Hidden Magic

by Melinda Kucsera

  Her urban paranormal fantasy series, Fort Hopeless, follows Bobbi Harwood, a reluctant witch who returns to her ancestral home to discover she is next in line to inherit the family curse and is charged with protecting the town from ancient harm. ‘Aamira’ is the origin story of one of the main characters. The first novel in this exciting new series, Fortress of Fear, releases in Fall 2020. For more by Barbara Letson, visit www.ghost-stalkers.com.

  Don’t forget to grab your copy of our next anthology, Wayward Magic, featuring another chapter of Aamira’s story.

  Parallel Princess

  The Siege

  C. K. Rieke

  “Parallel Princess: The Siege” fits into Hidden Magic because the protagonist, Princess Fallon, is swept into the Fae where a fairy leads her off to a strange looking character who’d been waiting for her.

  She’ll be stuck in the Fae for ten years before she’ll be back to get to her castle. It was a wizard’s spell that gets her to travel back and forth.

  I wanted to write this story as a sort of dark fairy tale where things don’t end up the way you might think. I wanted to send the reader to the Fae with creatures familiar and new as they try to figure out with Fallon why things are happening the way they are. Oh, and there’s lots of magic, especially at the end…

  C. K. Rieke

  Everything she thought she knew about reality is about to turn upside down . . .

  Princess Fallon’s life in the castle has been dreamy, but now her castle lay under siege by an army and she must make a choice: Should she stay at her home to face the encroaching army or use a spell that will sweep her off to another world?

  There’s a catch though… why is there always a catch…? In this dark fairy tale, things aren’t always as they seem— especially when magic is involved.

  Chapter One

  Her father always told her there were things in this world that were evil, wretched, and vile.

  Fallon never wanted to believe it, though. She was a princess after all…

  Her world was so lovely.

  That was, until the siege…

  “Hurry, princess, up into the keep.” Her handmaiden ushered her.

  An explosion roared out from the eastern wall, shaking the ground beneath their feet.

  “I don’t want to go; I don’t want to… I want to be with my mother, I want this to all go away, Celeste,” Princess Fallon said, clinging to her handmaiden’s soft dress.

  Celeste knelt, looking her squarely in the eyes. She was a tall woman with kind, knowing eyes and curly silver hair that fell down her back.

  “It was your father who told me we’re going to the keep, so we’re going to the keep.”

  Fallon heard men down the circular staircase, their shouts and bickering echoed up through the torchlit chamber. A stark dread grew in her chest and she found herself short of breath. They were running in a long hall up from the lower parts of the castle.

  A single thought ran through her head as the men below yelled in barbarian yells; if I have to use it, I can, but I don’t want too… So much will be lost…

  “Come!” The handmaiden grabbed her by the wrist.

  Fallon didn’t resist, there was no way to go but up—below only spelled a certain kind of grizzly death or torture. She hadn’t even reached her twenties, and her waiting prince wouldn’t want her to die at the hands of such heathenish men with cheaply forged swords.

  They turned a corner and she was startled to find the piercing blue eyes of her mother glaring at her, as she’d almost run into the handmaiden.

  “There you are, Fallon!” Her mother took her hand with a hardened grip. “Hurry now! You’re always running behind.”

  The queen pulled her, and Fallon found it difficult to keep her mother’s pace as they ran up and out of the gray stone tower, along its wall, and toward the keep which loomed high above the rest of the castle. While running upon the wall’s path, Fallon looked back to see hordes of invaders looming upon the outskirts of Norwinder Castle—her home for as long as she’d drawn breath.

  “Why are they here, Mother?” she asked as they ran. “Why do they want to hurt us?”

  Her mother paused and glowered at her. “They want to hurt us just because they can. They’re mad, and they’re after you and your father. Now—we have to get you to your room. Do you remember what to do if the time comes?”

  Fallon hesitated, with her long blond hair waving in the strong wind. Another explosion erupted along the wall. The catapults slung fiery balls of raging blasts upon the outer walls of the city.

