Stubborn Girl_A Fantasy Adventure

by Mary E. Twomey

  The feathery cloud above him was only silver now, since he’d retrieved the green magic for himself. When he stretched out his limbs and found they had vitality again, he scooped up Brìghde from the floor and threw her up into the air above the balcony with strength that belied his bloodied form. Her body punched through the silver haze, bursting feather-like wisps everywhere, and reviving her with a cry of shock as she finally came to. The silver absorbed into her body, as if she was a sponge sucking in water. She landed in a pile of limbs, but this time she was able to pick herself up. Vengeance sparked in her bright blue eyes as she took in her surroundings with renewed strength and focus. Her flaming red hair was matted with blood, making her look that much more lethal. Legit storm clouds moved in, making it difficult to pick out the black and purple fog that had shot from my ring. Brìghde could control the weather, which was exactly the turn her wrath was taking. Buckets of rain burst down on the land as she howled out her rage, soaking us all in ten seconds flat. “Where is she? Where is Avalon’s Queen of the Fae?”

  “Dead,” Lane croaked out. For how cool she normally played most things, I could tell being downwind from an Éirish immortal was a new one for her. “She’ll never come for you again.”

  “Kerdik, your ring!” I called out, untying my cape so he could see me. I needed him to know that I was ground zero for the black fog. “It’s freaking out!”

  When he saw my scared face, his shock couldn’t be concealed. He lunged for me, muttering frantically in a language I didn’t understand as he put his palm over my ring. The black fog stopped oozing from my gemstone finally, and we both heaved a sigh of relief, though the acid rain was still in full effect out on the grounds. After the elation settled, Kerdik was livid. “I told you not to come here! Are you so bent on defiance that you can’t follow simple instructions?”

  “You were being beaten! Am I supposed to sit back and do nothing while you’re in pain?”

  “Yes! Yes, that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do.”

  Rain dripped down my face, but it didn’t mar any of the devotion in my eyes. “I would never leave you to fend for yourself like that! The fact that you think I’m capable of it shows how blind you are.”

  Kerdik stopped short, rain trailing down his features, washing some of the blood off in streaks. He blinked a few times, as if confused that the hold I had on him went both ways. Then he looked out at the angry sky with taut lips. “Blind, perhaps, but you don’t understand what you’ve done. My suffering isn’t worth what you’ve unleashed!”

  My nose scrunched. “What are you talking about?”

  “Your ring! You’re the one who killed Morgan le Fae? She strengthened her protection so that anyone who tried to attack her would have all their magic fall out. Your ring, Rosie! Your ring is where I hid Faîte’s lost magic.”

  I paled, swiping the rain from my eyes as I turned my head from staring at Kerdik to studying the black and purple cloud in confusion. “Morgan’s magic isn’t stronger than all of Faîte’s lost mojo. That isn’t what’s happening.”

  “The people are becoming infected with the lost magic!” Kerdik shouted in fear.

  I touched my forehead in consternation. “Do you think that’s possible? I mean, can you call it back?”

  “Not when it’s exposed and raw like this. Not all of it, anyways.” Kerdik met my eyes, his accusations and frustration dying down when he saw my fear, and the love that drove me to risk it all to save him. “You came for me.”

  “Of course I did.”

  “You love me.”

  The passion in my eyes blazed like a fire crackling between us. “I do.”

  Kerdik stood and quickly explained to his immortal friend-slash-enemy what was happening. Brìghde’s face vacillated from shock to betrayal to fear. The black and purple was spreading out under her storm clouds, the droplets of inky paint infecting Avalon’s worst with who knows what kind of magical steroids. Thunder sounded overhead, adding the edge of urgency to our worst fear realized.

  After a back and forth between the two immortals that I didn’t hear, due to the screams of the crowd below, Kerdik and Brìghde braced themselves by leaning forward on the balcony. Together they raised their palms out, as if conducting a symphony that was too dark for Mozart. They were bloody yet serene in their calculated fury. It was almost beautiful… until it turned into a massacre.

