All of it was gone.
The peoples. The games. The gods.
There was nothing left anymore.
Galeta moaned. I kept my clawed foot banded tightly around her, terrified of losing her now. Shifting directions, I headed for Kingdom, praying to the Gods of every pantheon that it remained. That it hadn’t been lost too. Wondering what in the devil had just happened but feeling an unsettling disquiet as I recalled the fear in Calypso’s eyes at the start of the game.
She’d sensed something terrible would happen.
Was this it?
And if so, what exactly had happened?
Slowly, I became aware of another presence nearby. There was nothing ahead or to the left or right of me. Craning my long, sinuous neck over my shoulder, I spotted the gigantic shadow of another dragon.
Even in the depths of night, I caught the glint of gold.
Realizing immediately that this had been Galeta’s familiar, I slowed my flight to allow the beast time to catch up to us.
Buttons—which I’d always found to be an odd name for such a massive animal—sniffed his broad nostrils at me, as though tasting my scent and taking it in deep. Naturally, being half dragonborne myself, I knew it was taking my measure.
Burning, intelligent eyes studied me.
I did not ask how Buttons had found her after so long a time apart. The bond between familiar and master was a powerful one, even if the master rejected the familiar, as Galeta had. His burning eyes zipped down to the tiny bundle of precious pink gripped in my talons.
“I knew the moment time had collapsed that Galeta had succeeded,” he said slowly. The crack of his voice echoed loudly in the vastness of space.
“What do you mean time has collapsed?”
Shaking his massive shoulders, Buttons grunted in obvious agitation, causing a ball of flame to shoot from both nostrils.
“Follow me,” was all he said.
The massive beast veered toward the right, toward a shimmering veil that parted realms.
I didn’t understand how any of this was possible. How we were in space. How we could breathe. Because nothing made sense anymore. Buttons soared through the veil, and I followed. If it was a trap, we had absolutely nothing to lose at this point. We needed to find land. That was all that mattered now.
The moment I broke through the barrier, the familiar sights and sounds of Kingdom assailed me, and the breath I’d not realized I’d been holding spilled from my mouth.
Buttons hurtled toward land like a blazing comet. Knowing that if my woman were aware right now, she’d be telling me to follow close at her dragon’s heel, I did just that.
We tucked in our wings at nearly the same moment. The whistling of displaced air from our rapid approach shook the large, rooted trees around us. Seconds before touching land, I shifted, transferring Galeta from my claws to my arms.
She felt like a feather in my arms. I touched down gracefully, jostling her only a little.
But it was enough to get her to groaning again. In moments, she was blinking her eyes open and rubbing a hand over her brow.
“What...what’s happened, Syrith?” she asked in sweet confusion.
Loath to release her, I very gently sat her on her feet, keeping a firm grip on her arms to make sure she’d not collapse on me again.
“Where are we?” She blinked. Looking around and then gasping as she finally caught sight of her dragon. “Buttons!” she said in a shocked gasp. “What are you doing here? How did you find me?”
Glancing from the corner of my eye at the dragon, I watched his serious countenance temporarily transform into one of worry and care.
Dragons and dragonborne rarely gave their hearts into the keeping of another, but when we did, it was forever. Buttons loved her as surely as I.
A ghost of a smile whispered across my lips. She’d always thought herself unlovable, but there had been one who’d cared all along. It made me feel more bonded to the beast for it.
“I will always find you, Galeta, whether Pink or Blue,” he said gravely, “but now is not the time for sentimental fluff. A serious problem has developed in Kingdom.”
Worry pinched her pretty features. As she looked around her, her wings began to beat in earnest. “Why are we in the Enchanted Forest?”
I wasn’t sure how or when she’d done it or when she’d found it. I’d had my eyes on her the entire time, but from one moment to the next, she was suddenly gripping tight to her wand, its tip glowing like star flame.
Buttons nodded. “Yes, you are right. In the games, I was given into the care of Fable. It is why I even came here, to ascertain all had gone accordingly for her and she’d received her happily ever after.”
