Chapter twenty seven:

When Rosabella made her way back to her dorm room after her classes finished, she opened the door to the room quietly, just in case her doing so might wake Raven and Darling. The moment Rosabella came into the main part of the dorm room she instantly noticed that Darling and Raven were asleep in bed together.

Quietly Rosabella made her way over to the bed, she found the two of them were sleeping wound around each other in an intimate embrace. As she looked down at them a small smile lifted the corner of her lips, the two of them looked so adorable.

Satisfied that she had not disturbed Raven and Darling, Rosabella walked away from the side of Darling's bed as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the sleeping couple.

Rosabella made sure to turn her phone to silent and sent out hexts to those people at the school who might disturb Raven and Darling, she told them all that they were currently sleeping and if they could wait to send the two of them any hexts for a few hours to allow the couple to get some sleep.

Soon she was receiving answers to her message, they all confirmed that they would not hext Darling or Raven, until they were informed that they where awake once more either by Darling, Raven or Rosabella.

Happy with these replies to her hext, Rosabella got out her thronework, settled at her desk and started to work on it.

A few hours later a waking sigh left Darling, she opened her eyes, as they settled on the still sleeping Raven Darling smiled lovingly. Being careful not to wake the sleeping witch Darling slowly sat up in bed and looked around the room. Darling's eyes soon fell on her roommate and she said softly to Rosabella. "Hey, your back Rosabella…Goodness I've been asleep for a long while."

Rosabella turned around in her desk chair, she smiled at her roommate and spoke back to Darling in an equally soft voice. "Good to see you awake…" Rosabella said to her and then asked with a tone and expression of concern on her face. "How is the bond between yourself and Raven doing?"

Darling is quiet for a moment, before answering this question. "It is getting stronger. We have been discussing becoming betrothed and marrying soon, in order to make the bond stronger and more stable. We've also been told by the headmaster and his brother that once we are joined together it should prevent the Evil Queen from causing either of us any trouble ever again."

"I am glad to know that your union will mean that the Evil Queen won't be able to cause you either of you harm…Did the headmaster or Giles discuss with you what would happen about the two of you needing food?" Rosabella asked her with concern.

Darling nodded to her. "Yes, Giles said that he would have food sent to my room for us and our lunch was brought up for us earlier on."

"That's good to hear." She said in a relieved voice.

In order to work out when food might be arriving for Raven and herself Darling checked her phone, and then said to her roommate. "Dinner should be soon, so I am sure a delivery of food will turn up for us in a short while."

"I am sure it will." Rosabella assured her, before asking Darling. "Do you mind if I go back to my throne work?"

"No, I don't mind at all." Darling assured her.

Rosabella turned back to her thronework. Darling turned her attention back to Raven, the moment she did so Darling instantly felt contentment and love fill her. Carefully Darling placed a hand onto Raven's hair and stroke her hand gently over Raven's hair, it felt so soft and silky.

Darling was rather surprised to discover that just performing this simple action sent warm waves of love and contentment through her and this made Darling physically ache to kiss Raven. Darling wasn't sure how she managed to resist kissing Raven awake, but she was proud of herself for not disturbing Raven's rest.

A while later Raven's eyes flickered and then opened, they instantly focused onto Darling and she smiled at her brightly. "Hello there my precious soulmate." Darling said to her in a soft and loving voice.

The smile on Raven's face somehow became wider than before. "Hello my Charming lady knight…I should really tell my father what has happened to us today."

"Yes, I too should inform my own parents. How about we help each other work out what to write to them?" Darling suggested to her.

Raven nodded to her and slowly sat up in the bed beside Darling, she summoned her phone into her hand with a quick flare of lavender magic, Raven then snuggled into her side as she said to Darling. "That sounds like an excellent suggestion to me."

Quietly they both began to type onto their phones the messages. After a while Raven looked up from her phone and up at Darling. "I've finished, how are you doing?"

"I'm almost done." Darling assured her.

Silently Raven watched Darling with loving eyes as she finished up her message. A few moments later Darling announced happily to Raven. "There we go all done!"

"Shall we compare messages now?" Rave enquired of her.

