“So, you’ve been training villagers. How many?” Jemma asked. Her boyfriend, Ross, had gone to Schwarzwald to research with the witches, hoping to find some way to restore health to those who Kai had frozen after Annabell’s impromptu explosion injured them.
“Thousands,” Brant said.
“Did you say thousands?” Jack asked, his mouth hanging open.
“Indeed, but in secret. We couldn’t risk the Darkness discovering our tunnel systems, our bases, none of it.” Brant was doing what hunters did best. He planned and waited for the best time to strike. He turned back to me, then said, “I wondered... Would you want to join me?”
“Me?” I asked, my eyes wide.
“Of course. If you wanted to, I’d love to have you. You’re one of the best hunters I’ve ever seen, Stella,” Brant said.
I saw Ari tense in his seat at the table, but I knew he would support me no matter what I chose. I had a lot of royals to train, but with several of the Organization’s members back on their feet after their own possession by the Darkness, I was sure we could manage. They had pledged their allegiance to me, and I had no doubt they wanted to even the score against the Darkness as soon as possible. They would train the royals just as hard as I would. Every eye was on me, waiting for my choice.
Jemma slowly slid her seat out and stood. “Could you use a wolf?”
“Jemma!” Clara gasped and tugged on her daughter’s shirt.
“Mom, with Ross tied up researching and everyone else running around with their own work, I feel... I just feel useless. I need a task. I’m tired of waiting.”
“She will be under my constant supervision,” Brant said. “It would be advantageous for my people to learn to fight alongside the wolves, to anticipate what they do and what they need for use in the coming fight.”
Clara held a small side conversation with Aline and Agustus, then licked her lips and said, “Oh, alright, but you mustn't disappear. I’ve been too long without my daughter, and I won’t stand for it any longer.”
Jemma shook her head and hugged her mother while I had yet to decide what I wanted to do. I motioned for Ari to come to me and stepped into the corner while Jack interrogated Brant further about the underground system of rebel warriors—though, perhaps they weren’t so much rebels as they were... a resistance.
I sighed and took Ari’s outstretched hand when he approached. “What do you think?”
His lips dipped into a grin. “I think you know I won’t answer that question. What do you want, Stella?”
“I want to be with my brother, but I also want to be with you and... and them,” I said, waving my hand toward the Vogels who had, in many ways, become an extended family to me. They cared for me, they accepted me, and when the Lanes were there, they treated them the same.
“Does it have to be a mutually exclusive situation? You’re going there to help him prepare people for what is to come, not moving there forever. And if you think I’m staying here, you’re crazy.”
“Ari, I can’t ask you to leave Kai and run away with me to join a rebel gang,” I said with narrowed eyes.
“Kai has his hands full with Nikola and figuring out how to fix all that mess. Besides, everyone here has some talent. They’re witches or royal guards. What am I? A useless human with no—”
“Stop that right now,” I said. “You are so much to me, and without you, I’m not sure I would have survived this long.”
He scowled. “You are more than capable.”
“Fine, but I wouldn’t be happy right now if not for you,” I said.
“Your brother just returned from the dead. I’m sure you’d be plenty happy.”
“Ari!” I fussed, eliciting a snicker.
“Okay, okay. I want to train, too, okay? I want to be prepared so that when I’m out there helping Kylie with the injured, I can also protect her if something attacks us. Nobody has really thought about what she goes through as the only trauma nurse here. She does a lot, and she needs help.”
“Wait, Ari, we never discussed this, but... What about school and your life back in America?” I asked, wishing that thought had not popped into my head at the worst possible time.
He shook his head. “We don’t worry about that right now. We do this one thing at a time, and when it’s over, we talk about the future together.”
“Ari, we just started dating. You can’t derail your entire life for me.”
“It’s not just you, Stella. My brother is... holy moly, he really is Jack Frost,” Ari said, rubbing his temples.
I giggled. “This just occurred to you?”