  Lightning and giant rocks shot out from their palms, hitting with purposeful aim the residents who had laughed at their hopelessness. It was a brutal video game, shooting the bad guys with lasers and watching them vaporize or fall dead, with a hole torn clean through their bodies. The rocks hit them in the heads so hard, I knew they wouldn’t be getting back up.

  “What did ye do?” Brìghde accused Kerdik, not taking her eyes off her prey.

  “It doesn’t matter now. It’s done.”

  “After all this time, how is this happening here?”

  Kerdik flicked his wrist and sent a boulder flinging out sideways, plunging it down into a whole mess of people as it rolled and gained momentum. They ran from the monster they’d thought was a beaten dog, but they couldn’t escape fast enough.

  Kerdik lowered his chin. “I hid the magic with the mortal woman I told you about. She didn’t know, and when she killed Morgan to avenge us just now, the darkness spilled out.”

  How Brìghde managed a snarky smile was beyond me, but girlfriend was on top of her game after being healed so rapidly. “Ah, did your doll survive? Is tha her?” She motioned to Lane, who was studying the black fog with a worried expression.

  “She survived, but that’s not her. Focus on the fog, not the people. We have to call it back!”

  “How? We haven’t done this in ages, Kerdik!”

  “Bastien?” he called over his shoulder. “Take Rosie into the castle, but no further than the room there. We’ll try to harness the magic and put it back in her ring, but it might take some time.” Then his tone turned sharp. “Brìghde! You’re losing your end! If the black fog slips from us, it’ll migrate to Éireland. Your people can’t handle the challenge of going back to the way things were. Focus!”

  Bastien didn’t bother waiting for me to stand on clumsy legs, but scooped me up and ran me into the room that was littered with the bodies of dead soldiers. “Did you know that would happen?” Bastien demanded, almost in accusation.

  “What? Of course not! Why would I send evil mojo back into Faîte? I just wanted Morgan taken out. Everything else is a blur.” My eyes searched out his in my confusion. “Did I really do it? Did I murder my own mother?”

  Bastien drew me to him, holding me to his chest. “Let’s not think about that right now. What matters is we’re safe.”

  I pointed out the doorway into the rainy sky that had swirls of black and purple now darting through it, like snakes on a mission. Instead of just rain and clouds, the fog seemed sentient somehow, like it knew it was being hunted. It slipped as fast as it could toward the home Kerdik and the other immortals had yanked it from so long ago. “Did I really do that? Did I just kill a monster only to make hundreds more?”

  “No,” Bastien cooed, though I could hear the doubt in his tone. “I’m sure Kerdik and Brìghde are handling it. They’ll fix it. Hey,” he turned my chin so my frightened eyes were staring into his. “I’m here. The worst is over, now that Morgan’s gone.”

  Wails like I’d never heard before erupted from female mouths. I expected mourning and sobbing, but this was different. These screeches had a grating, metallic sound behind their operatic, nonsensical yelling. I cringed and clapped my hands over my ears, trying desperately to keep up.

  I saw Bastien’s fear that the magic I’d set loose was doing something freaky. The screams weren’t like anything I’d heard before. It bespoke the beginning of the end.

  I heard animalistic growling, and then fearful cries beneath the ear-piercing wails that seemed to stretch on forever. I watched Bastien’s mouth swear over and over at the scene I could
n’t see, what with his body blocking my view. When I tried to step forward to look, Bastien’s arm shot around me and secured me to his chest. “Lane!” he called. When she didn’t turn from her perch, Bastien picked up a piece from a splintered chair that had been bashed during the scuffle and chucked it at her. When she turned around, he motioned her to his side.

  With tears streaming down her torn face, Lane stumbled into the room.” Get down!” she warned. The moment we obeyed, she collapsed on her knees to put her arms around us. “Banshees!” she clarified, though I didn’t so much know what that was. She pointed to her ears to indicate the incessant screaming, which was thankfully starting to fade to a more acceptable decibel. “There haven’t been banshees in Avalon… maybe ever! Banshees are from Éireland, but they’ve been extinct for years. The lost magic is latching onto the people,” she said to Bastien with trepidation tauter than a violin’s string.

