Ashes to Ashes

by M. J. Padgett

  “Go now, or I mean it, I will call the police and have you arrested.” I ushered my sister into the building, but not before Ely got in one last snide remark.

  “Aw, but then who would protect you from the big, bad... oh, wait, I guess you are the big, bad wolf, aren’t you? Never mind.” He shrugged, which pushed me too far.

  He pushed the button, the over-protective sister button that no one in their right mind should go near, let alone push. Forget push, Ely and his merry band of annoyances were jumping up and down on it. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to protect my sister, and I intended to let him in on that bit of information. Only, he didn’t give me much of a chance to exert my fury. He stunned me into silence with his next declaration.

  “Sierra Monroe, mark my words. You will take your rightful place in the world, and when you do, I will be standing right beside you.” He took a few steps closer, and I took one back, bumping into my sister. “You are the Crown Princess of Goldene Stadt, the future queen, like it or not.”

  His Cheshire grin was a good indicator he was leaving out a large chunk of information, but he soon threw that on me as well, leaving Cecily as stunned as I was. “And I have every intention of being your king.”

  My jaw fell open of its own accord, and I heard the blonde woman, the one Ely called a Grimm, sigh loudly.

  “Ely, I believe that will be enough. Why don’t you occupy yourself while Brody and I have a productive meeting with Miss Monroe and her dear sister,” she said.

  Ely smirked and turned on his heel. He looked over his shoulder, his mahogany eyes locking with mine before he turned and disappeared behind the building. Say what you will, but his outburst did the trick. They had my attention again, against my better judgment.

  Heidi spoke again, pulling my attention back to her rather than the place Ely disappeared. “My apologies again for my friend. He’s always been a little... a bit...”

  “Stupid?” Cecily finished.

  “Yes. Stupid. That’s a good word,” Brody responded, his laid back and carefree personality much more approachable than Ely’s brooding overconfidence. He offered his hand to my sister. “Miss Monroe, I’m Brody Morrison. This is my wife, Heidi, and our friend Felix. May we have a word with the two of you? In private?”

  Cecily shook Brody’s hand hesitantly. I was concerned that I suddenly felt much more comfortable with them than I should. I didn’t like it; it was far too suspicious. I glanced around, taking in my surroundings. When I looked to the ground, I saw Heidi’s hands were rigid, her fingers outstretched, palms slightly facing me.

  “Are you... doing something to us?” I asked, finding her stance odd.

  “What?” she asked nervously. “Um... n-no. Why would you—”

  “Stop that,” I said, smacking her hands. “I don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s something. I feel strange, and I’m pretty sure you’re doing it somehow!” For a moment I thought maybe she caused the burning paper towels, but it couldn’t have been her. She wasn’t even at the diner when it happened.

  Heidi relaxed her hands and pursed her lips. “I’m sorry, I just thought—”

  “If you want us to trust you, maybe you should start with a little honesty,” I spat, taking my sister by the hand and dragging her inside.

  We climbed the stairs two at a time, desperate to get away from the people I knew, I just knew were going to cause more trouble than they were worth. Whatever was wrong with me, Cecily and I could figure out on our own just as we had done our entire lives.

  I heard the front door of the apartment building slam behind me, then the shuffling of feet. If nothing else, they were persistent. I tried to ignore the fact that I was still curious and kept moving. I pushed our apartment door open and shoved my sister in. She entered with a huff, one that said she was perfectly capable of handling herself, and I didn’t need to treat her like a child. I ignored it and glanced down the stairs to see who was following us.

  “It’s just me,” Brody said. “Just the lowly human with zero powers, I swear.”

  He held his hands up, a defensive position that exhibited his willingness to walk away if I wanted him to.

  “All I ask is you hear us out. I understand, I really do. This has been a circus from minute one, and I totally get why you’d want to run away. Believe me, I was as freaked out as you when I found out my best friend was... is... like you. And Ely, that jerk face almost ate me, so I’m not really his biggest fan either, but I promise he kinda grows on you after a while. Like, five years. Give it five years, and you won’t want to stab him in the face with a butter knife at dinner,” he joked.

