Castiel: Son of Red Riding Hood (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 3)

by J. A. Armitage

  Red looked up from the fruit she was cutting up and laughed. I stared in shock at her. Red actually laughed. I could count the times I had heard her laugh when I lived under her roof with one hand. I was back to my theory that she had a serious head injury. My mother never laughed, at least, not that I could remember.

  “I guess this is overkill, isn’t it?” Red shrugged and went back to the fruit, making the most perfect little slices. “It’s just you and me.”

  I stared at the back of her head more before the crackling noise of the pan brought me back to cooking the eggs. This was more food than Nikkan, and I ate in days, and he had quite the appetite, all wolves did. We both ate a lot, and this was way more. Something was going on.

  Red started to hum as she chopped and somehow knew exactly when the eggs were done as she returned to my side with two plates in her hand to scrape the eggs onto. I followed her to the table as she had already placed more food out. Fruit, eggs, bread, pastries from in town, and even sausage. This was a full breakfast, just like dinner had been.

  “Are you dying?” I asked.

  That was the only thing I could think of that would make Red act so strangely. But that was a stretch. I was pretty sure Red had faced death more times than I could count, and I bet she wasn’t giggling and making a feast.

  Red gave me a raised eyebrow. Okay, that was a no. But what else could it be? A head injury should have healed overnight and this was definitely still strange Red.

  “Really, Castiel. Death? Is that what it means when your mother makes you a meal and is happy to see you return from the forest, not mauled to death by wolves? Can’t I just be happy to see you alive?”

  No, she couldn’t. I had been living on my own for winters now. This wasn’t my first return home safe and sound, and she wasn’t going to convince me otherwise. I crossed my arms as I stared at her from across the table. What game was she playing now?

  “Fine,” she replied as she noticed I didn’t buy her explanation. “I asked Sera to stay out of the house while we talked, and I figured food would keep you busy and not interrupting me as I said what I needed to say.”

  There was the woman who raised me, calculated and prepared for anything and everything. I still didn’t know why she’d be laughing or happy, but I was getting closer to a reason. Red was always two steps ahead. She had a plan for after her plan, always.

  She offered me a pancake I hadn’t even noticed when I sat down and waited for me to take a bite. With my mouth full, she finally spoke.

  “I know why you are here. I figured most of it, but Sera filled in the holes this morning.”

  Stupid Sera. Why couldn’t she just stay out of things between Red and me? See, we couldn’t get along for even one day without me wanting to strangle her. We certainly weren’t into each other like Grace wished for us to be.

  “You think I’m keeping something from you,” Red added, still not eating herself. Instead, she was watching me intensely, reading my every mood, and making calculations about what to do next.

  I chewed the piece of pancake in my mouth slowly, so I didn’t have to reply. I didn’t think— I knew. I had known most of my life that Red kept things from me. She always had and always would. That was just how Red worked. We didn’t need to get into another of our famous arguments. It wasn’t the time for that. We needed to work together, and I needed her help. I wished I had taken a bigger bite. This was going to be one of those conversations.

  I tried my best not to let her words get to me. When wasn’t Red keeping something from me? My whole life was her telling me just what she thought I should know — everything else I had to learn on my own. Thankfully, I had Micco and Nikkan to help me, or I’d be wholly dependant on Red. That was probably what she wanted.

  “I know I haven’t been the best mother, but you have to understand being a mother wasn’t something I ever expected to be. I was raised to be the Red. When I was chosen, my parents were so glad that they had another child, knowing that my life would be short and full of danger. They needed a child that would give them grandchildren and take care of them in their old age. I wasn’t going to be that. I certainly didn’t have time to find love and start a family. That isn’t part of the job description for being the Red.”

  That explained much. My grandparents weren’t part of our lives. In fact, my mother rarely even spoke to them, and they lived in Azren. I never really gave it much thought as Red was a busy person, but being that they tossed her aside when she was chosen, that would explain why she wasn’t close with them. I didn’t entirely blame her for that.

  “I have always done this parenting thing as best as I could. I’m sorry I told you not to see the wolves. I know how much they mean to you. Is Nikkan okay? You didn’t mention him yesterday.”

  I grabbed my juice to wash down my food so I could reply. I was so intent on doing my best to eat and keep my mouth shut to keep the conversation going that I wasn’t prepared when I’d needed to respond.

  “He’s doing fine, I guess. He’s having one of his fits and ignoring me right now.”

  Red nodded. She understood that pretty well. Nikkan had been part of my life as far back as I could remember.

  “You know how he gets,” I added as I reached for a piece of fruit that would be quicker to swallow if she needed another answer.

  “He’ll get over it, eventually,” she replied, and I nodded.

  Nikkan had been moody as long as I had known him. Red understood that well. There had always been visits to the wolf village where I would beg to go home early because Nikkan got into one of his moods. It had been better over the last few seasons since he had decided to spend more time as a wolf. That was probably what made him so moody. He was never good about separation from his animal, and his animal wasn’t happy to be caged in a house or a village.

