“You are delusional if you are seriously putting all the blame on me,” he said. “Let me tell you something. Greed is innate in all humanity. It festers in men’s hearts and rots their minds. Some are better at keeping it hidden than others. True, I may have given you that first taste, but I didn’t force you to become what you became. That was your own decision. View it any way you like. We both have red on our hands.”
I remained silent. I knew what he said was true, but I still couldn’t admit it. Admitting would make it all real.
I crossed my arms, my wrists skimming his chest. I ignored the shiver running down my spine.
“You still insisted on taking Tristan even after you killed Edward,” I shot back.
His cheeks flushed red, and he ground his teeth.
“That is entirely different.”
“How so?” I pressed. “How is that different? You had a choice as much as I did.”
“The contract bound me in blood just as you.”
“Don’t you dare. You could have destroyed it. Voided it. Burnt it to ash.” I pointed my finger into his chest. I wish it could have been an arrow and cut right into him.
His features darkened and his chest expanded in large breaths against my fingertip. He didn’t brush me away.
“If you recall, there was a little problem of consequence. A contract can be changed, but it cannot ever be broken.”
“Lies.”
His eyes narrowed. Faster than I could react, he gripped my upper arms and pulled me against him. His blood throbbed in the blue vein running down his forehead. A part of me wished he gripped me tighter, pressed me harder against his chest. I wanted to feel the raw power that infected his every movement. His every touch. The power that I found so alluring. After all this time he remained magnetic to me, and I despised him for it.
“Do you not remember the Furies that dragged you into that vortex?” he asked. “That is the consequence of destroying an unbreakable contract. I begged you to trust me. If you had given Tristan to me, the contract would have been fulfilled, then I could have given him back to you.” He loosened his fingers and slid them down my arms until he held my hands. He pressed his thumbs into my skin. I shivered. “You don’t know what all I have given to find you. To right my wrongs. I never wanted such a fate for you, Laila. Never.”
For a single heartbeat I believed him. I wanted to believe him. But I shook it away. I wouldn’t fall for his tricks again.
“It is too little, too late.” I pulled my hands away from his. “You are nothing but a villain.”
His expression sunk, and his skin grew even paler. He took a step back.
“Even villains can occasionally do what’s right,” he said. The words were rough in his throat.
Such pretty words. But that was all they were.
His face twisted and he cried out. He fell to his knees and held his wrist and looked down at his palm. His fingers shook.
My pulse raced as I knelt down beside him. His body trembled and he ground his teeth, his jaw flexing.
The scar on his palm inflamed with red, and the mangled tissue etched deeper. He grunted in pain. My own stomach sickened watching this torture with no way to stop it. Without thought, I touched his shoulder to give comfort.
“What’s caused this?” I asked.
He swallowed hard and closed his eyes as if collecting himself.
“Fate,” he rasped. “He’s gaining on us.”
The ground trembled beneath my feet. Deep strikes pounded into dirt and crushed rock.
The most awful sound tore through the still night. It grated my ears like a screech, yet contained the deadly warnings of a roar. My insides turned as it sounded again, my courage shredding with every awful note.
I spun around, and my body immediately went rigid.
Red eyes glowed in the darkness and twisted horns pointed towards the sky. Coarse, black hair covered a hideous body of jagged edges and sharp bends.
Horror flooded my veins as the beast before me spread open a set of claws and started to charge. Thick muscles flexed in its legs as it pounded its cloven hooves into the earth, grinding stones into grit.
I remembered the last time a monster of claws and wails pulled me away. I shook to my very core. I couldn’t end like this.
Rumpelstiltskin and I tore through the meadow, our feet crunching into the dead grass. Rocks and tree limbs snapped behind us as the creature gained speed. I shivered feeling its hot breath curl across the back of my neck.
I dared a glance over my shoulder. Terror flooded me like ice. The beast’s claws swiped at my leg, and its fangs dripped with ropes of saliva.
The Furies flashed through my mind, the memory of the hunger and rage in their eyes chilling my blood.
