“I’m on juice duty,” William said, grabbing cups from a cabinet. He opened the refrigerator and brought out a pitcher of purple liquid.
“I’ll entertain and enlighten our guest,” Daniel said, pulling out a chair and bowing, gesturing with one hand for me to sit.
“And set the table,” Evan said without turning.
“I can do something,” I said.
“No way,” Daniel said. “You’re the princess. We’re just commoners.”
As I looked around at my wonderful boys, I knew they were anything but common. Or maybe common was a good thing. Maybe deep down I was common, too. I knew in that moment that I would give up a crown, a throne, and all the treasure in the world to stay here with these common boys in their common shifter house.
Daniel set plates on the table, and a minute later, Evan set scrambled eggs and strips of curly red and white meat.
“This is what smells so good,” I said.
“You’ve never had bacon?” Daniel asked, dropping a handful of forks onto the small, chipped table. The four of them gaped at me like I’d just said that I’d never seen the sky.
“And I thought sex would be the best thing we taught you,” Jack said with a wink.
Before I could answer, a loud booming sound came from outside, and the house shook on its blocks.
“What was that?” William asked, his eyes wide. The others were all staring wide-eyed, too. We stared at the door, which opened to the left of the kitchen and the right of the sitting area. It flew open with a bang, then hung at an awkward angle.
My mother loomed in the doorway. “Well, well, well. What do we have here?”
“Mother Dear,” I said, rising halfway from my chair. “How did you find me?”
“Oh, I wonder,” she snarled. “Do you really think I’m too stupid to find you? Just because you’re an imbecile doesn’t mean that I am.”
“Hey,” Jack said. “That’s not necessary.”
“You!” Mother Dear swung around, pointing a trembling finger at him. “You dare to speak to me after defiling my daughter?”
“I didn’t defile her,” Jack said. “I—I love her.” He turned to me, his eyes earnest. “I do, Astrid. I love you.”
“Oh, Jack,” I said, running around the table and throwing my arms around him. “I love you.”
A high-pitched laugh shrieked through the room. “Oh, this is too pathetic,” Mother Dear said, still tittering. “My dear child, you can’t really believe this boy loves you.”
I felt Jack’s body against mine, as firm and sure as the earth that had greeted my feet when I finally braved my escape from this monster.
“He does,” I said, releasing him and turning to face her. “They do.”
Her eyes moved from one boy to the next as they joined me. Jack rested his hands on my hips, and William took my hand in his, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Daniel took my other hand, lacing his fingers with mine.
“We do,” Evan said, stepping up beside Jack.
Mother Dear’s eyes narrowed, her lip curled in disgust. “I guess what they say is true. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
“What apple?” I asked.
“You, you idiot,” she said. “Even when it’s plucked as nothing more than a bud, and raised far from this degradation and depravity, it’s in your blood. You can’t help what you are. I guess I shouldn’t expect more than to find you letting a bunch of dirty shifters take turns with you.”
“I think that’s enough,” Jack said, his voice low and menacing, nothing like the boy of sunshine and dimples I’d become accustomed to.
“I’m a witch,” I said to Mother Dear. “Don’t I get a collective?”
“You’re no witch,” she said. “You’re trailer trash just like the boys you picked. I guess I can’t blame you for being attracted to the very type you came from. I had hoped I could do better, but you can’t fight your nature, can you, Astrid?”
“You knew I was an eagle all that time,” I said. “Didn’t you? You just didn’t want me to know, because then I might fly out of my prison.”
“Prison?” She drew back, her pretty face indignant. “I gave you everything a girl could dream of. What more could you ask for?”
“Life,” I whispered, her betrayal fresh all over again. All that time, all those years, she had known. She had held me in that tower when I could have flown free. She had lied, told me I’d never be myself again if I shifted into my true form.
“Life? I gave you life. I birthed you from a borrowed body, enduring the agony of childbirth for a daughter who wasn’t even mine. One day, I’d hoped she would be grateful.”