  “Well, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to keep you from them. I shouldn’t have tried to divide you just like our people are doing. I let fear take over and wasn’t thinking straight.”

  “Fear?” I choked out my question.

  Red refilled my juice glass, and I gulped it down. Red didn’t have fear. That came with the magical powers of being the Red. She was our leader. People feared her, but she never feared anything. She was stronger, quicker, and smarter than anything that might attack her or the village. She was our hero.

  “I know you can see that Sera is coming into her Red powers. As hers grow, mine fade.”

  I nodded. I had seen that much, even if she had never admitted it before.

  “And you are what I’ll have left when my powers are gone. I was afraid to lose you to the wolves. You’ve always preferred them over the village, and I was afraid you’d be bitten and become one of them. That I’d lose you.”

  I stared in shock at her. Red never seemed to care where I was one way or another, growing up. She didn’t even stop me from moving out winters ago. I didn’t actually think she cared if I stuck around Azren or not.

  “I wasn’t supposed to outlive being the Red,” she continued. “Every other one died before they aged. I’m not prepared to get old. And now, I finally see that I don’t want to lose you. I thought I was fine with you growing up, but I’m not. I miss those winters when it was just you and me. I miss the winters where you thought I was so magical and you looked up to me. They went by so fast. I’m just not ready to let go even though I know you are all grown up.”

  Red was staring at her food as she bit her lip. I didn’t know how to respond. Red was a leader outside and inside her home. She never showed fear or weakness. She always had an answer, and she always did what was right. I did look up to her when I was a child and secretly still did. This wasn’t a side I knew how to handle.

  I stood up and walked around the table. I bent down and put my arms around the lady that raised me as best she could. Red looked up at me with tears in her eyes before blinking them away while giving me a tentative smile. I sat down next to her now, hoping that she would continue to be honest
with me. The bridge she built between the tree people and the wolves might have crumbled, but what we were making now would last. I just knew it.

  “I feel like such a hypocrite,” Red continued talking once I was seated. “I’m here trying to get the tree villagers to be good to the wolves, and I haven’t been. I sent them all back and then tried to keep you from helping them. I’ve failed the wolves and you too. But I’m not going to do that now. I know we are stronger as one kingdom together rather than apart. We are one people, even if the people of Azren don’t see that right now.”

  I smiled at her. My strong, resilient mother was back.

  “Sera explained to me that she thinks I’m holding back, not helping on purpose. What you both need to understand is that while I’ve kept details to myself, I’ve never kept anything back that might help us defeat the curse.”

  “Then what are you holding back?” I wasn’t trying to start a fight. I honestly wanted to know what she thought should be kept from me.

  Red looked across the room to the open doorway.

  “I suppose you want to hear this, too,” she called out to someone.

  Sera grinned as she stepped into the view of the doorway. She had been sitting outside, and I wasn’t sure how long. I was listening too hard to Red. Obviously, Red had noticed.

  I did my best not to glare at Sera as she entered the cottage. This was the first time in a long time that I had connected with Red. I kind of didn’t want to share right now.

  “Eighteen winters ago, I was barely older than you two are both right now.”

  Sera joined us at the table and took my previous seat. She reached over to grab a cinnamon bun as Red talked. I did my best to ignore her.

  “The curse was in full swing, and almost all the wolves that still spent time as humans were cursed. The curse seemed to hit some time after puberty but wasn’t quite as devastating to their health as this round appears to be. Even though they were healthier last time, they were still the monsters people fear now. Wolves would spend each night roaming the woods and killing anything they could find. Any human or animal wasn’t safe. It was a different time.

  “Things were getting worse, and I decided that it was time to collect everyone from the witches cottages that were the only homes left on the ground. While I didn’t doubt the witch magic would hold against the wolves, it was growing harder to protect and move supplies to the cottages. I was making daily runs, and it was getting exhausting to keep both the cottage and the tree people safe. I asked everyone to move into the trees. There was one family, though, that didn’t come when I asked, and I went to find them. The wife was almost nine moons pregnant, and she couldn’t make the journey to Azren.They had decided to stay in their cottage until the baby was born.”

  Sera stopped eating and stared at Red. It seemed that I wasn’t the only one Red had never told this story to before.

  “I was fine to let them spend another moon there, but I made sure I was always around to keep them safe. In neglecting my duties to the rest of the kingdom, someone very important to me was bitten. In normal times it would have been several moons until he became a wolf and a monster with the curse, but something was different with him. I have a feeling it was because he spent so much time with me. Maybe something with the Red magic. I’ll never know because he was instantly a monster, and because he was so close to me, he was the worst kind. It was like all the good in me turned into bad in him. And to top it off, he knew my every move. He knew what I would be doing and when, and he hunted me like there was no tomorrow. He was relentless, and he was dangerous to everyone. He was once my best friend, and he became instantly the king of the monsters. Everyone started calling him the big bad wolf because only I knew who it truly was.”

  Red took a sip of her coffee and looked outside the window like she remembered a different time.

  “What became of him?” Sera asked.

