The Stepsister's Lament

by S R Nulton

  “And to answer your earlier question, until now I’d always hoped that you would take down my empire to start your own. I was thrilled to have such a conniving creature in my family. I’d been trying to work with your mother and aunt for years, but they were worthless in the end. Except every time I tried to bring you into the fold, it became more and more obvious how defective you really were. Instead of the perfect heir, I got a spineless little girl as a granddaughter. You have absolutely no ambition, no future, and I have no reason to keep you alive any longer. And your magic hasn’t come in yet, so you are still vulnerable.” She shrugged without remorse. At which point, Reese had finally had enough.

  He laughed, drawing her attention, but there was no humor in his eyes or his voice. “Foolish. You’ve underestimated her as much as everyone else in this kingdom. So shortsighted. She may not want the same things you do, but that hardly makes Joy lacking in ambition. Your intelligence gathering is in need of help if you actually believed that act. Or did you really think that Cinderella landed the throne without help?” He shook his head. “Your granddaughter’s ambition was never for power for herself, but to achieve safety for her family. For her sisters. But I wouldn’t expect a hag like you to understand such things.”

  The wolf growled again, louder this time. It precisely matched when my grandmother’s eye twitched as Reese called her a ‘hag’. That would be the only part she heard. Typical. Still, if he can get her angry enough to throw her off her game, maybe I can end this quickly…

  “Ah, yes. My granddaughter’s new traveling companion. It must have been your fault she’s been so difficult to find lately. Terribly rude of you! Still, thank you for the magnificent chase. I do love that part, almost as much as the look on my prey’s face when they realize that their death is imminent.” Her eyes unfocused slightly as she seemed to blissfully remember those moments once again. Then the moment was gone and her attention was back on my husband.

  She looked him up and down while Reese just glared. Honestly, her expression far more intimate than anyone else in that clearing was comfortable with. That includes the wolf-man standing beside us. It was almost exactly the same look Reese received when we stood before Charlotte only half a day before. I suppose there is a reason that they’re friends.

  Grandmother smirked. “Such a strapping young fellow, aren’t you? It will be so much fun to play with you after this is over. Why, I bet you’d be a perfect addition to my menagerie. I used to have quite a large one, but I had to pare down in recent months,” Grandmother huffed. “It’s only me and wolfie now, sadly.”

  My breaths sped up. I remembered some of her menagerie. Men she had cursed, sealing their will and making them absolute slaves. They were her toys, used when she wanted to try new spells and torture devices on someone. The lucky ones were able to take their own lives before she could steal their control completely. It was a miserable existence no one should ever experience.

  I couldn’t let her get Reese! I wouldn’t let him end up like those broken creatures. It was time to stop hiding and end it once and for all.

  “If I come quietly, will you let him go?” I asked, trying to play up the innocent, scared routine. I mean, I was terrified, but thinking of it as an act was helping calm me down.

  Reese was growing more agitated though. He didn’t like the idea and had no clue that I’d been planning this all along. If I wasn’t careful, he would ruin everything. Though, if I was being honest, he’d been making me rethink the plan. He was complex enough to make a girl want to stick around and figure him out. I didn’t have the luxury though.

  Grandmother laughed. Hard. She actually wiped a tear from her eye before standing up properly and looking at me with her head canted. “Why on earth would I do that? I’ll be killing you either way, and it’ll be so much more fun if you fight. After all, if you don’t defeat me, I will be free to do whatever I want to your handsome friend there. Not that you actually have a chance. It might be fun to keep you around to see what happens though.”

  Then she smiled. It was the first time I’d ever seen my grandmother smile. I never wanted to see that horrific expression again.

  “Joy!” Reese bellowed. He reached for me, but was too late. I’d already been dragged from his side by the wolf.

  The pain was worse than anything I’d ever experienced. At first, it was like someone had stabbed me with an icicle – sharp and cold. Then came the fire. It raked down my back, away from the ice in my leg. I think I screamed, but I couldn’t hear over the violent drumming in my ears.

