I looked to the Fae holding the thing by the neck and said, “Ask it what Prince Aiden said and then ask it who is in charge here.”
He nodded and spoke in a language I didn’t recognize. The gremlin fought, but listened. Its wild eyes danced around, looking at the group of us. It had to realize it was greatly outnumbered, that if it didn’t cooperate it would surely die.
The fairy stopped talking and the gremlin calmed down.
“What did you tell it to do?” I asked.
“He is to lead us through the forest safely. It will take us to the edge where we will wait for Raven. Then we will let it go. I asked who its leader was but—”
“But he didn’t answer. I know.”
I pondered for a moment. Who was to say that it wouldn’t turn against us at the edge of the forest and call its friends to attack us? And if its leader was watching us and knew we were coming, we would be easy prey.
“Tell the gremlin that it can’t tell any other creature or Fae of our plans.”
The Fae relayed the message and the gremlin smiled at me and said, “As you wish, Queen.”
To hear it speak shocked me and made Midnight stir. Its gravelly voice was unpleasant, but I knew it could understand us now.
“Who is your ruler here?” I questioned it, trying to play nice.
“You are, aren’t you?”
It bowed low and laughed loudly, mocking me.
“Mock me all you want, ugly. I’ll have them cut out your tongue when we get to the edge.”
“No. No. Don’t hurt me! I only meant … meant that you were queen. No other queen here. Just me and my friends.” He laughed a shrill squeak.
No other queen here. Hmm. This was curious.
“Aiden,” I said pulling him away from the creature. I continued in a whisper so he couldn’t overhear, “Could they be rogue?”
“Hmm. Probably not. They don’t work like that. If they don’t have someone or something to serve, they would look for it. They wouldn’t stay here,” he told me as he waved his hand around him. “I really miss those pixies. I’d take one of those any day over this place. It’s awful here.”
He was right; this place was anything but nice. It reeked of evil and death.
I pulled Midnight away from Aiden and approached the gremlin.
“You do understand that the moment you try to deceive us will be your last, right?”
He smiled. “I won’t deceive.”
I nodded and decided I’d see how I felt about the disgusting creature when we got there.
The soldiers placed chains on him and put him on a horse. Gray shouted instructions as I sat back and watched. The truth was that I had never been involved in a fight before, so I had no idea what I was doing. I wanted to defeat Raven more than anything, but watching as they held this creature with chains and yelled at him was no different than how Maleficent treated me inside the walls of the asylum.
Am I not cut out for war? Sure I killed her, but it wasn’t intentional. Until now I had thought I could do this, thought I could rip Raven to shreds.
But watching them mistreat this evil little being that had just killed several of my men wasn’t easy. I had to ask myself, if that was hard to watch, what killing Raven would be like. Would I be able to carry out the task?
I couldn’t answer yes or no. The truth was I wasn’t a warrior even if Gray thought I was. I was just a lost girl searching for revenge. And revenge didn’t make a warrior tough, it made her weak.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Merryweather
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Sawyer’s mother was alive and with him. She didn’t reunite Sawyer with Rory, but she reunited someone. She watched as Aiofe sat with her son outside speaking to him.
“Aurora and the others must have entered the Dark Forest by now,” Fauna remarked as she looked out into the distance. “They’ll have to hurry.”
They would have to be swift. There was limited time to catch Raven before she entered the portal and got away. Raven was sneaky, and Merry didn’t put it past her to succeed no matter what she had to do.
“There’s a rider coming from the east!” a royal guard shouted. He pointed eastward and Rory’s mother, Ellie, came forward.
“Ready the castle just in case. I know that rider, and he’s here to cause trouble.”
Merryweather joined her sisters and helped get Sawyer back into the castle where he would be safe in his room.
“I’ll stay with him and get him upstairs,” Aiofe assured them.
“Whatever you hear, Aiofe, please do not bring attention to yourself,” Ellie begged.
Merry couldn’t help but be confused.
“Who is here that would cause harm to Aiofe or Sawyer? I just don’t understand.”
Ellie placed a gentle hand on Merry’s face.
“Dear Merryweather, you’ve done so much and we are grateful. But you must make yourself scarce. Let me and the guards take care of this. Please.”
Ellie’s kind eyes eased Merry’s heart and she nodded. But her agreement was just to appease the former queen. When the Queen took to the stairs, Merry ran to the back stairs toward the kitchen where she’d be out of sight. She remembered many times singing in the kitchen with her sisters and other Fae.
Happy times had been had in this castle, but it wasn’t always that way. She thought the threat was gone now with the death of Millie. But it looked like something was always out to get the princess and her family.
She squeezed into a small opening near the pantry and watched through a small hole as Ellie awaited the rider.
The great door opened and a guard accompanied the rider—who Merry now saw was a man.
He bowed and smiled up at Ellie through thick lashes. He looked so familiar, but Merry couldn’t place him.
“May I ask what you’re doing here in our castle, sir?” Straight and to the point; boy Ellie was a lovely queen during her reign.
