“Your father had already fallen under the curse by that time, but other than the beastly appearance and the grouchy disposition, he was still him, not like the animal he is now. He was always the man I fell in love with, just with more hair. As we grew closer, Edwin became jealous of the time I spent with him. He started acting hostile and aggressive toward both of us. He told your father to release me and send me away, but he didn’t understand that I wasn’t your father’s prisoner. He’d already stolen my heart. Sending me away was pointless as I’d never leave him.
“One night Edwin’s temper finally spilled over. Your father and I had spent the evening in the garden and I decided to sit outside under the stars for a few extra minutes while he went inside to deal with some kingdom business. Edwin cornered me beside the rose bushes and threatened me.”
Tears welled, but she flicked them away and swallowed.
I slipped from my chair and knelt in front of her. “It’s okay. You don’t need to tell me.”
“But you should know the truth.” She wiped away the new tears coming faster and harder than before. “Hiding it from you hasn’t done any of us any good.”
She placed her palm against my cheek and I leaned in as a broken smile cracked across her quivering lips. “He said if I didn’t leave your father he would kill him. He said that the throne should have been his and he’d done everything he could to make that happen but I was ruining everything. As the curse took a stronger hold on your father, he’d eventually become a beast and never be suitable to rule, but if we broke the curse first everything he’d done would be for nothing. I tried to run away but he tossed me against the garden wall and started to cast some sort of spell. I fought back, but your father heard my screams and came running. He grabbed Edwin by the throat and if I hadn’t pleaded for your father to spare him, he would’ve been dead. Instead, your father banished Edwin, never to return or face the death I’d spared him. A stay of execution that maybe I’d been too naive to grant. Edwin left but rallied the villagers to attack the castle and kill the beast on his behalf. That’s the night we broke the curse. The night your father was given a second chance. And the night Edwin disappeared from our lives.”
“Except instead of moving on, he’s been hiding up on this mountain plotting his revenge.”
She nodded. “Looks like it. I’m so sorry for involving you in all this. I could’ve ended it back then, but I thought he could change. That maybe over time he’d realize his mistakes. I failed both of you, you and your father.”
“You did nothing wrong.” I pulled her into a hug, her body shaking in my arms. “You granted him the kindness he isn’t capable of understanding. You saved him, he chose not to take your grace. But after all he’s done, he will get none from me.”
“I’m so sorry, Fallon.” My mother gasped as she cried, her breathing heaving hard against my shoulder. “You shouldn’t have been pulled into all of this. It’s not your fight. It’s our fault for not telling you about Edwin and the threat he posed. Our fault for trying to hide the truth from you.”
A tightness built in my throat. Darkness seeped from my memories. “You didn’t. Someone else brought me here. Someone I trusted. Someone I…”
“Loved, maybe?”
I dropped my embrace and walked over to the counter, gazing out the window to the cliffs beyond the temple. Sharp rocky drops into the nothingness below. “I don’t know.”
“That girl? The one that finally coaxed the joy out of my melancholy son?”
My head fell against my chest as I jabbed my knuckle into the countertop. “She manipulated me. Fed me into her father’s jaws.”
“Did she tell you that?”
“No. But how else can you explain it?”
Mom appeared by my side and covered my fist with her hand. “If it’s true then, I support your decision to condemn her, but do you really think she would betray you?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Then be sure. She might be as much a victim of her father’s sins as you are. If there is anything I’ve learned it’s to look beyond the obvious and to follow your heart, no matter where it leads you. If she did betray you, I will support whatever you decide, but if not, don’t let my mistakes be your downfall.”
I took a deep breath, inhaling her words and letting them swim through my bloodstream, starting small fires through my body. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and kissed her on the top of her head. “Maybe. But what do we do now?”
She leaned into my side, knocking me off balance. “We take back what is yours. Your kingdom. Our kingdom.”
“But how are we supposed to do that? Edwin has the entire castle under his mind control spells. We wouldn’t last half a second.”
“Good point. That will be a problem.” She retreated to the table and placed her head in her hands. “If only we could find a way to get him out of the castle and lure him away. He can’t assert influence over anyone if he’s not around to do it.”
An eagle soared in the distance, the sun beating off its majestic wings. Blue sky and fluffy white clouds mocked me on the horizon. The castle seemed so far away. Someone else’s problem. I crossed my arms and stood up straighter. My face hardened in the window’s glare, a reflection of who I’d become, or maybe what was left of me. Eyes heavy and full of doubt. Jaw clenched and forehead furrowed. The reality of the world bore down and rooted me to the floor. I looked away, disgusted, my face blurring in the window’s pane. Someone else’s face. I sighed.
“There is one way we could get in.”
I crossed the floor and sat across from my mother. She lowered her hands, the red from blood rushing to her cheeks faded as she looked at me and gnawed at the corner of her lip.
“Something is wrong with me. I’m not sure why or how, but…” Words jumbled in my brain and caught in my throat unsaid. Where could I even start? So many things had happened in such a short time they all whirled in my head, each tale begging to be told.