Darling nodded, and the two swapped phones. Quietly they both read over the messages. Darling's read; Dear mother and father, I have some important news to share with you both, which concerns my relationship with Raven. As you know we are true loves, after consulting Cupid (the daughter of Eros) we have been informed that we are in fact soulmates. We have spoken to the Grim brothers about what this kind of bond would mean for us. They have informed us that due to this bond it is important for us to become betrothed and married as soon as is possible. There are several reasons for this, one is because of how rare such a bond is and another is to prevent Raven's mother the Evil Queen from causing either of us any more harm. I am more than happy to become betrothed to Raven and marry her as soon as it can be organised and I hope you too will be pleased by this turn of events. As I have mentioned the fact that the Evil Queen has already caused us. The Evil Queen broke out of her prison, she tried to turn Raven evil, I was able to prevent this and Raven is once more the kind and wonderful witch I love. If you have any questions I shall do my best to answer them. All my love to you both, your daughter Darling.

Raven's message to her father read. Dear father, it seems that my bond to Darling is even deeper and rarer than we had known. Not only are we true loves, but also soulmates. The headmaster and his brother have told us that it is wise that we spend time together to firm up our bond, they have also advised us that we should become betrothed and married as soon as possible. The brothers have said this is not only to stabilise our bond, but to prevent mother from hurting either of us as she already has. Do not worry too much father, Darling rescued me from her scheme, I am fine now and mother is once more in captivity. I am eager to become betrothed and married to Darling, I love her so very much, I could not imagine my life without her and could not stand it if my mother was to harm her. I hope father you will be willing to allow us to come home to marry as soon as possible. Once again, I assure you that I truly love my charming lady knight and want of my own free will to marry her. With much love Raven.

Darling looked down at Raven and with a very happy smile said to her. "I am so glad to know that you are looking forwards to getting betrothed to me and marrying me."

Raven returned the smile which was Darling was giving her. "Of course, I am Darling, I love you with all of my heart and soul and I want to be with no other. I can see from your message that you feel the same way about us becoming betrothed and married."

"If I had my way, I'd go through a betrothal ritual with you right this moment, but I don't have a ring for you right now which is rather annoying." Darling told Raven in a voice laced with aggravation.

Reaching up, Raven placed one of her hands onto one of Darling's cheeks and stroked it softly. "If it will help you to feel better, we can look on the mirror net for a ring for you to use in the betrothal ceremony."

This suggestion caused Darling's face to light with joy and her eyes to sparkle with delight. "That is a wonderful idea! Would it be alright if Rosabella helped us?"

Raven looked across the room towards Rosabella and asked her. "I have no objection to Rosabella looking with us if she would like to and a second opinion may come in helpful if we can't make up our minds. Would you like to join us in looking for the ring Rosabella?"

When Raven addressed her, Rosabella looked up from her work, she turned towards them, smiled at Darling and Raven and then answered this question. "I'd be honoured to help you both look for a betrothal ring."

Rosabella stood up from her desk, she crossed the room, when Rosabella reached the side of the bed she carefully sat down on the edge of the bed.

Darling reached out, she picked up her mirror pad from the bedside table, settled it in her lap and then placed her mirror phone on the table. Darling turned the mirror pad on and once it was ready Darling carefully typed into the search engine betrothal rings.

This search brought up a lot of results. Darling looked to Raven and asked her. "Do you have a preference for what metal the ring should be?"

Raven was quiet for a few moments as she considered this question. "Well, most of what I ware is in silver, white gold and platinum, so it would be a good idea for the ring to go with that."

Darling nodded in agreement and then added platinum to her search and then said thoughtfully. "I think amethysts to go with my lady princess's colours…With diamonds to go with the beautiful Queen I have seen you will become at my knighting."

The moment that Darling mentioned the way Raven had dressed to knight her, Raven blushed a little, before asking in a soft unsure voice. "Do you really think that how I was dressed at your knighting, is how I shall look as the Queen of Regal?"

Without hesitation Darling nodded to her. "Yes, I believe that when you become Queen that is exactly the way you will appear. You looked very beautiful like that and it seemed natural for you to be dressed in such a way. I remember when I saw you in that dress and crown, I was not exactly surprised by it, it felt oddly right, as though I was seeing something and my mind and heart were saying yes, this is how Raven should have always been."

The blush on Raven's cheeks grew deeper and she hid her face in Darling's shoulder. Rosabella and Darling chuckled softly at Raven's reaction to Darling's compliment. Darling placed her mirror pad down on her lap, she lifted her now free hand, placed it to the back of Raven's head and stroke over her hair. "Hey, no need to hide."

Slowly Raven looked up from her shoulder and up at Darling. A truly happy smile curved up Darling's lips. "There is my beautiful lady princess."