  My head snapped to the side as I was shaken and I felt the ice and fire reverse. Suddenly, my leg had flames running up and down it, pumping through my veins with every breath as the biting cold spread across my back, circling my body and preventing me from moving.

  Hot tears poured down my face, making everything blurry. I could still spot Reese though. His mouth was open wide and he was yelling angry words at my grandmother. It was a spell unlike any I had ever seen. She was shocked, but not unprepared. She never went anywhere without at least twenty anti-spells on her person. They cost a fortune, but she had connections and was more than willing to pay. As I watched her protection flared to life in the form of a glowing blue shield. Reese kept trying though, thinking that if he killed her, then he would be able to come help me. Silly, loyal fool.

  I wanted to tell him to stop. I’d found a spell a long time ago that would solve all our problems. We were tied together a little tighter every time she’d used my blood and hair to hunt me down. Revenge spells are remarkably simple, if the other person hates you enough. All I had to do was die and so would she. Everyone would be safe then! My grandmother would never harm another person and my life would have fulfilled its purpose! I just had to get Reese away from her first.

  Yet, in the back of my mind, I knew didn’t want to go through with it anymore. I was married! And to someone who had begun to make me feel worthwhile! He didn’t insult me, even when I still spoke in poetry. He seemed to think I was beautiful and intelligent and clever. And brave. More importantly, he didn’t hate me like I’d always assumed eventually he would. It was no longer about the easy way out or my death being the best option for the country. Now I had to protect Reese. I had to save him from the death sentence that followed me for my entire life.

  I could feel the wolf shift back from his furred form to his human one and back again as I turned my head to face him. Now that I was injured, he was repositioning to attack my husband. At the same time, Grandmother readied a curse to trap Reese and control him. Reese was trying to split his attention, but it was mostly centered on the near-rabid wolf. That was the wrong target.

  There was only one thing to do. Reese couldn’t stop both of them on his own.

  As he turned to attack, I made my move before Grandmother could. I jumped (more like flopped, considering my injuries) in between them, nullifying Grandmother’s curse. It had been meant to enslave him, but those things never worked on family.

  My strength was completely gone now. I couldn’t move if I tried. It was over. Grandmother shrieked and turned to me, readying another curse. Before she could cast it, there was a howl and she stopped. I turned my head and saw a crossbow bolt in the wolf’s heart.

  It takes a lot to kill a wolf shifter. Their bodies are incredibly dense, so it didn’t overly surprise me to see the bolt working its way into his body, inch by inch. The wolf shifted back to human and stared at his chest in awe. After a moment more, he looked at me and smiled, his eyes full of grief but also at peace. He mouthed ‘Sorry’ to me and a tear trailed down his cheek. All the while the bolt continued to dig deeper into his chest. Finally, he turned to my grandmother and his expression changed, eyes hardening.

  “The contract is binding.” His voice was rough with pain, but it was so different from what I remembered. It was clear of the brighter echo that had been there when I heard it as a child. My grandmother no longer controlled him! He was finally free!

  The
man collapsed. He took three more breaths and then went still.

  “No!” Grandmother shrieked. “This can’t happen! No, no, no!” Then she drew in a breath so sharp that she croaked. A dark spot grew on her blouse, right over her heart. In the same place the wolf had been shot. Then her eyes glazed and she collapsed. It was over. It was finally over.

  Reese gaped for a moment before running to my side.

  “Joy! Joy, come on, look at me! Don’t leave me, little gem. You can’t leave me. You have to hold on until I can get you some help. Do you understand?”

  I smiled at him as my eyes dragged themselves down. “Better this way. So… sorry.” The last thing I heard was Reese screaming my name over and over. Then everything was dark.

  ~

  “Joy? JOY! Someone, get help!”

  “Reese… happened?”

  The shadows kept moving. They wouldn’t stay still. Neither would the fire. It was licking at my bones, liquefying them. They would start leaking out soon. Little rivers of bones! That seemed funny, somehow. And wrong, but I didn’t know why.

  “Hold on, little gem. Just hold on!”

