Tangled Hearts

Lara would never admit it to Caspian, but a part of her hated spending time at the castle. She loved her cousin and wanted to spend time with him, but she wasn't good with children and she wasn't any better at making friends, even if her feelings toward Belle had thawed considerably since she and Caspian had gotten engaged. She was happy for them, and Caspian deserved a wife and children. But Lara felt removed from it all, like she'd lost something she would never get back. She felt tremendously out of place among the royal family.

Today was no different, as Caspian and Belle romped around with the twins and Lucian and Lucian's ridiculous little white dog. The room felt crowded, with Alec and Lily and their parents and even Annemarie, Holden and Rhett all trying to play with the children. Lara sat at the grand piano in the corner, absently playing songs she knew. She and Annemarie had never been friends and suddenly she was seeing a lot of the spoiled, perfect princess. Thankfully Annemarie mostly avoided her, like most noble girls did.

"You got some fairy tale books, I see," Caspian teased Belle as he sorted through their mess of books and toys. "I thought you hated fairy tales. Something about true love being unrealistic?"

Belle rolled her eyes. "Shut up. I may have had a slight change of heart. Maybe they're not completely unrealistic and I thought the twins would like them."

Caspian laughed and kissed her cheek, and suddenly an entire debate erupted over the realism and messages of fairy tales.

"Lara you've been awfully quiet," Caspian called. "You've read even more books than Belle, and I know you have an opinion on everything. What do you think of fairy tales?"

"A stupid, pretty girl getting herself into ridiculous trouble and a pompous knight or prince needing to rescue her? Of course it's realistic," Lara said. "That's essentially every girl I ever went to school with and every man they wanted to marry. I think fairy tales could use some upgrading."

"What's your idea of a good tale then?" Annemarie asked.

"Yes, I would actually love to hear a Lara take on a fairy tale," Belle said, smiling. Lara considered, then began playing the piano again to accompany her story.

"Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived in a shimmering castle. And her nurse maids would tell her stories about the monsters who lived in the wood, with fangs and claws longer than a man's arm. They were twelve feet tall and could swallow a princess whole.

Then one day a handsome prince came to the castle to visit the king and queen, and he thought the princess was very lovely. But when he told her she was beautiful and smiled at her, the princess realized monsters aren't always ugly and they don't have fangs. Sometimes they look like princes. And the king and queen knew what he was, but they didn't want to anger the monster so they pretended not to know when he tried to hurt the princess, because that's what real monsters do. They don't swallow princesses whole, they try to break them apart slowly.

There was a witch who lived at the edge of the forest, and people were scared of her and claimed she was evil. But the princess was desperate to escape from the prince, so she braved the forest and went to the witch, begging her for help. And so the witch cast a spell, and transformed the princess into a fire breathing dragon, with wings long enough to cover the sun when she flew over the village.

The princess burned the castle down, destroying the monster inside. And the people all thought she was evil and cursed her, so she flew away, over the mountains and across the sea until she found a whole new world just for her own. And she lived happily ever after. The end."

Lara played a final note and the room was so quiet for a moment you could hear a pin drop.

"That's awfully dark, Lara," Annemarie said finally. Lara shrugged.

"I like an element of darkness in my stories," she said simply. "Besides, it still ended with happily ever after."

She felt Caspian watching her, a slight frown on his face. Thankfully Lucian chose that moment to announce that he was painting a dragon and everyone's attention turned to him. Caspian caught her as she was leaving.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

"Of course I am. Now go help your wife put your creepy kids to bed."

His expression cleared as he laughed, giving her a hug and kissing the top of her head. Annemarie and Holden were walking a few steps ahead, and Lara made gagging faces behind their backs as they held hands and whispered to each other. She didn't even realize Rhett was behind her until the two lovebirds went their own way.

"A princess turned fire breathing dragon, huh?" he asked, startling her. "That's a new twist."

"Hm? Oh, I'm sorry. Were you talking to me? I assumed you wouldn't even want to be seen walking with me, in case Greyson has spies lurking around." Lara didn't even turn around to look at him, flipping her hood up. Even though she couldn't see Rhett she was pretty sure he was making a face at her.

"You attract more flies with honey than with vinegar," he informed her.

"The real issue being, why would I want to attract flies?" She swerved up the path to her house, eager to be home alone. She didn't see much of anyone for the next several days, again living in self-appointed isolation. When she did venture out of the house she went for walks in the woods that flanked the back of her yard. There was a small, crystal clear lake that she liked to dip her toes in on a hot day while she read.

That day she and Baby wandered for longer than they usually did, and found themselves emerging from the trees at the edge of town. They left behind the dirt trail and wound up on the cobbled streets of civilization. A crowd had gathered around a traveling troupe of theater performers and Lara had to shove her way through the throng. Baby growled at a few people until they moved aside.

"Give it back!"

Lara paused at the sound of the shout, feeling like she recognized the voice. She spotted a group of teenage boys clustered in a circle, one of them holding a shimmering pendent up high in the air. Lara told Baby to stay and approached the group to see what was going on. She suppressed a groan when she recognized the girl in the center of the circle. It was Gina, Rhett's little friend. She was jumping up and trying to take the necklace from the taller boy.

"Look, the little baby is gonna cry," the boy mocked. "Maybe she needs her magic night light."

The other boys all snickered, one of them pushing Gina. Lara had had enough.

