She didn’t eliminate things. How was this even a thing in her life?
“Yep. Eliminate him. Kill him, Miss Murphy. We gotta kill him.”
Yep. That’s what she thought they meant.
As the day had worn on, as they’d all sat and waited while intermittently trying to figure out how to get out of this mess, silence had taken over and it was in that silence that she closed her eyes.
She thought only minutes had gone by, but when her eyes popped open again to see the same damn room she’d been in, and she realized this wasn’t a horrible dream, Murphy found Darnell intently staring at her.
“Murphy, you gotta keep your eyes open, girl! I’m scared you got a concussion. You can’t go to sleep if you have a concussion. You have to listen to me now, understand? You gotta stay awake!”
“I’m so sleepy,” she moaned. So sleepy she almost couldn’t hold her head up.
Birgit nudged her with her knee, her eyes, so like Bellamy’s, pleading. “I know you’re tired, honey, but you can’t sleep, Murphy. You can’t. If you have a head trauma, you absolutely mustn’t sleep. I’ll never forgive myself if I didn’t look out for you, and Sten would never forgive me, either.”
But even their words weren’t enough to inspire her, and she found her eyes began to slide shut once more.
Then both Birgit and Darnell nudged her. “Murphy! Wake up!”
When they stopped so suddenly, Murphy was certain they’d decided to let her be, but alas, she heard Birgit say, “Murphy? Do you hear that?”
“Huh?” she asked, so dazed and disoriented, everything felt very far away.
“Murphy girl! Listen!” Darnell insisted, knocking knees with her.
Movement from the corner of the room had her sitting up straight.
“Murphy?”
She knew that voice. That tiny extortionist’s voice. Her heartbeat sped up and her eyes popped open. “Leonard?”
When he came into view, his purple tail high in the air, she almost cried out. “Yeah. We heard something was going on down here. What the heck is Sten doing?”
“Look who it is. It’s my favorite extortionist. And that’s not Sten,” she hissed, trying to keep her voice down. “That’s his half-brother. His evil half-brother who tied us up, but the restraints are made with magic and we can’t get out. Any thoughts?”
Leonard hopped up on her thighs, his tiny-eyed gaze piercing hers. “So what can I do. You think I could chew ’em off?” When she relayed the question to Birgit, she firmly shook her head.
“Not with his magic. We need someone to catch him by surprise, Murphy. Someone has to catch him off guard and get him from behind. If you can knock him unconscious, that will stall his magic until he wakes.”
“Can that someone be me?” a very familiar, very welcome voice said.
“Sten?” Birgit squeaked out, peering to the doorway. “Is that really you?”
He held up a finger to his mouth to keep everyone quiet as tears of relief fell down Murphy’s cheeks. “It’s really me, Mom,” he whispered as calm and cool as a cucumber, crouching in front of her to gather her into a hug before he reached for Murphy and cupped her cheek, thumbing away her tears.
“Mom!” Bellamy whispered, her eyes round and full of tears as she limped to her mother and hugged her. “Oh, my God, Mom, I’m so sorry!”
“Oh, Bellamy!” Birgit sobbed. “I’m going to kill you later for the mess you’ve made, but for now, I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“What happened to your leg, Mistress Bellamy?” Arch asked, drawing everyone’s eyes to her. Her ankle was swollen, ballooning out of the top of her sneaker.
But she dismissed it with a flap of her hands. “It’s fine. I’m fine. I tripped on my way in here. Don’t worry about me. We need to find Nova!”
Murphy’s face throbbed, but it didn’t matter. Sten was here, easing the fear in her chest just a little. “Can you zap us out of here? You’d better do it soon before he comes back.”
“My magic isn’t working. It’s like one big wall of nope,” he said with a tight jaw as he looked at his hands. “My magic is completely useless.”
Birgit nodded her head with a shiver. “He’s powerful, Sten. So powerful. I’m sure he’d thwart any effort you might make. If your magic isn’t as dark as his, you’re no match.”
Sten accepted the news with a grim face, but then he said, “Then tell me where we’re at. What am I up against?”