A bad feeling began to worm through my gut. The same must have happened to Galeta, because she was gripping my hand tight, squeezing the fingers so hard, the bones ground together.
“And? What’s happened, Buttons? You’re worrying me.”
“I wish I had better news for you, my queen. But all is not well. One second, Fable and Owiot were trying to undo the curse upon the sleeping form of Snow White, and the next, a massive blast ripped through the very fabric of this universe. Time has altered somehow. Snow White is gone. The castle is void of peoples, save for the Dark Queen and her mate and...one other.”
She shook her head. “Buttons, please stop stalling. You’re frightening me. What’s happened? What has—”
Suddenly a wail of heart-rending pain swept through the woods, the cries of a tortured soul echoing all around. Galeta shuddered, and my blood ran cold.
“What is that?” I asked.
Button’s eyes turned downcast. Dragons were proud, some would even say vain creatures. To see one looking so obviously dejected and forlorn made me feel physically ill. I grabbed hold of my stomach as a sudden, violent feeling washed over me.
“That tortured cry you hear is Fable. For she has just discovered that in this new reality, she does not truly exist. But more than that, her grandmother and grandfather, Hook and Trishelle, have never met. Her mother, Nimue, was never born. And worse still, Calypso no longer knows her own granddaughter. Hades is a brooding, silent figure in the Underworld, and magic has betrayed us all.”
Chapter 20: In Which a World Goes Boom...
Galeta
“What?” I shrieked, half mad with stone-cold fear and confusion. “This can’t be. This can’t be! If none of that happened, then how is Fable even still here? You must be wrong, Buttons. This cannot—”
The tortured cry of that dying animal raised all the hairs on my arms, and without stopping to think, I raced toward it.
Entering a castle that’d once been bustling with life and beauty. Now a decrepit, blackened, and ruined thing. As though a great fire had swept through it, leaving only the hull behind, eradicating all life with it.
Standing at the center was a weeping Fable, with her dark magic swirling about her like a funnel. She was still a thing of unmitigated dark beauty.
Dressed all in white, she’d altered so completely in the games. Turning from a woman with a heart as dark as Galeta’s own into one soft and gentle, capable of loving again.
Hook’s ghost taunted me. I hissed, recalling the kiss of his blade through my gut with vivid intensity all over again. Fable couldn’t lose her happily ever after.
This couldn’t happen.
I wouldn’t let it.
A tower of water in the shape of a cell held Fable fast. Owiot was reaching toward her, trying in vain to approach the jail, but every time he would, a wave would reach out and slap him aside.
“Owiot, no!” Fable cried. Her face was splotchy and swollen, her eyes bloodshot as tears rolled down her face. “She’ll kill you. By all that’s holy, I demand you stay back. Stay away from me!”
But the brave male wouldn’t listen. He was running back toward his dark queen, trying desperately to rescue her from the chaos keeping her kneeling and screaming out in agony as water swiftly covered her form.
br /> Using my powers, I commanded the waters to cease. But it was no use. The tower ran higher and higher, until once more the queen screamed, struggling and fighting against the swift current that rushed down her throat. Giving a violent jerk only a second later, she went absolutely still.
Eyes wide, mouth open. Dead.
I heard a scream, and I realized it was my own. “She can’t be dead. This can’t be happening.”
“Fin!” I pointed my star-tipped wand at the water. And cried with relief when suddenly it dispersed, melting in a puddle at her feet. I rushed toward Fable, intent on saving her.
But this time it was Syrith who pulled me back, his strong arms wrapping like steel bands around my waist and hugging me to him. “Do not touch that cursed water!” he snarled.
And my joy at imagining I’d somehow saved her soon turned to horror as I witnessed the water begin to rise again. Fable was awake. Not dead as I’d thought. But she was sputtering. Choking and gasping. Looking longingly at Owiot. And then the water rose to her waist, and the screams of the wounded began in earnest again.
“What’s happening?” I screamed, at a complete loss as to how I could fix this. Change this.
