It seemed familiar somehow, but I wasn’t sure how. I dropped it and picked up a handful more. They were cold as they dribbled through my fingers. I plucked out one and then another, examining them in the dark. Slightly heavy and cold and smooth as metal, each one shaped like a single teardrop.
I crawled around a bit, never finding a wall. The room felt enormous, cavernous. My stomach lurched when I imagined an opening just in front of me, invisible in the darkness. I stopped crawling and sat down to wait. The ladder hadn’t been very tall, and if there was a hole that dropped down to the bottom of the lighthouse, I’d be nothing but a splatter on the ground when Astrid came to get me.
At long, long last, she did. The trapdoor opened, and I jumped up, ready to ask one of the million questions I had. But my voice died when her bare foot and slender ankle appeared. What if her mother had forced her to give me up, and she’d come down with her?
“She’s gone,” Astrid said, as if sensing my unease. “It’s safe.”
“What is this place?” I asked, looking around as the light from above filtered down. When she’d pushed me down through the door, I’d barely had time to grab the ladder. It had looked pitch dark after the light above, and I hadn’t seen anything. Now, as the light filtered down, I could see piles and piles of sparkling…gold.
My eyes must have been bugging out of my head, but Astrid just smiled kind of shy. “It’s my treasure.”
“Fuck me,” I said. “When you said treasure, you actually meant treasure.”
“Yeah,” she said, hooking an arm through the rungs of the ladder and perching about halfway down.
“Man. When Jack stole those beans, he was hoping for a couple diamonds. This is probably worth more than a thousand diamonds. You’re literally sitting on a gold mine.”
“Yeah,” she said again, looking adequately guilty about that.
“Where did you get it?” I asked, looking around, trying to comprehend. It was weird enough that a lighthouse was here, but now I’d found an entire pirate ship’s worth of treasure inside it.
“I cried it out.”
I gaped at her, my mouth hanging open. No wonder her mother kept her locked up here. She wasn’t just the princess. She was a freaking golden goose.
But then I saw her looking back at me, a strange little smile on her face. I hadn’t grown up with three brothers to become a complete sucker.
“You didn’t cry this out,” I said. “People don’t cry out treasure. Not even witches.”
“You can make me cry if you don’t believe me.”
“I can’t make you cry.”
“It’s not that hard,” she said, gesturing around the room. “I’ve cried lots in my life.”
My stomach turned raw and sour at the thought of her crying even a handful of tears, let alone a whole room full. “Your mother made you cry all these tears?”
“Not all of them,” she said. “Sometimes I cried because I wanted to see Father Dear, or just because I was lonely.”
“So, your mother made you cry all these tears.”
She shrugged. “I used to be afraid of the dark. She’d lock me down here to make me cry until I had no more tears.”
I swallowed, trying to imagine being locked down here, never knowing what was in the dark with me. The terror of that little girl she had been gnawed at me like some evil monster lurking in the shadows.
“We have to get you out of here,” I said. “Now.”
She hesitated, chewing at her luscious lips. “Can you keep this a secret?”
“This?” I asked, gesturing around to the mountains of tears. They didn’t seem precious now that I knew where they’d come from. Astrid’s pain was too high a price to pay even for red gold tears.
She nodded. “I don’t want your brothers to think… I just don’t want them to see me as…”
“A commodity?”
“I trust them,” she said. “Mother Dear always said people would use me for my tears, and I don’t think you would or that your brothers would, but…”
“They wouldn’t.”
“I don’t want to put them in danger,” she said. “Even knowing about this could put you in danger. I would have hidden you somewhere else if I’d known she would leave so soon. I would have hidden you under the bed.”
“That’s what I found on the floor,” I said.
She nodded, then gripped the ladder and stood. “I’m ready.”
A minute later, we stood at the window looking out at the rising moon. I couldn’t resist sliding an arm around her middle, pulling her back against me. I pressed my nose into her hair, remembering the way she smelled, the way she tasted. A throb of desire shot through me, but I refocused my attention. First and foremost, I needed to get her out of this place.
“You think you can fly down?” I asked.
“Mother Dear took the basket,” she said. “But I’ll make a loop at the end. You can put your foot in it and hold onto the rope while I lower you. You’ll have to jump the last few feet.”
“I’m not worried about me,” I said. “How are you getting down?”
She held her head high and threw back her shoulders. “I’m a bird,” she said. “I’m going to fly.”
Chapter Seventeen
Jack
When Evan and I got home from work, we found only William in the house. Mom was at work, but Daniel should have been around.
“He snuck off to see Astrid,” William said with a grin. I won’t lie, jealousy flared up inside me like a dragon about to spew fire all over the place. It wasn’t like Astrid was mine. I hadn’t even found her first. But some part of me didn’t care about the logic. It thought of her as mine. At least, I wanted her to be. William wasn’t the only one who couldn’t shut up about her.
Actually, I could shut up about her, but I couldn’t shut off my mind. It was always on her like some kind of lovesick puppy. Every day I had to talk myself out of running up there just to sit outside her window and hear her singing. I didn’t know what had happened between her and Evan—despite appearances, he was too much a gentleman to kiss and tell. But I’d caught him staring off into space a few times, even smiling to himself as he worked. That was very un-Evan-like behavior. And I was pretty damn sure I knew the cause.