Darnell took the reins and explained their predicament as Nina, Marty, and Wanda crowded their way into the room and helped them all rise to their feet.
Sten’s mouth fell open when Darnell told him who their captor was. “My half-brother? What?”
Darnell’s lips thinned to a line across his face. “That’s what he told us, and he sure looks like ya. And right now, he’s got Nova in there diggin’ for that crown as we speak. We gotta take him out, Sten. Ain’t no choice in the matter.”
“That son of a bitch,” Bellamy muttered, as she hobbled to balance herself against the dirt wall.
Arch, who was red-faced and bruised, nodded. “He has to go, Master Sten. He must!”
Murphy watched Sten’s face, saw the turmoil, but time was wasting. She didn’t know how long Nova had been digging, but it was surely far longer than the amount of time in Nina’s living room, and that had nearly left her comatose.
Sten turned around in the room, his eyes scanning the interior. “Where is Nova?”
Leonard grabbed at the ankle of her jeans. “Tell him she’s down this passage and two tunnels over to the right,” he said. “I saw her on the way in.”
Kneeling, her head on fire, Murphy asked the squirrel. “Can you lead everyone out, Leonard? Do you know the way?”
His back bristled, the hairs standing on end. “Pfft. Of course I do.”
Rising, her knees wobbling, Murphy looked to them all. “This is Leonard. He can lead you all out of here. Go. Go now. If his magic is that powerful, all of your powers combined aren’t going to help. We don’t all need to end up dead.”
Because that’s how it felt, like they were going to end up dead. How did you fight magic when you didn’t have any? But if Nova was going, she was going with her. No way was she leaving her sister down here alone with a madman.
“The fuck you say,” Nina scoffed in a hiss. “No man left behind. End fucking of.”
Murphy gave her head a firm shake. “No. You guys are super-fast, right? If you each throw someone over your shoulder, you can get everyone out of here, and you’ll all be out in no time flat. Then you can come back for what has to…to be done. But you can’t carry us all, Nina, and Bellamy can’t carry anyone with a twisted, maybe even broken ankle. I’ll wait until you come back. Besides, I’m not leaving without seeing where Nova is. If something happens… I can’t let her think I didn’t come for her. That’s just not going to happen, and I don’t care what you say. Not to mention, my sister is a part of the reason they’re here right now. I feel responsible. Now get them to safety first, and then we’ll think about me.”
“I’m staying, too,” Bellamy said unexpectedly, her eyes determined. “I did this. I’ll pay the price.”
“Bellamy!” her mother whispered. “No. Please. Come with us!”
But she shook her head and squeezed her mother’s restrained hand. “No, Mom. This is called consequences. The ones you and Dad are always talking about? I stay on the ship—sink or swim. Now, go. Please. I love you, but go.”
Latching onto Murphy’s upper arm, Nina wrapped her fingers around it and sunk them into her soft flesh. “If I have to drag your ass the fuck outta here, it’s gonna happen. Don’t give me lip, Murphy. I’m not leaving you here with this crazy fuck.”
But Marty grabbed Nina’s arm and shook her head. “She’s right. We can’t carry them all, but we can make quick work of getting them out if we run. We need to get them out first. Especially Arch. He can’t survive a fight with someone as strong as this madman. He’s human, he’s
fallible. He has to have some kind of protection. They all do. They’re all vulnerable, tied the way they are.”
“And I don’t have the speed you all have, Nina,” Sten said, curling his arm around Murphy’s waist. “If Leonard knows the way, it’ll make getting them out that much quicker. I’ll stay with Murphy.”
Marty nodded. “He’s right, Nina. We can get them out in no time, and then we can come back, catch this asshole by surprise and finish this.”
She gave Nina a look Murphy was certain had passed between them before, and she knew what it meant. She knew what they meant by finish this.
Wanda gave Nina the same look. “Marty’s right. We need to get them out first and do it as quietly as possible so that we can take care of business.”
The idea of ending someone’s life made Murphy’s stomach roll and slosh, but she couldn’t see reasoning with this monster, and no way could they let him get his hands on that crown.