“No, but at some point, we will have to figure out what to tell our parents. Anyway, the point is, I love you, and my future is inextricably wound with yours, so whatever decisions are made are discussed and made together. Now, what will we do? Go with Brant, or stay here?”
I shifted my gaze to my brother, who was laughing with his biological family. I marveled at how well he fit in anywhere he went, then I let my sight shift toward Marcus and Jay. They watched my brother with the same awe and wonder.
“Let’s go pack a bag. I need to be with my brother,” I said.
CHAPTER THREE
Annabell
Somewhere in Das Unbekannte
“YOU WHIMPER IN YOUR sleep,” Cole said as he stood over me, staring down as he always did. In one hand was a basket filled to the brim with cheeses, bread, and fruit. In the other, a dagger. “Come, have something to eat, and let us reminisce.”
“Reminisce? You say it as if we have some fond memories untainted by darkness,” I said, pushing myself into a seated position. I winced when my elbow dug into the cave floor. Being human had its downfalls.
“We were in love once, Elfriede. We can be again,” he said, nodding toward the cave entrance.
The morning had broken through the trees, hardly illuminating the entrance, but it was enough to see he had made a fire and a cozy place for me to recline. If he were not evil incarnate, I might have been moved to some appreciation. My body was sore after days of sleeping on a hard surface, but if doing so kept Cole in my sights rather than attacking my family, then I would happily suffer the ails of mortality.
“I love you no longer. I’m not even sure I loved you the first time and that it wasn’t a trick you used to force me to do your bidding.”
Cole scrunched his face as I passed. “I never did anything to control your mind. You loved me and everything I had to offer you.”
I shot a distasteful gaze over my shoulder. “Like you didn’t control Scarlett?”
Cole scoffed. “I didn’t turn her toward the darkness. I took her from it, and she was a means to an end. She served me well for some time, and I released her when the time was right. It is you I love, Elfriede. You must know that. I’m here, aren’t I? I could finish off those abominations and take what I want from them, but instead, I am here with you.”
I chuckled and sat on the worn log beside the fire. “Am I to believe this is not part of your plan? That my being here is some distraction from what you will inevitably do?”
“You have always been a distraction, and you know that is true. I would have turned blacker than the night by now if not for you and your ever-present pull on my heart.”
“You have no heart,” I said and stoked the fire. “And you’re plenty dark, so enough of your futile attempts at... whatever you hope to gain.”
Silence fell over us, prompting me to lift my gaze to Cole. He stood staring into the flames, still clutching the basket of food and the dagger. My eyes shifted to the dagger—the same one he’d used against me all those centuries ago. He intended to use it again, but this time I knew what I was getting myself into. This time, I would accept the bond with him without hesitation because it was the only way I could stop him. But I mustn’t seem too eager, or he would suspect as much.
Cole closed his eyes and sat across from me. “Elfriede, I cannot help what I am. It is not as if I enjoy the hatred of all those around me.
I have my duties, and among them are controlling not only myself but every dark and sinful thing in the forest, though my ability to do so has weakened over the years.”
I said nothing. That was his way—drag me into his depth of despair, grow attached to him, pity him, love him despite his darkness...
“You must have been angered when the Huntress arrived,” Cole said, breaking his stare into the fire.
I shrugged. At first, Stella’s arrival derailed my plan. I hadn’t intended for Queen Amanda’s death wish to come to fruition, but it did, and I had little choice in the matter after that. I most certainly had not intended for the Huntress to arrive in Schwarzwald, but that was all thanks to Cole and his possession of her Organization members.
“Don’t pretend as if you didn’t force her arrival,” I said.
“You never were one to see the whole picture, but their possession by the Darkness did prove to help me in the end.”
“You are the Darkness. Why do you speak of it as if you are not one and the same?”
Cole narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth, but silence fell on us again. The fire sputtered and cracked for a long while before he spoke again. “You remember, don’t you?”
