Page 61 of The Witches Catalogue of Wanderlust Essentials (Natural Magic #2)

Chapter 35

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Final Scene

T hanks to the glamor Zani spelled into a bedazzled cane, Goldie had no problem showing up at the theater, looking every bit like the older version of herself. She took care to walk more slowly and carried the cane as a prop.

Ondalune couldn’t see where Cosimo was sitting in the audience from the projection booth, but she could feel his presence. She was happy to know he didn’t have to sit alone. Zani and Will had tickets to the sold out event, so Cosimo would sit with friends. Friends! It was such a novel concept for her. She appreciated Zani’s dry sense of humor and hoped that they would stay close. She suspected Cosimo could use some companionship as well. Although she feared Will might drive him crazy with questions about being a vampire.

While the theater guests were busy getting settled, Ondalune switched the second reel. She carefully threaded the alternate ending to the film onto the projector, wondering how the audience would react to this newly found footage and the alternate ending. The buzz was mixed. She’d overheard a couple of film critics questioning the timing of the lost reel’s discovery. But several fans were over the moon about it.

How times had changed since the 1930s. Burnside had been right to pull the reel then, she realized. And also right to give it back to her now. Today’s audiences were different. They were less gullible than the audiences of the past because so much more was possible with Ordinary special effects. Nobody believed what they saw on the screen was real anymore. But they were also more gullible because they no longer trusted their instincts.They couldn’t even believe what they saw in real life, with their own eyes.

The film was short by modern standards. Just under thirty minutes in total. Fourteen minutes per reel. No time to get restless. A live orchestra provided the musical backdrop to the silent film. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d seen this in a theater. She watched the audience watching the first reel, enjoying their reactions as much as she had at the original premiere.

As the second reel spun, showing viewers the “alternative” ending to The Mermaid’s Whisper , Goldie turned the restored Celestial Sapphire over in her hand. It no longer pulsed or throbbed, struggling with the sick, restless energy it had been forced to contain. The stone now radiated something else entirely. Peace and contentment.

She felt peaceful as well, watching herself swim away to the orchestra’s overture.

At the end of the screening, the audience clapped politely and made their way back out to the lobby. From there, they went to view the costumes on exhibit or headed upstairs to the Ballroom, to the VIP reception. The members of the orchestra packed up their instruments.

Goldie remained in the projection booth, taking her time rewinding reels and placing them back in their metal cases, which she stacked neatly on the table beside the projector. There was a knock on the door.

“May I come in?” Cosimo asked.

“Of course.” Goldie held the door and waved him in. Her hand brushed against his as he passed, and she was struck by its warmth. It was going to take some time to get used to this. Warm fleshed, honey and almond toned—she found this new version of Cosimo even more delicious.

He took her in his arms, despite the glamor. She froze.

“Cosimo! What if someone sees us?” she warned.

“They’ve all moved on to the reception, and even if they did, I doubt they’d care. They’d probably congratulate you for capturing the heart of a younger man.”

“Who’s actually much older than me?”

“What’s a few hundred years?” Cosimo shrugged. “Also, I may be older, but I cannot claim that I am wiser. There’s still so much I could learn from you.” He spun her around.

She leaned back, feeling awkward. “It isn’t odd to you how old I look compared to–”

“No stranger than when I got here last week. I have always loved you, Ondalune. I will always love you. I don’t see your age, I only see you. ”

“Well, it’s strange for me,” Goldie admitted. She leaned back against the wall, studying her elderly appearance in the glass. “Although my human form has aged more slowly than most, I don’t think I ever became accustomed to seeing such an elderly reflection in the mirror. And as difficult as that was to come to terms with, it was even harder to come to terms with the way others perceived me.” She touched the stone in her pocket again. “It’s not even that I mind it, it just always felt like a costume. Like I was looking at somebody else.”

“Dance with me?” Cosimo held out a hand.

“There’s no space in the booth.” She laughed.

“Not here. In the ballroom. There’s a band playing and they’ve recreated the menu and decor from the original premiere.” His warm brown eyes sparkled.

If only I could have remembered more of it.

Goldie was sad she’d lost so many memories of that night. But then she had another thought. This night was their chance to make fresh memories. No secrets, lies, or curses between them.

“One dance,” Goldie said. “But then I have something I need to do.” She weighed the stone in her palm. “I need to bring this home.”

“I know you do.” Cosimo nodded. “I understand.”