Rosabella watched them with sparkling eyes and a gentle smile on her face. "You two are so adorable."

Raven and Darling both blushed a little. Quickly Darling drew their attention back to the subject at hand. "So, what do we think diamonds and amethysts, as the stones of the ring?"

"That sounds perfect." Raven said with a nod of the head and at the same time Rosabella nodded to.

Darling quickly typed this into her search and it brought up a few websites. Darling clicked on the first one and opened it up in a separate tab from the search. When the webpage came up there were pictures of rings in rows on the page. The three of them looked at each picture on the page, carefully scrutinizing each ring available on the sight.

As they went along each one of them pointed out rings they liked, but there was no one ring on this sight which they all agreed on, so Darling closed this page and opened up the next one listed on the search page.

The moment the three of them saw the rings on this website, Rosabella, Darling and Raven shared disgusted looks. "That one look like someone dropped it on the floor, picked it up and then claimed it was a designer ring." Rosabella said with a horrified expression on her face.

"Look at that one! It looks like some sort of gold and white gold fried egg stuck on a band!" Raven said pointing at another and sniggering slightly.

Darling chuckled softly and then joined in pointing to another one and saying. "What about that one, it looks like someone took a broken in half rock and mounted it!"

Rosabella nodded her agreement to this, while Raven giggled out. "How are any of these designer or modern art? They look like something a two-year-old made at nursery rhyme school for their mother for Mother's Day."

"Oh, my fairy godmother! Look at that one! It looks like someone dug the middle out of half of a boiled egg, then mounted it onto a ring! How would you even ware it? If you hit someone with it you could do some serious damage!" Rosabella said pointing at another starting to laugh herself.

At this point all three of them started laughing together, it took them sometime to eventually stop laughing at the absurdity of these rings. Darling closed this page and then addressed Raven and Rosabella. "Well at least that gave us all a laugh."

"It certainly did." Rosabella said still snickering a little, while Raven nodded in agreement.

Darling opened up the next page, this time they all let out sighs of delight and Rosabella said in an awed voice. "Now these are elegant, timeless…So much better that those so called 'designer' rings." Both Darling and Raven nodded their agreement to those words.

After looking at the rings for a short while Raven pointed at one of the rings, saying as she did so. "Oh, now that one looks incredible."

Darling and Rosabella looked at the ring which Raven had spotted, the ring was made of white gold, the top of the ring was decorated with gem stones making up three flowers, the centre slightly larger flower was made of amethysts with a diamond centre and the two smaller ones each side of it were made of diamonds with amethysts as their centres.

"Oh, that is beautiful." Rosabella said in a soft and awed voice.

"It certainly is." Darling agreed, before clicking on the ring, this took them to a page were the details of the ring where, there were also several pictures to allow people to see various angles of the ring and so the ring can be seen close up.

The three of them sat quietly looking at all the close-up pictures and reading over the description of the ring. After a while Rosabella addressed Darling and Raven. "It looks and sounds like the perfect ring to me. What do you both think of it?"

"I think it's the perfect ring for us." Darling said in a strong and sure voice.

Raven nodded as she spoke. "I love it."

Darling smiled lovingly at Raven as she said to her. "Well since we are all in agreement and you love the ring so much my lady princess, I'll order the ring right now."

"Thank goodness rings now-a-days magically size to your finger!" Raven said with a relived smile.

"It does make things much easier." Rosabella concurred with a nod.

At the same time Darling also nodded in her agreement and said a moment later. "There we go! All ordered!"

Raven smiled at her and said in an enthusiastic, but slightly tired voice. "I can't wait to see the ring in person."

Without hesitation Raven snuggled into Darling's side, then she yawned. Seeing her yawn Darling addressed her in a soft voice. "Are you tired my love?"

"Yes…" Raven said in an exhausted voice before yawning again.

Wordlessly Darling helped Raven to lay down in the bed. Once Raven was comfortable, she smiled up at Darling and said to her softly. "Thank you my Charming, lady knight."

"You're very welcome my lady princess, rest now." Darling said to her encouragingly.

With a nod for her, Raven closed her eyes and she was soon fast asleep. Rosabella made gestures towards her desk and homework so that talking wouldn't wake Raven. Darling nodded to her to, so that Rosabella knew she understood what she was telling her.

Smiling at Darling warmly Rosabella quietly made her way back over to her desk and returned to her thronework. Darling mean while settled herself down beside Raven, she cuddled close to Raven and she too was soon fast asleep.