Midnights curse, p.27
Midnight's Curse, page 27
part #2 of Beyond the Tales Series
He’d discovered this spot decades ago, back when he’d been going by the name Jubal. It was one of his favorite places in all Kanawhee. And now he could share it with her.
Alex crept onto the rock, as if he feared falling in, and peered down into the water. He crossed his arms, his shoulders hunched, and watched the others as they laughed and splashed on the sandbar on the far side.
Daemyn eyed him, studying the way he shifted from foot to foot. Alex didn’t know how to interact with others. Not as a friend. He’d been raised to be a high king. Never to be just Alex in a friendship. Had he ever laughed? Daemyn had been his manservant since age ten, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen it.
If he wanted things to change, then it was up to him to teach Alex how to be a friend by being Alex’s friend first. He needed to act more like Alex’s advisor than manservant. After all, how could Alex see Daemyn as an advisor and a friend if he didn’t see himself that way?
He strode across the rock until he was next to Alex. “Am I your friend or manservant at the moment, Your Highness?”
Alex started, his expression smoothing from something that had almost been longing to a carefully composed smile. “Friend. If you’re still offering.”
“Good. I just wanted to be clear on that.” Daemyn grinned and positioned his feet. “You might want to hold your breath.”
“Wait. Why would—”
Daemyn took Alex across the chest with an arm and propelled both of them off the rock. Alex had time for one startled shout before they hit the water.
Cold water closed over Daemyn’s head, seeping through his buckskins to shiver along his skin. His bruises and ribs ached, but he brushed the pain aside. He kicked his way to the surface, dragging Alex with him by a firm grip on his shirt.
Alex came up sputtering. He swiped a hand over his face, then blinked at Daemyn. “What is it with you and dunking me underwater?”
“If I do it enough, maybe it’ll shock some sense into you.” Daemyn kept his tone light, his smile in place. Small steps.
“I don’t think it’s working.” Alex grimaced and swiped his dripping hair from his face with one hand while treading water with the other.
“It’s worth a try.” Daemyn stroked through the water, the current a firm pressure against his right side. He matched his pace to Alex’s since Alex wasn’t nearly as strong at swimming. He didn’t want to accidentally let the high king get swept downriver, though Alex should catch himself on one of the boulders bordering this sheltered area if it came to that.
Daemyn clambered to his feet on the sandbar, then reached out hand. Taking it, Alex staggered upright, panting.
Zeke splashed toward them. “If you get to dunk the high king, Uncle Daemyn, does that mean I can too?”
“Wait. No, don’t you...” Alex backed up a step, his foot falling into the deeper section of river. He tumbled over backwards, hitting the water with a splash.
Daemyn sighed and fished Alex out of the river. “Zeke, he ain’t too good at this relaxing and socializing thing yet. Take it easy on him.”
Alex grimaced and attempted to wring out the end of his sleeve. “I think I agree with Isi. Being wet isn’t pleasant.”
“See? I’m not the only one.” Isi dipped her hands in the water and came up with a handful of the river sand. “But in this case, being wet is worth it.”
Leaving Alex to fend for himself for a few minutes, Daemyn splashed to Rosanna. “Would you like to go behind the waterfall?”
Water streamed from the fringes of her shirt and leggings while droplets shimmered on her black braids. She glanced from him to the waterfall. “We can go behind it? How?”
“You’ll see.” Daemyn clasped her hand. The movement was confident, their fingers fitting together without fumbling or hesitation.
They tromped over the sandbar, climbed onto the flat rock, and strode next to the short cliff near the waterfall, its roar growing louder. At the waterfall, Daemyn lowered to his hands and knees. “There’s a ledge here. The water will push on you for a moment, then you’ll be through. I’ll be there to help if you need it.”
Rosanna nodded, her grin wide, her eyes sparkling as much as the river behind them.
Daemyn took a deep breath and crawled forward. The waterfall’s spray washed over his face, then he crawled into the downpour. It pummeled his head, then his shoulders, strong as a pair of hands shoving him backwards. He dug his toes into the rock behind him and pushed forward.
