Lesson 44: What's Not Your Job, Is Not Your Job

Grielle watched Benedikt's seemingly lifeless form crumple to the ground. His arms were splayed and his face, serene, turned toward the ceiling. "What have you done?" she exclaimed, falling to her knees at Benedikt's side.

She scanned him for injury but the only mark she could find was a cut on his jaw. It oozed a slow trickle of blood that trailed down his neck to color the white collar of his shirt a deep crimson.

Nothing serious. Nothing life-threatening.

With gentle hands, she lifted Benedikt's head to cradle it in her lap. She leaned over to draw her cheek near to Benedikt's lips. A shallow breath tickled her skin and Grielle heaved a sigh of relief. "He's alive," she said, mostly for her own benefit.

"Yes," Captain De Soto drawled, a satisfied smirk on his lips.

Grielle let her attention drift from Benedikt. De Soto's band of pirates had regrouped and formed a circle around their king to keep back the Stalvart guards. It appeared most guests had fled when the fighting began, but many of the princesses still remained. One held what appeared to be glass slippers in her hands, the heels of which were bloodied. Judging by the glare the blonde gave the pirates, and the makeshift weapons in her hands, she hadn't taken kindly to them ruining her chance at dancing with the prince at midnight.

"He's in a state of deathlike sleep," De Soto said, regaining Grielle's attention.

"This is your revenge?"

"I do love the irony," De Soto said, inching his way toward the door. "The prince who only wanted to wake a sleeping princess with True Love's Kiss now sleeps himself with no one to wake him. My sources tell me he never found his True Love — that his kiss couldn't wake a single princess."

Grielle's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You've been misinformed," she declared, her lips drawing up in a grin. De Soto's face fell and Grielle knew he had been caught off guard. His gold eyes flicked between her face and the door and she could see the panic in them. She could hear the soft pad of feet as the Liberators came to stand behind her. King Sander and Queen Ylva, surrounded by a mighty group of warriors appeared among the faces of the remaining guests. "Well it's partially true; he didn't wake the princesses, but I did."

"Impossible," the Pirate King spat. "The Lady of the Mountain can't have been defeated."

Grielle couldn't reveal what she'd done to all of Benedikt's court — at least not yet.

Instead, she said, "We live in a world of magic and monsters...a world where True Love's Kiss can still break curses."

De Soto began to inch closer to the exit, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"This world is full of possible impossibilities, Captain," Grielle said with a wink to De Soto.

The Captain's mouth fell open and he whistled for his men to retreat. Pirates crashed through the crowd, scrambling for the door. The warriors and castle guards charged after them, but Grielle didn't care. She stroked Benedikt's soft, dark hair, pushing it tenderly from his forehead.

Ludvig knelt down at her side. He touched a finger to the cut on Benedikt's jaw and brought the bloodied finger to his mouth, pressing it to his tongue. He spat out the blood. "Apples. That's sweetbriar root he's poisoned his blade with. I'm sure of it."

Grielle swallowed hard. Her hands trembled. She couldn't be sure why, but the question on her tongue gave her a good guess. "Will he wake...to True Love's Kiss?"

Ludvig nodded. "If the love in your heart is true."

Grielle felt suddenly very aware of every eye in the room watching her. King Sander gave her a warm nod, the Queen a gentle smile. One of the princesses watched on in rapture, her skirts knotted into a ball in her hands. "Kiss him already!" she exclaimed, as Grielle met her gaze.

"Go ahead!" another said.

Grielle placed both of her hands on either side of Benedikt's face. Something in her chest fluttered. There was the possibility he wouldn't wake up, but she didn't entertain the thought with even an ounce of belief. There was only one thing she could be certain of, and that was how she felt about him.

The room fell away, and for a moment it was only her and the boy in her arms. Grielle lowered her mouth to his. Their lips brushed, barely more than a touch.

They were familiar lips, more precious to her than any other set of lips in the realm. She pressed deeper into the kiss, and a strange warmth spread through her lips and traveled the length of her body. Her fingertips tingled and an indescribable and pleasant heat settled deep within her chest.

She could smell his sweetness, feel the stubble of his cheeks on the calloused pads of her fingers. Her thumb traced over something wet on Benedikt's cheek and she realized it was her own tears falling onto him.

Grielle didn't understand it at first. She was lost in the kiss when she felt Benedikt's lips part. Then, as if she had fallen into a dream herself, he kissed her back.

The floor seemed to fall out from beneath her. She drew back and opened her eyes to see Benedikt watching her, bleary-eyed and confused.