  Bastien kept one arm around me and wrapped the other around Lane, pulling her to his side in a hug she desperately needed. “There’s nothing we can do right now. This is all for Kerdik and Brìghde to deal with.”

  Lane’s tears flowed freely, now that there was a shoulder strong enough to hold her burdens. “She used to braid my hair,” Lane confessed, reaching out across Bastien and clutching my hand with closed eyes. “Every morning, Morgan would French braid my hair and turn it into a crown of braids. My sister’s dead, and the worst part is that it’s a good thing she finally died. How sucky is that?” Lane broke down while Bastien held her.

  “Keep the good parts of her,” I suggested, squeezing Lane’s elbow. “The parts of Morgan only you and Dad knew. Those are the parts of her that get to live. When this all blows over, you’re going to crown-braid my hair, and that’s the part of Morgan we keep.”

  Lane met my eyes, her mangled face latching onto that one fragment of hope she desperately needed. Finally, she nodded. “I like that idea.” Her eyes flicked to Bastien’s, worry etched deeper than the marks I prayed wouldn’t be too permanent. “If the banshees are out, the others will come. Their screams announce death, Bastien. If there are banshees in Avalon…”

  The sentence hung in the air while we clung to each other, unfinished as we feared the worst.

  19

  Worth it All

  Kerdik and Brìghde were livid and in hyper-concentration-mode, which meant the weather was going berserk and the castle walls were shaking. The rain fell hard, blowing sideways and making us shiver in the doorway where we were huddled. When the rain started mixing with sleet, the ice chunks were too volatile to be near, so we moved a few feet further inside. Lane had tears streaming down her ripped face, understanding more of the gravity of what was going on than I did. “Where are Reyn and Draper?”

  “In the dungeon with Rigby. They’re okay.”

  “You should’ve stayed down there!” she yelled, trying to be heard over the whipping wind. She was also pretty worked up, so her temper was swinging. “When I tell you to do something, that’s the only thing you should be trying to do!”

  “I saw through Kerdik’s eyes that you couldn’t even stand! What was I supposed to do? I wasn’t about to pop myself some popcorn and watch Morgan murder you! Screw being obedient! I won’t let you die!”

  “My life isn’t worth unleashing all the dark magic back into the world, Ro.”

  It was like she’d slapped me. “Is that what you think? Do you think people like you come around every day? That just anyone would up and leave a castle and a crown to raise a baby as a homeless teenager? You’re one of the few good things left in this terrible place!”

  Lane lunged around Bastien and clutched me tight, knocking the wind out of me. “You were worth it all.”

  I shrieked, ending the tender moment when bowling ball-sized chunks of ice started falling from the heavens. In addition to well-aimed bolts of lightning, the hail was knocking people out left and right. Brìghde was cackling madly as the clouds gathered in a swirl across the sky, trying to catch the black fog that was desperately trying to escape. When snake-like threads started to bleed out of the swirl and sneak into the further reaches of the sky, Brìghde shrieked for Kerdik to help her.

  Kerdik didn’t waste a second, but scooped her to stand in front of him, her spine tight to his chest. He pressed his palms to the backs of her hands, bracing them both for a double shot of the good stuff. They aimed their hands toward the swirl, widening the radius so it took up more real estate in the sky. Brìghde cried out as if she was still being tortured, but Kerdik was unswerving in his focus.

  When snow started falling from the sky like the most peaceful Christmas in the midst of all the chaos, my eyes darted through the partly dead and partly fleeing crowd. I don’t know how she knew when to come, but somehow there she was. Cailleach was using her cane, hobbling through the chaos as if she was on a peaceful evening stroll through town. She was the mid-thirties beauty to me, though I knew now that everyone else saw her as the hag she’d been marketed as. Her eyes were focused on the black snakes that were leaching through the sky. Every now and then she lifted her cane to shoot a lightning bolt at them, trapping a few and yanking the dodgy wisps into her cane. Her lightning wasn’t traditional like Brìghde’s, but instead had a blue line of ice to it.