“What?” I gasped, clutching at the boys’ hands to steady myself.
“You want the truth?” Mother Dear asked. “Fine, here’s the truth. Your father is a very weak man, Astrid. He’s hardly more than an animal even in human form. In his youth, before he met me and knew real love, he was a slave to the desires of the flesh. He fell under the spell of the worst sort of girl, a piece of white trash who spread her legs for whatever came her way. But all he saw was a tight young body, and he couldn’t help himself. And that’s where you came from.”
“Where?” I asked, shaking my head in confusion.
“Oh, for goddess sakes,” she said. “He got her pregnant, you dimwit. And because he has a tender heart, he believed he could save even a piece of trailer trash like her. So, he married her. Remember when I told you about his first wife who died of madness? That’s—your—mother.” She ground the words out through clenched teeth, staring at me with such hatred my insides seemed to liquify.
“I’m not your daughter?” I asked, too bewildered to think of anything else. For some reason, that betrayal hurt almost worse than the others. That’s what I’d always been above all else, above even being a princess. Tears filled my eyes as I stared at this woman, this stranger.
“You’re my daughter,” she said. “I raised you, didn’t I? I loved and protected and provided for you when no one else wanted you. And what do I get in return? A daughter determined to follow in that woman’s tragic footsteps. Your birth mother was weak, too, though. I can’t really blame you for being the way you are, coming from two such weak souls.”
“My mother didn’t want me,” I whispered, swiping tears off my cheeks as they began to solidify.
“No,” Mother Dear said. “She didn’t. She was too busy pining after your father, who by then had realized his folly. He left her and married someone worthy of his position—the wolf princess. But he didn’t love her. He only loved me, as I love him. Our love will transcend even death.”
“Then why didn’t he marry you?” I asked.
She strode forward, and her hand whipped out, stinging across my cheek. Tears burst from my eyes then, and I had to grab for them before the boys saw.
“Whoa,” Jack said, reaching around me to grab Mother Dear’s wrist. “I’d think before I touched this girl again.”
Mother’s eyes blazed with that otherworldly magic, and she yanked her hand upwards. Jack flew across the kitchen and slammed into the stove. The bacon pan went flying. Sizzling strips of bacon flew into the air, and hot oils splattered over the stove and the counters, the wall, the floor. Jack.
“Jack,” I cried, but Mother Dear grabbed my shoulders.
But no, she wasn’t my mother. She was Yvonne. I would never call her Mother Dear again.
“Did you not hear me, you imbecile?” Mother Dear demanded, shaking my shoulders. Daniel tried to pry her loose while his brothers ran to Jack. The oil behind us crackled, and flames licked up from the burner where the pan had been.
Mother kept speaking like she didn’t see any of it. Her eyes were ferocious. “Love has nothing to do with marriage. Stop living in a fairytale. Marriage is about what advantage you can bring to the table—wealth, a name, a position. I didn’t have any of that. But you do.”
“That’s what you’ve been preparing me for all my life?” I sniffled, gathering t
reasure in my hand until I thought it would spill out between my fingers. Smoke billowed from the stove, and the flame shot higher when William threw water on it.
“No, stupid girl. I have been preparing you to be a queen. I don’t give a damn about your love life.”
“Right,” I said, my eyes suddenly feeling dry as dust. I watched as if far away as the flame caught the curtain, devouring it in one hungry suck. Yvonne wasn’t my mother. She didn’t care if I was loved or happy. She only wanted me to do her bidding, to live the life she’d always wanted but never had. “If I’m not your daughter, why didn’t I live with Father Dear? At least I’m his child.”
Mother Dear gave me a haughty stare. “Because he didn’t want you,” she said. “He never wanted you. No one wanted you, Astrid. He was done with your mother before you came along. He only claims the daughters he had with his second wife.”