We ran faster and my legs started to burn. Then, I was falling. Falling and hitting the ground, my hands skidding through the dirt. Rumpelstiltskin ran on. He left me behind. Just as before when he let me go and Furies took me into their realm of horrors.
I didn’t even have time for anger now. The ground shook beneath me. Hot breath pressed against my neck again. I peered up fearing this demon beast would be my last sight.
The monster raised its claws high above my head readying to bring them down.
“Laila!” Rumpelstiltskin screamed.
He skidded beside me and dove his hands beneath my arms. He lifted me up and away. My chemise shredded as the beast’s nails tore into the fabric, thankfully missing my flesh.
We scrambled on ahead. Faster, faster, faster...
Reaching a large boulder we took cover behind it and caught our breath.
“What is it?” I asked, almost wanting to retch as my chest and stomach cramped.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But whatever it is, we need to get to the river and cross over. Now.”
He handed me his dagger. I gladly took it this time.
He picked up a sturdy stick and placed it beneath his foot. His eyes jumped from the stick to the demon and back to the stick. In a quick motion, he splintered it to the side, the split creating a dangerously pointed end.
The beast’s cry rattled the air surrounding us. The moon illuminated its awful form as I peered over the stone. It sniffed the air, hot breaths rolling from two slits where a nose should have been. Its red eyes searched the darkness for us.
They locked onto my own. My heart stopped beating.
The ground fractured beneath its hooves as it undertook a fresh attack.
Rumpelstiltskin grabbed me and pushed me behind him. He held out the makeshift stake ready for an attack. I also held out my knife, though it looked silly compared the large size of the monster wishing to consume us.
Silence. Eerie silence.
The gray stone shuddered and quaked before it ascended into the sky. I stumbled backwards as the monster held it over its two horns and threw it across the field as if nothing. A prayer I thought I’d forgotten rambled through my mind in shocking clarity. I was preparing my soul.
“Trust me,” Rumpelstiltskin breathed in my ear.
I didn’t have time to react. He took off to the left, leaving me and my pitiful weapon to fend for myself. My prayer started to tumble out of my quivering lips.
The demon raised its claws above my head, readying to bring them down and shred me to bits and pieces. My prayer grew louder, though the words were stilted caught between my gasps and chills. Still, I would not go without a fight. I held out my knife, the blade shaking in my hand.
“Oi! Shitface! Over here!” Rumpelstiltskin’s voice rang out.
The monster turned its head towards his direction. Rumpelstiltskin’s held the stick in his hands, his knuckles white from the force of his grip.
“Did you not hear me, you stupid git? If you want to eat someone, consider me your appetizer.”
He was either brilliant or mad.
The monster didn’t think long on his proposition. It threw its head back and screeched before bounding after him. Rumpelstiltskin lunged, p
lunging the rudimentary spear towards its chest, but the beast was too quick. In one solid swipe, the beast drew its claws into his right shoulder, sending him flying into the air. He landed a few feet away, his arms and legs splayed out.
A sickening fear punched me in my gut. This time, it wasn’t fear for my own life, but for his.
“Rumpelstiltskin!”
I wanted to race to his side, but the beast turned its attention back to me. With slow steps it approached me, growling from its bowels. It knew it had its prey cornered. I refused to go as easily as it wished.
Anger now rushed within me, allowing me to swallow down my terror. I pointed my dagger, willing my arm to steady, preparing to slice through the monster’s thick skin. Steam shot through its nostrils, and its eyes glowed with hunger.
Then, they flickered.
A sound rang out as leather split and bone crushed. A stake covered in gore ripped through its chest. Rumpelstiltskin stood behind the monster, holding the spike firmly within its muscle.
He clenched his jaw as the monster grabbed hold of the weapon piercing its flesh. With one tug, the demon pulled the stick out of Rumpelstiltskin’s hands and continued straight through its own chest. It twisted the stake until splinters of wood rained onto the ground and let out another blood curdling screech.
