Autumn Awakens

by M. J. Padgett

  “Hurry!” she screamed. It was incredibly loud to my cat ears. I already knew I needed to hurry, but I shook it off and prayed she had a good hold on the fur of my neck. I cut so fast I nearly spun upside down, but she held on, and we darted together to retrieve Henry. I pushed myself to go faster, faster—as fast as my wings could flap, then I pulled them close and dive-bombed through the thick trees. I managed to get through without too much damage to my own body and prayed Ophelia did as well.

  I heard her heavy breathing in my ear and knew she was at least alive. Henry was thirty feet from death... twenty... ten... I was still too far. Ophelia shifted and leaped from my back, landing hard on her paws. She caught herself and ran toward Henry. It was impossible to say if either of us would get to him, but without her weight, I was faster. I ducked low and glided through the trees, then wham! I was under him just in time, five feet before he cracked his head wide open.

  I lifted back through the trees into a more flight-friendly space.

  “Oh... Oh, holy cow. I thought... Thanks, Parker,” I heard Henry gasp.

  I looked down and saw Ophelia running toward the castle. The van was already inside the walls, and the fight was in full force. I took Henry directly into the fight. I swooped low just inside the wall, and he jumped from my back, then I changed direction and went for the beast that nearly killed my brand-new fiancé.

  I heard Chris call me, warning me to watch my back while he took down the criminal. In this case, the dragon was his target. He rained bullets on the monster with precision. The mighty lizard screamed. It scrambled to stay in the air, its wings scraping against the stone of the castle, the north tower, and the outer wall as it fell. With a heavy thud, it landed, crumpled in nearly the same place as Ethan—then it shifted.

  Immediately after shifting, the woman rose with her hands out in defense, ready to fight anything that came near. Her hair flowed long behind her back, blonde like the fairies which made me wonder if only for a second that they were somehow related. A phoenix bird and a dragon could be related I reasoned.

  “Where am I? What have you done?” the dragon-shifter cried, scared, and naked. The guards held their position around her. “Wh-where is my brother?”

  I landed near the wolf pack, Ophelia included, and watched as everyone else did. The woman continued to circle in place, fear washing over her delicate features. We were all just standing there watching the poor naked woman trying to work through what had happened, something she likely didn’t remember. I shifted, having decided detective skills were of more use to me in the situation than fur and wings. When she saw me shift, she screamed and huddled on the ground. She began to cry, her shoulders shuddering with each sob.

  “Hey, it’s okay. No one here wants to hurt you,” I said.

  “Wh-what are you?” she asked fearfully.

  “My name is Parker. I’m a detective... Well, I was a detective but... Okay, I know this is scary, but I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to know who you are and why you attacked us.”

  “I... I didn’t. I didn’t attack anyone. I just woke up here surrounded by... by soldiers.” She looked around, her fear growing. It was real fear, not put on for show or to keep her from getting into trouble. She wasn’t lying.

  “What’s your name?”

  “It’s... My name is...” Her eyes focused on a pebble on the ground. She focused, searching for the most basic piece of information. “It’s... Isla. Isla Gregory. Where am I?”

  “You’re in the Kingdom of Schwarzwald in Germany,” I admitted.

  “Germany!” she shouted. “No! No! No! I said I wouldn’t do it!”

  “Wouldn’t do what?” I asked, grateful that everyone else seemed fine with my interrogation. No one interrupted our exchange.

  “I said I wouldn’t go! Why did you bring me here? I’m not crazy, I swear! I’m not a Protector, and I told her that! She kept saying—”

  “Whoa, it’s okay,” I said. Isla began to hyperventilate. I looked over my shoulder, then called out. “Can someone bring her some clothing?”

  One of the wolves shifted, someone I didn’t know and left the area. I turned my attention back to the dragon shifter, shrugged my shirt off, and handed it to her. She took it cautiously, her fingertips singed and blistered.

  “What did I do?” she whispered, seeming to only trust me.

  “Let’s get you dressed and cleaned up, then we’ll talk,” I said. “The important thing to remember is you’re safe provided you don’t shift into a dragon and try to kill us all again.”