"Don't you know that little boys who bully little girls grow up with crooked, shriveled penises?" Lara asked, grabbing two of them by the ear and shoving them out of her way. The laughter halted as they gaped at her. Gina edged closer to her.

"They took my necklace," she whispered. Lara held out her hand to the boy who was holding it.

"You're going to hand over that necklace and apologize to the girl in the next ten seconds," she said.

He looked unsure of what to do. He looked Lara up and down.

"You gonna make me?" he asked boldly.

"No. He is." Lara gave one sharp whistle and people cried out as Baby surged through the crowd to her side, lips pulled back in a snarl. The boy jumped three feet high and Lara thought he might just wet himself.

"This is Baby," Lara said, patting the dog's head. "His favorite snack is little boys, and he's pretty hungry right now."

Baby continued to growl as the boys huddled together. The one with the necklace threw it toward Gina, and Lara caught it, handing it back to her.

"Now say you're sorry," she said.

"No way."

"Baby, are you hungry?"

The dog leapt forward, snapping his teeth.

"I'm sorry!" the boy shouted, his voice cracking comically. They turned and fled.

"They broke the clasp," Gina said sadly. "Oh, Sister Katia is going to be so mad at me."

"You weren't supposed to be out here were you."

She shook her head. Lara sighed.

"Come on. Let's get you home before you get into any more trouble."

"Thank you for helping me," Gina said. Baby locked her face and she giggled, keeping a hand on his shoulder as they walked.

"You need a designated body guard," Lara told her. "Every time you step foot outside your temple you get into a scrape."

"I know," Gina sighed. Lara knocked hesitantly on the door of the temple, hearing frantic voices inside. Gina hid behind her. The door flew open to reveal a very pretty but very worried looking priestess.

"I think you lost something," Lara deadpanned. She tugged her skirt free of Gina's grip. The priestess looked like she might faint.

"Gina! Where have you been? She's back!" she called over her shoulder. Lara stepped back as two more women came rushing out of the temple. Seeing Rhett come out behind them was a surprise, and he seemed equally as surprised to see Lara there. The woman were all fussing over Gina.

"What were you thinking, sneaking out like that?" the oldest demanded.

"I'm sorry, Sister Katia," Gina said meekly. "Some boys broke my necklace, but Miss Lara saved me and brought me home."

Lara cringed as everyone turned to look at her. "It wasn't anything, really," she said. The older woman, Katia, smiled at her.

"Nonsense. Thank you, for bringing her home safely. Would you like to come inside for a moment? Have a cup of tea perhaps?"

"No," Lara said quickly. She cleared her throat. "Thank you, but no."

She was dressed all in black, standing beside her massive black dog and her hair was tousled from her walk. She must have looked like the wood witch from her fairy tale. She was a stark contrast to all their gentle lightness and the idea of stepping foot inside the temple made her feel mildly sick.

"I'll just get you something for the road then."

"Oh, no, you really don't need to-"

But Sister Katia was already gone. Lara sighed. Then she realized Baby was rolling around on his back while the girls cooed at him and rubbed his belly. She rolled her eyes. What a ham.

"Thanks," Rhett said, his hands stuffed into his pockets. "For bringing her back."

"Don't mention it," Lara said stiffly.

"You can come in for a few minutes, you know."

"Bursting into flame wasn't on my list of things to do today," she replied.

"You're not going to burst into flame," Rhett said, rolling his eyes.

"Hello, have we met before? I think it's pretty obvious that I don't belong in a place like this, General. I'll just be on my way as soon as my dog stops acting like a shameless hussy."

"It might be an interesting experience to see the inside-"

"What's your deal?" Lara glared at him and lowered her voice so the girls wouldn't hear. "You're the one who said I'm, what was it, completely irrelevant in your life? And I have no desire to sit around and be judged by a bunch of shining holy women. So can you please just drop it?"

Sister Katia stepped back out then, giving the girls some dried meat they could feed Baby. He munched happily as she then handed a canister of hot cocoa to Lara, smiling gently.

"I'm sorry dear, I don't think I caught your name."

"Lara."

"It's very nice to meet you, Lara. I do hope our Gina didn't give you too much trouble."

"Uh, no. No. She's a sweet kid."

"A bit too curious for her own good," Sister Katia sighed. "It was very kind of you to help her."

"It really wasn't a big deal. Well. We should probably get going. It's getting late and Baby...needs a bath."

Baby snorted in displeasure.

"Will you come see us again?" Gina asked hopefully, staring imploringly up at Lara.

"Yes, you should come by any time you like," Sister Katia said. The three younger women and Baby all looked at her with big eyes and Lara sighed again.

"We'll see," she said reluctantly. Gina beamed, startling Lara when she suddenly hugged her.

"Thank you, Miss Lara," she said. Lara carefully extracted herself from the girl's hug.

"Rhett, you should walk this nice young woman home," Sister Katia said.

"That's really not necessary," Lara said hurriedly. "I don't live that far." She was already backpedaling, trying to escape.

"It's already dark out," Sister Katia insisted.

"Really, I'm fine. My house is completely out of his way. Thank you for the cocoa. Let's go, Baby."

The dog reluctantly left his adoring fans to trot next to Lara. But Sister Katia wasn't letting her get away that easily.

"Rhett," she said sternly, giving him a maternal sort of glare. He sighed and started walking in the same direction as Lara. Lara waited until they were out of the Sister's earshot.

"Okay you made a good show of walking me home. You can go now."

"She'll know if I don't walk you home."

"How?"

"She'll just know."

Lara huffed. "Fine."