What type of beat was this that could not be slain?
Rumpelstiltskin backed away. His eyes locked on mine, then down at the knife still clutched in my hand.
“The dagger,” he said, ducking as another swipe came his way. “It’s silver.”
“Yes, but what has that to do…”
“Trust me,” he said, again.
Getting as far ahead of the beast as he could, he picked up another fallen branch. Gnarled twigs and thorns stuck out in every direction, each point sharp enough to draw blood. He swung it around and drove it into the monster’s face. The beast shielded his eyes from the scratching brambles, its screeches and hollers scraping my ears.
“Now!” He cried.
With the monster’s arms now raised, his chest and belly were exposed. An opportunity presented itself.
I ran towards the brute, taking advantage of its momentary blindness. Rumpelstiltskin dug the thorns deeper into its face. The branch bent from the force readying to snap.
My feet slid through the grass, and my palms grew slick with sweat, but I held onto the knife with a grip I feared might shatter the handle.
Rumpelstiltskin lunged the sharp thorns at the beast again. The monster tore the brambles out of his hands and tossed them into the field. Blood dripped down its face. It stepped towards him and opened its jaws, a deadly set of fangs readying to crush his bones.
The monster let out an angry moan. It staggered back, its red eyes fading. A silver handle stuck out of its stomach. Hissing and screeching it writhed, continuing to stumble until it fell to the ground. Dead.
My pulse thrashed in my ears. Rumpelstiltskin looked at me with shock, and I believe, admiration.
I wanted to collapse to the ground and rest, but another roar echoed behind me. Beside me. There were more monsters. A dozen at least.
My heart threatened to pound out of my chest. I pulled the blade from the monster’s chest. A stream of blood slid off the tip.
The black figures bounded towards us, their eyes glowing red.
I held out the dagger even though it would be impossible to kill them all. One was hard enough. Rumpelstiltskin grabbed my wrist and pulled hard.
“Let’s go!” he said. “We have to get to the other side if we stand a chance.”
We took off running, pushing our bodies to their limits.
Fear ate at my heels, and I couldn’t escape the sensation of their hot breath on my back and arms.
They came at all sides, screeching and pounding into the earth. Red eyes and razor teeth and always that awful, awful sound of imminent death. I never knew death could have a sound, but it rang clear and terrible for us: There was no way out.
It echoed in their cries. In the trembling ground. In the growls as they neared us closer and closer.
We kept fast towards the east, our only salvation, until a wall of ash and smoke appeared. A menacing force sizzled my bones as we entered a new world.
The landscape melted into silhouettes. The brown grass turned to shades of gray. Stacked rock rose from the earth. Even the sky changed. Hues of purple and black cast the land in long shadows that told you to go back.
I was grateful for the momentary protection of the shadows as we put more distance between us and the demons. Their cries fell away, but I knew even though they could no longer see us, they could smell us.
Cold frosted my skin. A hardening silence surrounded us. This place did not want us here.
Still, we kept running.
I tore my eyes away from a lone corpse, bloated and rotting. It’s jaw hung open, a set of white teeth gleaming behind a rusted helmet.
“This is horrific,” I said. I couldn’t stand the silence swelling in my ears. It was a pressure pounding within my skull that wouldn’t let up.
“There are far worse realms,” he said. “Here at least we have hope. I’ve read of lands where hope does not exist. Nor love. You are forsaken. Your soul lost to the tomb of eternity. You can neither live nor die. Just exist. Existing without hope, well, that is the worst punishment of them all.”
Stones covered in red flashed in my mind. The walls of my prison pressed against me.
He stretched his arm out in front of me breaking me out of my thoughts. Looking down, I saw the tips of my shoes nearly touching black water.
The river.
“Careful,” he said.
Dead trees cut through the smooth surface, gnarled branches spiraling like turrets. Miniature islands of rock and moss hid in the gray mist. Scanning the surface, it stretched to the other side of the world.
“How will we get across?” I asked.
“It requires a sacrifice.”
