by Lola Gabriel
“Okay,” he nodded. “The scar is a good thing at least. It means I can be sure I have the right person.”
“If you come across someone in the castle, you have the right person. Esmerelda is the only one who lives up there,” Brianna said.
“Good,” Atlas nodded.
Brianna smiled at him and then she turned off the main road and began traveling down a dirt road. After a couple of minutes, she pulled up outside of a tall brick wall.
“Here we are. This is as close as I can get you. The gates are always locked. You’ll have to find a way to get over the wall. Good luck, Atlas,” she said.
Atlas smiled at her.
“Thanks,” he said. “And thanks for the lift.”
“When it’s done, or if you have no luck and need a bed for the night, come down the dirt road and walk about five minutes in the direction we were heading. You’ll come to a fork in the road. Turn right and you’ll come to our town eventually,” Brianna said. “We’re in the house with the white front on the edge of town.”
“Thanks,” Atlas said again.
He smiled at Brianna one last time and got out of the car, already knowing he wouldn’t be turning up at her place and making a nuisance of himself. She had already been more than kind, and he figured he could easily call a cab and get himself back to the airport when this was over without bothering Brianna again.
Atlas waited, watching as Brianna headed back down the dirt road, leaving him out there alone in the middle of nowhere with only the witch for company. For the first time, Atlas really thought about what was being asked of him, and he felt himself getting nervous. What if he froze and he couldn’t do it?
He supposed then he would be glad of Esmerelda killing him so at least he wouldn’t have to face up to the shame of knowing he was given his chance and failed. I’m not going to fail, Atlas told himself. I need to stop thinking this way. He nodded his head, trying to convince himself there was nothing to worry about. He decided to take things slowly for now, and then there really would be nothing to worry about. At least not today. All he wanted to do right now was walk around the outside of the castle’s wall and see if he could find a way in.
He started walking, looking around for a missing section of wall or a tree whose branches were sturdy enough to hold his weight where they overhung the wall. There was nothing along the front of the wall. Even the gate was too high for him to jump over and it was made of solid steel with no hand or foot holds.
He walked along the second wall and again, he had no luck. By the time he was partway along the back wall, he was starting to think he was going to have to risk turning into a dragon. He had known when he came here that he couldn’t really afford to risk shifting into his dragon form. Sure, if he did, the wall would be no match for him. But the witch would know that a dragon had encroached on her territory. Her senses would be sharp enough to smell the dragon scent of him if he was in dragon form, but in human form, she would be no wiser about him approaching.
Finally, as he was just about convinced there was no way in without shifting into his dragon form, Atlas spotting what he had been looking for. A damaged brick sat about halfway up the wall and through the small gap it left, Atlas could see into the grounds of the castle. He reached out and hooked his fingers around the brick and then he relaxed, bringing his dragon close enough to the surface to lend him some of its extra strength, but not close enough to draw attention to himself via his scent.
He felt his dragon’s power flood him, and he pulled the brick the rest of the way out of the wall easily enough. He spent the next five minutes chipping away at the next couple of bricks until he had a hole that he thought was just big enough for him to squeeze in through. He pulled himself up and through the hole, dropping into a crouch on the other side.
He stayed low, looking all around himself, silent, listening. He could hear birdsong and the slight rustle of leaves in the breeze, but he didn’t hear anyone yelling like they surely would have if they had spotted an intruder climbing through the wall. He couldn’t see anything to raise his alarm and he decided to creep closer to the castle and try to scope the place out a bit while he had the chance to. Getting into the grounds was likely going to be the easy bit when compared to getting into the actual castle.
As Atlas began to move closer to the castle, a movement to his left caught his eye and he peered through the foliage he was concealed in. He managed to stop himself from letting out a gasp when he saw a woman there. She was kneeling on the ground, tending a flower bed in front of her, so it was hard for Atlas to gauge her height, but she didn’t look big or intimidating, and she did have jet-black hair, all of it pulled back into a loose ponytail at the back of her head.
Atlas stayed where he was, watching the woman, needing further proof that she was Esmerelda. Who else would she be? Atlas asked himself, knowing he was only procrastinating so he wouldn’t have to kill her yet. He also knew that he wasn’t going to get a better chance than this, and he began to slowly edge along, getting into a better position for when he could be sure of the woman’s identity.
He didn’t have to wait long. As he moved, he watched the woman intently, and after a few minutes, she sat back on her heels and wiped the back of one gloved hand over her forehead, wiping away the sweat her work had brought forth on her brow. Atlas got a good look at her cheek and there was no mistaking the thick red scar that ran angrily down her face.
Anticipation creeped over his body in an army of marching goosebumps as he kept moving closer and closer to Esmerelda. He knew this was it. He was a little bit afraid beneath the excitement at finding his target, because it felt too easy. He had to remind himself that Esmerelda had no idea any of this was happening, so she had no reason to make it hard for him.
Atlas arrived at a point right behind Esmerelda and he knew it was now or never. If he waited too long, he would lose his nerve, and he knew if that happened, this mission was over. He would never get a better chance than this, and if he wasn’t brave enough to act now, he never would be.