I shook my head and closed my eyes. I’d never find the right way to explain, so why try? The familiar tingle rippled through my body and I let it take me over until my mother’s gasp pulled me back to the kitchen. I looked up as her hands flew over her mouth and she scrambled up from her chair, her eyes locked on my face. I reached up and rubbed my chin, the soft stubble prickled under my wrinkly fingers.
“Griswold. How did you? What?” Mom stumbled backward toward the kitchen threshold.
“It’s just me. Fallon.” I stood from the table but didn’t dare go after her. Instead, I lowered my head and let the tingle come again, resuming my original form.
She gasped again and fell to the floor. She pulled her skirt higher and sat cross-legged on the tile as her eyes flit back and forth, her brain processing what she’d just seen.
“So, you didn’t know I could do this? Change myself?”
She shook her head, still silent.
“It only started after you left the castle, or at least that’s when I think it started. Who knows?” I started to pace the kitchen floor. I doubted she knew about these powers, but having her confirm it made it worse. “Maybe I’ve always been able to do this and just didn’t know, but I think I would’ve figured it out sooner. Or maybe not?”
She clasped her hands together and held them near her chin. “Does…does it hurt?”
“No. I can feel it happening, but it’s not that bad. At first, I thought it was the curse, that I was going to end up like—” I jerked my head toward the yard and its draconian cages, “—but I don’t think it’s the same thing. I can control this, and from what I can tell I can be anyone I want.”
She scanned me over again. “That’s incredible. Amazing.”
I hung my head as my skin heated. Exposed. No going back now.
“I could change my appearance and get past the guards. It’s probably our only chance.”
“Yes, that might work.” Her eyes started moving again as she’d probably started to formulate a plan. “And if you could ge
t in, we’ll just have to find a way to get Edwin out.”
I crouched down in front of her and held out my hand. “Are you ready?”
She accepted and together we pulled her up from the floor. “Yes. But are you?”
I slid the last of the supplies through the cage bars and stepped back. Pitchers of water, blankets to block the sun and enough food to last at least a week—even for a beast. Above the cage, the canopy I created hung loose and looked like the sail of a ragtag pirate ship with its patchwork of sheets and tablecloths, but hopefully, it would keep some of the heat down.
“Are you sure you want to leave Dad here?”
Mom slid a stack of books into the cage. Her lips pressed together as lines creased along her forehead. She gazed at my father huddled in the corner of the cage, his thick furry legs crunched up to his broad chest and his large lower lip jutted out like a petulant child. “It’s safer for him here. At least for now. Once we get Edwin out of the castle, we’ll bring him back home.”
Home. The word rang in the open air and echoed in my heart. Not really a place, but a feeling. One I ached for more than I’d admitted to myself up to now.
I slid the iron key into my pocket and tossed an apple at Alizeh. She reared her bronze head back and snapped it out of the air, scratching her talons across the ground and digging deep crevices in the dirt. Nothing left to do now, but go. I took a deep breath and let it out slow, mingling with the cooling evening air. The sun dipped lower on the horizon. A persimmon ball of light fading into the night, another day ending just as our clandestine plan began.
I closed my eyes then clenched and unclenched my fists, fanning my fingers out one after the other then curling them up again and falling into the lull of the repetition. I’d have to face Edwin alone, but if this plan worked there would be plenty of sunsets to see in my future. If not… I shook my head. Best not to think of those things.
Alizeh nudged her beak at my chest and I opened my eyes.
“Almost time to go, girl.” I ruffled the feathers on her jaw then rubbed the red blistering skin on my index finger.
I couldn’t leave without showing my mother Edwin’s den of evil. She waded through the reams of paper and books as her jaw hung nearly to the floor. I wanted someone to bear witness to this. To know I wasn’t the only one who saw the depths down that Edwin had planned to go. Except, walking through that room and seeing all the hateful things again didn’t bring me any peace, it started a fire. Then, when I couldn’t contain it any longer, so did I. Every scrap of paper. Every photo. Every random note that my mother didn’t deem to be of use in searching for a cure ended up in a pile that I set ablaze. The red and orange flames ate through the pages one by one and as they disintegrated so did some of the anger pent up in my chest. Then when the pile finally became nothing but ash, I felt like I could move on. I left the burnt pieces in the middle of Edwin’s desk to send a message in case he ever returned but caught the one glowing ember still burning in the center which branded my finger for the occasion.
I poked at my finger again. The heat of the burn still radiated almost a half-inch from the wound. It would probably scar. But that was fine. I wanted to remember it. I wanted to be reminded to never let myself be betrayed again. What hate and desperation could reduce powerful men into.
Alizeh cawed and scratched the ground as the night fell faster on the horizon.
I glanced back over my shoulder.
Mom had crept down the side of the cage and crouched just behind Dad. Her delicate fingers twined in the fur near his right ear as she leaned her head closer to his. The hiss of a whisper floated through the air, but I couldn’t make out the words, just the calming flow of the syllables wafting on the breeze. My father leaned his head into my mother’s touch and blinked, then swat his paw at her, his claws clanging against the cage bars. She yanked her hands away and backed up, her chest crumpling forward as she stared at what was left of my father. She trudged the rest of the way toward Alizeh, her index finger wiping away the tears she tried to hide.