Roars split through the silence. The beasts were about to descend upon us.
“Give me your knife, quickly!” he shouted.
I handed it to him without question.
Taking hold of the handle, he stood so his arms extended over the oily water. Closing his eyes, he laid the blade against his other palm and gripped tightly around it. My stomach twisted but I couldn’t peel my eyes away.
He muttered something in another language under his breath, then in a clean movement, he sliced the blade down. He hissed, but held his fist firmly closed. His knuckles pulsed as drops of his blood trickled out and into the black water.
He knelt down and plunged the dagger deeply into the coarse sand. The small pebbles quivered. Vibrations traveled up my legs and shook my entire body. A smile spread on his lips, and he laughed in delight.
The water frothed and foamed. Bubbles surged over the shore. I took a few more steps back, but he grabbed my wrist and pulled me forward.
Up through the water rose a rowboat, two paddles floating on either side. It shined in black lacquer.
He gripped the edge of the vessel and jumped in, the boards creaking beneath his weight. Facing me, he bent over and held out his hand.
The ground quaked beneath my feet. I peered back over my shoulder, sets of red eyes glowing through the gray mist. Growls and snarls rang through the still, but I couldn't stop staring at their razor claws reaching out for me.
I remembered the raw power of the Furies’ claws as they gripped my waist and arms. Pulling me, tearing me...
“Hurry!” he shouted, breaking me from my memory.
Taking his hand, I sprung off the ground and leapt into the boat. The demons stampeded across the dried bones and corpses.
“Go!” I cried.
Grabbing the oars he hissed in pain, but stiffened his upper lip and pulled. Hard. His long strokes sliced through the water at a powerful pace. The beasts tried to reach out for us, and I feared they would enter the water and swim after us.
But they
stopped and remained on the shore. They huffed and snarled, but ultimately retreated slowly back into the gloom. Their mournful screams echoed in the breeze.
Relief flooded me knowing we survived. My heart finally slowed and I leaned against the boat. I wiped the sweat from my brow and caught my breath.
I enjoyed the gentle rocking of the boat as Rumpelstiltskin paddled across the water.
“Exercise extreme caution,” he said. “I know it goes against your nature to listen to me, but this is one time I beg you not do anything stupid. The water must never be touched.”
The mist thickened the deeper we paddled. Droplets collected on my skin and rolled off my eyelashes. My clothes clung to my damp skin.
That was nothing compared to the eerie pulsations encasing us. A low tone hummed through the water, through the islands I now realized were the remains of castles. A tower lay on its side ahead of us. A crumbling gate and portcullis to our right. With every cut of the paddles we deepened into this cemetery of lost empires.
Laila
I snapped my head in the direction of a voice. It was from a woman. No. Women. Giggling echoed through the haze. Whispers.
I peered over the boat’s edge.
“Careful,” Rumpelstiltskin warned breaking me from the spell. “Mermaids inhabit these waters. That’s who demanded a sacrifice to cross. Tricky vixens. They enjoy nothing more than to play with your mind and imbue you with tricks.”
“Much like yourself,” I said, rolling my eyes.
He only scowled and rowed faster.
Murmurs and undertones susurrated again. I believed I was listening to a concert of purrs and gossip.
Laila…
I turned away and set my gaze on the passing broken kingdoms. As the tenth turret floated by, I couldn’t help my gaze wander towards Rumpelstiltskin. He also focused on the splintered spears and broken plaster. Did he also hear the voices rising from the water?
Mother
I spun around. This voice was different. It wasn’t ethereal, but clear. It was the voice of a boy…or a young man.
I looked out into the fog but only saw the same crumbling stone.
“Mother. I’m down here,” it said again.
Slowly I peered over the boat’s edge and into the black water below. I clapped my hand over my mouth. I saw a youth. Perhaps seventeen…maybe nineteen. His face was one of patience and curiosity filled his green eyes.
Twist: A Fairy Tale Awakening (Spindlewind Trilogy Book Two) Page 14
