeves and a strip of white lace on the bottom hem of the skirt. A small bow is in the middle of the sweetheart neckline and Aspen falls in love.

She pulls her hair up into a loose ponytail and finds a yellow ribbon in the many drawers of the vanity to tie it up with. With a quick glance in the mirror at how her hair turned out, her eyes start to well up. The last time she had felt this beautiful was the night of the ball; the night Princess Irena died. A small wave of sadness washes over her, but it is quickly replaced by the reminder that she gets to go have breakfast with the boy she loves.

The palace is beautiful inside and out, yet Aspen can't seem to figure out which way to go through any of the hallways. She has to stop and ask multiple servants which way to go to get to the garden. They are all very helpful and somehow seem to recognize her. Maybe my crew and I are pretty well known around here. She thinks as she finally finds the correct door to get outside.

A warm breeze ruffles the hairs she left out of her ponytail to frame her face, blowing into her eyes slightly. She walks along a curved path and eventually winds up in the middle of the garden where a huge fountain has made its place. She silently hops up onto the wide lip of the fountain and walks along it to get to the handsome young man on the far side of it. At the last second, before she can scare him, Miles turns around. Their eyes lock and Aspen's heart hammers inside of her chest. Aspen can audibly hear Miles' gulp as his eyes rove over her dress and face.

She blushes and sits down next to him, crossing her feet and feeling self-conscious."Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what? Like you're the most amazing young woman I have ever met? Like my heart has been stolen by you? Like you are more beautiful than all of the goddesses in the world? Like I'm the luckiest guy in the world because I have you by my side?" He grabs one of Aspen's hands and kisses it. "Because I will never stop looking at you like that."

"Oh shut it!" She giggles and yanks away her hand. "The one time

I wear something nice and my face turns into a tomato."

"Well you're sure the cutest tomato I've ever seen." He leans his head towards hers slowly and she meets him in the middle, both of them enjoying a long kiss to celebrate being together after all of these years. They both pull back with huge smiles on their faces. "Do you want to eat?"

Aspen abruptly laughs, leaning her head on Miles' shoulder. "Sure, why not." He twists away from her and grabs a huge picnic basket from his other side, pulling it onto their laps.

"I went to the kitchen early this morning and found a few things. It was a bit awkward because they don't know me, but as soon as I told them who I am they helped me find some good options." He pulls out a container of strawberries, some bagels wrapped in a towel, a jar of cream cheese, snap peas, two bananas, and some other diced fruits.

"Miles," Aspen's voice is soft and sentimental. "This is wonderful."

He kisses the top of her head and hands her the strawberries. "Can we consider this our first date? Now that we're a couple?"

She snorts and Miles smiles. "How in the world did we confess our love for each other before even going on a date?"

"The world works in mysterious ways, but I always knew we'd end up together. Now stop talking and just eat! We had a huge day yesterday."

They chatter a little bit as they snack on the food but they eventually just end up dipping their feet in the fountain (while trying not to get caught by the groundskeepers) and look at the beauty of this kingdom. "What kingdom do you want our cottage to be in?" Miles asks out of the blue.

"I'm not sure. I would appreciate being close to Margaret and Tabitha and I can assume that you want to still be with Livingston to some degree. But I think we're just slightly banished from Derowen at this point..." They laugh sadly, still not quite believing that it was just yesterday they were in jail with each other. "Now that I know my mom is from Shira, I wouldn't mind visiting there one day. I wouldn't necessarily want to live there though, and I doubt there are many forests we could build a house in around those parts. Here in Aurelia is beautiful, so we might keep that on the list. And then Bellamy is where Darcy is from, so I'm sure she would know somewhere good for us to build a cottage."

"Well, as long as I'm with you, I will be infinitely happy." Miles smiles at her, both of them watching the clouds and continuing on with their conversation.

While sharing a kiss, a soft cough comes from behind them and they both tense up, wondering if the gardener had come to reprimand them. They both slowly turn around and are relieved to see that it's just Darcy and Carmen.

"Why hello, you two lovebirds." Carmen drawls, wrapping his arm around Darcy and hugging her in tight.

"Right back at you." Aspen lightly slaps his arm, smiling at her friends. Aspen and Miles lift their legs out of the water and wipe off their wet feet with the unused picnic blanket that was in the basket. They slip their shoes back on and venture with Carmen and Darcy around the garden, talking about everything and nothing all at once.

A flash of movement catches Apsen's eye. She tilts her head, trying to see through the thick rose bushes. As two figures come into view, Aspen gasps.

They all turn to look at her, while Miles places a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?" He asks in a hushed tone.

Her lungs decide to stop working and she begins to shake. Miles looks into her eyes, still trying to figure out what's wrong as he holds her steady. She can't be here. She's dead. Darcy saw her die. They held a whole funeral for her! And if that is her, who is she with?

"Do you need to get inside, Aspen?" Darcy asks, looking concerned for her friend.

Aspen shakes her head, a hand crawling up to her throat as if trying to find the words to explain what she is seeing. She can only watch as the figure makes her way to the group. Aspen's head spins, a single thought pounding over and over again through her brain: Irena Carnelian is not dead.