  I didn’t want to, but I chuckled at his attempt at making fun of Ely. But all jokes aside, I didn’t want trouble. I avoided trouble as much as possible.

  “Look, I hear you, but we can’t deal with this right now, okay?”

  “Okay,” he said and turned around. He let his hand fall on the door handle and slowly turned it, then eased the front door open, ready to leave as promised.

  “Wait, that’s it?” I asked, shocked.

  He looked back and said, “If you don’t want to listen, I can’t make you.” Then, he shrugged and pushed the door open and exited without so much as a single how-do-you-do. Darn him.

  “Wait!” I yelled, jogging halfway down the stairs to meet him.

  He ducked his head through the door, a goofy smirk on his face.

  “I just know I’m gonna regret this, but come in. Bring your friend and your wife but tell her to check her weird abilities at the door.”

  He smiled, and a cute little dimple appeared in his cheek. I hadn’t noticed just how handsome he was until then, but his flashy smile, adorable dimple, and curiously excited eyes made for a fine-looking face. Heidi Grimm, what a lucky little witch—Oh! That’s it, she’s a... geez, this is getting confusing.

  He waved them in, and the three climbed the stairs eagerly. I let them into our cramped apartment, said a prayer Dannie wouldn’t come home anytime soon, then shut the door.

  “Spotless, a girl after my own heart,” Heidi said, her German accent thick now that we were behind closed doors.

  “Sierra?” Cecily asked, peeking around the corner from the kitchen. “What’s going on? You let them in?”

  “Calm down and let me think,” I scolded.

  She narrowed her eyes at me but shut her mouth all the same. I felt sorry for snapping at her, but my limits had been passed long ago.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to lash out at you. I just want to hear them out, then they’ll go, right?” I asked Brody.

  “Right,” he said with finality.

  Cecily pursed her lips and chewed the inside of her cheek, a bad habit I usually fussed about, but all things considered, it didn’t really matter. She wiped her hands on a towel and tossed it on the counter, then joined us in the living room. Heidi and Brody sat on our sofa while I took the chair. Felix seemed unnerved and paced at the front door. If he really was a guard, I assumed it was his usual state of being. Cecily wouldn’t sit. Much like Felix, she liked to pace when she was nervous, annoyed, frustrated—she just liked to pace.

  “I know this is all so overwhelming, and that’s why I was trying to ease the tension for your sake. I’m... well, everything on the table, I am a witch, but I promise I had your best interest at heart. I’m sorry. I see now it was wrong to control your emotions, and it won’t happen again,” Heidi said.

  “And what are those interests?” I asked, surprised she confirmed my earlier suspicion, but more surprised I actually believed her. What other explanation was there?

  “Perhaps I should begin at the beginning,” Heidi replied.

  “Always a good place to start,” Cecily said, her sarcasm strong after very little sleep.

  Heidi didn’t seem to notice and continued, “A very long time ago, an evil princess cast a spell on her own family. She cursed her siblings to turned into wolves, the same as you. Just in the nick of time, their mother was able to cast a
spell that protected them from harm by, shall we say, adjusting the curse. Her seven children, they’re all just like you, cursed to turn on a blue moon.”

  “Are you saying we’re one of her children? Because we turn on every full moon, not just a blue moon,” I clarified.

  “Heavens no. All the Salien children are accounted for, and Snow White has been... dealt with,” Heidi said, giving us a moment to process.

  “Snow White, you say?” I asked.

  She nodded her agreement, then said, “It’s a long story, and one day I may have the time to tell you every detail, but it’s your story that concerns us today. You see, we assumed Snow was the evil mastermind behind the curse, but it seems it’s your aunt who developed the spell in the first place.”

  “Our aunt?” Cecily remained quiet while I questioned Heidi’s story.

