State of Independence

by Sherry L. Brown

  Justice had a career. She went to Med school. Worked a human nine-to-five. Did she like it? I was a selfish adolescent back then. I never asked her.

  And Glory. She found her calling in creating a garden, being an Alpha’s wife. Being Grayson’s wife. Ugh. Roiling turbulence in my gut at the thought. Is it jealousy?

  That didn’t work out for her though. They divorced. She has a new boyfriend. I don’t think it is jealousy.

  I relish fighting against Gray. But, its a front. Because just past our squabbles, I know what type of man he is, and there’s danger to me there. He threatens my very foundations. Shakes me to the core and presents something I long for more than anything else. Love.

  I can’t love him again.

  But you already do. You never stopped. My heart and brain whisper to me.

  Jesus fuck, epiphanies are the worst.

  Casting aside the slight disgust at myself, I get out of the shower, dry off, and lay down in the bed with the towel wrapped around me.

  The past is the past, I think closing my eyes, and I should just move forward without it affecting me.

  Sometime later, I hear voices pass by, doors opening and closing down the hall. The routine of the others going to bed. I’m floating in that perfect state of half-asleep, half-awake. My unconscious brain filtering through memories and possibilities, working even while I'm not aware.

  I hear the door to my own bedroom close, but the scent that comes to me tells me who it is, and I remain secure between dreams and reality.

  Sometime later, with his skin still warm from his shower, he jostles me enough to pull me out of my reverie as he climbs in the bed beside me.

  He gathers me to him. I am too comfortable to protest, too exhausted to care. Things in my life that had been unresolved - my sisters, my path forward, the things that used to keep me up at night - have finally been determined. There’s a relief in that. Soul deep relief.

  Chapter 34

  The next morning, I wake to an empty bed.

  I’d love fresh clothes, but I suffer through putting on my travel-worn jeans, wrinkled t-shirt and hoodie. Maybe Justice will have something I can borrow.

  When I hit the bottom step, the quiet of the house hits me. Glory is the lone figure I spy, pacing back and forth on the back deck. A curious sensation crawls over me as I look at her, and I cock my head to the side to figure it out. Is that? Does she?

  The wind has pressed her shirt to her abdomen for a moment, and I see a rounding there.

  Shock freezes me. Does she know?

  Do I even know?

  One way to find out.

  “What’s going on?” I ask her as soon as I open the door to the back deck. It’s a cold morning, but clear.

  She chews on her thumb nail, and her forehead is wrinkled in consternation.

  “Justice…” She keeps pacing. “...is hurt. The sword is missing.”

  “What? Why didn’t you wake me up?” I exclaim.

  She stops mid-stride and turns to me.

  “Grayson and Nick gave me strict orders that we are to stay here. It seems there was an attack at the council headquarters. We are to stay here…”

  I shake my head trying to comprehend this development. “Back up. Did the attack on the council happen when Justice - ”

  She cuts me off. “It’s bad. Morgan…”

  “What about her?”

  “Missing. They think Nevaeh took her.”

  “C’mon, let’s go.”

  “What? Where?”

  “To headquarters? Where else?” I’m already to the front door.

  “Wait. Let me grab my keys.” At least she’s not arguing.

  The McLaren is not in the drive. Glory’s white SUV is though. When she beeps the key fob to unlock it, I hop behind the driver’s seat. I’m too in the zone now to let Glory drive.

  Half-way to the compound, the speaker rings with an incoming phone call. It’s Nick.

  “Glory. Is Indy up yet?”

  “I’m here. What did you find?” I answer before Glory can.

  “Are you two in the car?” There is obvious disapproval in his voice.

  I look to Glory and she shrugs.

  “Don’t go to headquarters - that’s all under control. Meet us at the watchtower.” His voice is tired, resigned, “Nevaeh left a message.”

  My stomach drops. I don’t like the sound of that. Ominous.