To be fair, Daniel was the only one who hadn’t gotten a chance to hang out with her alone yet, so I couldn’t fault the guy. But every time one of my brothers got to spend time with her, I wished it had been me. Not that I blamed them or begrudged them. I just wished I could have been there, too. I would have been happy just to sit in the corner like I wasn’t even there as long as I could watch Astrid. The way she moved, like grace itself. The way she talked with her whole body, her hands, her face, always moving. The way she could stand before us without a stitch on her glorious body and not show a trace of shame or modesty. It was intoxicating. She was intoxicating.
“When did Daniel go up there?” I asked, nodding at the darkening window.
William frowned and drew his shoulders up toward his ears. “This morning.”
I shot Evan a look, and he raised his eyebrows. “Told you not to mess with a witch.”
“Shit,” I said, peeling off my shirt. “We’d better go find him.”
“Now?” William asked. “It’s almost dark.”
“We’re sure as hell not waiting for morning,” I said. “The gods only know what she’s done to him if she caught him.”
A few minutes later, the three of us took off along the road, cutting away from it and heading up the mountain until we reached the clearing around the tower. We shifted back into human form to talk.
“How do we know if he’s in there?” William asked. “What if she caught him on the way in?”
“He’s in there,” I said. “I could smell him before I shifted.”
“Is she in there?” he asked, peering anxiously at the tower. The vines climbing up it had been butchered, and a dark shape lay crumpled on the ground below it. My chest tightened at the sight of i
t, but when I crept forward, I could see that it wasn’t big enough to be a human.
“Is it her?” William hissed.
“No,” I said, creeping closer still. It wasn’t her, but it had once been a part of her. When I picked it up, I recognized her basket, now shredded beyond repair. All the work she must have done to make it, destroyed.
Something glinted in the dirt, and when I bent, I saw a tiny teardrop-shaped gem sparkling in the light of the rising moon. I had more important things to worry about than earrings, though, and I didn’t have a pocket to keep it, so I left it where it lay.
“Astrid,” I called. “Can you hear us?”
A moment later, her face appeared in the window. “Jack?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, so much relief flooding through me that I thought I’d faint dead away like a girl in a dramatic black-and-white movie. But goddamn, it was good to see her face. For a second, I just gazed at her, forgetting what else to say. I was so fucked. If she told me she was in love with one of my brothers, I thought I’d have to move in with our deadbeat dad just so I wouldn’t have to see them together all the time and know I couldn’t have her.
“You came to visit me?” Astrid asked, like she couldn’t believe I’d do that just for her. Crazy, because I’d do a lot more than walk up a mountain to see her. I would have moved the entire mountain with a teaspoon if it meant I could look up and see her smiling down at me like that.
Evan cleared his throat from the darkness behind me, and I shook myself out of my crazy love haze. “Evan and William came, too,” I said. “Is Daniel with you?”
“I’m about to lower him down.”
“Is he okay? Can you lift me up without your basket?”
“No,” she said.
“We can’t come up?” I asked, my chest caving in with disappointment. I’d been so excited to see her.
“No,” she said. “I’m coming down.”
Chapter Eighteen
Astrid
I lowered Daniel in the makeshift harness we’d made from the rope. He had to jump the last eight feet or so, but he assured me he was fine. And then it was my turn. My turn to leave the tower.
I stared down, the drop suddenly seeming like a hundred times a hundred feet. I’d been so determined just minutes before, but now I hesitated. Could I do it? What if Mother Dear had been telling the truth all that time, and the world out there was cold and cruel, and people caught me and used me and wouldn’t let me go? What if she’d been right about me? What if I was too weak and stupid to make it outside my tower?
But then I looked down, and four boys were standing beneath my window looking up at me, waiting for me. Daniel, who was so happy and had made me so happy today, was grinning and dusting off his clothes after the fall. Evan looked like he didn’t really care one way or another what I did, but he didn’t look away, either. He was waiting to see if I had the guts. William stood beside him with hands clasped together in front of his chest as if he couldn’t wait for this moment. And Jack was there, gazing up at me with so much emotion it almost scared me back into my room to hide away again.
What if I didn’t live up to his expectation? What if he thought I was the sort of princess Mother Dear had tried to make me?
I pushed away that thought. Despite the purple and gold gown I’d chosen to wear for my escape, the boys all knew I was just me underneath it. With that thought in mind, I ducked back into the room and peeled it off, wrapping it carefully before tossing it down. I was ready. I was tired of letting Mother Dear make all the plans while I waited for something to happen, for life to begin. Tonight, I had my own plans. Tonight, I would make something happen. Tonight, I would live.
My heart stampeded in my chest, nervousness and giddiness mixing to make me nearly dizzy.
I stepped up to the open window, pleased when I heard a few of the boys suck in a breath when they saw me standing there wearing nothing but the moonlight. I eased myself out and slowly stood, my toes gripping the sill, my back pressed to the wall above the window. I flattened my hands against the rough white paint on the lighthouse wall, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath.