  “Come now,” her mother said with glassy, red eyes. “We’ve got to get you to safety.”

  Upon the wall that led to the inner keep of the castle, Fallon pulled her hand free. “No! I’m not going! Leve needs me. We’re going to wed next month and there’s naught to stop us. Our soldiers will fight them till there’s no more breath in their lungs.”

  “There’s going to be no more breath in your lungs if you don’t come, now!” the queen said, staring deeply in Fallon’s eyes, grabbing her wrist and jerking her urgently up the pathway as the men’s voices grew from behind.

  Then she could see them—men with wretched faces, with eyes full of a reddened, berserker fury. They were coming… they were gaining on them up the wall.

  Fallon gasped as her handmaiden tripped behind them.

  The queen had a moment of panic as she clutched onto Fallon’s hand like a vice. She also looked at the armored men running at them as they grunted and yelled out. Then another explosion ripped through the city.

  Her mother pulled Fallon’s hand, running up the wall.

  “No, we can’t leave her!” Fallon screamed, fighting to break free of her mother’s grip.

  The queen didn’t reply, only pulled her daughter up the wall’s edge as the men roared toward the handmaiden.

  “Mother, stop, mother, we have to help her…”

  The queen glared her icy blue eyes upon Fallon quickly. “Do you want to live? Or do you want to die this day? She’s lost. But you don’t have to be.”

  They ran up the length of wall to the keep’s gate just as the sun dipped down over the western mountains and the sky was cast in a gloomy, red hue.

  Just as the soldiers on the other side of the gate let them through, closing the keep’s thick, dark-wood doors, her mother knelt to look up into the princess’ eyes.

  “You remember what to do if the time comes? Right?”

  Fallon resisted but, after a long thought, nodded to her mother. “Yes,” she said, but it wouldn’t come to that. “My prince needs me.”

  They continued up the keep, striding up long stairways and gliding through torchlit corridors that smelled of peat and moss.

  They arrived at Fallon’s room soon after.

  Fallon’s eyes were wet with tears and worry as smoke billowed up from the city behind them. Frightful screams of pain and misery had filled her ears ever since Celeste had found her down in the flower-filled courtyard hours before.

  Her mother opened the door with a brass skeleton key and led them both in. Fallon was surprised to see a handful of soldiers already in her room, with the king standing behind them with weathered eyes. Beyond him was a thin window with the last breath of the red-glowing cascading sun within it.

  “Hurry,” the king said with a low, yet worried tone. His eyes were wide and wild, and he scratched the side of his face. “There’s no more time. They’re nearly here!”

  “No.” Fallon shook her head. “I won’t go. I won’t go!”

  The queen again knelt as the soldiers locked the door behind them. “Listen, my dear…” her icy, yet loving blue eyes stared into her daughter’s. “This is why your father did this. It’s for your protection. It’s to keep you safe. You’re the sole heir to all of this. It’s your duty to protect the realm. That’s why he did this. This is why your father entrusted Shadine to do this for us. He did this as a last resort for you to escape if the need ever came.”

  �
��I don’t trust him, though,” Fallon said, with tears streaming down her cheeks. “I don’t want to go. I can’t go!”

  “You must,” the king said, walking through his guards to her. He wrapped his large, callused hands around hers. “I’ve done this all for you, because you’re my only daughter. I have no sons, no other heirs, and I don’t need any. I love you, and only you. I need no others. But you have to live, Fallon my sweet. You have to live, no matter the cost.”

  Fallon sobbed then wiped away the tears as she tasted the saltiness in her mouth.

  “They’re not here yet,” she cried. “There’s still time, there’s still hope.”

  Then, the sounds of metal sword upon metal sword rang out from the other side of the door, with the sounds of grunting accompanying it and a bone-curdling feeling settled deep within Fallon. The soldiers swayed, ready for a fight as a black obelisk statuette gleamed by the back window.

  They’re here… at my door… they’ve gotten this far… I don’t want to die…

  “My baby,” the queen said as she wrapped her arms around Fallon, pulling her to the back windows of the large bedroom.