  Glory directs me to the Watchtower. Her and Nick’s love nest. It’s impressive to say the least. Gun range in an old quarry, and a house carved right into the side of the mountain. The McLaren is parked at the gun range building, but Glory directs me to drive straight up to the house.

  Inside, the monstrosity that is marble everything, Nick, Marc, Locke, Eric, Torren, Grayson, Justice and three other people I don’t know are having a meeting of the minds.

  The guardians en masse.

  I’m introduced to the people I don’t know in short order - Dare, Roman, and Merrick, the sole female of the group - while Grayson stands quietly at the window.

  Glory, after checking on Justice, is pulled away by Nick to be seated in a chair in front of his desk.

  I cross to Gray, and he holds out his fist. I turn my palm up beneath it, knowing from the unhappy look on his face that he is the bearer of Nevaeh’s message.

  A bit of leather is what falls into my palm.

  It’s an eye patch. And I know only one man that wears an eye patch.

  Lucian. I look out the wall of windows, not seeing the mountain range before me, but his face instead. The reluctant smile he gave me the first time I managed to land a hit on him in training.

  Nevaeh Henries is dead. I crush the eye patch in my hand. Close my eyes and empty everything from my head. The room is silent.

  So silent in fact, I can here every single body’s heartbeat. There’s two that are faster and barely perceptible above the rest. They come from different parts of the room. I’d only been around one other pregnant person before, but it had sounded just like that. Damn. Damn. Damn.

  I have a moment of panic rise up within me, but am able to squish it down, when I detect no heartbeat apart from my own in my body.

  I hadn’t picked up on the heartbeats yesterday, so it happened last night? Surely it can’t happen that fast? But they would have told me if they had known. So they don’t know yet. Am I some kind of freak pregnancy detection system?

  Chucking the mystery up to the universe as one of it’s never-to-know secrets, I turn to the group before me, seeking out my sisters. Glory’s face is worried.

  She looks to Locke and Justice on the couch.

  I let my own eyes trail over to them. Locke’s arm is around Justice’s shoulders, and he leans in and kisses her forehead in a protective and reassuring gesture. Justice’s face is very angry beneath the fading and bruising, her eyes glassy and somewhat vacant. Shock.

  I sweep my eyes away from them, to Nick leaning against his massive marble desk, legs crossed, watching Glory.

  His eyes swing to me. Don’t worry, I want to tell him, we are on the same page: Glory stays here.

  I am beyond angry. Beyond pissed at what this...fucking fairy is trying to do to my family. I’ve got more to consider now.

  “It stops now. Today. Nevaeh Henries wants me? She wants to do every fucking thing possible to draw me out? I say, fine. Let’s end this now. I’m taking this fight to her. I’m taking this fucking prophecy and I’m going to ram it down her god damn throat.”

  I feel the weight of everyone’s eyes on me. A collective don’t-rock-the-boat, wait out the crazy-anger reaction to my speech.

  “Let’s not go off half-cocked here.” Marc finally breaks the silence with pragmatic words.

  “I’m not. It’s time. I’m going. Tell me how to get in.” I look to Justice.

  Glory stands at my words. “No. Indy. No way. There’s got to be another solution. We just need to sit down and talk about it.”

  “She’ll expect me to bring a team i
n. She’ll have plans to take everyone out. I’m not playing into her hands.”

  “Listen, Kid. I understand. But you ain’t got to John Wayne this.” From Torren.

  Nick agrees, and I shouldn’t be surprised he is in the same boat as Torren and Marc. Probably Locke too.

  “It could be a planned distraction. Get us to go in here, while she attacks us somewhere else.” Merrick hypothesizes.

  “In that case, what I’m doing makes more sense. The Guardians stay here, prepare for her attack, while I go in, find her, kill her, and then we can all live happily ever after.”

  I spin then to get the final verdict from him. He is still looking out at that massive landscape of earth and sky.

  “I know what you are going to say.”

  His smile lifts up at only one side of his lips. “Do you?”

  His words are terrifyingly quiet. Quiet from Grayson is never good.