“Remember what? That you are evil incarnate? That everything you touch turns sour and dark?” I snapped.
Cole swallowed and gripped the dagger tighter. “That is all you remember? Me as the Darkness and nothing else? No one else?”
“Everyone else is merely fodder for your ridiculous games. Any collateral damage has been or will be corrected when you are no more.”
“You cannot mean that, Elfriede. I am unsure what happened while you were gone up there,” he said, pointing toward the sky, “but you must remember what we had and the things we did together to—”
“Stop. I won’t walk down an imaginary memory lane with you, Cole. I will find a way to defeat you, and when I do, I will return to my family and live as—”
“Now you stop,” he snapped, his eyes flaming as he did. He collected himself, steadied himself on the log, and said, “They are not your family. I am. I have been and will be again, and one day you will remember that those who rule the kingdoms in the forest are not the rightful heirs. They are abominations and should be eliminated from the earth. Given your love for them, though, I might reconsider.”
I stood and scowled. “You made those abominations with your Canis Lupus spell. You tempted spoiled and dark-hearted princesses into enacting it so you could have your pick of packmates! And look how well that has served you!”
Cole sprang to his feet. “I had no idea those wretched fairies from Weisserwald would enact a ridiculous prophecy in a useless attempt to control what they do not understand. But as such, they did me a favor. Their work provided me with very little of my own to do. It pointed me in the direction of the strongest, and now all I must do is wait for the right time, and they will come to me.”
“You cannot do this, Cole!” I felt my anger and sadness rise to the surface, but it was so difficult to control my emotions when my family was at stake.
“I did not choose this! How many times must I tell you, Elfriede?” Cole raised his hands to the sky, and a bolt of lightning shot across the morning haze. “My power is unbalanced, and if I don’t absorb those seven soon, then the whole forest will burn. This is as much your fault as it is mine.”
“Don’t pretend this is not what you want! You could control it if you wanted to, but you’d rather take and take until there is nothing left to give. When you absorb those seven, you will be unstoppable. You are Darkness incarnate, Cole. I cannot—”
“You said when,” he said.
“What?”
“You said, ‘when you absorb them.’ You know it will happen, my love. There is no other way. I do not wish to hurt you, but if I cannot absorb them, then you know what will happen.” He dropped his arms to his sides and stared at me. I used to get so lost in those dark eyes, and I felt the itch in my fingertips to brush the black hair from his forehead so I could see them better. When they looked upon me as they did then, it was almost impossible to deny him.
“A slip of the tongue,” I said and turned my face from him.
“Often more of the truth than any intended words.” I heard him shuffle only a moment before I felt his fingers graze my skin. His fingertips hardly touched my arm, but it was enough to feel the electricity between us. Perhaps some part of me still loved the boy inside of him, but that boy was only a projection, an image used to manipulate me into falling into his control. I jerked my arm from him.
“If you don’t mind, I’m hungry.” With that, I sat upon the log again and snatched a round of bread from the basket.
Cole sighed as if doing all he could to manage a petulant child. “I wish, for only one moment, you could see that I am not the enemy here. Yes, I have done atrocious things, but can you not see why I did those things?” His eyes searched mine, seeking some spark of sympathy. “Elfriede, please, listen to me, and if you do not see that what I say is true, then I will leave you to your own devices.”
“I could leave if I wished, Cole. I am still here, but all you do is taunt me,” I said. I bit the anxiety that rose in my throat. If he freed me or thought for a moment that he could not turn me back to him, then all was lost.
He moved the basket of food and sat beside me, eliciting that same electrical charge between us. I wondered if it was only his limitless power or if the spark was truly a remnant of our former love and the agreement we had made back then.
“I know that you could leave, but I do not know yet why you stay. I am sure time will make it clear, but I ask that you search your mind and heart, Elfriede. There are parts missing, and those parts are crucial to the longevity of this land.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, wary of falling into his trap.