  “Yes. Your aunt, Cinderella. Ella, I’m told she goes by.”

  Brody had been quiet while Heidi explained, but he chose to speak when the tale took another turn toward crazy town— more insane than what we were used to, at least.

  “I know this is nuts, and if it will help you understand, Calla is happy to speak to you anytime you want. We can even take you to Schwarzwald, and you can see the—”

  “I’m so confused,” Cecily interrupted. “Are you implying that Cinderella is real, and she cursed us to be wolves? Why would she do that?” Her tone was skeptical, not unlike my own wandering mind.

  “She wanted the crown, and the only way to do that was to eliminate her competition. She couldn’t simply eliminate her step-sisters, the rightful heirs. That wouldn’t have been enough. She also had to dispose of their children who would fall in line before her. From what we have gathered from our informants, she assumed as Snow did, that she could turn you, tell the world the wolves ate you, then send her huntsmen to slaughter the wolves leaving no trace of foul play.”

  Try as I may, I couldn’t wrap my mind around her words. “Complicated does not begin to describe this plan of hers, but even if I did believe you, how could we be her nieces? That story is over two hundred years old.”

  “The stories were published over two-hundred years ago in a misguided attempt to find the Salien children. My brothers tried everything else, so in desperation, they had the stories printed with the hope someone may read them and connect,” Heidi said.

  “Connect?”

  “Yes, um... somehow know the stories were about them.”

  “I see, so... if they were written long ago...” I began, then paused to think.

  Heidi and Brody shared a measured look that made me nervous, so I stopped my line of questioning. Heidi nodded, alluding that Brody should take this one. He looked at us both with confidence.

  “I really hope you’re not the kind of girl who worries about her age,” he joked, once again trying to use humor to smooth over a complicated situation. It worked—for a minute.

  I laughed. “Okay then, how old am I supposed to be?”

  “Fifteen hundred and ten, give or take a couple. I’m not perfectly clear on the exact year of birth,” Brody said.

  He was met with blank stares and blinking from both of us. Cecily looked at me and laughed, probably not believing a word Heidi said. If she’d been in the bathroom with me when the paper towels caught fire, she might not have brushed them off so easily.

  “We look pretty good for ancient people,” she teased.

  “I’m serious, Cecily. This is no laughing matter despite my husband’s penchant for humor. I fear for your safety and that of your sister. You see, this is not the first life you’ve lived. You’ve lived plenty, but you’ve also died plenty. Each time you reappear just as you always have, with the same curse in your DNA.”

  “I’m sorry, are you saying we reincarnate? Impossible. I don’t believe in such things,” I said, though I was beginning to question almost everything.

  Heidi sighed, accepting that she would not force anything on us, no matter what she did.

  “This is a lot to take in, but the main thing I need you to understand is that you are the rightful heir to the throne of Goldene Stadt, and your people suffer greatly without you. Your father is recovering from his own curse, and your mother is a pigeon, an actual bird stuck in a cage. I do not kid you when I say, the situation for your people is dire. We must act soon.”

  “Sierra?” a male voice startled me, and I realized I didn’t lock my front door. Ely stood in the doorway, cautiously, with his hands clasped in front of him.

  “Ely, not now. We were just discussing—”

  “You were throwing information at them like an audio version of Encyclopedia Britannica, Heidi. Look at them! Their eyes are glazed over. And what is that? What is that thing Cecily is doing?” He pointed to my sister, his gaze locked on her hands.

  “It’s a nervous twitch, screw off,” she said, her fingers tapping against her palms quickly. She did it whenever she needed soothing. I remembered it well from our childhood, the last time she’d ever done it.

  “You’ve given them twitches, Grimm. Way to go,” Ely said, stepping fully into the apartment and shutting the door behind him.

  “Twitches or not, I believe them. What do you want from us?” Cecily asked.

  My head instinctively jerked toward my sister. “What? You must be kidding me. You cannot be serious right now,” I said, but I couldn’t tell if I was more shocked she believed them so easily, or that I was beginning to feel less trusting with each bit of the story. “This is insane.”