My eyes stung with the smoke, and tears began again, but my feet stayed planted to the floor. I swallowed hard, wishing I hadn’t asked for the truth. This was more truth than I was prepared for. I couldn’t deny it, though. Father Dear knew I was alive, had always known I was in that tower, and he’d never come to take me out. On occasion, he had come to visit me, but only when Mother Dear was there, and when she left, he had always gone with her. If he wanted me, he could have taken me to his home in the shifter valley long ago.
I didn’t even know if Yvonne wanted me, or if any princess would do. I only knew of four people who wanted me for who I was, not what I was. Four boys who I wanted more than I wanted treasure or titles, more than I had wanted to make Mother Dear happy. She had never worried about my happiness, after all. But they had.
“We need to get out,” Evan said, coughing on the smoke. He and William had given up on putting it out, and it was now rapidly devouring the walls.
They hauled Jack up, who hung limp between them.
“Not so fast,” Yvonne said, an evil smile twisting her lips. The door banged shut behind her.
“What are you doing?” I cried. “You can’t lock us in here. We’ll die.”
“Bravo,” Yvonne said, slowly clapping her hands together. “At least, they’ll die. We have magic, don’t we, dear?”
“We—we do?” I asked. “If I’m not your daughter, then that means I’m not a witch.”
“Look at that, it only took you five whole minutes to figure out that one simple fact. You’re not as stupid as I thought.”
“It’s not her fault that you failed to teach her the most basic things in life,” Daniel said. “That doesn’t make her stupid. That makes you evil.”
“Oh, he’s so cute when he’s angry,” Yvonne said. “I can see why you chose him.”
“Let us out,” William said, yanking at the doorknob.
The room was stifling, the smoke blurring my vision. Tears dribbled from my eyes, these ones brought on by the smoke. The window was right behind the fire, and the others were too small to provide any relief, though they were open. If anything, the draft coming in the lone window in the sitting room was making the flames move faster.
“This trailer isn’t meant for fire,” William shouted. “We’re going to cook in here in under a minute.”
“Let them out,” I yelled at Yvonne, forgetting all about our quarrel. What mattered was getting the boys out.
“I might,” Yvonne said. “If you go back to the tower where you belong and wait for your day in the sun like you were supposed to. You got greedy, though, and now your boys will pay.”
“Go out the bedroom window,” I said to Daniel, slipping my hand in his pocket and opening it, spilling a fistful of gold.
“Not without you,” he said. “No way are we leaving you.”
“Go,” I yelled, but when I turned, my heart nearly stopped. The flames had filled the entrance to the hallway, racing down the walls. We didn’t have even a minute.
“Okay,” I said to Yvonne, grabbing her arm. “I’ll do whatever you want. Just let them out.”
“Just let them out?” Yvonne asked. “Now why would I do that?”
“Please,” I said. “I’ll never see them again. I promise.”
“No,” Evan yelled.
“It’s worth it if it means you can live,” I said, tears streaming off my face. I didn’t bother to catch them. What was treasure to a dead girl?
Pieces of plaster and wallpaper fluttered down like the flaming bodies of birds. Like the chance of freedom that my own flame-colored falcon had offered. That dream was dead. And if these boys died, if they were hurt, I’d die with them. Alone in my tower, I might look perfectly safe, but there would be no life left inside me. I would be like one of the shells Yvonne brought home, the lifeless bodies who she animated through her sorcery, through projecting herself into them.
I had been such a fool to think I could run, to think I could escape her. I had been naïve, so excited about leaving that I hadn’t even considered what she’d do when she caught up. I had known somewhere deep down that she would find me and bring me back.
Before then, I’d meant to get answers, to see the world I’d never been a part of. But I had thought I’d have more time, that I’d have a taste of freedom and then go home. I hadn’t considered what she would do to exact revenge, what punishment she would dole out for my insurrection. Of course she would want some revenge, some guarantee that I would never betray her again.
“I’m sorry,” I said, grasping at Yvonne. I threw my arms around her, clinging to her neck. “You were right. Their world is awful. Their house is a dump that deserves to burn. Please forgive me. Take me home, Mother Dear. I’ll never leave my room without permission again.”