  As the skirmish ensued beyond the dark-wood door, her mother sobbed, holding her tightly. The soldiers within the room moved closer to the door in a line, holding out their spears, or gripping their swords tightly.

  “I don’t want to die like this,” Fallon said as her father looked back at her in frantic worry beneath his golden crown.

  Outside of the door the sudden shock of silence shuddered into the room.

  As the worry within her room grew like wild vines, a slow tapping resounded through the room as Fallon’s heart sank. It continued as a solid hilt of metal thunked on the solid door.

  “No one gets through this door!” the king thundered, with spit flinging from his lips and his fists clenched.

  The soldiers in their light armor shimmied, moving from side to side, unsure of what was on the other side of the door.

  “Don’t worry sweetie,” her mother said. “We’ll get through this.

  We’ll—”

  The door burst open with a thunderous roar, and through the splintered, swinging door the enemy came bursting forth.

  Fallon screamed as they ran into her room. They collided violently with the king’s men, ensuing in a vicious battle that overtook the room in a blood bath.

  She felt a fervent shaking of her shoulders as she watched the men battling in wild swordplay, then striking for the kill. “You need to go,” her mother said. “You need to go. You need to do it now!”

  “I don’t want to leave you,” Fallon said, watching as the soldiers fought valiantly against the invading men, her father even had his sword drawn, and her mother cradled her in her arms.

  Fallon unsheathed a dagger from under a lavender-colored pillow in the corner of the room, which the queen snatched up immediately.

  “You’re not fighting!” the queen said. “You’re not a fighter. You’re a survivor.” The queen’s cheeks were streaming with streaks of tears. “You’re going, and that’s that. It was all planned for you like this.” She wiped the tears away as the soldiers fought for life and death. “Your father and I did this for you. I never dreamt it would come to this.” She choked up, barely able to speak the words. “You are our golden girl. You are everything to me, to us. If you don’t survive, then nothing will. You’re the best of us. You’re the only true blood left of us.”

  The brutal fighting continued as the soldiers on the king’s side fought brilliantly against the invading forces.

  A horrifying swipe cast its deadly strike into a soldier’s side; casting him down, as he clutched his side in agony; screaming and crying.

  “Now!” the king yelled to Fallon. “It’s not for us, it’s for you. Now!”

  Fallon looked up at her mother with longing eyes. “I don’t want to… I don’t want to leave you!”

  “You are going,” her mother said with her glaring blue eyes staring deeply into hers. “You’re going, and you’re going now.”

  “But you’ll die,” Fallon cried, wiping her tears away in horror. “You’ll both die.”

  Her mother clasped her hand over her cheeks as the horrendous fight ensued; and enemy troops flooded into her room.

  “Listen, Fallon,” she said. “You’re the last hope for us. You’ve got to do this. Even if your father and I die. You’re too important. Your brother and sister died. You’re the only Gregon left. You’re our last hope. If you have to sacrifice, then you must. But while you’re gone, remember all the while your mother and father love you greatly. Now go, go!”

  The soldiers were slaughtered as the enemy soldiers thundered in.

  The king and queen laid heavy, longing stares upon their daughter.

  “It has to be you who does it,” the queen said with her sad, cooling eyes.

  “Do it now,” the king said with a remorseful gaze. “We’ll see you eventually. You need to be strong. You need to be brave now.”

  “I don’t want to,” Fallon said, sobbing.

  The soldiers were being trampled by the invading forces then in a violent mess of blood and sweat.

  “Now,” the king yelled. “It has to be now!”

  “I’m sorry,” Fallon said. “I’m only doing it because of you. I’ll see you soon! I promise I’ll come back.”

  She ran to the corner of the room to the black obelisk that was cascaded in the red glow of the last of the sun’s rays. With both hands wrapped around its sharp edges, she looked at her worried parents in the midst of the soldiers tearing into the room like wildebeests, and said, “I’ll return, I promise. Ten years, that’s all it’ll be. Ten years. I promise I’ll return. I love you!”