Owiot was the one to look at me then. “Calypso did this. She went insane. Cursed Fable when she said she was her granddaughter. I’ve never seen the goddess so mad. That magic flew through us. One second, she and Hades stood beside Fable, and the next, Hades vanished and Calypso turned into...a monster.”
Unable to bear the sight of Fable’s suffering even another second, I did the only thing I could. I remembered my time as the Blue. Knew the dark spells even still. Light magic had done nothing for her, but maybe dark could.
“In morte,” I whispered, voice breaking as tears slid down my cheeks and I pointed my wand at the suffering queen.
Fable was on her knees, hands thrown up, neck squeezed tight in her obvious agony. Her face was flushed with terror, and her mouth parted in a permanently silent howl.
The waters, which had risen to waist deep, stopped rising. The vortex of Fable’s shadow also ceased.
“You killed her!” Owiot shouted, then with a violent shake of his head, he ran toward Fable. This time, he was finally able to reach through the bars of her cage and touch her. But she was locked in place, a still, lovely statue.
My heart shrank at the sight. The dawning dread of what I’d done simply by allowing Harpy to carry the seed was beginning to impress itself upon me with horrific clarity. Somehow, when the seed had been released from me, magic had run wild. With nothing to stabilize it, it’d gone out of control. Changing not just happily ever afters, but the very fabric of Kingdom itself.
“She is not dead, Owiot, I vow to you.”
Weeping openly, he turned his shocked brown eyes toward me. “What’s been done to my female? Can this be undone? What has happened to everyone?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “It can be undone, but only once Calypso releases her from the curse. Fable sleeps. But were I to unfreeze her now, the tortures would only resume in earnest.”
Syrith grabbed me by my shoulders, but I couldn’t rip my eyes off the grieving husband before us, clinging to a statue that did not breathe or move with life.
“Did you feel that magic too?” I asked my lover.
The tight clench of his jaw said it all, and I began to shake violently. Fable existed in a world that no longer knew her. Her entire family tree had been wiped out.
“Oh gods, Syrith. Your family. We have to find your family.”
The whites of his eyes overtook nearly all color, and his dark skin blanched as if all blood had leaked out of him.
Taking him by the hand, I called forth a traveling tunnel and shot through it. Clutching him tight to me. Why had Fable remained when her family had vanished? If time had altered, then how much of it had altered?
I’d soon have my answers, and I knew, deep down, I’d like none of it.
We barreled out of the other end of the starlit tunnel like cannon fire.
“Don’t let me go, Syrith,” I commanded, wondering if maybe the reason why he remained was because somehow he’d been with me. Maybe my magic had kept him here. I didn’t know. I simply didn’t know anything.
The castle was a bustle of peoples and familiar faces. Which went miles toward easing my fears.
“Go to their rooms. At this hour, they’d be enjoying a repast of tea,” Syrith said, voice more serious than I’d ever heard from him.
We were high up in the air and noticed by none below us. “Which one is their room?” I asked, facing the massive gray-stone castle of the King and Queen of Hearts.
He pointed, and I zipped toward it. I wasn’t gentle; when I got to the opened window, I flew in, yanking him in behind me. He hissed, and I felt his large body catch in the frame.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked.
He shook his head, and though I spotted a gash in his cheek leaking blood, he didn’t seem to notice. His eyes were scanning the rooms. I was watching him and knew the instant my worst fears were confirmed by the sudden flare of panic that twisted up his handsome features.
“They’re not here, Galeta! They’re not here.”
I grabbed the corners of his jaw, squeezing tight and forcing him to look me in the eyes. “We’ll find them, Syrith. Do not—”
The chamber door was suddenly tossed open, and a rotund woman dressed as a scullery maid stepped through, brows twisting quizzically. “I thought I’d heard noises. Why are ye scuttling about and making such a ruckus, Prince Syrith?”
My mouth dropped in shock.
Syrith’s did too. “Boylena! You recognize me?” He sounded ready to pass out.