“I can’t just leave the kid here!” Nina insisted. “She’s bound just like they are. She’s just as fucking helpless.”
“Then all the more reason for you to hurry up. Go!” Murphy whisper-yelled. “And Leonard, you make sure no one is left behind.”
Nina, Marty, and Wanda each scooped up a body and hauled them over their shoulders, with Leonard ready to lead, but before she left, she turned to Murphy. “You fucking wait for us. Both of you. The more manpower, the better off we are. You got that? I will hunt you into the afterlife if you die.”
Then she ran her knuckles over Murphy’s cheek, and she was gone.
Chapter 24
“Are you okay?” she whispered, praying Sten-alike would stay wherever he was for the time being, because if he came back and found everyone gone, it was curtains.
Sten pulled her close to him and sighed. “I don’t know what to make of all this. I had no idea I had a half-brother.”
She leaned into him, her knees shaky. “Or that he was a psycho killer on a power trip?”
“Yeah. Or that. I didn’t even know there was a crown, Murphy. Were you aware of this crown, Bell?”
She shook her head, her breathing shaky. “I’ve never even heard of a crown. Of course, this is me we’re talking about, and I spent about as much time paying attention in school as the average D student does.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Bellamy. I was an A student, and I never heard of this crown. Damn, I’ve really done a shitty job of taking over where my father left off. How could I not know that history?”
But Murphy didn’t want either of them to blame themselves. “Because apparently, your father wasn’t into the pomp and circumstance of being king.”
His laugh was sharp in her ear. “Apparently. But why didn’t my mother tell me? A history teacher? Someone?”
“Because it wasn’t necessary,” said a voice so like Sten’s.
The three whirled around just as their captor threw up his hands, creating a flash of colored light. When Sten tried to make a grab for him, he found his hands tied just like Murphy’s.
Bellamy cringed and whimpered when she discovered she was restrained, too. Murphy stepped in front of her, hoping to keep Sten-alike’s eyes on her.
Sten’s brother looked around the room with vacant, almost dead eyes. “I see your friends are gone. But you do know that doesn’t matter, right? I’ll kill them all with magic. I’ll fucking kill them all.”
Sten, clearly trying to hide his surprise when he saw how much they looked alike, lifted his chin and narrowed his orange gaze. “Who are you?” he ground out from between clenched teeth.
Tucking his green hair behind his ears, he sidled up to them quite amicably, his smile malicious. “I’m your brother, but you already know that. I’m the kid our father forgot, who grew up in fucking poverty on food stamps and public assistance, while you lived like the goddamn prince you were never supposed to be. You ran free all over Troll Hill without a care in the goddamn world and didn’t have to hide who you were, while I hid my true nature in fucking solitude—in the human world. Until I found out about where I came from, and the crown, that is.”
Sten’s brow furrowed with deep lines. “Why didn’t you just come to me? Come find me? We could have worked this out.”
He walked up to him and jammed his face into Sten’s, baring his teeth. “Because fuck you! Fuck you and your easy street. Fuck. You!” he screamed, jamming his finger into Sten’s shoulder.
Sten ignored his taunting words, staring at his brother with angry eyes. “Where’s Nova?”
He shrugged his shoulders, encased in a crisp flannel shirt, and took a step backward. “She’s almost done. I mean, she’ll be dead by the time she is, but the crown will be mine.”
Bellamy whimpered, but Murphy hip-checked her to keep her quiet.
Murphy felt like she might lose her shit right then and there thinking of Nova—probably already spent—and what would happen if this went on any longer, but she prayed the girls would hurry up and come back and get him before he got them.
It was truly their only hope.
“So you want to be king?” Murphy asked.
“Aren’t you astute? You wanna be my queen?” he asked, leering at her, making Sten growl and move in closer, but there was little he could do.
“But why? Why is that so important to you?” she asked, fighting the tremble in her voice.