The pressure of the water eased. Daemyn blinked and crawled into a space a couple of feet wide. A smooth wall of rock curved into a foot-wide ledge. The waterfall was a white, frothing wall next to him, its thunder echoing in the small space and reverberating inside his bones.
He crawled farther inside and maneuvered around, wincing at the ache in his ribs, to help Rosanna if she needed it.
She came sputtering through the wall of water, rivulets cascading from her face and braid. He gripped her hand, and she hauled herself forward the rest of the way inside.
Swiping water from her face, she sat cross-legged on the ledge, leaned forward, and trailed her fingers through the back of the waterfall before them. She let loose a laugh. “This is amazing!”
Daemyn sat on the ledge next to her, so close their shoulders were touching, his gaze focused on her face as she peered around them.
This was the Rosanna he’d fallen in love with. Not the princess in the fancy ball gown. But the adventurer dressed in buckskins who saw the wonder in each tree and mountain the way he did. Appreciating the Highest King’s handiwork.
Yet perhaps he needed the princess part of her just as much as the adventurer. If he was to truly claim a place as Alex’s advisor, then he would have to learn how to navigate life in Castle Eyota’s court. He couldn’t be the invisible manservant or the elusive mountain man he’d been for the past hundred years.
Rosanna managed to be a princess without losing the mountain girl inside her. He, too, could be both mountain and castle, moving between those worlds with her at his side, a princess in ball gowns or buckskins.
She turned, as if finally noticing that he was staring at her instead of the waterfall. Her grin quirked at the corners. “Can they hear what we’re saying?”
“They’ll hear that we are shouting to each other but can’t make out the words.” Daemyn took her hand in his. He probably hadn’t planned this well. Words like the ones he needed to say were supposed to be whispered beneath the stars, not shouted at the top of his lungs while they sat in sopping wet buckskins beneath a waterfall.
But it was time he stopped dancing away from this like a shy whitetail deer and be active in this relationship. He had to give her himself—every last complicated piece of his past and every uncertain dream for the future.
And he needed to be himself. Not Jadon, the invisible manservant who died decades ago. Not Jubal or Arlen or all the other names he’d worn and killed off over the years.
But Daemyn. The man who had lived all of those things and been changed by them. He wasn’t who he’d been a hundred years ago as Jadon. Back then, he wouldn’t have fallen in love with Rosanna. He’d been quieter. Less adventurous. All he’d wanted was to marry a mountain girl and settle down in a small cabin.
He didn’t want that now. Not that he would mind spending some of their time sharing a cabin near the Buckhannock family homestead. But all of Tallahatchia was his home now, and he longed show her every mountain, every waterfall, every mist-filled gorge just to see the way her eyes lit up and her face softened as if she could hear the ancient song it was said the mountains sang before the world was cursed.
He swallowed and tried to piece his thoughts together. At least the waterfall’s thunder pounded louder than the beating of his heart. Since he felt daring, he touched her cheek, then tipped her chin up. In the end, it all came down to three words. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” Rosanna shifted closer to him. She was warm against him while all around was cold water and colder stone. “I’m going to ask my father to make me Neskahana’s representative so I can stay at Castle Eyota with you.”
He pulled back just enough to see her face. “But you love Neskahana. And your family and the Onohio River.”
He didn’t want to take her away from her family or the mountains she loved so much. Of all people, he understood what it was like to leave home and miss a family left behind.
She rested a hand on his chest, her hand warm even though his buckskin shirt. “I wasn’t ready to leave a few months ago, but I am now. Just ask my family how restless I was. It’s time I started a new home and adventure in Kanawhee with you.”
Those months had been too much like the ten years he’d spent as Alex’s manservant. Stuck at Castle Eyota while his heart was elsewhere.
“We’ll visit them as often as we can.” If there was one thing he knew, it was how to love a far-flung family. He brushed his fingers over her cheek. They were both dripping wet, the spray from the waterfall shining on their skin and clothes. He was leaning closer, his thoughts growing muddier. Still, he hesitated to close the last few inches. “I reckon I’d like to marry you someday.”