  I recognized that voice. It was familiar. There were other familiar voices, but not like this. This was more. More important than the rivers of bones. Which still didn’t make sense.

  Why didn’t that make sense?

  Then the ice began to burn me.

  ~

  I was lost in the woods. There were flowers everywhere but they burned when I touched them. A streak of gold and black circled the clearing, getting closer and closer. I looked down and shrieked as I saw myself wearing Grandmother’s dress.

  I tried to take it off. To rip it off. It hurt, shrinking and shrinking until I couldn’t breath. It stuck to me and stained my hands with blood. It made my hands bleed. The flowers were drenched with the blood from my dress. From my hands. I was drowning in it.

  Sinking.

  Sinking into the flowers.

  Into the blood.

  Into the earth.

  Something dark jumped out of the woods and attacked me. A wolf. A wolf with eyes as dark as shadows and cold as ice. I missed the gold and black. Gold and black had color and warmth.

  The shadows were swallowing me.

  Drowning me.

  Pushing me into the flowers.

  The blood.

  The earth.

  The dark.

  ~

  Lights moved above me. It was brighter than before, but not bright enough to get rid of the shadows. Everything was dark. Dark like the wolf’s eyes. The fire and ice had switched. I wanted to push the feeling away. To push the shadows away. Still couldn’t… move…

  “… lost a lot of blood… fix her…”

  “What do you expect me to do? And why would you even want to save her? She should have just sacrificed herself for you, like she agreed. Honestly, can’t the wench do anything right?” The last part was muttered by the annoying voice, but I could still hear it.

  “Excuse me?!” Someone was mad. There were more words, but I couldn’t make them out. Still, they pushed at the darkness. A bit.

  “… poisoned… will be touch and go… a while… I wouldn’t hold out too much hope, highness.”

  “Thank you. You are no longer needed. Now leave and never come back!”

  ~

  The shadow eyes were gone. The dream was gone. I knew that somehow. It didn’t make it better though.

  I was looking for someone.

  “Joy,” mother said. No, not mother. Cindy's Fey godmother. She was smiling with cruel eyes. How can summer sky blue look mean? “Take this basket with you when you go to your Grandmother’s. She was complaining of chest pains the other day, so she’ll be in a foul mood if you show up late. Just stay on the path. Stay on the path, Joy…”

  My red hood was up to fight against the wind as I made my way through the trees. I couldn’t see though. I couldn’t see anything. Everything was so dark. So, so dark. Dark like earth and flowers and blood. But flowers aren’t dark, are they?

  I was looking for someone. I couldn’t remember who though. I’d lost the path ages ago and didn’t quite mind. The path didn’t lead to the person. The person wasn’t on the path. Or maybe the path was wrong. I couldn’t remember. I just knew I needed to get to them. That person would help me remember what happened. They would keep me safe from the shadow eyes. Or maybe I was trying to keep them safe...

  I was looking for someone.

  The world tilted and I walked through a mirror into a ballroom. People were dancing in masks. Someone was watching me, but I couldn’t see who. It was the person I was looking for but I couldn’t find them in the crowd.

  I was looking for someone.

  The dancers were turning into trees and mountains and lettuces and thorns. A moose ran through the ballroom. The person wasn’t there.

  I was looking for someone.

  If only I could remember who.

  Chapter 15: There and Back Again

  The sunlight felt magnificent as it warmed my cheeks and made my scalp tingle. I hadn’t slept so late in years! Between helping Cindy with the chores around the manor and buying my produce at the village market, I was usually up long before the sun. The feeling was so pleasant that I decided I should stay there all morning.

  The only downside was the dove cooing incessantly outside the window. Doves, almost as bad as pigeons. All I wanted was for someone to shoot the stupid thing so I could go back to floating on the cloud of warmth and light. Petticoats rustled from beside the bed and I frowned. I lived alone in my aunt’s cottage and when I lived with mother everyone but her avoided petticoats like the plague. Something smelled different here too. It smelled like… gardenias. I hated gardenias. They always seemed to overpower any room they were in. Where was I?