  Cecily stopped pacing and pointed her full attention at me.

  “Si, cool your jets and think about it for a minute. How normal are we? Seriously, we turn into wolves! Wolves, Sierra! Haven’t you ever wondered why?”

  “Of course! However, I assumed it was a genetic mutation, a little quirk in the DNA. Never once did I think, oh, I must be the descendant of a sociopathic fairytale princess,” I yelled back at her.

  “Aline Vogel, the step-sister of Cinderella to be exact,” Ely said, and I shot him a deathly glare. “But who cares?” he backpedaled, throwing his hands in the air.

  “I want to hear more, Si. It can’t hurt to hear everything, right? What if...” she paused, afraid to push me when I was on the verge of—honestly, I had no idea what I was on the verge of but going off the deep end seemed like a good place to start.

  “Go ahead,” I urged, vowing to give her a chance to speak, to offer her opinion. I had a bad habit of making all the decisions, and it was tiring after so many years.

  “What if we were meant for so much more than working at a crummy diner and living in a cramped apartment?” she asked.

  “So, you want to pretend you’re a princess instead? We’re a little old to run around pretending to be something we aren’t, something we can never be. We have lives, Cecily. They may not be great, but we cannot afford to traipse around acting as if we’re royals. This is our reality, and I’m sorry it’s not good enough for you, but I have tried.”

  Cecily looked crushed, but she couldn’t possibly feel as bad as I did. I’d given up everything to make sure she had a bright future, only to discover it wasn’t enough.

  “Actually, she is a real princess. You’re a crown princess, but again who cares about the semantics?” Ely interjected, determined to get himself killed by one of the butter knives in my kitchen Brody mentioned. Five years my butt. I doubted he’d live that long in my presence.

  “This is ridiculous. I need some fresh air,” I said firmly, then stomped to the front door.

  I turned the handle and pushed, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Darn door!” I kicked it, then tried to push it again. I threw myself at it, hurling my shoulder into the solid wood once, twice, again and again until it was too painful to attempt another time. I kicked it again, frustrated. I cursed it once more, then took a breath. One last time, I turned the knob and pushed, yet it held true.

  Ely took my hand gently and pulled me away from the door. He gripped the handle, turned it an
d pulled it open.

  “I often forget which way doors open when I’m frustrated. Don’t sweat it sweet cheeks. Come, let’s go for a little walk,” he said, pulling me out the door by my wrist.

  “I don’t want to walk with you. Don’t ever call me sweet cheeks again, or I’ll punch you in the face,” I snapped, jogging down the stairs ahead of him.

  “At least let me show you how to shift at will. It will be so much easier on you. You won’t be a slave to the schedule any longer, Sierra. You can do what you want when you want,” he called from the top of the stairs.

  His offer was tempting. I hated to admit, but it would be nice to learn how he pulled that stunt in the forest.

  “Let me teach you, and if you still don’t trust me by then, I’ll leave forever... but I have a feeling you’ll want me to stay.”

  I rolled my eyes but waited while he descended the stairs with painstaking slowness. Such dramatics for a grown man.

  “You think I’ll want you to stay? Why is that?” I asked, making the mistake of assuming he had information that would be valuable to my sister and me that he was willing to share during our walk. It was an incorrect assumption.

  “I told you already. You’re going to fall in love with me Sierra, and once you accept that bit of information, everything else will fall into place just as it should.”

  “I highly doubt that, but I will take you up on the offer. The walk, not the falling in love nonsense. I don’t do love. It’s a waste of time,” I stated, quite sure I would always feel that way.

  There was nothing about Ely that was any different from any other man I’d ever encountered. He was egotistical, narcissistic, annoying, cocky, aggressive... adventurous, ambitious, honest, handsome, quick-witted, and his smirk was a little lopsided, which made me... oh, dear heavens.

  Chapter Three