  Red shrugged. “He’s no longer alive. But that wasn’t the point. The point was what happened with the family I chose to protect. He followed me there, and I knew the only way that child would be safe would be to give her my Red powers. While no one around had ever seen a transfer of power, I knew how to do it, and I did. It was then that I marked you as the next Red, Sera. And then I faced my friend. I was prepared to die to save that family, and I refused to kill the one person that always believed in me. The one person that had befriended me and always stood by me. He wasn’t the monster he became in the night. He was my friend. And I wasn’t going to kill him.”

  Red had a friend. That just kept repeating in my head as she paused to collect her thoughts more. I couldn’t imagine that. Micco was the closest I had ever seen, and she still kept him at arm’s length. What she was talking about was way more than that. She’d had an actual friend.

  “But then something changed. I don’t even know what. The curse was gone and over. I really have no idea or clue how it happened. At first I thought it was something to do with me marking Sera as the next Red, but as time has gone on, I think I was only able to do that because something had changed first. I’ll never forget what happened next.”

  Sera and I exchanged a look as Red nodded to herself.

  “I was given a gift I never knew I wanted.”

  Red finally looked up and directly into my oddly colored eyes that had never made a difference to her. While the people of Elder never really accepted me, Red always had, even if we didn’t always see eye to eye. I knew now what she was talking about, even if Sera was confused.

  “What?” Sera asked.

  “Castiel,” Red replied. “Less than a day after I saved you from my friend, two hooded women, whose faces I never even saw, handed me a baby boy wrapped up in a blanket. They told me that the curse was over, and the wolves would be normal again as long as I accepted him and raised him as my own.”

  Red took a deep breath, and she looked between our shocked faces.

  “I never planned to live long enough to have a family, and yet I was instantly a mother. I saved Sera one day and the next I had a baby of my own. It wasn’t a job I wanted or had any idea how to do, but I am thankful every day that I got to be your mother. We might fight about things every now and then—.”

  Sera coughed, and Red laughed.

  “Okay, Castiel and I fight about everything. But I wouldn’t want it any other way. I wish I had the answers to help you find the cure, but I know one thing. We will find it. I might not have created you in my own womb, but I did raise you to be the competent man you are. I should never have worried about you with the wolves because we both know there’s nothing to worry about. You are strong, Castiel. Stronger than any person I’ve ever met, and that isn’t just physical. You grew more than I could have ever imagined or pushed you to be. You have a strong mind and an even stronger heart. If anyone can find an answer, it will be you. I know it.”

  I was never good enough, but it seems that maybe that was more on me than her. I had no idea how to respond. I had spent my whole life not feeling I met her standards, and here she was telling me I exceeded them. I was shocked and stunned.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t the mother you deserved, but all I can say is thank you for being the son I know I didn’t deserve.”

  I was out of my chair without a second thought and hugging her for a second time in only moments. Red had done her best, and I never doubted that, even when I didn’t agree with her. She was a good mom and better than I ever gave her credit for. I could feel the air shifting. There were no more secrets or lies between us. She had been truthful, and I understood so much more now. She would never know how much I appreciated her. All I could do was hug her. We were going to find the answers together.

  4

  14th March

  Red’s office was more than a little cramped as I paced around it. Papers were strewn everywhere, and Sera sat facing Red in her chair. I don’t know when Sera had moved in, but it seemed like half the mess in the room was Sera’s. They both continued to look at papers and pass
them back and forth as they talked. I was left in the corner with only room to walk three steps before running into something. The office of the Red wasn’t made for two people to share, that’s for sure.

  Red seemed not to care as we waited for the healer to come, but I didn’t have time to wait. She had sent her letter yesterday and gotten a response that the healer would be here in the morning, but it was already past breakfast, and she hadn’t yet arrived. I had no idea what morning meant to the healer, but it was getting past morning to me.

  I tried not to huff as I stood there, but I couldn’t help it. Every moment we spent waiting was another moment my friends could be in trouble. If this healer was as powerful as Red said she was, then we needed her here now. She very well could end all of this for my friends, and she was taking her time.

  “Sit down, Castiel,” Sera ordered me.

  I couldn’t help but glare at her. Whatever truce we had going was gone since we had returned to the trees. Sera and I were never going to see eye to eye, and I wasn’t about to be taking orders from her. Grace was utterly crazy that there was anything between us but hate, lesser hate on a good day, but still hate.

  “We don’t have time to wait,” I pleaded with Red instead.

  Red nodded as she looked over another paper like she was just trying to appease me. How in the world could she just wait? She was as anxious as I was to help the wolves but didn’t seem to show it at all. Was she just pretending the day before?

  “She will get here when she gets here,” Red explained as she continued to work on something that had to be pretty important if it kept her attention.

  “She said morning,” I pointed out.

  “Mal has never been one to run on a time schedule.” Red looked up from her paper as she spoke.

  With a poof of purple smoke, a dark-haired woman appeared right in the track of where I was pacing.

  “You can say that again, old friend.” The lady laughed as she shared a look with Red.