“I won’t be gone forever.” Goldie gathered her wrap and bag and turned off the light. “I’ll be back. And if you wouldn’t mind tending my garden, I would love it if you would stay in my house. Maybe you could keep an eye out for Kitty, too? ”

“Of course.” Cosimo nodded. “I’m looking forward to getting some sun in your garden. You have no idea how bad my vitamin D deficiency is.”

“Did you just crack a joke?” Goldie asked.

“I used to be quite funny, if you can believe it,” Cosimo said. “The whole broody vampire for five centuries thing, you know? I’m a little rusty.”

“I love it,” Goldie enthused. “I love corny jokes and I love you!”

She threw her arms around him and kissed him. She would have liked to continue kissing him, but reluctantly, she broke away.

“We’d better go,” she said breathlessly. She pulled Cosimo out into the hallway.

At the very last moment, before the door swung shut behind them, Goldie tossed her cane back into the booth, shedding the glamor that went with it. When she turned back to take Cosimo’s hand again, she appeared decades younger, her signature red and golden locks cascading down her back.

“Aren’t you afraid people will talk?” Cosimo asked.

“I’m counting on it!” Goldie winked.

__

A path opened up as Cosimo led Goldie to the center of the dance floor. The other couples stood still, staring at the impossibly handsome man and the girl who was a dead ringer for the film star whose lost reels they had just watched. A few of the onlookers standing beside the dance floor clapped, and one woman, dressed head to toe in period fashion, lifted two fingers to her mouth and whistled. The ostrich feather at her forehead bobbed as she blew.

Cosimo and Goldie paid these people no mind, however. They barely even noticed when Will spun Zani past them. They were in a world of their own now. Swaying to the music from so long ago, they felt their old selves close, dancing there with them.

This time, their story would have a better ending.

As the music dwindled and the song ended, Cosimo held her closer. She laid her cheek against his chest, listening to the sound of his heart beating, steady and true and entirely human once more.

“I think it’s time now,” she said, reluctant to lift her head. She hated leaving him, but she knew she would be back before long.

They walked in circles, holding hands all the way down the spiral ramp and out to the promenade.

“Where to now?” Cosimo asked as they stood in the moonlight beside the water.

Goldie looked over her shoulder, suddenly aware that they had an entourage. They weren’t the only ones who had walked down and out into the night. Several couples and groups of friends had followed them out in front of the casino, presumably taking in the air. But, she suspected, several of them were really there to spy on her and Cosimo. They were curious where the Ondalune lookalike was headed next.

“I think it has to be the pier, don’t you?” Goldie asked, pulling Cosimo in that direction.

“It was a fantastic ending to The Mermaid’s Whisper .” He placed an arm around her.

She turned her head to whisper in his ear. “But it’s just the beginning of our story.”

When they reached the end of the pier, Cosimo stopped and released her hand. She didn’t look back at the crowd of onlookers that had assembled to watch. She remembered her lines, written in an elaborate font beneath the flickering scene,

And now, my love, I must return to the sea!

Goldie kissed Cosimo’s cheek and stepped forward, pausing for a moment, the exact same way she had in the version aired earlier that evening.

I can’t wait any longer!

Then, with one hand holding the stone, she broke into a run. She ran straight off the end of the pier and into the sea, where the welcoming ocean waited to embrace her.

As she broke the surface and swam toward the channel, the seafoam formed constellations in her wake. Shooting stars streaked across the dark sky like fireworks trails, landing all around her. And just before she dove, the stone she was holding lit up with a column of light so bright and high, it almost appeared to touch the moon.

She had a long way to swim, but she trusted in the ocean and the stone to show her the way there, and when her responsibilities were met, to bring her home again.

Weeks later, film aficionados young and old would still talk about the “brilliantly disruptive scenes” during the festival. Some would theorize that the light show when the mysterious woman dove into the ocean was done using sophisticated special effects. Others floated the idea that the woman “playing” the mermaid was somehow related to Ondalune herself.

Ondalune’s favorite rumor was that both she and Cosimo weren’t human at all. According to at least one attendee who’d spoken with a lesser publication, they were both definitely animatronic robots, controlled by a submarine beneath the surface.

All of this was okay with Goldie now. She was perfectly fine with letting people believe whatever nonsense they chose to believe. It didn’t change a single thing about all the wild and wonderful things in the world that she now knew to be true.