  Holding the dark obelisk in her sweaty palms, she thought about how she wouldn’t see her parents—or anyone she cared about for all that time, but this was life or death; they were after her.

  She closed her eyes as the madness grew louder and louder in the room with the stench of fresh blood blooming all around her. “Evernochtis briten everness,” she whispered, feeling a brimming power surge from the stone into her arms and shoulders. Opening her eyes, she saw a brilliant brightness that warmed her, like looking into the sun’s rays glistening off a sparkling stream—and then it was gone… everything was gone.

  Chapter Two

  The brightness faded from her mind and vision, and a warm, welcoming feeling crept over her. Opening her eyes, she saw the black, mirror-like obelisk placed between her hands as she pulled them away. The sounds of the bloody battle had faded. It was replaced by the chirping of crickets, and the stillness one gets when first slipping into a warm bath.

  She sighed with relief and smiled. Fallon raised her hands to the sides of her face and she inhaled—her nostrils filled with smoky, mossy aroma.

  Looking past the obelisk, that was nestled neatly in a strange white rock tucked into deep folds of lush green grass, she saw she had indeed been moved away from the danger of the castle. So far away in fact, she’d been moved to a place that few would ever view, and from which fewer even had gone back to their world.

  Fallon had known about the power that had been bestowed upon her by the wizard, Shadine, since she was girl. She remembered the way the proud wizard’s face brimmed with pride as the king told his daughter of the gift he’d bestowed upon her all those years ago. She knew that if grave danger ever came there was a magical place she could escape to, even if she wished to never use it.

  Around her were the plush, vibrant greens of blowing grass; behind her was a trickling stream that had its own tiny waterfall, dripping droplets over the back of a gray stone wall, and a delicate, yet strong fawn grazed over to her right just beyond the trees.

  “Ten years,” she muttered to herself, brushing her blond hair back behind her ear. “At least you’re alive, but Mother and Father... I pray to the gods you’re still alive. I don’t know if I can live with myself if I discover I left you… in your greatest time of need…”


  The princess wept for the better part of the day, eventually drinking from the fresh steam, eating handfuls of plump blackberries from a bush, and falling into a deep sleep of exhaustion, worry, and yet—relief.

  When the morning’s light came the next day, dazzling its way through the swaying trees overhead, a beaming, delicate glow bobbed in front of her eyes. Fallon sat up, examining the angelic glow that faded slowly. Before her was the bare, slender body of a tiny woman with humming blue wings. Her red hair flowed wavily down to her hips. The look in her eyes held a deep wisdom—even though she looked no older than a woman in her early twenties.

  “Morn,” she said with a vivid spirit.

  “Morn…?” Fallon repeated while rubbing the sleepiness from her eyes.

  “Let’s be off! Hurry!” the fairy said while pulling on Fallon’s dress tails.

  “Give me a moment,” the princess said. “Where are we off to anyway? Who are you? Where are we?”

  The fairy sighed, rolling her eyes. “We’ve been waiting for you so long! Come now, hurry. He wants to meet you so! And you’re in the land of the Fae, didn’t you know?”

  In the Fae? I’d completely forgotten that the wizard’s spell would send me here. But I don’t like it here. I just want to go home…

  “Who’s he?” Fallon asked. “And who are you?”

  “I’m Pip,” she said in a sweet voice as her wings fluttered. “And he’s the one who the wizard told to watch over you. Come now, it’s not always safe here.”

  Fallon leapt to her feet.

  She followed the fairy passed the spring, through a thick wood along a narrow path, and over a giant mountain range with sharp rocks and deep crevasses. The princess had no idea how long they’d traveled—for in the Fae, time was like a dream—so vivid, yet so hard to recall once awake.

  Eventually they made their way to a patch of barren dirt in the center of a grassy glade—almost a perfect circle around a small stone building with a thatched roof that looked as out of place as a blue toe on one’s foot.