But I wasn’t buying it. “No, there is more. I hear what you’re not saying. You’re smart, fairy. There was a reason. So what was it?”
Her mouth parted just slightly, and she stopped walking, turning me around so that she could look at me head on. The fog before us rumbled deeply and was now a deep shade of ebony.
Wherever we were headed, we were close now. I smelled brimstone in the air.
“Stop trying to find some sort of goodness in me, Syrith. Do not turn me into something I am not. You want to know why I killed them? I did it for exactly the reasons I said. I thought that by consuming the colors, I could”—she squeezed her eyes shut—“somehow, I don’t know...stop it.”
Tears were sliding out of the corners of her eyes, and I sensed she was close to breaking. But whether she’d known it or not, Galeta had just proven my theory correct. There had been more, even if she’d not been aware of it.
“Stop what?”
She laughed, but the sound was frantic and wild. “I don’t know. But something awful inside of me.”
Her hand landed on her chest, and her fingers clenched, bunching her gown in her fist. “It didn’t used to be so bad. But now, it’s consumed me. All I am, all I can ever be, is this darkness. And I thought, maybe, maybe with all the colors combined, I could destroy it. Destroy me. So you see, there is nothing redeemable in me, dragonborne.”
Grabbing her arms, I squeezed nearly to the point of pain, causing her eyes to snap toward mine. Their whites were wide and flooded with hurt. But not because of me. Giving her a small shake, I shook my head.
“But you can fight it, because you’re fighting it now.”
“No.” She planted her hands on my chest, as though she meant to shove me back, but instead she curled her fingers into it. “Don’t you see, beast, intelligent as you are? Can’t you feel it? The great magic that pulses in this mirror realm? Whatever it is, it has dampened my darkness, but I know if I leave here I would return to who I once was. And I cannot do that. I cannot be who I was again. She is an awful, wicked being unworthy of anybody’s love.”
I heard the pain and truth in her words, and though I shook my head in denial, a part of me sensed she was right. There was magic here. Powerful magic.
“I like you as you are, fae,” I whispered brokenly.
She hiccupped on a sob. “That is only because you do not truly know me. I fear if you did—”
Framing her heart-shaped face in my big palms, I rubbed my thumbs across the silky feel of her skin. She shivered, and her nails dug into my chest. I hissed and trembled but did not move.
The fog rolled between our legs, and I knew the memories were now upon us. I did not tear my gaze off hers, demanding silently that she do the same.
I scented my blood pooling down my shirt from where she dug her nails into me, and I shook my head.
“I’m with you, fairy. Always.”
Chapter 14: In Which a Monster Learns to Love
Galeta
The moment the fog veiled us, I knew what memory would come. I’d smelled the brimstone and fire.
This memory had decided the fate of many.
Trees vanished. The path disappeared.
The fog swirled, coalescing into sharp images. Me seated at the head of a large table, with eleven others sitting beside me. I felt detached from that fairy. She was a part of me, and yet none of this felt quite real either.
I bit my bottom lip, staring at her. Staring at me.
Memory Galeta was cold, swathed in thick sheets of ice. Her hair a bright cerulean. She gazed at the determined fairy godmother flitting before her, clutching onto her star-tipped wand.
The fairy was Danika. And the person on trial was her charge, Gerard—the male whoreson. But he was not there. Danika had sent him packing for Earth before either memory Galeta or her sisters could get their hands on him. Memory Galeta could have brought him back, of course. But then she’d have had to tip her hand that she had the power to open dimensions between realms, a power only godmothers were supposed to possess. So she’d kept her charade in place, confident in the knowledge that she’d still be able to destroy not only him, but his future line as well.
Memory Galeta had gazed into the future, had seen the destruction of his life if she tore his Belle from him. She’d given Belle to the Beast. And Gerard had self-destructed as beautifully as she’d known he would.