The door flew open, and Evan threw William out. Daniel leapt out after him, rolling across the ground.
“Come on,” Evan said.
“No,” Jack cried, staggering toward me, a goose-egg knot on his forehead from where he’d hit the stove. His shirt was on fire, his eyes streaming tears. I knew now that I could never escape. And worse than that, if I refused to go back to the tower, the boys would never escape. They would never be safe as long as she knew I loved them.
“Go away,” I screamed at Jack. “I don’t love you. I only wanted someone to take me away. I don’t care about you. I don’t want you. Now get away from me.” I cowered against Mother Dear, turning my face away when I couldn’t bear to see the look on his face, like it was shattering before my eyes.
“Listen to the girl,” Yvonne said, holding up a hand. A streak of lightning shot from her palm, searing into Jack’s face. He screamed, clutching his face and stumbling backward. Evan tackled him and dove for the door just as the ceiling caved in. With a whoosh, the house went up like a fireball.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Astrid
A row of candles flickered in front of the mirror, their wax making misshapen, deformed figures. Inside the frame, two faces blinked back, one above the other. “A queen must always look the part,” Mother Dear said, standing behind my chair as she ran a comb through my hair. “Her long, flowing locks are one of her greatest assets.”
“Yes, Mother Dear,” I said.
“Which is why you shouldn’t have them right now,” she said. “It will be a while yet before you are ready to be a queen. First, you must prove yourself a worthy princess, and a worthy opponent to your sisters.”
“That’s right,” I said. “My evil sisters.” I barely felt the stroke of her machete-sized knife as she set down the comb and began to saw at my hair.
“Sisters who want you alive even less than your father,” Mother Dear reminded me. “They are the girls who will usurp your throne. They are the girls who would have you killed if they could. Despite your unsavory beginnings, you are the true heir, Astrid. You are the princess. That’s why I have kept you safely hidden all these years. When he no longer wants to rule, the shifters will recognize you, the child of his first wife. But if the daughters of his second wife have their way, you’ll never get that chance.”
; I mulled that over. “You said one of them wants to marry the wolf prince?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t we make a trade?” I said. “She gets the wolf prince, and I get the shifter crown. Then we can all get what we want.”
Mother Dear gave me a long look, one I’d never seen on her face before. One that said maybe I was more than she’d given me credit for. I couldn’t tell if she was proud or wary of me. I didn’t want her to think I was a worthy opponent of her, though. One day, I would be free. Until then, I had to play along.
“Right now, the prince isn’t as desirable as you imagine,” she said. “He’s quite hideous, in fact. But even still, I don’t think your sister will agree to such an arrangement. She’s stubborn and greedy. I have tried to reason with her, but she refuses to listen. She wants it all.”
I didn’t want any of it, but maybe if I went along with Mother Dear and accepted her word, I would live. Better still, my boys would live. Until then, I could only hope that they knew I hadn’t meant what I’d had to say. I had given them the treasure, but it killed me that I couldn’t do more, that I couldn’t see them again and make sure that they were okay.
“I’m working on getting him out of the picture,” Mother Dear was saying. “If I can find a way to gain control of the Second Valley, and you have control of the Third, we’ll be an unstoppable team.”
She stepped back and smiled at me in the mirror. I stared at my hair, the burned bits gone, the remaining length chopped to just around my ears. Mother Dear had cast a protection spell around us in the fire, but she’d let my hair burn, let me feel a shadow of what a real burn would feel like. But I didn’t care about my hair, or treasure, or looking like a queen. I didn’t even care about being queen.
I would do it to please Mother Dear for now. When I was queen, I could help the boys. I could help everyone in the valley who lived in a house no bigger than a box and slept on a couch. Even if I could never marry the boys, I could give them a better life, the way they’d given me a better life for a while.
Caged: A Twisted Fairytale Retelling Page 13