“I came for my child. Queen Ellie, oh, I’m sorry, I forgot. Duchess Ellie.” He snickered. “I heard your daughter has taken over the grand castle. I’m sure she’ll do an excellent job. Has she found a king yet?”
He laughed again and Ellie’s face grew very red.
Merry didn’t like when people threatened those she loved. But who was this mysterious man? And why did he think he could come here and retrieve his child?
Better yet, who was his child?
“I have no doubt my daughter will reign with dignity and grace, sir,” Ellie replied. “And as for your child, may I ask why you’re here after all this time? You did in fact leave him here to be raised in this castle. You can’t think that you can possibly have any sort of relationship with him now, do you?”
The man rolled his eyes at Ellie.
“He is after all my son. He’s royalty, Ellie. And I’ve come to bring him home to Worner.”
“Oh my goodness,” Merry whispered in the dark. She knew who the man was.
“The Duke of Worner!” Fauna said startling Merry. She glanced over her shoulder and saw both Fauna and Flora were there.
“You sneaky little—” Merry stopped her sentence and turned around to watch the scene unfold.
“I want my son, Ellie!” the Duke said loudly. “I will not leave until I have him riding alongside me. If you do not release him to me, I shall bring an army. And it looks like you would be unprepared for that.”
Ellie scowled at him. “Why would you come back for him after all this time? What purpose does he serve for you now?”
“He’s royalty, and he is to serve in the army of Worner who are assisting Bordell. It’s his birthright, just like it was mine, and I will need him now, especially if the rumors are true.”
“What rumors?”
He laughed
. “The rumors that your queen is allowing shapeshifter Fae into her royal guard. You think we wouldn’t look at this as a threat?”
The Duke of Worner served Bordell’s Queen and King by raising their disgusting army. As far as Merry was concerned, he made them evil minions of the false queen.
“I heard that your queen was trying to spy on my daughter and allying with one of the darkest of the shapeshifter Fae,” Ellie countered.
This was all news to Merry. She needed to catch up on the gossip around here as soon as possible.
“Oh yes, riders did come from your land asking my queen to back down. You can’t think that she would allow your daughter to join Fae and mortals as one? Please. She is also rumored to be in love with a half Fae.” He spat on the ground and Merry shivered.
“That half Fae is your son. His purpose isn’t to serve Bordell, or Worner for that matter. It’s to be a king here in Ancora. And those shapeshifter Fae you speak of …,” Ellie paused as four animals came into the entrance. A tiger, wolf, ram, and boar entered the room posing a threat to the Duke. “They are part of the Royal Guard now. So if I were you, I’d back up slowly and leave before they rip you to shreds.”
The Duke did in fact back up as the shapeshifter Fae approached slowly.
He put his hands up. “I just came for my son. I do not want a fight.”
“Oh, no? Didn’t you just threaten me with a fight about a minute ago?” Ellie asked looking innocent.
“I told you, Ellie, that I wanted Samuel. That’s all.”
Ellie shook her head. “You don’t even know his name, do you? You’re pathetic. His name is Sawyer. And if you had been here, you’d know he is—”
“No!”
Merry looked up at the staircase to see Aiofe standing with her hands outstretched. “Do not tell him anything about my son!”
The Duke looked up at her and his face fell. Merry could see regret written all over it. At least she thought it was regret—knowing him it could be confusion. He was a sinful man and everyone knew that about him. He took many women into his bed and never thought twice about leaving them behind.
“Aiofe? Wow, I never thought I’d ever see you again. How … how are you?” He was struggling. Merry laughed. He had some nerve to even ask her that after what he did to her.
She flew down the stairs so fast it made Merry dizzy.
“Sawyer’s alone,” Merry said aloud. She turned to Fauna and said, “Stay here and make sure that the Ellie is all right. I’ll go to Sawyer now.” Fauna nodded. Merry took her skirts up and ran up the stairs to Sawyer’s room. Three guards were standing by and they nodded, letting her pass. Sawyer still lay still on the bed, unknowing that both his parents were downstairs. She remembered all the times he used to ask her and the other fairies about his parents. It always saddened her to tell him she didn’t know who they were. She hated lying.
Sawyer was always a boy full of curiosity, and it was fitting that he should fall in love with Aurora, because she too had that same trait.
“Dear Sawyer, I hope you wake soon. There are many people who love you and are trying so hard to save your life. I hope you know that Aurora loves you more than you’ll ever understand.”
She grabbed his hand and felt his pulse quicken. He was responding to her words!
“You hear me, don’t you? Oh, isn’t this foolish? It isn’t like you can answer me.”
Sawyers hand twitched and Merry startled. “Well, I’ll take that as a yes then,” she said with a laugh. “Your mother is a wonderful person, and I had the honor to spend time with her while I traveled to find your cure. We know how to do it, Sawyer, and I know that Rory will succeed.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Rory
I wasn’t going to succeed if I kept going like this: riding on my horse, watching that damn gremlin, and feeling sorry for it. It was killing me inside. I wanted to set it free and not think twice about it. But I knew if I did that, it would tell its weird gremlin friends, and we’d have to fight them all before we even reached Raven. Darkness was upon us, and we had to get to the edge before Raven knew we were here.