Planting strong hands on her wide hips, she gave Syrith and I a stern look. “Well, a’course I do. Ye’ve only been Prince all yer life. And well you ken, your folks don’t like you traipsing through here in their absence—”
“Absence!” He hissed. “Where are they? Where’d they go?”
His fingers dug into my shoulders painfully. Boylena suddenly went from looking annoyed to baffled. “Why, to Olympus, a’course. Prince, are ye well? Shall I go fetch the—”
Wilting against me, he lowered his head onto my shoulder, breathing heavily and deeply. I rubbed at his back, staring at the maid with a tight smile. Until I knew what had happened, there wasn’t much I could tell anyone.
“Boylena,” I said slowly. The maid finally looked at me, suspicion evident in her eyes.
But there was no time to slowly ease the staff into the knowledge that I was now the Prince’s mate. They’d learn soon enough.
“And ’oo are ye, fae?”
I didn’t take it personally, hearing the immediate dislike and distrust in her tone. We fairies hadn’t developed the best of reputations through the centuries, but again, there’d be time for chitchat later.
“I’m his mate true,” I said. She gasped. I ignored that too. “Listen, it’s imperative that you answer my questions right now. I promise to you that I’ll answer all I can for you when I have time. Did you feel a pulse of wild magic roll through here not some—”
Suddenly, her eyes grew wide. “I did.” She nodded vehemently. “Made me trip down the stairs, it did. Frightful, powerful blast.”
So magic had rolled through Wonderland too. This was not good. Had all of Kingdom been affected, then?
Oh gods, the ramifications of what this might mean made my knees tremble.
“Boylena,” I said slowly, “do you remember anything? Anything at all before that happened?”
She frowned. And even as she shook her head, I spied a flare, a glint of pure, unadulterated terror race through her dark brown eyes.
“Nay.” She said it slowly but with a voice grown unsure. “I recall nothing.” But one glance down at her hands, and I spotted what she did not seem to be aware of.
Her knuckles had paled to bleached white, and her hands visibly shook. Boylena had lost something precious to her. She might not know it, but some vi
sceral awareness deep down inside of her did, and the horror of that loss had only just begun for her.
My soul shriveled within me.
“Thank you, Boylena. You’ve been very helpful.”
Turning my back on her, I looked at Syrith. “Where would your parents be? Do you know?”
“At Father’s family estate.” He shook his head, still looking dazed.
The sinking feeling of before only intensified. If his parents were in Olympus, then I had a terrible idea I knew what’d happened today. And by all that was holy, I could only pray I was wrong.
“Call them,” I said.
He nodded as I created a bubble that would be able to call through dimensions and time.
The glistening orb floated before our eyes.
“Mother!” he said sharply. “Father! Come to me now.”
In seconds, the lambent sheen turned thick with coalescing color. And then the image of a fearful queen filled the screen. She was blond haired and blue eyed. Her features were exotic and lovely, and I could see parts of Syrith in her.
“Syrith? By all that’s holy, what’s the matter with you, boy?”
Zelena’s eyes turned immediately toward me. There was a quick frown and then a moment of clarity. “Ah, I see. You won our boy’s heart after—”
There was absolutely no time for exchanged pleasantries. Holding up my hand, I cut her words short. “Listen to me, Queen, and listen well, for I haven’t much time. Do not return to Kingdom, whatever you do. Do not step foot inside this realm.”
“What?” Suddenly, the face of Ragoth filled the screen. The King looked not only confused, but also angry. Swarthy skinned, with shaggy black hair, he had definitely passed his traits down to Syrith.
This was not the first impression I’d wished to give my in-laws, but it was imperative they stay where they were.
“Terrible magic has been unleashed upon this world,” I said, speaking slowly but concisely. Syrith’s fingers dug into my lower back. I knew shock still kept him quiet.
“What’s happened? Is Syrith all right?” the queen asked in a fearful rush.
I shook my head. “For now, yes. But time has altered. People have vanished. If you come back, I fear that the same could happen to Syrith. Somehow, he’s still here, and I think the reason is because you were not. You were not touched by the magic, ergo, the magic left him be.”