Danika, the ever-present blight in her life, had her arms spread wide, her wings flapping angrily as she glared unholy death at memory Galeta. Danika and she went way back. Many hundreds of years.
To another time. Another story, one far more personal to her. Few of our kind remembered the truth of who Danika truly was. To them, she’d only ever been this gray-haired, chubby little fairy. But I knew the truth of it, and so did she.
Danika had never forgiven me for my interference in her life.
All of this, the past and present, collided together within me. Bringing up the memories of what I felt that day, how I’d sneered and laughed in my mind, knowing that I was about to put the final nail in Danika’s coffin once and for all. I’d stripped everything from Dani that meant anything. It’d become a perverse game for me. But one I always had to walk a fine line with too.
None could know just how many strings I’d pulled to ensure her pain. The me of today felt sick about it, but the me of yesteryear gloated, knowing how much my words were about to hurt her.
The Blue smirked at the head of the table, giving her head a slight shake.
My heart clenched as I wished I could take it all back. Wished more than anything that Syrith weren’t here.
His fingers squeezed mine.
“You cannot do whatever it is you think to do, Blue. You must give him—” Danika’s words were a ghostly echo.
I laughed. Both future and present me laughed. The sound high-pitched and keening and spilling unwanted from my lips. My memories were jumbled and colliding within me now. Making me feel fractured and cracked.
Was I here?
Was I there?
I was losing myself to the past. Floating away. Becoming who I once was. But Syrith was right there. He caught me. Held me fast. Pulled me close and whispered into my ear, “Stay with me, little fae. Stay with me.”
And so I did. I clung to his shirt, buried my face in his chest, and squeezed my eyes shut. But I could not drown out the words I’d spoken to her that night.
“There will be no more chances. He has been sentenced to death.”
All gasped, and I cringed, wishing I could burrow into the earth, hide away from everyone and everything.
“You cannot do that!” Esmeralda the Green cried. “I am the judge of fate, not you, Blue.”
I didn’t need to see to remember the White looking at me, her eyes radiant and lambent, her mouth opened in shock. “What have you done, Blue? What have you done? You’ve altered the fates...you cannot—”
“And yet it is done!” The Blue cackled. “You cannot undo the words I have wrought.”
“This cannot be!” Danika shrieked. “You have broken faith with our laws. With our—”
“Silence!” The Blue shrieked. “You wish to save your pathetic charge?” The Blue laughed deeply, the sound chilling. “Fine. If he falls in love within a month’s time, his destiny shall be spared.”
I’d not passed that verdict to please anyone. I’d passed it because I’d known the infamous Lothario could never truly love again. He’d given Belle his everything, and she’d shredded his heart to ribbons. It’d been my way to prove to everyone that I wasn’t so bad. But I’d known Gerard could never pass the test. And then I had another, even more destructive idea in mind. On the very off chance that Danika actually did manage to find him a match, I would make it so that love could never sprout from the union.
I would tell no one of my duplicity, not yet. But without sex, could there ever truly be love?
My lips had twitched, and the whites of Danika’s eyes had swallowed her gaze in
fear. She hadn’t known what I’d had planned, but she’d suspected.
Again, past and present tumbled together, and I went from feeling bloated with pain and regret to squeezing down on the diabolical laugh that filled my throat.
“It’s gone, Galeta. The memory is gone.”
Sucking in a sharp breath, I looked up, trembling as the blessed darkness of nothingness enveloped me. I’d never thought I’d like to see the black as much as I did now. But before I could get a chance to express that sentiment, memories swirled in on the fog once more.
A castle in the clouds.
A desperate man seated on his throne. A child locked in a cage deep below and howling out with madness.
Rumpelstiltskin, blond. Deadly. Beautiful.
Syrith’s arms banded tightly around me. His jaw grazed my temple. Inhaling deeply his rich dragon’s scent, I tried in vain to get my breathing under control.
The Blue walked into the scene. As cold as ever. Smirking with a secret only she knew.