If we didn’t have to stop and fight a new creature every five minutes, we might have been there already. My soldiers were tiring; you could see it on their faces. The only ones who weren’t tiring were the Fae. They seemed to gain energy with every fight. It was extremely curious.
“Your Majesty?” Gray said, riding closer to me. She was soaked in the blood of a black witch that had just shown herself—it was the scariest thing I had ever laid eyes upon. Watching her slay it was fascinating. She cut each leg off of the thing and then tore its heart from its chest. I shouldn’t have watched, but I couldn’t look away. I wasn’t a meek girl, but it was probably the most terrifying thing to see.
“Yes, Gray?”
“We’re here.”
I looked around. Here, where? We were looking at a large field of trees.
“Where?” Surely we were not at the edge of the Dark Forest. This wasn’t the edge of anything. It was a beginning of more trees, except that these trees were different. They were softer and had fruit hanging from them.
“Are those apple trees?” Prince Aiden asked.
“Yes, they are. This is the edge of the Human Realm. Those trees aren’t really here in our lands, it’s an illusion of their lands. Those trees are on a farm in a small section of a place called Connecticut. I hear it’s a very pretty place, but its beauty doesn’t match Ancora.”
Gray knew so much about everything, and here I was the Queen. I was so naïve. I didn’t even know about the outside realms.
“So what do we do next?” Aiden asked me.
I looked at Gray for the answers, but she looked to me. I was the head of this army—I needed to pull it together.
“I’ll grant her passage and then we wait. But you will wait undercover. She’s going to come through here and I want to be the only one she sees. You’ll are all to leave me here alone. ” After I said it I almost regretted it. Gray and my soldiers shouted at me to change my mind, but I had time to think while she was doing all the killing along the way during which I sat upon my pretty horse. She was my soldier, but this was my job. I am the one who came out here to kill Raven. It was my fight and my fight alone. I was the one who had more to gain by killing her.
“There is to be no argument. This is how it’s going to be. I will fight Raven like it’s meant to be: one on one. You will stand back and assist me as needed. I’m sure she’ll have her minions here jump in when she arrives.”
I pointed to the gremlin whose eyes grew wider with my words.
“Their master is Raven,” Aiden whispered as the realization set in.
It was another thing I had time to think about along the ride.
“Yes, she’s their master. She probably took them under her wing before she left.”
“How did you figure that out?” Aiden rubbed his jaw.
“Raven needs to control something, and when the asylum wasn’t hers to control, I thought like her for a moment. If I put myself in her shoes, I thought who I would use to do my bidding in this forest? The answer was clear.” I looked at the gremlin, and he started squealing like a pig.
Gray circled the gremlin and bent low toward him. “What did Raven tell you to do to us?”
He shrieked and tried to get loose of his chains.
I got down off of my horse and walked over to them. My boots crunching on the ice that formed along the ground. It was getting colder and colder in this awful place—so cold my fingers were numb even in my gloves.
Pulling the chains tighter, I stared into its eyes.
“Listen, I know you serve her, so there is no use lying. You’re better than that, really. If you want to serve someone, you should serve a queen, and I can give you more than Rave
n can. She’s going to die here on this icy ground today, so you better join me or die with her.”
His eyes went from me to Gray, who nodded, and then back to me.
“If I tell you, you’ll let us join you?”
I nodded and smiled.
“Of course.”
“Okay. The raven girl told us she would be queen of Ancora, and she was going to kill you. She promised us that she would let us eat your innards if we helped her.” My stomach turned at the thought. Raven was so sick. “But I don’t even like innards; it’s the brains I like best.”
“Focus, gremlin,” I said getting extremely irritated with him.
“She’s coming now. I can feel her. She let us feed on her blood so we can sense her arrival. My friends have been following you the whole way here.” He pointed to the trees where their eyes lit up.
“Tell them to abandon Raven and follow me.”
He looked scared. “Do it!” I yelled.
He shouted something in his language toward the trees and I heard their reply.
“It is done, my queen. We follow you. I’ll show you where she’ll be.”
He held up his chained hands and I shook my head.
“No. You’ll stay in those chains until she’s dead. Once I see that you and your friends are true to your word, then I’ll let you go.”
He frowned. “Can I taste your blood?”
“Eww. That’s never ever going to happen, gremlin. So don’t ask again.”
He shrugged. “Oh well. You better hurry. She’s coming fast. Hurry. Hurry.”
I looked at Gray and said, “Go. Get hidden. This is my fight.”
She bent down and kissed the top of my head. “Fight with that fire in your heart, Rory. And remember what I told you about granting her passage.”
I gave her a weak nervous smile and nodded. I remembered what she told me to do. “I do and I will.”
All the lessons she gave me were put to the test right then. My guards were riding away from me hiding in the trees, and I was alone.
Awaken (Slumber Duology #2) Page 13
