The witch created a shield around herself, and while it kept the thorns from reaching her, it didn’t help her against the attack coming from down below. Roots rush out of the earth like spikes, threatening to impale her. When she looked at me, I said, “You’re the one who can’t beat me. Look where you are. This is my kingdom, my land, and I am one with it. As powerful as you might be, you’ll never be able to defeat that.”
All the while, the vampires had noticed my confrontation with the witch, and were ready to take advantage of the situation and get rid of her once and for all. The woman who seemed to be a leader of sorts gathered her troops around her and gestured toward the witch with one regal wave. “Destroy her.”
Well, it was more than clear that the witch could find no mercy on that side. Obviously realizing that she couldn’t win this battle, she let the shield drop and fled.
It all happened so fast that I didn’t even see her go. One moment she was standing there, a few feet away from me, and the next, she disappeared. The vampires growled, and oddly, so did Leonard. Obviously, no one was very keen on her escaping, and neither was I. But I couldn’t stop her from casting a translocation spell. It was actually among the most basic magic of powerful witches and Merlinian magic users. I couldn’t do it, but I wasn’t surprised that she could.
Fortunately, I’d been correct in saying that not even she could escape nature. Even here, at the edges of the Dryad Kingdom, its forces were beyond that of what she could contain. A loud screech sounded from somewhere behind us, and I instantly recognized it as belonging to the witch.
I shared a look with Leonard, then turned on my heel and followed the sound. The vampires were right behind us as we ran, as were some of the Arthurians who seemed to be recovering from the attack.
I paid no heed to any of them, too busy wishing, hoping, and fearing what I would find. At last, we ran into a small grove, where much to my surprise, we found the witch fallen on the ground. Well, that wasn’t the most shocking thing. What seemed strictly out of a dream was that two guardians stood next to her—one of them, a huge hulking tree-man who rivaled the size of my parents’ palace, and the other a willowy female completely made out of orchid petals.
I’d never seen any guardians other than Rosa, and they didn’t usually reveal themselves like this. Then again, Rosa had been making a lot of exceptions to that rule as well.
“No, you don’t, witch,” the huge tree spirit said as she tried to get away. “You’re not going anywhere.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, getting up so that she could face them. “And what are you going to do, creature? Step on me?”
I had to hand it to her. She was either very brave or very arrogant. The two guardians didn’t look particularly impressed.
The large tree-man tilted the top of his trunk ever so slightly in an inquiring gesture that made him look far more human than he was. “Actually, that’s a pretty good idea.”
Just like that, he lifted his huge leg—made out of tree roots of sorts—and he set it down right on top of the witch with a somewhat nauseating squish. Silence. I could only stare at the scene, wondering if I was dreaming it.
“Oh, dear,” the female vampire leader said, finally breaking me out of my trance.
“Well, that had to hurt,” Vlad Dracula commented idly.
Oddly, I felt a little pained, a little cheated. I still had questions I needed answering. What had the curse truly entailed? Had the witch known all along what I would choose? Had the prophesized enchantment been all deception and the end result only my doing?
As if guessing my thoughts, the tree spirit lifted his so-called leg and revealed the witch still lying beneath. “Not to worry,” he said. “This one’s very resilient. She isn’t an easy bug to squash.”
The other guardian scoffed. “As if you truly intended to squash her. That would be letting her off too easily.”
She turned toward me and Leonard and beckoned us closer, apparently dismissing everyone else present. The vampires and the Arthurians stayed at the edge of the grove, perhaps sensing that this was a matter that concerned us alone.
“We should be angry at you, child,” the female guardian said softly. “You never should have believed her when she said we wouldn’t want your seedlings.”
I gaped at her. “Are you…Are you the godparents of my children?”
They both nodded, smiling even as they kept a close eye on the witch. “I am Orchis,” the woman said, “and this is Sequoia. We are the guardians chosen by your seedlings’ affinity.”