"Did I fall asleep?" he croaked.

Grielle laughed, though it sounded more like a sob. She started to wipe her tears but Benedikt reached up and pulled her face back down to meet his and he kissed her again, more deeply than before.

"Why are you crying?" he whispered. He looked a little punch-drunk with a silly smile tugging at his lips

"You were cursed," Grielle said, running her fingers through his rumpled hair. "And then I woke you...with True Love's Kiss."

Benedikt propped himself onto his elbows. A look that shifted between surprise, shock, and joy-filled his face. His mouth flopped open and closed before a smirk creased his cheeks. His head tilted to the side as he considered Grielle with a bemused grin. "So this means you are indeed my True Love?"

"Yes," Grielle laughed. "Capital T. Capital L. True Love."

"I knew it," Benedikt said, before kissing her again.

~

The morning after the ball they found out the pirates had escaped through the city and out through the fjords. As the new official Captain of the Royal Guard, Reyn was sent out with the best sailors in Stalvart to see if they could take the pirate ship before it reached the open seas. They returned, unsuccessful, two days later. The fact that De Soto and his men had known about the Lady of the Mountain gave the kingdom cause for concern, but the investigation was put aside for certain matters of state.

It took Benedikt a week to fully recover from being poisoned, but that meant a week of Grielle reading to him at his bedside. He felt well enough to move around the castle on his own just days before his twenty-first birthday, but he refused to do so without her at his side.

The Stalvarts had welcomed her with open arms and the halls were filled with whispers and speculation about the warrior queen and her mysterious past.

On Benedikt's birthday, he woke to a layer of fresh, powdery snow on the ground. While the rest of the castle prepared for his birthday banquet, he hunkered down in front of the library fire with Grielle. The flames crackled with an inviting warmth as Benedikt looked down at the words of his unread book. Grielle sat on the fur rug with her back to the threadbare sofa, a book in her lap. Benedikt slid from the sofa to sit beside her. She looked up dreamily, her lips in a smile that hadn't left her face in weeks. His heart sputtered as the light of the fire caught in her eyes.

"You start your regency tonight," Grielle said, her voice lowered to just above a whisper.

Benedikt heaved a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah..."

"Do you think you're ready?"

Benedikt looked down at the book of naval warfare abandoned in his lap. "Probably not. But I've got a lot of good people on my side." He looked up to see Grielle staring at the little gold ring on her left hand. "And you haven't heard a word I've said," he laughed.

Grielle smiled down at her hand and then back at him. "Sorry. I've never been one for jewelry, but I can't stop looking at it."

"Don't apologize," he insisted, taking her left hand in his. "I'm glad you like wearing it. Now everyone knows you're my fiancée." He kissed her knuckles, just above the ring.

A familiar look flicked over Grielle's face, and he knew just how to reply. He chucked the tattered leather book aside and pulled her into his lap. She kissed him deeply as she always did, like every kiss could be their last. Benedikt wanted to hold her forever, but moments like this never lasted as long as he wanted.

The doors to the library flew open with a slam. A fresh swirl of dust filled the air as it cascaded down from the towering shelves of ancient scrolls and manuscripts.

"There you two are!" Moose thundered. He tromped over to place himself between them and the fireplace. Benedikt laughed at the sight of Moose with his arms full of scrolls and fabric swatches, a measuring tape draped around his neck.

"We are supposed to be wedding-planning and we are already weeks behind where we should be," Moose said.

Grielle removed herself from Benedikt's arms and helped take some of the fabric swatches that threatened to spill from Moose's. They followed him out of the library as he carried on about invitation calligraphy, floral arrangements, and table linens. Benedikt felt Grielle's hand slip into his and suddenly everything was perfect again. They had six weeks and five days until the winter solstice, the only day of the year a Stalvart king could be married. It was another silly tradition, but he didn't mind so much. He just wasn't willing to wait a whole year for the next solstice to come around. Forty-seven days and she would be his wife.

Grielle noticed him looking at their intertwined hands. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"About us."

"What about?"

"Our story...It's quite a complicated tale."

Grielle laughed and she squeezed his hand tighter. "We'll probably have to tell it to our children one day."

Benedikt chuckled as he thought about sitting his children down, as his own father had done for him, to tell them how he had found his True Love. "We'd both have to tell it," he said. "Together."

Grielle nodded. "Though we might not want to include all the kissing."

Benedikt shook his head. "That's the best part."

THE END

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