He stood up before he had a chance to talk himself out of it. He ran toward Esmerelda, moving silently across the grassy stretch that separated them. He pulled his knife out of his back pocket as he ran. He was almost on Esmerelda before she sensed his presence and started to turn around. It was already too late for her. Her turning to face Atlas did nothing except give him an advantage. He thrust out with his knife, pushing it between Esmerelda’s ribs and into her heart.
Blood poured from the wound and her hands went up to press against it, her eyes open wide, her mouth an O of surprise. Atlas wrenched the blade out of her chest and waited for her knees to buckle and the life to leave her eyes.
Instead, her hands fell away from the wound and Atlas saw the blood slowing down as the wound healed. Esmerelda smiled at him, a predatory smile that made him shiver inside. He didn’t know how he had messed up at such close range, but the knife must have missed Esmerelda’s heart. It didn’t matter that he thought he remembered feeling it pierce her heart—the evidence in front of him said that he couldn’t possibly have hit his target.
Esmerelda started to bring her hands up again as she took a step toward Atlas. He didn’t know exactly what was coming, but he knew she was about to cast some sort of curse over him and he knew he would only have this one chance to act. Almost instinctively, his arm came up and the knife blade ran across Esmerelda’s throat. A wide slit opened up there and blood began to pour from the wound, but Atlas wasn’t taking any chances on that being enough, not after the mess he had made with the chest wound. He ran the knife back the other way, opening the slit up wider, and when Esmerelda fell to the ground, Atlas went with her. He ran the knife back and forth across her throat until her head was no longer attached to her body, and only then was he confident he had ended her.
He sat back on the grass for a moment, panting for breath. He had expected to feel horrified at what he had done, but the truth was, he didn’t. He had sensed the evil
coming off Esmerelda as he approached her, and if he was honest with himself, he felt like he had done the right thing. Not only had he broken the curse, but he had also rid the world of something that felt terribly cold and evil.
Atlas wondered briefly what he should do with the body, and in the end, he decided the best course of action was for him to leave it here and get the hell away from the castle. He stood up and checked himself over. His hands and lower arms were bloody, as was his knife, but the rest of him looked pretty much okay. He moved quickly over to a small pond and washed his hands, arms, and his knife.
He hurried back the way he had come after that and climbed back out through the hole he had made in the wall. He pulled his cell phone out and Googled his flight times. He had an open-ended ticket in his pocket, provided by Raina and Logan, but the next flight back to their district wasn’t until morning. He debated going to Brianna’s place like she had said he was welcome to do, but he knew he wouldn’t feel comfortable imposing on her like that, and in the end, he decided to follow her directions to the town and then see if he could book a hotel room for the night.
4
Two Hundred Years Ago
Esmerelda woke up and relief filled her when she saw she was in her own bed in her own bedroom. The abduction, the pain of being grabbed and hurt, it had all been a dream. Esmerelda started to sit up and her relief turned back to panic when she realized she was restrained, strapped to the bed and unable to get free.
Her heart pounded and panic and anger rushed through her. How dare some bottom-feeding demon do this to her? She knew it was the demon who had come here yesterday asking for her help with a potion. It had to be. No one else had been here and despite the fact that Esmerelda remembered very little about the encounter after being knocked unconscious, she remembered thinking the demon asking for her help was suspicious.
Esmerelda knew she had to get herself free from the restraints. If she could do that, she could get access to her potions and she would be able to take down the demon. She began to tug at the restraints, but it was no use. The more she tugged, the tighter they seemed to get. After a few minutes of struggling, Esmerelda gave up and sighed with frustration. She knew there was no point in crying out. She lived in a castle in the middle of nowhere and there was no one to hear her screams.
After a few hours or so had passed, the door to Esmerelda’s room opened and a tall, graceful-looking woman walked in. She smiled down at Esmerelda, who gasped when she saw her.
“Isla?” Esmerelda said in shock, recognizing the demon queen now that she was in her human form. “I don’t understand. What are you doing here?”
“Getting what I need,” Isla replied. She sat down on the end of Esmerelda’s bed. “You see, I love being the queen of the demons, don’t get me wrong about that. But I just don’t think it’s enough. I need to be more involved with the other shifter factions. And that’s where you come in.”
Esmerelda shook her head.
“Well, if this is your plan to get the witches to do something to have you free me, you’ve picked the wrong girl,” she said.
“I’ve picked the right girl. I’ve done my research. But no. I’m not aiming for something so unambitious. You’re going to help me control every shifter faction in the world,” Isla said.
“I…what?” Esmerelda said. She was so confused that for a moment, her fear was forgotten. “Are you mad? How the hell do you expect me to do that?”
“Oh, that’s simple. You’re going to create a curse that will prevent any shifters from producing female children,” Isla said.
“But that would mean…” Esmerelda said.
“Yes,” Isla interrupted. “That would mean that anyone who wanted girls in their pack to offer up as eligible mates for their male members would have to come to me and pay me handsomely for the gift of a female child.”
“That’s not what I was going to say,” Esmerelda said. “I was going to say that would mean the end of life as we know it.”