“I reckon I do too.” Rosanna swayed closer, their faces only inches apart. “Is this later?”
His promise from the moonlit river in Pohatomie. He leaned down and softly kissed her, his pulse drumming loud and very much alive in his ears.
Tonight, when Asa pulled out his fiddle, Daemyn would let the music carry him away into a mountain jig the likes of which he hadn’t had the heart to dance in years, all toes a-tapping and knees a-wobbling and legs a-high-kicking in a prance that was more footwork and innocent fun than anything else.
And he’d let himself be so full up with joy that he’d laugh a deep-down, heart-and-soul laugh and remember what it was like to truly live.
Map of Tallahatchia
Coming Fall/Winter 2019
DECEIVE
When a rash of murders are discovered across Acktar, it is up to Leith, Martyn, and Shad to track down the killers before more die.
Yet things are not what they seem, and all of Acktar might hang in the balance.
Don’t Miss the Next Adventure
BEYOND THE TALES BOOK THREE
Coming 2020
Poison’s Dance
Alex has survived his first year as high king. The new counsel has improved cooperation between the kingdoms, and peace seems achievable.
When the Tuckawassee queen sends him an invitation he can’t refuse, Alex must once again face his greatest threat for the sake of peace for Tallahatchia.
But things in Tuckawassee are more dire than they appear. This time, they might not make it out alive.
Don’t miss this re-envisioning of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale.
Don’t Miss the Beginning of the Story
BEYOND THE TALES BOOK ONE
Davy Crockett meets fairy tale in this retelling of the Sleeping Beauty tale where the prince is cursed to sleep and it is up to the princess to wake him.
Buy Now
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR picking up Midnight’s Curse. I hope it touched your heart and brought a smile to your face. I appreciate each and every one of you. If you would care to take the time, reviews on Goodreads and Amazon are greatly appreciated and help spread the word to help others find the book.
Thanks once again to my parents. To my mom, whose favorite fairy tale is Cinderella and who introduced me to Rogers and Hammerstein’s 1953 version of Cinderella. To my dad for once again reading an early copy and loving the book.
To my twin-in-law Alyssa who gets a special mention for reading this book so quickly in order to give me last minute feedback before it went to my editor. Her insight is always so helpful and appreciated!
To my sister-in-law Abby who read most of an early draft outloud to my brother on a roadtrip so they both could read it. Thanks to both of you for picking Midnight’s Curse over your stack of audiobooks.
To my brothers Ethan, Josh, and Andy who keep my guy characters real. Though I am glad pun wars are not our family’s thing, lol.
To Bri for helping to brainstorm this book into such an easy outline to write and for the Romeo and Juliet reference.
Thank to Paula and Jill for asking how the writing was going and always being supportive, even when I don’t always remember to be social when the stories are calling me.
Sierra, I don’t know how this book would have been written if not for our mini writing retreat. The inspiration and word counts helped me push through to the end.
Thanks to the Mitchtam crew for the ideas for bad romance clichés for me to add. It is probably the only time I will ever ask for clichés to purposefully include them in a book.
A special thanks to Jaye, Morgan, Nadine, Katie, Ashley, and all my Realmie Roomies and other writer friends too numerous to name. I never would’ve guessed the author community I would find when I started this journey, and I don’t know what I’d do without your support and encouragement.
Thanks to the PR writer group. It has been fun meeting with you guys and finding critique group!
Thank you to Tom and Mindy Bergman for pushing through all the technology headaches to get this book proofed in time. You make a stellar proofreading duo!
But most of all, all glory belongs to my Heavenly Father. He has abundantly blessed me with His love and grace.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tricia Mingerink is a twenty-something, book-loving, horse-riding country girl. She lives in Michigan with her family and their pack of pets. When she isn't writing, she can be found pursuing backwoods adventures across the country.
To learn more about Tricia Mingerink and get a behind-the-scenes peek her books, visit www.triciamingerink.com.
Tricia Mingerink, Midnight's Curse
