“Well done, sir,” Algernon stated as I made up my mind, straightened from the wall and then walked right into the room.
Both men started when I did, their heads swinging in my direction.
But I only had eyes for Tor as he stared at me walking across the room carrying the swirly, creamy frosted cake with its blue birthday candles that I’d wanted so badly and worked so hard to make for him (seriously, the kitchens in his castle were warm and jolly but the utensils and appliances were so far away from KitchenAid it wasn’t funny).
“Happy birthday,” I whispered and even I heard the ache in my voice.
When Tor heard it, I watched him flinch and the flinch was so reactionary he had no hope of hiding it.
He knew I heard.
Good.
“Cora –” he started.
“In my world,” I cut him off and moved my what I was sure were heartsick eyes to Algernon, “we don’t serve birthday tarts with birthday sparklers, as Perdita told me you do here. In my world,” I looked back at Tor who was frozen to the spot and watching me stop at his desk and set the cake on it, “we serve birthday cake with birthday candles.”
I touched the stick to a candle on his desk, lit it and started lighting the birthday candles as I kept explaining.
“So, for your birthday, since I have no money but I wanted to do something special, I decided to give you something that was special to me, a piece of my world, kind of literally. I scoured the city to find all the right ingredients and Perdita had the candlemaker make special candles. So here you are.” I gestured to the cake with a flick of the stick. “A my world birthday cake.” My eyes went to his. “My birthday present to you. And now what you have to do is make a wish, blow out the candles and your wish is supposed to come true.”
Luckily, there were only ten candles (I guess I didn’t explain very fully to Perdita). I’d finished with them so I blew out the stick and set it on the desk.
“Cora –” Tor started again, beginning to move toward me.
“No!” I cried, lifting up a hand and he stopped.
“I’ll just –” Algernon began, my head snapped to him and I dropped my hand.
“Please, don’t go, you must have some cake,” I whispered, his eyes shot to Tor but he didn’t move.
I looked back at Tor.
“You need to make your wish,” I told him. “Then blow out your candles.”
“Sweets –” he started, my eyes closed and that tear in my heart didn’t split, it didn’t gently rip deeper.
It slashed through my heart, rending it in two.
I opened my eyes, locked them on Tor’s beautiful, blue, playing, deceitful ones and I felt mine fill with tears.
“Make your wish,” I whispered.
“Cora –”
A tear spilled over and slid down my cheek.
“Make your wish, honey.”
I watched his eyes follow the trail of my single tear then they came to mine then he came at me.
I whirled, picked up my skirts and ran.
“Cora!” he yelled as I dashed out the door and down the hall. “Cora! Gods damn it, stop!”
He was right behind me.
Shit!