  Lane’s voice was fearful. “Is that… Is that Cailleach?”

  I nodded. “She’s the one who helped us get here. I told her to stay away until Morgan was killed. Not bad timing, actually.”

  “Cailleach is in Avalon?” Lane’s voice held a note of fear and reverence to it as her head craned to study the woman with blue dread locks whipping behind her in the wind. “We’re either saved, or we’re all going to die.”

  Brìghde’s screams of agony were reaching a fever pitch, so Cailleach decided she was done with her leisurely stroll. She vanished, and then reappeared seconds later on the balcony with a softness to her step. “You’re finished,” she ruled, waving her cane to the two immortals, who were winded and bloody.

  Kerdik collapsed, his knees buckling as Brìghde fell backward atop him. I ignored Lane and Bastien’s cries for me to stay put and scrambled to get to Kerdik. I was careful with Brìghde as the sleet fell on her bloodied body. I rolled her off and brushed her hair out of her face before Cailleach gently shooed me away so she could tend to her sister.

  I flung myself across Kerdik’s chest. Before tears could overtake me, I sat up and scooped his shoulders to rest on my lap. His lashes were fluttering with weakness, making my heart stutter. I debated between shaking him and cradling him gently, unsure which would be more effective. I lightly slapped his cheek to help him focus. “Kerdik? Honey, talk to me.”

  “It’s escaping!” he moaned, lifting his hand to point to the sky. His weighted arm quickly collapsed, scaring me with how frail he was.

  “Tell me how to help. What can I do?”

  Kerdik’s gaze flitted around before it fell on me. The hardness and haziness melted away when he focused on my features. “You’re here.”

  My heart broke for the isolation he was so used to. “Of course I’m here. We all came to help you. I wasn’t about to let Morgan get away with hurting you. You’re my…”

  Kerdik looked at me as if I was the sun, the moon and the stars, all congregating to shine just for him. “You love me.”

  I closed my eyes and lifted him a little further so I could press his cheek to mine. “It’s all over. She’ll never hurt you again.” I rocked him as if he was my baby. He could command nature and do any number of impossible things, yet he was vulnerable and pliable in my arms. “I won’t let anyone beat you like that as long as I live. Don’t you worry. I’m here.”

  With our cheeks pressed together, no one heard his confession when he let himself unload to me. “I haven’t felt physical pain in so long; I underestimated the madness it can drive a man to. Don’t let me destroy Avalon,” he begged, his fingers fumbling to rest in mine, as if to hand me a portion of his vengeance.

  “I’l
l keep you safe,” I promised. “You don’t want to destroy Avalon. There are good people still left in it. Think of Urien, and how much you love him.”

  Kerdik nodded into my neck. “Tell me more things like that.”

  “You protected Lane. You took a few lashings that were meant for her.” I moved my cheek up and down, savoring the intimacy I knew would have to go away soon. “If you thought Avalon wasn’t worth saving, you wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to rescue my Lane.” My voice was just loud enough for him to hear above the sleet that pelted us and made me shiver against him. “I see the goodness inside your heart, Kerdik. I see you, and I love you.”

  His fingers went limp in my hand, his struggle over whether or not to destroy it all and start from scratch finally coming to a crest. “You’ll be Bastien’s princess for now, but when you’re my queen, I want Avalon to be a safer place for us. I have to help Brìghde gather up the higher magic!” He struggled to sit up straight, but couldn’t. With a groan of frustration, he collapsed back into my tender hold.

  My insides warmed at the goodness I’d always known was in him. I knew I should’ve shut down all conversation about our future, but after being driven to the brink as we were, I indulged us both in a little foolishness. “I’d like that. Where will we live?”

  Kerdik’s lashes fluttered against my face, his lips tickling my ears. “I’ll build you a castle, and we’ll fill it with babies. The whole land will smell like a haven because I’ll fill it with every color rose you can think of.”

  I knew I should’ve run from the conversation we shouldn’t be having, but my lips let out a traitorous chuckle. “I think that sounds nice. Can our kids be green? I think that’d be cool.”