by Kimbra Swain
Wind, earth, water, and fire. I was taking the power of the stones with me.
Levi twirled Excalibur in a large circle. The glittering portal appeared as his sweep completed the arch. A waft of the dank earthy smell of the Otherworld assaulted our noses. Inside the portal, I saw the empty room that once belonged to my father.
Troy stepped through with Driggs drawn. Finley lifted his sword just before he crossed over. I followed with Luther on my heels. Astor and Levi were the last to step through, but just as the circle closed. Dominick bounded through the opening.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Troy growled at him.
“You need me here,” he said.
“I told you to stay behind,” Troy said.
“Amanda is with the pack. They are protecting Grace’s house and children,” Dominick said. “I told you that I have to be here.”
“Enough! It’s too late now. Stop arguing,” I warned. Pointing at Dominick, I said, “You are in deep shit. Deep doggy doo-doo.”
“I know,” he conceded.
“The way I see it, you are all in deep shit,” a deep voice echoed through the empty room. The wall shimmered, and my Uncle stepped into sight. He’d been disguised by a glamour keeping him invisible to us.
Levi raised Excalibur which glowed in the darkness. Astor’s sword illuminated us from behind.
“Gloriana, welcome home. Levi, it is a pleasure to see you again,” he smirked, as two hulking ogres stepped up beside him. They stood over 8 feet tall with green skin marked with boils and oozing puss. One smacked his tree trunk-sized fist in his hand, while the other grinned so widely that drool dropped from his chin to the floor like a giant water balloon. “Kill them.”
The ogres charged us, so we spread out in different directions to give them multiple targets. Luther took the first hit, but he bounced off a wall with wings unfurled in a fiery blossom.
My Uncle quietly slipped out of the door of the chamber, magically shutting the doors behind him. I could get through the ward, but we had to survive the eye-broccoli brothers. Running to the door, I watched over my shoulder as my knights readied themselves to fight the brutes. The power of Winter flooded over me like an avalanche. I was home, and home was happy to see me. Keeping one eye on the fight behind me, I started working to disable the wards on the door. It was a task more suited to Levi, but he had a sword to use.
One of the ogres wielded a large club at anyone close to him. A gigantor size compared to the clubs the Yule Lads used at the swamp battle. And wielded was a loose term to say that he swung it around hitting everything in the room except us.
“Levi, I’m going to need a suppressor!” Troy yelled out as the club-less ogre headed toward him. Troy stood tall holding Driggs out before him.
“Silence!” Levi yelled, unleashing a thrum across his tattoo.
Troy began firing one of the magical guns. Fiery bullets streaked across the room hitting the ogre in the chest. The cave beast screamed in silence as he pounded his chest to put out the fire. Levi’s spell had silenced the entire room, not just the guns. Troy fired at the big guy again. The bullet dug deep into his skull. Flames shot out of his eyes, ears, and mouth. His final inaudible bellow died in a cloud of ash.
I stood in awe of the power of the guns. If only Dylan would have had the chance to…
“Grace!” Levi yelled, breaking the quiet.
Looking toward him, I realized the other monstrosity was headed toward me. I had been trained to fight. In fact, in my lifetime, I’d been in quite a few scuffles. It was time to show this crew what I could do. I met my brother’s eyes, and finally, he smirked. Whatever foul mood he had been in evaporated when he realized, I was about to show off.
“Freeze!” Levi yelled along with a tinkling sound from the strings on his arm.
The spell only slowed the ogre for a moment as the ice chunks that formed around his feet shattered with the weight of his stomp.
“Come to Momma,” I taunted. Reaching inside the breastplate of my armor, I withdrew two hilts. I gripped one in each hand and snarled at the beast. Forcing my winter power into the hilts, an icy blade grew by my command. No longer than a machete, the blade curved at the end leading to a point like a Bowie knife. I had practiced with all sorts of swords, but could never get the hang of a longer weapon. Short swords were just a little too bulky. The beauty of my icy blades was that I could change their shape at will.
At the last moment, the big, green oaf lunged toward me. I stepped sideways dragging the dagger in my left hand beside his neck. Black ichor rushed out of the gaping wound. He tumbled to the floor from the lunge that missed me. I jumped on his back and plunged both blades into his skull with a thunderous grunt. I snapped the ice blades off in his skull and waited for him to stop shuddering before I looked up.
Levi’s mouth hung wide open. The others were wide-eyed.
“What the hell was that?” Dominick said.
“I don’t know but that was sexy as fuck,” Levi said, as his gap formed into a grin. “Where did you get those hilts?”
“I hide them in my bra,” I grinned.
“That’s my trailer park queen!” he laughed.
I winked at him, then turned to Troy. “Nice guns,” I said.
“I want to shoot the other one now!” he smiled.