“You are sure you remember only me? You believe, in your heart, that I am the darkest power in the forest and that I mean to ruin it?”
“You’ve done a fine job thus far,” I said. “You controlled Scarlett, allowed tyrannical queens to murder people, created all manner of disgusting creatures, and you... murdered people I love.”
Cole’s eyes searched mine as if digging into my memory. It was an odd thing, but I assumed it was his way of toying with me or pushing me toward a conclusion that was not only wrong but would derail my plan to eliminate him altogether. However, staring at him for so long stirred feelings in my heart that I had long ago buried—painful, raw feelings I wished to ignore.
“That was not...” He paused and swallowed again, then said, “You are not prepared to believe a word I say, so I will wait for the right time. I pray time will show you the truth, Elfriede.”
“I will never trust you, so your wait will be long.” I turned my head back toward my bread and broke a small piece off. I brought it to my lips but felt Cole’s heated gaze upon my face. I knew what he wanted, what he needed but would not ask of me. “Do you need my help?”
“I... do, but I will not force you to—”
“I am asking. You are not forcing anything.” I put the bread down and turned toward him again, my hands out for him to grasp.
“I want to touch you, Elfriede. I want to hold your hands as I did then, to lay staring at the sky in quiet, to simply... to be here with you in a stolen moment of peace. I do not only want your light. I want you. And I wish for nothing more than peace in this forest with you by my side.”
I chuckled. “You act as though you are innocent, that all the violence is of their doing and not yours. There could be peace, Cole, but you will not allow it.”
His eyes bore into mine, but I knew the stolen moment of peace he searched for had nothing to do with the battle for the forest and everything to do with the darkness that claimed his body, chattering and swirling in his mind until all he heard was death and destruction and misery. My touch alone offered him a quiet moment free from the influence of the evil that flowed through his veins. I nodded.
&nb
sp; Cole hesitated with his hands hovering over mine as if he were nervous to touch me even with my consent.
“It is fine, Cole. Go ahead. You won’t hurt me,” I said.
“Are you sure? You won’t be harmed, and you understand that... that I am not asking this of you to trick you but so that you might see that I am not all you believe I am?”
“I will not be harmed. You know that. As for the rest... I am not sure I will ever see you as anything more than what you are.”
He flinched but said nothing. Instead, he sucked in a breath and let his fingers graze my palms. When I did not pull away, he settled both hands in mine. Immediately, his pale skin brightened and pinked, alive with the light that my presence offered him. He sighed and leaned toward me with his eyes closed, accepting the soothing waves of light that fed what little soul he had. Once his whole body was cleansed, he fell from the log and into the first sleep he had experienced in centuries.
I sighed. It was the first moment in days that I was not under his watchful eye, yet I could not bring myself to do anything but stare at him. Driving a dagger through his heart would do no good anyway, so I focused on his sleeping form. Asleep, I could not believe he was the very vessel created by the universe to contain its darkest substance—the pure, untethered, evil that permeated everyone and everything that had ever been born into the forest. His life had been cursed from the moment he took his first breath, just as his father had been and his before him. How dreadful to only wish for a child so that you could rid yourself of such a thing.
I shifted so that Cole settled fully on the forest floor, then pulled my knees to my chest. I’d hurt him when I left, but it was the only way to free myself of the hold he had over me. Rather, the hold his power had. If I had known losing me would mean Cole could no longer control himself, then I might have stayed. But, even if I had, the world would still be in peril. We were a volatile combination when we worked together, yet apart Cole was a monster determined to seek more and more to fill his empty heart.
He murmured in his sleep, pulling my attention back. God help me, I still loved him despite my deep love for the younger Wil Grimm. But my love for Cole was wrong. It was harsh and born of shared trauma, a dependency that had broken us both down to nothing more than shells for the evil to do with what it pleased. But Wil, he was hope and light and everything that was right in the world—at least, he would be when he grew into the man I had fallen in love with in the future.
The Heart of the Darkness Page 3