  “I thought we had more time.” His eyes close.

  His words flip something inside of me. I wait for him to say more, to figure out what side of the coin our relationship is going to land on. Fight against another once again?

  Or is he ready to fight together?

  “We’ll split up. Roman, Torren, Dare and I will accompany Indy to the Otherside. Marc, Nick, Locke, and Merrick will stay here with Justice and Glory to protect our friends at the council.”

  Hallelujah. My heart could soar all the way to heaven.

  About damn time.

  Chapter 35

  The room erupts into battle planning quickly. There’s much discussion of entrance points, time tables, and defensive points for the council. A plan forms, and Merrick, Roman, Dare and Marc leave to gather provisions.

  Grayson pulls me into the farthest corner of the room. “Are you sure about this? You don’t have to come along. The four of us can go in, get Morgan and Lucian.”

  “That’s sweet of you Gray, really it is, but I have to do this.”

  “Even if it means you might die?”

  “Well thanks for the vote of confidence.” I mutter snidely.

  He runs a hand through his hair. “It’s not like that.”

  His lips press together. “I didn’t want to confess this, at least not here. Like this.”

  I wait for him to say his peace.

  “I love you, Independence.” There’s anguish in his eyes.

  As much as I wanted to hear these words from him my entire adult life, now they make me sad.

  He’s right. A part of me thought we would’ve had more time.

  “I love you too, Grayson Faolain. Always have. Always will.” I go up my tip toes, pressing my lips to his softly. He wraps me in his arms, so tight, and holds onto me for minutes.

  “I have to talk to my sisters.” I whisper into his ear after a time.

  He nods, lets me go, and marches out the front door. A man with a purpose.

  Justice and Glory look on me with twin expressions of distress.

  Nick gives a nod to Locke and they follow Grayson out the door.

  Alone, with my sisters, I search for words.

  “A part of me believes we were meant to fight her together.” Glory breaks in.

  I shrug my shoulders. “I’m afraid that without you two, I won’t be strong enough.” I let the vulnerable truth out.

  “But I have to try.”

  We are all quiet then.

  “I had a vision,” Justice whispers, “the sun erupted from Pandora’s box and unleashed a new world.”

  “So she wins, then?” Glory asking the real questions.

  Justice shrugs.

  “The other visions I’ve had? A waterfall of blood before you were challenged in the pack. A broken shield in the dirt when Glory went missing. A dark shadow encompassing a map just before the wild hunt.”

  There’s no truth in the legacies our mother left us. Mysteries that I feel will never be solved. Maybe they are not meant to be. But there is still one thing I’ve never asked. That I’ve always feared.

  “Glory. Justice.” I look at each one of my sisters and take in their similar facial features.

  “Do either of you know who my father is?”

  Human. Man. Simple. Dead. This is where my real fear lies. Deep seated. I am no one. Nothing. Not special. Not strong. How can I defeat a fairy queen?

  Glory bites her lip and shakes her head, unshed tears glittering in her eyes.

  Justice stands and pulls me into a hug. Glory joins her.

  Chapter 36

  “How do you feel about cliff diving?” Torren asks me after we’ve been driving through the park for a while.

  I have a sinking suspicion that the entrance to the Otherside isn’t a casual stroll through Yellowstone.

  “I’ll do what I have to do.” I shift in the seat, eyeing the turn Grayson just took.

  “Upper falls?”

  He nods. “It’s not the entrance Neveah’s been using, but it’ll get us there undetected.”

  He parks in a spot to the back of the parking lot. This time of night, this time of year, it’s completely empty. Tomorrow, if tourists do come through, the car won’t be suspect.

  We file out of the car, dark suited forms equipped with our own arsenals.

  The guardian’s have access to the highest tech body armor, and what it lacks in weight, it makes up for with strength.

  Or so Merrick said. It seems to be a modern day variation of a bullet-proof vest, and I wear it over a black long-sleeve thermal tee. Over this, my harness with the sword Lucian gave me at my back, a side holster for a gun, thick black cargo pants and a thigh holster. I am bulky, but I feel prepared.