“Why the fuck do you care?” he yelled in her face before he grabbed her and threw her to the ground, cracking her head against the wall yet again. “Why the fuck do you care, Murphy? Maybe it’s because I want something of my own! Maybe I never had a goddamn thing when I was growing up, and then I found out all this is mine. It’s all fucking mine!”
Phew. He was ragey.
“Leave her alone!” Sten bellowed.
“Stop!” Bellamy screamed.
“Or what?” he taunted her. “You gonna selfie me to death, Bellamy?”
“I said, leave them alone!” Sten ordered, his nostrils flaring as he strained against the ties on his wrists. “The problem you have is with me. Let them go and let’s do this like men.”
Groaning, Murphy tried to sit up—and that’s when she saw Nina, her head poking in the door, with Marty and Wanda behind her.
Holding up a stick, she mouthed to Murphy, “Keep him talking.”
”Let her go,” Sten ordered. ”Let them both go.”
His brother whirled around and took the few short steps toward Sten. “Or what? What will you do, brother?” he spat. “Nothing, that’s what. I’ve studied for this moment. I’ve practiced this magic, just waiting for the opportunity to take out the golden boy of Troll Hill. And no one will ever know! They won’t know I’m not you. Then I’ll be the man everyone respects. I’ll be in charge.” He stopped for a second, holding up a finger. “Well, maybe your mother and Bellamy will know. After all, a mother knows her son. But I’ll take care of them…just like I did dear old Dad.”
The room went completely silent. No one even gasped.
But then Sten—Sten, who’d been so cool and collected—reared his head back. “You killed my father? You?” he rasped.
The Sten-alike grinned. “Our father, brother. He was ours. And you bet I did. He deserved to die after denying me my rightful place on the throne. He said there was no way he’d ever let me become king. He called me mad! And then he said I’d become king over his dead body.” Shrugging his shoulders, he put a hand over his mouth. “So, oops, he fell off a mountain.”
Sten’s chest pumped up and down, and in that tiny room, he practically sucked the air out of it before he ran for his brother, head down, rage front and center.
When Sten’s brother raised his hands, she knew he was going to use his magic, so she screamed, “Look over here!”
Just as Nina raised the stick high above her head and, when he turned toward Murphy, she cracked Sten’s brother over the head.
He crumpled to the ground, his body going limp, just as Marty and Wanda grabbed Sten.
&nbs
p; Nina dragged Sten’s brother to the corner and turned to them, her eyes glittering. “He won’t be unconscious for long, and then he’ll be right back at it again.”
Murphy shook out her hands, almost numb from being bound. “Is everyone out safely?”
Marty nodded, her face grim. “Everyone’s fine. All safe and sound.”
Wanda pointed to the door. “Bellamy, follow Leonard. He knows the way out. Go. Stay with your mother. She needs you.”
“But—”
“I said go!” Wanda insisted. “You’re ankle’s the size of a ripe watermelon. You need to get out now while you can. We’ll get Nova. Now, for once in your life, listen to your elders.”
Tears ran down Bellamy’s face as she looked at Sten and Murphy, but he hitched his jaw toward the door, making her run out with a sob.
Then he turned to Nina. “Ready?”
“Get the fuck out of here,” she said quietly.
But Sten shook his head as he flexed his hands, momentarily free. “No, I’m not leaving you here to do the dirty work, Nina. This is my responsibility.”
Murphy knew what they were alluding to, still, her stomach shifted and turned.
“Go find Nova,” Nina ordered. “Make sure you get her and get the fuck out the second you can.”
Licking her dry lips, Murphy looked to Sten. “If you…will the curse be broken if you…”
She couldn’t say it. She knew it had to be done. She knew he had magic not even Sten’s mother understood. Magic that could be detrimental to Troll Hill, but…
“Yes. The curse will be broken,” Sten said through clenched teeth. “But remember, don’t touch her until she begins to morph back, Murphy. Don’t disturb her—and take one of the ladies with you. But please, be safe.”
“I’ll go with her,” Marty offered quietly, tucking Murphy to her side.
Murphy gave Sten a quick hug, tears falling from her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered before she let Marty lead her away.
The Accidental Troll Page 22
