The Book Quest

Chapter 9 - Poison Ivy

 The days passed quickly, way too quickly. There had been endless fancy activities and such that everyone seemed to enjoy but Callen. Lillian was only able to convince him to go to the rehearsal dinner, which was one of the ones Callen was dreading the most. But of course Lillian just had to guilt trip him into it.

"This is dumb." Callen looked down and twiddled his thumbs.

"Yeah I know, but we don't have much of a choice, plus now I can ask around about that book," Lillian said surveying the table. It was huge, and the majority of it was full of rich stuck up people.

"Right." Callen didn't really feel like talking. Liam on the other hand would not shut up. Was Callen jealous? Yes. More than he'd rather admit. His mind wandered back to the ball, when him and Ivy were on the roof. Was this what she was talking about when she said she may not be able to continue? This definitely put a damper on things. He looked up to where her and Liam were sitting. Liam's arm was around her as she sat looking as sad as always. What did she really have to be so sad about anyway? Maybe Keira was right. Ivy looked up and met his gaze. Callen looked down at his thumbs again, but glanced up to see her still staring at him. She had the same look of lost hope from before the ball. Callen faked a smile. Miss me? He mouthed jokingly. Ivy covered her mouth, nodding. Having expected an eye roll or something, he smiled for real.

Ivy bowed down her head as she walked down the aisle, embarrassed and horrified. The fact that the time had finally come. For once in her life she couldn't escape, she couldn't cover it up. She walked up to the bower, and stood facing Prince Liam. She tried not to look him in the eyes while her father started. But once he started to say his vows, she found the confidence to look him straight in the eye. She instantly regretted it though. He met her gaze with a sly look, he knew he was winning. Ivy wondered what her father bribed Liam with to get him to do this.

"Ivy?" The king said angrily. Ivy turned to her father, realizing now that it was her turn to speak. She looked down at her feet, then at the king. She shook her head. She wasn't going to speak in front of so many people, she didn't know if she could. She hadn't spoken in so long besides that one short sentence to the king, in private, and to Callen. Now she was in front of the entire kingdom, probably even more.

"Ivy! Speak now or this marriage won't go on! You will be a disgrace to the entire kingdom!" The king yelled at her. Ivy shrugged, being a disgrace was the least of her problems. And if the marriage was cancelled? Well wouldn't that be great.

"Fine, just..." the king sighed "Prince Liam, do you take Princess Ivy as your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do"

"And do you, Princess Ivy, take Prince Liam as your lawfully wedded husband?" Ivy hesitated, drawing the moment out as much as she could. but nodded anyways.

"Then, you may kiss the bride!"

Watching the wedding go on was making Keira uncomfortable, and this part was going to be worse. It was just so forced!

"My ship crashed worse than the Titanic!" Brianna whispered. She was trying to sound overly emotional, but you could tell she was actually pretty disappointed. Everyone was. Keira looked at Callen curiously, wishing she could ask him how he was taking all this. She hadn't known for sure, but she felt like there was something between them. She looked down at her satchel, leaning against the pew. She remembered that morning, when she had talked about her story with Tessa and Michael. It had only been about a week and yet so much had changed. Then, she thought. The world she was in, the houses the people and the events, it was exactly as she had wrote it. She already knew she could manipulate and erase events, so couldn't she just make something up? She quickly grabbed the book out of her satchel and opened it to the last page. She read the last few sentences. Everything was written up to this moment, even her own actions. She smiled to herself. She started writing in it as quickly as she could.

"Hey guys," she whispered, as Ivy refused to give her vows, "Wanna see something cool?"

"Um sure?" Tessa whispered back. Keira dramatically placed a period at the end of her sentence. She had put a lot of thought into all of this before she had ended up in this place...She had just been waiting for the right moment, and it was here. Her proud smile quickly faded though as every single scribbled word she had just written changed, the damn book really hated her.

"What the frickity frack are you doing?" She said angrily to the book, shaking it like a broken remote. She read the new words frantically. This book really hated her.

Right after Ivy had given up, she suddenly felt something within her. Some kind of anger that she wasn't used to feeling. It was as if a fire was growing inside her and consuming her from the inside out. She stumbled back as Liam leaned in to kiss her, again. Her vision started to go out. Liam's annoying smirk turning into fear was the last thing she saw. She felt a tingly feeling in her fingers. It grew until her entire arms seemed to be burning. She pushed Liam away. There was a force helping her, but she couldn't see it. She couldn't see anything. She couldn't tell what she was doing, she felt entirely out of control, but so in control at the same time. An entirely different person was inside her head, and wanted out. There was a thud followed by screams. She whipped around to where she thought her dad was, and raised her hand as if she was pushing him. More unknown force. Another thud. More screams. Her father swearing. She turned around, facing the guests. She could sense the chaos, it seemed to be spreading. Something from above fell on top of her and knocked her to her knees. Gasping, her hands slammed against the ground. It vibrated beneath her. She started to hear familiar voices in between the screams.

"Callen! Come on! We have to go!" Lillian's voice screamed, distressed, "Callen!" She could feel the room empty as people ran out.

"Wait," she whispered, but no one would be able to hear her.