  She nearly dropped my shirt before she had it over her head.

  “A what!” she shouted in my face.

  The wolf I hadn’t recognized returned with more clothing. She handed it to Isla with a small, forced smile. Wil stepped forward and offered his hand. Isla stared at it but would not take it. Wil dropped it to his side, then knelt beside me.

  “What is your brother’s name, Isla?”

  “It’s... It’s Ethan.”

  Wil stood again, then turned to the General. “Henry, would you fetch Ethan. I think I know what’s happened here.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Ethan!” Isla cried out when she saw her brother, then ran to him. He took her in his arms and lifted her from the ground, hugging her tightly. “We were looking everywhere for you! What happened?”

  “I don’t know. Where are Kirsten and Larkin?” he asked, his voice conveying much more worry than he let on through his body language.

  “The last thing I remember was a woman approaching us. She said she sent you away and if we ever wanted to see you again, we should do what she said. She wanted us to do horrible things, Ethan. We couldn’t. I’m sorry. We love you, but we said no. She...” Isla paused, looking around. She doubted herself, but ultimately, her brother gave her confidence.

  “What is it, Isla?” Ethan asked. “Who was she, and what did she want you to do?”

  “She wanted us to kill a little girl,” Isla admitted. “But we wouldn’t do that,” she said to the crowd.

  “A kid? Did this kid have a name?” I asked.

  “Annabell,” Isla said. “The woman’s name was Rose. She said a little girl named Annabell was trying to steal something we swore to protect with our lives. Rose said we needed to kill the girl to keep the sacred items safe. If we didn’t, she said she’d... she’d kill Ethan.” Isla trembled in her brother’s arms.

  Wil grappled with his cell phone, his face pale. He placed a call while others swarmed around, preparing for something. Isla and Ethan stood beside me, clueless as I was. Finally, someone answered Wil’s call.

  “Jack! Hide Annabell! They’re after Annabell!”

  “Oh, no!” Ophelia cried. “I remember now! Someone mentioned Annabell. It’s Hayden and Jack’s daughter. One of the dozen kids they adopted after fighting Bianca.” I was glad someone remembered something because I was bumbling through the motions and doing what I was told. Nothing made a lick of sense, but at the same time, I was smack in the middle of it all.

  Meanwhile, others were on their phones frantically discussing who knew what, then I noticed the van containing my injured mother was gone. “Where is my mother?” I asked no one in particular.

  Ethan pointed toward the castle. “I saw someone pushing an injured woman on a gurney that way. Could that be her?”

  “Probably. Come on,” I said to Ophelia, but the dragon-shifting siblings took that as their cue to move as well. In the hullabaloo, the two had been forgotten by everyone else. I worried they would shift again and attack, a concern that was not mine alone.

  “What if they shift?” Ophelia asked. The brother and sister were terrified, but I was more worried about Jeanine.

  “Maybe we can ask one of the witches to do something like my mother did to you and Jordan? Something that might block the shift?” I offered. Ophelia nodded, then followed me more willingly. Ethan pulled his sister along reluctantly, but where else would she go? I had a good idea I knew how they f
elt, lost and confused, terrified, wondering what kind of dream they had fallen into.

  Inside the room was like the triage center in Goldene Stadt. Fiona and the fairies were hard at work, and Heidi was already healing Jeanine. Sweat dripped from her brow, and her hands trembled on my mother’s chest. A man, Brody if my memory served, stood with Calla. King Marcus paced, and Queen Ava followed him, bumping into him each time he turned to go the other way. There was a sea of other familiar faces, but I couldn’t focus on them or remember half their names.

  “Parker,” Calla called when she saw me. “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I think so. How is she?” I asked.

  “She’ll pull through, but there is some worry her scarring will be too much to manage in one healing. She may not be able to shift or fly, at least not for a while. I’m worried that means—”

  Wil and Jay burst through the door, both freaked out.

  “There was an attack in Schattenland as well. A third dragon has been captured,” Jay said.