“Shift first,” Jack said. “I can come up and fly down with you if you want.”
I shook my head, my toes clenched, holding on for dear life. I wanted to go. I just had to do it. But something inside me balked, refusing to take the last step.
Daniel cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled up to me. “Come on, Astrid. Show them what you showed me.”
Pride swelled inside me again. I’d impressed him with how well I could fly. Now I wanted to impress the others. I motioned for them to step back, and they retreated to the edge of the trees.
“You don’t have to jump if you don’t want to,” William said. “I’ll come up and lower you down.”
“Just jump,” Evan called. “You can do it.”
I could do it. I’d been waiting for this moment all my life. Why was I even hesitating?
“Goodbye, home,” I whispered. I spread my fingers and toes, releasing my hold on my old life. My body tipped forward, plummeting toward the ground. I heard one of the boys shout in alarm, but I had already thrown out my arms, ready to fly. Suddenly, a horrible thought ripped through my mind. What if Mother Dear had put a spell on me to keep me from shifting outside the tower? The ground rushed at me faster than I had imagined it could. The prickling tingle of feathers swept over my arms, and I almost cried out in relief. But the ground was coming up so fast.
I beat my arms at the air, grasping for friction. I could see the pebbles under my window, the glint of the moonlight off something shiny. And then my wings caught the air, and I was buoyed up, flapping hard as I soared across the clearing.
I smacked into Jack’s chest at full speed. He caught me, laughing and cursing at the same time.
“That was so badass,” Daniel said, ruffling my feathers.
Jack stroked his hand along my back, cradling my body in the crook of his arm.
“You’re crazy,” William said, bending down to tickle the bottom of my clawed feet. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“That was really fucking stupid,” Jack said, but he was laughing. He sounded a little choked, too, and he squeezed my body against him like he’d thought he’d never get to do it again.
Was I crazy, like Mother Dear had said? Was I stupid to have done that, and I wouldn’t last a day in the real world? My heart was beating so hard in my falcon chest that I thought I might die of a heart attack before I made it out of the clearing.
When I’d calmed down, I shifted back into my human form. I hadn’t considered the logistics of that move, and I ended up standing in the crook of Jack’s arm, my body halfway in front of his. He held onto me another second, his arm around my middle and his face pressed into my neck. “Don’t ever do that again,” he murmured.
The heat of his body raged up my back like a flame, and a shiver washed over my front side, the one not pressed against him. I closed my eyes and leaned back against Jack, letting my head fall against his shoulder. He buried his nose to my hair, inhaling deeply before releasing me.
Daniel handed me the bundle I’d tossed down, a crooked grin on his face. “You’ll need this before you reach civilization.”
That’s when it hit me. I was standing on the ground. Gritty dirt and pebbles were under my feet instead of smooth boards. I dug my toes into the ground. “I—I’m out,” I said.
“Yep,” Jack said, giving me a gentle push forward. “You’re free.”
“I’m free,” I repeated, stepping further from the boys. My steps were hesitant at first, as if the ground might snap me up and swallow me whole. I just couldn’t believe I was out of my tower. Walking around on the ground. I ran forward into the grass, then stopped, gasping in shock. It was cold and slightly damp, almost vibrating with lifeforce. I buried my toes in it, clinging to it the way I’d clung to the ledge. I was never leaving the ground again, not ever.
I felt a flutter insi
de me like wings beating in protest. Oh, yeah. I had a bird nature, too, and it wasn’t a grouse or a penguin. She obviously needed to leave the ground.
“What do I do?” I asked, turning back toward the boys.
They met my question with blank stares.
“I don’t know what to do with myself,” I said. “I’m free. It’s so big.”
“There’s a whole world waiting for you to explore,” Jack said, his warm smile shining in the moonlight like all the treasure in the world.
“It’s yours for the taking,” Daniel said, throwing out his arms.
“It’s just so much,” I said, wrapping my arms around myself. I felt like the sky was so high it was going to fly off into space, and the earth was so big I might come loose and go tumbling down it and never stop. I had always lived in my one room. If I needed a change, I could go downstairs to the treasure room for a while. My life, my world, was the size of two large rooms.
And now it wasn’t. Now it had no boundaries, no size. It was endless. I felt so small, like a speck of dust in the big world. Even the clearing was too big, too open. The trees might come crashing down at any moment. The earth would stretch on and on in every direction, and I wouldn’t know where to go or when to stop.
“It’s okay,” Jack said, his warm hand coming to rest on my back.
I was breathing so hard that black spots had started to take over my vision.
“I should go back,” I blurted.
“Just breathe,” William said, coming up on my other side and laying a hand in the middle of my back. “Rest your hands on your knees and breathe through it.”
“You got this,” Daniel said, reaching in to place his hand on my side.
Without a word, Evan laid a hand between my shoulder blades. Their touch anchored me, so I didn’t feel like I’d float up to the stars without anything holding me back.
Caged: A Twisted Fairytale Retelling Page 10