“Of course, it is not official yet,” the tall tree-man said. “Until you entrust them to us in an official ceremony, we cannot approach them as godparents.”
My face flamed, although truly, I had no reason to be embarrassed. I had not known how to act, because my seedlings had grown inside of me, not out of Mother Earth, like regular dryads. Therefore, the ceremony that beckoned the guardians to watch over the newborns had never happened. I supposed that was why they were here now and not with my children, whom I had entrusted to my own guardian.
It made so much sense, though. The tree-man—Sequoia—was undoubtedly my son’s guardian, while the lovely female—Orchis—that of my daughter. “How are you so sure?” Leonard asked me through our bond.
“Oh. Our godparents are the same gender as the children they watch over—to empathize better with their needs,” I explained. “The guardians don’t actually have genders like we do. They can change them at will.”
Leonard gave me a look then glanced at the two spirits and just nodded. I supposed that with everything that had happened, he was getting used to my world.
Clearing his throat, Leonard said, “We would be honored to have you as guardians of our children. Unfortunately, as you might know, circumstances have kept us from following the regular process of common dryad births.”
“We’re aware.” Orchis’s smile faded, and her eyes—the ones that glowed with an intrinsic light, much like Rosa’s—suddenly seemed very threatening. The threat wasn’t directed at me, though, but rather, at the witch. “We would also seek your permission to handle this threat. After all, you’re the one who was most wronged by this creature.”
Was I? An entire kingdom had slept for centuries. She had attacked Leonard’s family and her own. For all I knew, she had hurt many other people before she’d even met my father and cursed us.
Leonard wrapped an arm around my waist and kissed my cheek, steadying me as I faced my uncertainties. “Briar will make a decision in that regard,” he said, “but first, he wishes to speak with the witch. Would it be possible without risking her escape?”
“Of course.” Orchis nodded. “She will not escape.”
“Now that the curse has been broken through your sacrifice, the guardians are awake,” Sequoia explained, meeting my gaze with surreal, ancient eyes that held both knowledge and understanding. “The power of the Dryad Kingdom is back. We won’t be overtaken again.”
They knew. They knew my connection to the curse and didn’t blame me. Their kindness was almost too much to bear, but it also filled me with tremendous relief. It also made me blurt out a question that I couldn’t hold back any longer. “Why didn’t you stop it? Why didn’t you keep it all from happening?”
“The guardians cannot intervene in the decisions of their children,” Orchis explained, regret heavy in her voice. “All we can do is to help and support them. Your parents’ guardians did try to warn them that destroying the roses would only unbalance the kingdom, and you, but unfortunately, your mother and father did not listen.”
“To their credit, they thought they were doing the right thing,” Sequoia added. “They didn’t understand your true connection with the roses. Perhaps, to a certain extent, none of us did.”
“What you have to understand, Briar, is that the curse truly did exist, outside your own powers. You were indeed under enchantment from the witch. However, the spell had a hole. No rose would have ever pricked your finger—non
e except a rose you yourself created out of your pain.”
“It was not a mistake,” a different voice said. I looked down, only to see the witch had woken up. “I knew what those two royals would do to prevent the curse, and I knew how much they would hurt their child through it. As a bonus, they defeated that blasted guardian without me even having to cast a spell. After that, it was easy, so easy to enslave his soul—to keep the curse going forever, just because he was feeding it through his own existence.” She looked at Leonard and gave him an oddly appreciative look. “Even when you showed up, Arthurian, you played right into my hands, casting away the remnants of the enchantment my children created. That foolish guardian thought he was so clever, but I knew what he would do. And yet…you were my mistake, Arthurian. I never expected you would have the strength to kill your mate.”
Leonard’s hold tightened around me. I could feel him vibrating with the desire to tear her apart, to make her suffer for everything she had done. It was a little mind-numbing to acknowledge that she had managed to fool us all, and it only made me even more aware of the danger she represented.