“I can live with that,” Isla shrugged. “Now. How soon can you put this curse together?”
“What on earth makes you think I’m actually going to help you with this?” Esmerelda asked, shaking her head.
“I thought you might be a little bit resistant to the idea at first,” Isla smiled. “So here’s something to convince you it’s a good idea.”
Isla moved closer to Esmerelda and reached out to her. Esmerelda tried to move away, but she was powerless to avoid Isla’s touch. Isla placed her hand on Esmerelda’s forehead and a warmth spread out from her hand through Esmerelda’s head. The warmth faded and Esmerelda blinked a couple of times as her vision went blurry, and then she was no longer looking at her bedroom. Instead, she was looking at her parents’ house. Her parents were there, tied up on straight-backed chairs, two faceless demons standing over them. Esmerelda felt her blood run cold, and it got even colder when she saw a third chair just to the right of her parents. In it was Rosie, Esmerelda’s little sister.
Isla moved her hand away and smiled at Esmerelda, a strangely kind smile that did nothing to reassure Esmerelda.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Isla said. “As long as you do what I say, none of them will be hurt.”
Esmerelda started to shake her head, but then she felt it—a pain in her head like her skull was being squeezed. She heard a pain-filled scream and then silence, the pain gone again.
“That pain you felt was what Rosie was feeling only seconds ago. The scream was hers too. Now are you sure you don’t want to help me?” Isla said.
Esmerelda didn’t want that at all, but she needed to protect Rosie. She decided then she would do it and then once it was over and she was able to leave, she would go to her family and protect them and then she would find the person who could undo the curse.
“I’ll do it,” she said quietly.
“Good,” Isla said. “That’s the right answer, my dear.”
Esmerelda sat down on the ground in her work room. She had successfully cast the curse and it had taken a lot out of her. What had taken even more out of her in some ways had been Isla’s gloating as she worked. And now that it was done, the gloating had reached a new level, a level Esmerelda could barely tolerate to witness. The only advantage to it was that Isla was so happy about the curse that she seemed willing to let Esmerelda stay on the ground and get her breath back for a moment rather than dragging her back to her feet.
When she felt a little bit stronger, Esmerelda got to her feet herself and turned to face Isla.
“Now what? Have you let my family go?” she asked.
Isla nodded her head.
“The demons were under strict instructions on what time to release them. Of course, their memories of being held a prisoner have been wiped. As have their memories of you,” Isla said.
“Their memories of me? Why would you wipe their memories of me?” Esmerelda asked, confused.
Isla didn’t reply and just watched Esmerelda, waiting for her to catch on. When she finally did, Esmerelda shook her head.
“No. You can’t just keep me here as your prisoner. I did what you asked, now you must do what you said you would,” she said.
“I am doing what I said I would,” Isla said. “I promised you that your family would be freed, and they have been. And unless you do something to cross me, then they will remain free and unhurt. Is that clear?”
Esmerelda nodded her head, already planning her escape. Isla smiled.
“You know as well as I do that if you even attempt to leave here, your family will pay the price for it,” Isla said. “I will make sure it will be slow, and very painful death. Oh, and just in case you decide you can live with your family being killed because of you, I have added an extra layer of protection. The castle is charmed and only those who have had the antidote to the charm can leave it.”
Esmerelda just shook her head, too overcome by fear and sadness to speak. Isla went on.
“You will have a companion, if you can ca
ll her that. Mary is one of my most loyal subjects and she has agreed to move in here with you. She will be your guardian as such. She will cook and clean and keep on top of your garden and she will also help to ensure that you don’t try to leave the castle. It’s up to you how this pans out. You can work nicely with Mary and be free to roam the castle, although not in here, of course. This room will be out of bounds. Or you can be a nuisance and you will find yourself locked in one room for all of eternity,” Isla said.
“I’ll behave,” Esmerelda said quickly.
The thought of being locked in a single room forever was too much for her. The whole castle would soon start to feel pretty small, but at least she could go walking around and stretch her legs and she would have access to her books and things this way.
Esmerelda had one hope of escape and she could only pray that it came about quickly. Like with all curses of this magnitude, breaking them was always possible, and it was made possible by following a prophecy which was thrown out into the world at the moment the curse was cast.
Esmerelda had no idea where it would go, but she knew roughly what it would say. It would call for one man, a man who might not even have been born yet, to save her and the entire line of different shifter species from Isla. The prophecy had to be found by someone other than the man, and once found, they had to find him and get him to accept the task.
He would be told that breaking the curse was simple—he just had to kill the witch that cast it. If that had been the truth, Esmerelda would have killed herself to break the thing and defeat Isla, but it wasn’t the whole truth. It was merely what the man in the prophecy must be led to believe had to be done. The truth was, to break the curse, he had to free Esmerelda. Somehow, she had to make him believe she was worth saving, and then and only then would the curse break.
Esmerelda had no idea how she would convince someone that although she had cast the curse, she wasn’t the enemy here. She thought that she might be able to come up with something, though, because she would have plenty of time. In fact, time was pretty much the only thing she would have now.