  “No, no, no. This can’t be happening!” Isla cried. “What if it’s Kirsten or Larkin?”

  Ethan looked up at the Grimm brothers, terror in his eyes. “Is she okay? The dragon... Did they... They didn’t kill it, did they?”

  “No, of course not. She’s in custody. I assure you no harm will come to her as long as she remains calm,” Jay said.

  “What is happening? Why is this happening to us? We’re just a bunch of kids from Savannah. What the heck is a Protector, and why does this Rose woman want us to kill a kid?!” Isla lost all control and began flailing her arms around. However, no one made any attempt to control her because she was giving us useful information in her frantic state.

  “One minute I’m taking my final exam before the break, the next some crazy lady claims I come from a long line of Protectors sworn to stand guard over mystical, magical items I’ve never even heard of before! What is this place, and why was I naked?” she yelled but didn’t pause for anyone to answer. “When I told Rose I didn’t know what she was talking about, she freaked! She threatened my family then... Well, then Ethan went missing, and another nutzo woman in a weird hood thing told us we needed to kill the kid before the world exploded! A kid! Who are you, people? How do you turn into flying leopard things and wolves and, more importantly, how do I turn into a dragon and not remember?!” She gripped her brother’s collar and practically screamed in his face. His eyes were wide, and he placed his hands gently on her shoulders.

  “Isla, it’s okay. It’s all gonna be okay.”

  “It’s not okay, Ethan! It is the farthest from okay that it can possibly be! We are changing into giant, winged, fire-breathing creatures that do not exist! That is not okay with me!”

  Thaddeus, who had melded into the background along with many other faces, stepped forward. I worried he’d dart her, then remembered Briard relieved him of his dart gun. Jemma approached beside him, cautiously nearing Isla.

  “Get away from me!” Isla yelled. “I don’t know who you people are or what you want but keep your hands off me! The last time... someone... I don’t feel so good,” she said, then passed out. Ethan caught her and lifted her in his arms.

  “She’s burning up. My gosh, her skin is like fire,” he said.

  Jemma immediately went to check her. “It is. Let’s get her on a table.”

  Ethan gently placed his sister on an examination table and Kylie, the bubbly blonde schoolteacher, snapped into doctor mode. She moved deftly as she placed an IV catheter into Isla’s arm and started fluids, then she began checking her vitals.

  “Don’t worry,” Kylie said to Ethan. “I was a triage nurse in another life. We’ll get her fever down while the witches are indisposed. When they finish up with Jeanine, they can have a look at your sister.”

  “Wow,” Ethan said. “Looks like we chose the right kingdom to fall into.”

  A few people chuckled, but the moment was somber. Everything kept blowing up around us.

  “Can I help?” A brunette woman entered the room with a brown-haired man. I saw them when I first arrived but never learned their names.

  “Julianna, yes, please. Isla just arrived. The dragon shifter who—that doesn’t matter. She spiked a fever and needs help,” Kylie said.

  Julianna assessed Isla and got to work. I felt useless standing there, holding my fiancé’s hand, but I had no training in triage or medicine. I was, however, good at cracking mysteries. So was Chris, and Ross was the techiest tech guy I knew. I decided playing catch up was no good anymore. We needed to switch our game, move into an offensive position before more people were injured or killed.

  “Could this be like the Canis Lupus spell? What if whoever approached them cursed them and sent them after Annabell?” I offered.

  “I suppose it’s possible,” Fiona added, but I still wasn’t sure how I felt about her. I wanted to trust her, but the cop in me was skeptical. “Dragons, I thought, went extinct centuries ago. Still, if we think along those lines, I would say the Serpentine Enchantment would be a good place to start.”

  “I thought that created snakes?” Heidi asked while Jeanine slept. I assumed that was her intention.

  “Yes, but I don’t know of any other spells or enchantments that create reptiles,” Fiona said, glancing at the fairies. Nikola and Alorna both shrugged, clueless.

  “So, let me get this straight, you think we were somehow cursed to turn into dragons in order to carry out a master plan for a crazy person?” Ethan asked.