But there had been enough pain and destruction today, enough death. I didn’t want any more blood to stain this land. “If it is my decision,” I said softly, “I’d like you to take this woman away. Lock her someplace where I’ll never see her, where her powers will never reach anyone else.”
Orchis and Sequoia nodded solemnly. “So it shall be,” they said.
Sequoia gripped the witch’s hand. For once, she didn’t try to struggle, nor did she have any of her standard evil comebacks. She almost looked a little sad, and I wondered if she had a heart after all.
That was a question that would never be answered, because Sequoia and Orchis finally disappeared, taking the witch with them. Just like that, a weight lifted off my chest. The wind seemed to dance joyfully through my hair, and the grass tickled my bare soles like a playful child. Nature was happy, too. The witch was gone, and the guardians would make sure that she never came back.
A part of me wanted to just lie down and enjoy it, but that was not to be. The Dryad Kingdom had guests, and a lot of them. Leonard and I turned toward the assembled group. I offered them a tentative smile. “Thank you for your assistance in defeating this foe. I am Briar Rose, Prince of the Dryad Kingdom, and I welcome you in this land.”
They stared at me, obviously not knowing what to make of what they had seen. And then, another woman emerged from the crowd, supported by the elven male I’d noticed earlier. Leonard’s eyes widened. “Mother,” he said breathlessly.
Queen Sedonia of Arthuria ran toward her lost son and embraced him tightly. I watched the scene, and just like that, I knew I could never ask Leonard to leave his family. Soon, I would have to make another decision regarding our future, and I suspected I knew what it would be.
Epilogue
In Which Everything’s Coming Up Roses
Briar’s mother cried when Briar told them he would come back with me to Arthuria. She clung to him, begging for his forgiveness, kissing his face, and trying to make him reconsider. “We can start over now,” she promised. “We’ll be so happy, a true family, with your mate and your seedlings.”
His father stood there, a pillar of tension and anger. He was glaring at me like he blamed me for the whole thing. Perhaps he did. Perhaps he hated that I’d gone and gotten Briar pregnant. Either way, there was nothing they could do about it now, because they couldn’t change my mate’s mind.
“I will start over,” Briar said, “but not here. In Arthuria.”
“They’ll never accept you,” King Hyacinthus said. “They don’t understand magic like we do.”
“That’s true,” I replied in Briar’s stead. “We aren’t a magical people. But I will step down from my position as heir to the throne before I allow anyone to be disrespectful to Briar or our children.”
I had already made that abundantly clear to my mother, although I suspected she’d been too busy cooing at the children in question to hear me. Right now, she was in grandmother heaven, and while I had no doubt that there would be some friction between the two sides of my family, I just knew we could make it work.
The day after the witch’s defeat, everyone gathered outside the Great Tree that served as the home of the Rose Dynasty. There were so many people, all the prisoners whom Briar had miraculously managed to keep alive, the vampires, Anelah and Rumpel Stiltskin, my brother, my mother, Reluvethel Dawnhorn, and many others, like, for example, Vesper. Rosa, Orchis, and Sequoia had come to see us off. They wouldn’t actually join us on the journey, but I knew that they would eventually relocate in Arthuria once we made arrangements for them to have a large garden to live in. And of course, there was my mate, with our two children—or seedlings, as he called them.
“Will they be all right to travel so soon?” my mother asked.
“Oh, not to worry, Queen Sedonia,” Orchis replied. “We wouldn’t let anything happen to them.”
Sequoia nodded solemnly. “They carry our blessing with them at all times.”
It was a testament to my mother’s regal composure that she didn’t blink or cower at the sight of a talking tree. Instead, she smiled. “Thank you. You have the gratitude of the whole of Arthuria for the protection you bestow.”
Meanwhile, Briar was saying good-bye to his family. His parents stood in front of the willow trees that served as a gate, together with his aunts, his cousin—who had finally awoken—and many other people I’d never gotten the chance to meet. Few seemed to know what to say to Briar, and as always, that angered me.
