Fantastical Mistake

Chapter 13 - Confession

My full lips connected with his narrow pastel pink ones, lingering only for a moment due to the warmth and softness under my touch, before I slowly pulled back, my eyes still closed. Only when I opened them did I realize what I had just done.

Bug-eyed almond sapphire blue eyes were staring incredulously at me, tension palpable on his jaw line. It was only then that my expression began to mirror his, my chocolate eyes widening with the shock of my own actions and I gasped when Emmeric suddenly stepped back and straightened up in a swift movement, taking a hand to the bottom half of his face, covering his lips completely, and walking out of the balcony.

- No, wait! I'm sorry – I yelled at him, getting up from my seat and running after him, but he was quick. – Emmeric, I'm sorry! Emmeric!

He was already on the other side of the crowded room, people moving out of his way as he walked by. I, on the other hand, was constantly bumping into people when I tried to move forward, losing sight of Emmeric fairly quick.

Even so, I stubbornly tried to keep going, my mind set on finding him and... I wasn't sure what to do then, but I felt like I had to do something. He must have been so incredibly mad at me, just when I thought we were finally growing close.

- Dear, what happened? – I heard a familiar voice question. Alwin stepped beside me and grabbed my forearm lightly, guiding me away from the crowd. – Emmeric just told me to get you to your room as quick as possible. Something wrong?

Hearing that, I took my face in my hands, trying desperately not to start crying.

- It's my fault. I messed up – I confessed from behind my palms, too ashamed of myself to show my face to anyone right now.

- Let's just get you to your room, dear – Alwin tried to console me.

As he guided me to my room, I undid my hair in order to have it fall loose, trying my best to have it cover the sides of my face as I looked only at my feet as we walked. Probably feeling uncomfortable with the situation, Alwin didn't talk to me nor tried to persuade me to tell him what happened. Instead, he just left me in my room and assured me he would come early in the morning to pick me up and take us back to the Forest.

Getting off of my dress and putting on some night attire, I climbed in the foreign bed, rolling to my side and scrunching myself into a ball. I couldn't quite believe what I had done. I was so caught up in the moment, I acted on instinct. He had been so nice to me today, and he healed my wounds without even hesitating, and he called me beautiful. And I knew he meant it, because he wasn't the kind of person that would lie about that.

Maybe it had been too long since I had any type of male attention and I was craving it a lot more than I thought I was. Maybe I should have gone on that double date Carine had invited me to go and none of this would have ever happened in the first place. Maybe I had been so intent on being friendly with the cold man with a sad and lonely past that I didn't realize my feelings were now above what they should be. I liked him. And that was a pained confession to myself.

I pulled the covers up, covering my head completely and groaned, angry at myself. Why was this happening to me? As if things couldn't get any worse.

The next day, like promised, Alwin came to get me in the morning. Unfortunately, he informed me that Emmeric would depart in a different carriage a bit later in the day. Meaning I was alone as the carriage started moving at the snap of Alwin's fingers, leading me away from the Palace and into the Forest.

It would be a month before I ever saw Emmeric again. Although I begged Coal and Scarlett to tell me when Emmeric's carriage arrived, and I waited all day in the throne room for him to walk in, the Shadow's informed me that he had already arrived and that he forbade them from telling me until he was already in his room.