Finale (Caraval, 3)

Scarlett should have been tripping over her feet with exhaustion rather than dancing into her sparkling palace suite.

After using the Reverie Key with Julian to visit a baker he knew in the north, where Scarlett tasted the best cakes of her life, he’d then brought her to see an old friend of his in the Southern Empire, where the water was the most brilliant shade of turquoise she’d ever seen and people sent messages with sea turtles. She could have stayed there longer, but Julian had wanted to take her to his distant cousin, who lived in a house with a roof made for watching the world’s most spectacular sunsets. In one afternoon Julian and the Reverie Key had shifted Scarlett’s tiny view of the world, making it even larger than she’d realized.

She tried to tamp down her smile. She shouldn’t have been giddy as she fell back onto her bed. She should have been mourning the loss of her mother, worrying about where her sister was, or fearful of the Fates that were all waking up.

But it was difficult to be afraid of nightmares when Scarlett’s thoughts were still tangled up in the dream that was Julian. She’d lied about needing to sleep because she’d felt so caught up in him she’d wanted to wake and return back to the real.

She regretted it already.

The Reverie Key was still warm in her pocket. She thought about using it to find him, and asking him to visit one more magical place. And maybe Scarlett would have done just that, if a servant hadn’t knocked on the door with a delivery from Nicolas.

Scarlett didn’t even need to open the card that came with it to know the gift was from him. It was a crystal watering can, small enough to fit in her palm, as if it were for pixie-size plants.

Scarlett crashed back to reality. She’d been trying not to think about the competition between Julian and Nicolas. Given everything else that had happened in the last two days, it didn’t seem nearly as important as it had before. But she couldn’t just ignore it.

Scarlett opened the note reluctantly. When she had received letters from Nicolas in the past, she’d always reread them until the paper went thin. But she wished this one had never arrived.

Dearest Scarlett,

I haven’t stopped thinking about you since you visited. Now that I have met you, my imaginings are no longer adequate. I hope you like the first part of my gift. There’s a second part that goes with it, but I’d prefer to give it to you in person. If you’re available, I would like to see you again tomorrow.

Faithfully yours,

Nicolas

If Julian had written the words, Scarlett was certain her heart would have raced, or her cheeks would have hurt from the way her smile stretched. She’d have felt something. But not even the dress managed a response.

Closing her eyes, Scarlett lay her head against her pillows.

She used to think Nicolas was her best option for marriage. And maybe he was safer than Julian. Nicolas was attractive, attentive, everything he’d made himself out to be in his previous letters. But Scarlett felt nothing for him. No, that wasn’t true. She felt relieved that they weren’t married.

Nicolas might have been the safer choice, but Julian was whom Scarlett wanted to choose. There was no competition between Julian and Nicolas. Julian had won Scarlett’s heart a long time ago.

She went to her desk to write Nicolas one last letter.

Dear Nicolas,

Thank you for the watering can—

Scarlett tried, but she couldn’t write another word. After all of their lost chances, it seemed terribly callous to inform Nicolas in a letter that she’d already made her choice. She wouldn’t want to be dismissed this way.

Balling up her note and tossing it in the trash, Scarlett looked at his letter once again. She couldn’t give him her hand in marriage, but she could give him this final meeting. She owed that much to him.