As I watched, Briar hugged his parents one last time. “We’ll keep in touch. I promise.”
Hyacinthus and Hydrangea nodded, although they—and the queen in particular—seemed in tears. “Be happy, son. You deserve it.”
My mate’s heart was breaking at the separation. He still loved them dearly, in spite of having remembered and relived everything they had done, and I loved him all the more for his sweet nature. But it was time for us to go. Our new life was waiting.
At last, we took our children from their godparents and entered the carriage made out of vines and led by the unicorn that now seemed very attached to Briar. Well, Briar sat in the back with our babies, while I rode in the front, to guide the unicorn. He looked one more time at the palace that had been his home for all his life, and then, we were off.
The party was quiet for a while. All of those present seemed aware of the weight of the moment. Many of the soldiers had first been confused about why Briar was with us in the first place, but they’d been pretty understanding when I’d explained that everything he had ever done had been to keep me safe from the witch. Of course, it was probably a little surreal for them to see their crown prince riding a carriage led by a unicorn, but stranger things had happened.
For my part, I was focusing on my bond with Briar. He was trying to be brave, but the Dryad Kingdom was everything he had ever known. He’d never even stepped out of it to explore the rest of Merlinia, let alone the rest of Avalon.
“I’ll be with you always,” I whispered through our connection.
I couldn’t see Briar’s smile, but I heard it in his voice. “I know.”
A few minutes after we left the palace behind, we finally ran into a familiar sight. A path in all the colors of the rainbow shone through the forest. “I thought the Rainbow Brick Road couldn’t enter the Dryad Kingdom,” I heard Kirril say.
“The curse is gone now,” Rumpel Stiltskin replied, throwing a fond gaze toward me and Briar. “The power of the witch no longer keeps the Road in check.”
Apparently, my mate could charm even the powerful Merlinian wizard. I couldn’t say that surprised me, although it did remind me that I had to find a new wardrobe for Briar soon. The rose petals were beautiful, but they didn’t really cover much of Briar, and I was liable to start punching people if they stared too much.
It didn’t seem like I would get the chance to do so. The moment we
stepped on the rainbow-colored tiles, the world started to sway and swirl. It was only for a moment, and far smoother than other times I’d travelled through space by magical methods. When it ended, I found myself right in front of Camelot.
A part of me felt uncertain upon finally being in front of my city again, but the other was relieved. The familiar sight welcomed me home, and something told me that my mate would be happy here. Yes, Arthurians had been wary of magic, and likely, many of them still were. But Arthurians were also a warm people for the most part, and after all, who would be able to resist Briar’s smile?
It seemed my brother and my mother felt the same, because they didn’t comment when I ushered the unicorn into the city. As it turned out, my people barely saw the unicorn at all. As soon as they caught sight of me, raucous applause and cheers exploded all around us. Flowers flew over the large party riding into Camelot, and I couldn’t help but notice that when they landed on Briar, they bloomed again.
By the time we reached the palace, my mate looked like a walking garden, but he was beaming brightly. I stopped the carriage in front of the castle doors and jumped down. As I helped him out of the carriage, his eyes met mine and the emerald beauty of those pure orbs struck me breathless for what seemed like the millionth time.
“They really love you,” he said.
“And they will love you,” I answered, a little dazed. Just like I loved him—or at least, a fraction of it.
I would have probably kissed him, or at least tried to, but my father chose that exact moment to burst out of the palace, followed by Medwin, Rapunzel, and a shape-shifted Dineiro. Both Rapunzel and Dineiro were visibly pregnant, and I felt a brief pang of distress when I’d realized just how long I’d been gone.
That brief thought faded away when Medwin stalked to my side. According to my mother, he had wanted to come, too, but they’d eventually decided against it, largely for political reasons. But he’d obviously been as worried for me and Kirril as everyone else, because the relief on his face was palpable. “Don’t ever pull that stunt again, you,” he said as he hugged me tightly.
Briar Rose and His Not-So-Charming Prince Page 14