  Merrick had selected and handed me a nice military grade M-16 with a strap I chose to wear on the opposite shoulder of my sword.

  In the bathroom, before leaving, I had tied my hair back in a tight fishtail braid. I’d found a black baseball hat and stuffed the tail of the braid underneath it.

  The color still sticks out to me any where the edges of the hat don't cover, but I think it’s enough of a concealment to get me by.

  At the overlook, the moon is half full, but it illuminates the canyon and spewing water.

  “OK!” Grayson grabs my arm to turn my attention from the hurling water to him.

  “Remember what I said. Just jump and you’ll be there. I’ll be right behind you.”

  I give him the thumbs up, and watch as Torren gives a running leap and vaults over the railing into the falls without a qualm.

  God, why can’t our expressway to the other side be as simple as whatever gate they use in Scotland? I don’t think I’ve got the leg span to copy Torren’s flying leap. So I hike my butt up on the top rail, spin around and plant my feet firmly on the cliff’s edge. It’s only a step from here.

  I push off with my eyes closed. One second of catching air, and feeling panic that’d I’d made a terrible mistake. I am going to die.

  There is pressure all over my body, kinda like it is squeezing in on itself, and when I think I can’t take anymore, and I’m about to implode...I do.

  I pop.

  My feet are on solid ground. There’s no deafening rush of water near me.

  I crack one eye open, and Torren is there, tying his shoe with a grin on his face.

  “What you think of that, girlie?”

  I don’t answer him, because my eyes are taking everything in behind him. A landscape eerily similar to the one we left behind, but in the canyon walls are houses? No rushing river. Definitely square shapes and eerie sparkling lights - of unnatural colors. Green, purple, orange-red flicker randomly in and around the square buildings. It’s still night, but when I look at the sky, I see two half-moons instead of one.

  A pop behind me, and I turn to see Grayson. Another pop, Roman. And a third pop, Dare.

  “C’mon. We better get walking so we can reach the main city before sunrise.” Grayson turns back, heading to the area that would be the parking lot on our side.

  The sandy, gravel of the ca
nyon quickly turns to alpine forest. Except, the closer I look at the trees, I realize they are not the same as the conifers and pines we have at home.

  It’s like my brain is working, but the input is set to the wrong source.

  After two hours of simply taking in this other, foreign world, slogging along a trail single-file, I stop to catch my breath. We’ve been gaining altitude and at a quick clip too.

  “Next time, I vote we drive a couple four wheelers off the edge with us.” I say to the group at large.

  Roman stops and looks back at me like they’ve never thought of it before.

  “Seriously?” I turn to Grayson behind me.

  He smiles and shakes his head. “Well it’s not like we make a habit of coming over.”

  I roll my eyes and step over a purple tree root. Continuing on the path.

  “How much further?” I ask.

  “Just about another four miles once we crest this hill.”

  I nod, and fifteen minutes later we emerge from the tree line, and another ten minutes after that are on the peak of a mountain.

  From this vantage point I can see an entire three hundred and sixty degrees. And where we are headed.

  It looks just like those ancient roman towns. A large wall on three sides with gates and guard towers, encircling houses and small park like areas that are all perched perfectly on a gentle hill that slopes down to a bay. The wall is darker than night, in an unreal blackness that seems to swallow the shadows. At the top of the protected hill, a castle, built with that same black material, and it’s own battlements and towers - the tallest of which looks half-complete.

  “Three guesses on where the evil queen lives.” Grayson stops shoulder-to-shoulder with me.

  “I only need one.” I continue on the path, a long winding, but now wider affair, that weaves down from the mountain, skirts the bay, and leads to Nevaeh’s front door.

  The plan to get in is simple. We’re going to use ropes and grappling hooks to scale the walls.

  Nick had been in before, had seen some of the construction, and had given us a heads up on where the easiest access should be.