Rumpel looked up, his fingers digging into the skull affixed to his dark throne. A warrior of old from a land not of Kingdom. He was a demon. A monster. And the old Galeta had been rather fond of the darkness in him.
Until he’d begun meddling. Until he’d gone looking into bloodlines.
“I win,” Galeta taunted him.
He scoffed. His cultured voice, barely rising as he said, “For now. You might believe it so. But I always get what I want. You think I didn’t notice your keen interest in putting that French whore down? Why the sudden interest in him, Galeta?”
Memory Galeta’s smile didn’t slip, even as her insides trembled. There were few in Kingdom as capable as she, but he was one of them. Heartless. Mercenary. And a bastard.
They’d shared their bodies and beds once before. Attracted, both of them, to the caged power and raw darkness inside of each other. But there’d been no love—there couldn’t be between ones such as them.
Memory Galeta shook her head. “I know not what you mean, devil. Just know this—you’ll never free him of his curse. Or yours.”
“You know, fae, I always thought myself the biggest bastard in this land, but no, I don’t think so anymore. I’m going to discover what it is you don’t want me to know about Gerard. And when I do, you’ll sorely regret your interference.”
She laughed. The sound cold and menacing. “Do it, and I vow to the darkness that I’ll kill that thing you call your son...”
~*~
“Enough!” I screamed, shoving away from Syrith. I could take no more of this. “Mirror, stop!”
That shout of power exploded from within me, causing the memories to shatter like a glass tossed to the ground. Suddenly, I was shoved out of that castle, back into the dreary, awful mirror realm.
I stood once more on the path, the trees gently swaying around us.
I felt Syrith’s eyes all over me, but I couldn’t look at him. Not like this. Not so raw. Covering my eyes with my hands, I crumpled into a heap upon the forest floor, laying my head upon the dust-covered ground.
Just a moment later, his hands were upon me. I was weak. Pathetic. I didn’t deserve kindness. I didn’t deserve him.
I could not stop the tears. They came and came and came and never would stop again, I just knew it.
“Please, Syrith. Please don’t.” I wasn’t sure what I was asking of him.
But when his hands curled around my body and he hefted me straight into his arms, bringing me tight to his chest, I buried my face in his shirt and shuddered.
~*~
Syrith
The next two nights were brutal for her and me.
I’d thought we’d made some headway, but after the memories of that day, Galeta had once more retreated into her shell.
I’d wondered if that might affect the magic transforming this land, but it hadn’t. The glow of the hearth was still as strong and beautiful as ever.
I sat on the couch, studying the door, wishing I could enter in there and hold her. Tell her she would be okay. All right.
But the truth of it was, what she went through now, she had to go through alone. Redemption never came without pain.
I was beginning to see just how devious Galeta truly had been. And it hurt me, I wouldn’t lie. I did not like knowing that the woman I was beginning to fall madly in love with could be anything other than what she was when she was with me.
And it was hard not to judge her for it. Just as she’d told me it would be. I was ashamed of my feelings. Ashamed of feeling ashamed. But it was honest, and it was true. And I needed to work through my own doubts as well.
I wasn’t here to make the fairy fall in love with me. Though I was falling quickly for her. No, I needed to be here for her. I needed to be that strong shoulder she could cry on.
And I couldn’t do that right now.
The air squeezed with power, and I didn’t need to look up to know the goddess had returned. I scented verbena and lavender in the air.
“How is she?” Aphrodite asked.
I shook my head. “Not well. Not well at all.” Finally looking over my shoulder, I acknowledged her with a flick of my lashes. “I worry that perhaps this place isn’t good for her. That perhaps reliving the past might fracture what tiny bit of good remains in her.”
Dite sighed, glancing over my shoulder to the door. “Who can say, Prince? All I know is I taste the Fates’ movements on the winds. Change is coming. And whatever you’re doing, you must keep doing it.”