  I opened my eyes and grew even more confused. I was lying in the most luxurious bed I’d ever slept in, under a canopy made of pale pink silk and lace. The room was done up almost exclusively in white and pink and there was a woman next to me, dressed like a maid and arranging a bouquet of gardenias in a vase that cost more than my childhood home. This is an odd turn of events, I thought.

  “Where am I?” I croaked, mouth and throat dry as dust.

  She jumped about two feet off the ground. “Miss! You’re finally awake! I must go tell her majesty. She has been so worried!” And with a flurry of starched petticoats, she was gone. Without answering my question. Or getting me something to drink. Or doing anything a normal person would.

  I shook my head. Wherever I was, the staff was far too excitable. I pushed myself up in bed and groaned. Everything was sore, even the tops of my feet and the tips of my ears. I didn’t even know that was possible! How do you overwork your ears? Are there even muscles there to work?

  Before I could move much farther, the door slammed open and Cindy sailed into the room.

  “Joy! Oh, thank the skies you’re all right! I was so worried!” She threw her arms around me, weeping. I patted her back awkwardly and watched as her husband and Reese walked in, gently closing the door behind them. My eyes scoured Reese from head to toe, looking for anything wrong, but he seemed perfectly fine, apart from the worry in his eyes. Muscles I hadn’t realized were tense relaxed and I felt an echo from my earlier dream, but couldn’t hold the memory captive. It floated away quickly, but left me with a profound sense of satisfaction, like when you find something you thought you’d lost.

  “So you finally decided to wake up, little gem? We were getting more than a little concerned,” he said, moving closer.

  “How long was I asleep?” I croaked. Cindy gasped and rushed over to the washstand before coming back with a glass of water. She took the time to reposition my pillows into a backrest, but as soon as I was done drinking, she put the cup on the side table and cuddled up beside me in bed. I sighed. “Thank you, Cindy.”

  She nodded and worked to regain her composure before telling me that I’d been asleep just over a week. Prince Chris
topher watched her, taking note of her position. He looked up at me and cocked his head to the side.

  “She did this every time I got sick or injured when we were younger. Same with Portia. I can’t even tell you how many times she got sick because she was curled up in bed with us. Just be prepared, because she will do it to you as well.”

  His eyebrows shot up and Cindy gasped. “You’re speaking normally! I mean, not rhyming. I thought at first that it was just because your throat was so dry that you couldn’t really talk, but it isn’t that at all, is it? You don’t have to speak in poetry anymore!”

  I nodded. “Reese helped me break the curse. He knows a Fey who told me how to do it.” Before I could try and restate the sentence in a more sensical way, Cindy started hugging the stuffing out of me, telling me how happy she was. I stayed quiet until Cindy settled back down, then asked, “What happened, Reese?”

  I watched as his eyes clouded over with memories and pain. He took in a deep breath and sighed. “It isn’t a pretty story. Are you sure you want to know?”

  I nodded.

  “Alright. We were in the clearing, you remember? You and the hag were talking, when I saw the man from the woods shift into a giant wolf and lunge at you. I tried to help, but you were down before I could move. Then the hag started throwing a spell at me. I had to block it or I would have helped you immediately. I swear!” His eyes pleaded for my understanding. I just nodded again and let him continue.

  “I knew that she’d get me if I moved to help you, so I tried to take her down, but she had anti-spells all over her and I kept getting blocked. The wolf, he let you go, shifted into a human and leapt at me. Actually, he was rapidly shifting between human and wolf, like he couldn’t hold either form. Anyway, your grandmother started to throw something when I turned to the wolf and you jumped in front of me. Somehow, it didn’t affect you?”

  He eyed me, clearly wondering what I had done, but I just shook my head. I’d explain after. “Just before the wolf could attack again, a crossbow bolt flew out of the forest and hit the him in the heart. He turned human, fell to the ground, declared some sort of contract complete, and died, followed closely by the hag, for no apparent reason. Except she had the same wound as he did, minus the bolt sticking out of it.”