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked as I rested my hand on her shoulder and guided her toward the back of the bird.
“Yeah, let’s just end this and get back to our lives. I’m getting tired of it all.”
Where I reveled in my dark emotions, she rose up and let them make her stronger. Like a broken sword into a forge. I’d let myself get burned but she came out shiny and ready for battle.
“But what’s going to happen if Edwin won’t fix Dad? If he can’t?”
She peeled my hand away and mounted Alizeh’s back. She shifted in her seat, adjusting her position until she sat up pin-straight. “Then I’ll find another way. Love is a very powerful thing, Fallon, and I’m willing to fight for it.”
2
11th June
Night faded as we neared the city of Mosa. Ribbons of daylight wrapped around the shadows and tied them down until their nightly escape underneath the moon. The ritual dance between dark and light played out before us as Alizeh sailed over the lush green forests below. The thickness in my throat constricted as we glided closer to the ground. If this plan didn’t work, I didn’t know what else we could do. Edwin had already taken control over too much and breaking the hold he had on the Council and the castle staff grew harder the longer he maintained his seat on the throne.
I tugged on Alizeh’s left-side feathers and she careened down to the valley just below the castle then landed with a jolt among the tall grass. My mother dismounted and pulled her skirt to her knee, marching toward the worn path up toward the gates.
After jumping off Alizeh’s back, I raced after her as the grass whipped against my legs. “Slow down. We don’t want to call too much attention.”
She shrugged but stopped walking, the determined fire in her stare dimmed a bit at my caution. “We don’t have much time to waste. Edwin has been in that castle far too long and it makes me sick. I need to defend the crown for the people I love—for your father, for you.”
“Of course—” I placed my hand on her shoulder and held her gaze as I willed her to calm down. “—but we have to do this delicately. Edwin seemed to know my every move before I made it and we won’t get a second chance to get this right.”
“And you know that I’m still not pleased about you going in there alone. I get it. I really do, but I wish there was a way for me to know what’s happening behind those walls. If you get yourself into trouble, how will I know you need help? What if this plan goes badly?”
I swallowed hard and looked off toward the rising hills that surrounded the valley. Then I’d be doomed. “You’ll just have to wait. Watch for when Edwin leaves the castle, then fly into the courtyard and help me lock the castle down. Hopefully, he’ll take a fleet of guards with him to give us a little more pull with the brainwashed staff. If I don’t come back soon, take Alizeh and get out of here. Find an army and storm the gates, but for right now, just lay low and keep watch. If anything looks wrong from your view, don’t hesitate to hide.”
“You’re right.” Her body deflated, the possibility of failure growing thick and tangible between us. Suffocating. She headed back toward Alizeh and flopped down on the ground, her elbows propped on her knees with her skirt bunched up around her ankles. “But I can’t stand the thought of not being able to help. I don’t want my son having to be the one to save me.”
I let out an airy chuckle. “Trust me. No one would ever mistake you for a damsel in distress. But you also can’t solve all the world’s problems on your own. It’s not your job to be everything to everyone.”
She narrowed her eyes with a harsh glare, but her lips curled up stripping the sentiment. “Just get going, Fallon. We have a kingdom to reclaim.”
I nodded and tried to maintain my grip on her faith in me. I’d need it. “Fine. I’ll be right back.”
The tingle started in the bottoms of my feet and exploded up through my body like a fountain. Mom watched with wide eyes as my hair grew to dust my shoulders
and my skin darkened from its typical hue. New blemishes, marks, and hairs decorated my arms and hands. Another successful disguise.
“Absolutely incredible,” she whispered. Even Alizeh flapped her wings as the transformation took hold.
Would my mother ever get used to seeing me change? Would I?
She rose from her spot on the ground, then brushed the dust from the front of my jacket and straightened it to my waist. Her lower lip quivered and she hugged me tight. “Be safe, my son.”
I nodded and peeled her arms away, then started the trek up the hill toward the castle gates. The wind whistled through the field as my hair blew back and tangled at my neck. For a moment, the strange breeze sounded like a warning. A whispered caution for what I was about to do. But it didn’t matter, I was committed to this task, even if I failed.
Instead of heading straight up, I circled around the castle grounds and chose to approach from over the golden city bridge. If I raised suspicion, my meandering path might give my mother the head start she needed to get away, plus it gave me a few more minutes to get my head together. No room for error.
As I neared the gates, two guards loomed tall and stoic. Their hands sat folded on the hilts of their swords, each deadly blade hanging like a harbinger from their waists. I swallowed and cleared my throat as my fingers trembled at my sides.
“Good morning,” I said, trying to force my voice lower to mask the tremor.
The guards looked me over, but remained silent and sidled closer together in front of the gate sending a louder message.
Fallon: Son of Beauty and the Beast (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 6) Page 26