Heavy hearted, and weary from not sleeping the past two nights, I ran my fingers through my thick hair, causing the tips to stand on end.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Syrith, but today you meet with Baba Yaga. And your head must be in the game. Do you hear me? That witch will pull no punches.”
I shrugged, rubbing my palms forcefully together. My mind was not on that stupid love tournament. I cared not what happened in that arena. I was consumed by my need to fix Galeta, but I also understood this was part of the package deal.
“I rather loathe that clone,” I muttered.
Dite nodded slowly. “Yes, as do we all.”
But she seemed distracted as she said it. As though her mind were far away and on other matters.
I frowned. “Are you okay, Love?”
“What?” She blinked then huffed and batted my words away with a roll of her wrists. “I’m fine. Fine.” Her smile was weak. “Let us go, before we are missed.”
She held out her hand to me. I stood. Looked back one last time at the door before nodding and following the goddess into the time portal.
Aphrodite didn’t linger when we arrived at the tree world.
I called it that because the behemoths towered into the heavens, with their canopies far above me.
Birdsong trilled all around, though I could spy none of them. The clone, rather than lying at my feet, as she’d been last time, already hovered before me.
Her eyes were cold and the color of ice. Except around the rims. There they were a deeper azure.
Her gown too looked a little changed. Rather than ice crystals dangling down, the danglers appeared more like clear gems.
She frowned. “You’re here?”
I cocked my head, not sure what she hinted at. “Where else would I be, Galeta?”
Her frown pulled down even harder, hard enough that even though I didn’t care for this version of my fae, I began to worry. “Are you okay?” I asked after another few minutes of silence.
At any moment, Baba and her mate would show, and I knew we’d not be able to talk, but the clone was acting strangely.
Taking a deep breath, she gazed at me with icy, hard eyes. “Last time, did you spare that horse? You threw yourself in her path, didn’t you?”
Her words came out sharp but also filled with curiosity. I wasn’t sure how sentient this clone truly was, and I wondered if somehow it knew.
“Why do you care?”
“I don’t.” She was quick to answer,
shaking her head so forcefully, her twisted curls bobbed around her slim shoulders. “I. Don’t.” That last word trailed off, as if she were deep in thought.
Up until now, I’d only ever received hate from this wee thing. The gods had warned me that this wasn’t truly Galeta, and yet...my heart rate kicked up, and I couldn’t help but lay a hand against her shoulder. “Fairy, I—”
Hissing, she rolled out from under my grip and in that same instant had her wand pointed directly at my face. “Touch me again, be-beast, and”—she shook her head, looking as confused as before—“and I’ll eviscerate you.”
Holding up my hands in a posture of submission, I lifted a brow. She’d called me beast. The same way Galeta would. Soft and sweet. Was the clone changing too? Did they know?
Did she know?
“I won’t touch you again,” I said steadily.
She blinked. “I don’t. I can’t—”
“Aw, isn’t this touching. Looks like the fairy’s about to do my job for me. What say you, Freyr?”
Spinning, I rolled out from beneath the clone’s wand, twisting sinuously as I used the speed of the dragon so that I shielded the clone from Baba’s gimleted stare.
Her male, whom I could only assume to be said Freyr, snorted. “Sure looked like it, witch.”
Baba was a stunning woman and a far cry from what I’d been expecting. Stories spoke of a hag who ate children for her lunch. Before me stood an average-sized woman with porcelain skin and long brown tresses. She dressed in a most peculiar manner. Black combat boots, flesh-toned underwear, and a brown leather vest with its pockets full to bursting.
“Baba?” I asked slowly, still not completely certain this wild, eccentric thing was the woman of legend.
The blond-haired Freyr chuckled deeply and shook his head. “Well, I suppose I’ll leave you to it, hag. Though remember my words, will you?”
He’d called her a hag, but even I heard the note of fondness in his words. The witch must have too, because her lips pulled up into a brief but exultant grin. “Whatever you say, fatty.”
My brows lifted. Those two were very strange.