  “Precisely,” Wil said. “We have been battling this evil for centuries, some of us, anyway. Others are newer to the fight, but you were right. If you are being used by someone to attack, then you did end up in the right kingdom. If anyone can help you, it’s us.”

  “Can anyone cloak the dragon curse like Jeanine did with the wolf in Jordan and Ophelia?” I asked.

  “Sure, we can do that,” Nikola said. “If that’s what they want.”

  “Yes,” Ethan said. “I want to help, and if this is how we figure out what’s going on, then so be it. I don’t like the idea of being controlled by someone else, and I’m definitely not hurting a kid.”

  “I agree it is the best way. I had a thought about what might be happening earlier, but I need to do some research. Jay, Brody? Would you accompany me to the research center?” The two men joined Wil, and they disappeared into the maze of halls. I was suddenly tired and ready to fall asleep where I stood. I worried my own curse had returned, then realized I hadn’t slept in who knew how long. Calla noticed.

  “Go ahead. Get some rest, and I’ll watch over our mother. I’ll wake you if there’s any change. Ravenna will return from Schattenland soon. Perhaps there is more she can do when she does.” I nodded, deciding I’d need a family tree map to keep everyone straight. Chris, Ross, and Jordan followed Ophelia and me from the room, but we had no idea where we were going. We passed Petra who had begun a conversation with Ethan, causing Jordan to scoff. Jordan slammed the door behind us and marched ahead.

  “Queen Ava showed us our rooms while you were gone. Make a right at the end of the hall,” Chris said, as exhausted as the rest of us. He had taken out not one, but two dragons since arriving in Schwarzwald, not to mention battled hellhounds and fallen through a portal. Ross was quiet, absorbing everything—probably planning a new video game.

  We followed Chris and divided up. I kissed Ophelia and released her hand, so she could tend to her annoyed, jealous brother. Chris and Ross fell in line and wandered into a large room with me. It had only one bed, but I assumed they just wanted to talk for a minute then they would leave.

  “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” Chris began. “There hasn’t been a second to breathe around here. I’m not sure how these people haven’t dropped dead from stress-induced heart attacks yet.”

  “Seriously,” Ross added. “I can’t even help. I’m basically useless.”

  I fell back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. I knew how they felt. I
was used to being able to do something, to make a difference when I went after the bad guys, but in Schwarzwald, I was only a liability. I couldn’t remember half the people I met, which meant I had no clue who was good or bad, I didn’t understand the intricacies of managing spells and mythical creatures, nor could I fathom marrying a future queen. A queen!

  It started to gnaw at me, and when I thought of Chris and Ross leaving when things settled, it made me feel sick. I tried to think of what it might be like to live in a kingdom no one knew existed, fighting against things that would destroy the world if allowed. We would fight, but no one would know our sacrifice. That was okay, I wasn’t looking for the glory or honor, but I didn’t want it all to be for nothing. There had to be a better way. Playing defense didn’t work. And now that there was a child involved, I couldn’t imagine just sitting around waiting for Rose to make her next move. But what could I do?

  I sprang up on the bed.

  “What?” Ross asked startled.

  “I know what we can do!” I said, thinking I had a way to utilize our individual skills to aid the fight, but as things always went in fairy tale land, something went wrong before I could relay my plans. It was dark out, but even without light, there was no mistaking the sound of incoming hellhounds.

  Suddenly, a loud siren called. It was a warning, and we heard the castle come to life again with the sounds of shouting and action.

  “Do they ever sleep around here? I’m gonna drop dead,” Ross complained, but he jerked the door open to see what was going on anyway. He was met with the drooping, stripped skin of a Hellhound’s face. “Gah! Get away from me!” he screamed and punched it in the face.

  It didn’t move. Instead, it released its air-horn dragon screech. Ross stumbled back as Chris pulled a gun from his holster. He fired a shot and hit the hound in the head. It fell dead at Ross’ feet, but the sounds of screaming echoed through the castle. They were everywhere. We rushed from the room for yet another fight.