“Let’s find a target for you,” I said. “I feel the helmet. It’s in my room. Well, my old room.”
When I turned to go toward the warded door, I looked over to Levi knowing he could open them quicker than I could. He walked up next to me holding my father’s sword. I grew two new blades on my hilts as he yelled, “Open sesame!”
“Really?” I muttered.
The force of the wind that opened the doors knocked them off their hinges.
“Shall we?” he said.
“Let’s go,” I replied.
Levi and I led the way while our knights followed close behind.
As we ran down the corridor, we met two more ogres which were quickly dispatched by Troy and Driggs. The second gun fired bullets of pure electricity which shocked the ogres like they were having a date with Old Yeller. The humans in Alabama used to do executions by electric chair. The damned thing was painted yellow. Old Yeller, they called it. These wild fairies met with a dose of southern justice fairy style. Dylan would have been proud.
However, the charred bodies stank so badly that I became nauseous.
“Damn, that stinks,” Levi complained. “Stick with the fire one.”
“I agree,” I said, as we turned the last corner leading to my old chambers.
Thirty harpies stood between us and the door.
“Fuck a duck!” I yelled.
“I’m not fond of ducks,” Levi said.
“Stand down,” I ordered, hoping my claim to the throne was enough to control them.
“Queen Gloriana, you do not hold the throne in Winter. Until you do, you shall not pass. We will let you go, but you must turn back now,” the harpy in the front said.
“Astraea, let us past. The fate of all the Otherworld depends upon it,” Finley urged, stepping to the front of our group.
“Well, if it isn’t Prince Penis,” she mocked. The women behind her snickered at the name. I would have laughed in a different situation, but I decided to keep the nickname in my pocket for future use.
“This is serious, Astraea. Brockton will destroy the throne if he breaks down the veil,” Finley said ignoring the taunt. The fact that Finley knew her name didn’t surprise me. I was pretty sure he knew all the women in the Otherworld, and some of the men.
“We stand at the command of our King,” she said.
“He’s no King,” I growled.
“You’re no Queen,” she countered.
“I am Queen of the Exiles, daughter of Oberon, heir to the throne of Winter,” I said.
“Exiles! I hear you lived in a mobile home like a common wench. I hear that you adopted a human daughter. I hear you have a half-breed son by a dead bird,”
she said.
Leaning forward on my toes, I lifted my weapons with the icy blades pointed downward. “So be it,” I said.
She countered by lifting her staff with the curved blade at the end. The women behind her mimicked her movements. She nodded at me like she was giving me permission to strike first. I got the drop on the ogre, but I knew better than to try to fight a flock of harpies.
Dropping the blades to the floor, she watched them hit and shatter. She missed the part where I pulled power from Winter, the water stone, and the wind stone forcing an icy blast in front of me which froze them all instantly.
I brushed frost off my hands then, picked up the hilts of my daggers. “What are we waiting on?” I asked.
“Are you going to let the rest of us do anything?” Finley asked.
“You guys got a couple of ogres,” I said. “You can take the next one.”
“I call dibs,” Luther said.
“He beat you,” I laughed at Finley.
“I’ll get one. You will see,” Finley assured me.
“Let’s go. Don’t touch them. I don’t want them killed,” I said.
Levi moved to the front, leading the way through the ice statues. We gingerly walked through the half-woman, half-bird creatures. It amazed me that they fought bare-breasted. Getting one of those sliced-off would hurt like the dickens.
“Are you staring at their boobs?” Levi asked.
I blushed, “Maybe.” He laughed and shook his head. Holding our palms up to the door, we reached inside with magic to get a sense of what was on the other side. Looking at our hands side by side, my eyes focused on the diamond on my hand. It glittered in the earthy darkness of the Winter Otherworld. Levi’s hand flexed as he felt inside the room beyond the door. It was a reminder of how his use of magic had grown. When he came to me, he didn’t know much about it. I was supposed to teach him, but now the power he controlled outshone mine. “Just one?”
“I only feel one being in there. Feels familiar,” Levi said.
“Alright. Open the doors,” I said.
He raised his hands preparing for a spell. Pausing, I knew he was trying to think of another asinine spell command to use, but then he surprised me by lowering his hand to the door knob. He turned it quickly, and the door opened.
“It wasn’t locked,” he said.
“I see that,” I smirked. He lifted Excalibur and stepped into my old bedroom. We had been here before when he pulled nails out of my leg. He also played a very long healing tune while my father’s doctors tended my wounds. Dylan had been here too.
However, now the room was empty.
“Bath?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. Slowly we moved toward my favorite room in my father’s castle. Hell, it was my favorite room in the Otherworld. My bathroom.
Standing in the center of the Roman style bath was a face I hadn’t seen in a while. Steam rose from the water making the room hazy, but through it I could see her long black hair and piercing eyes. Her cheeks were covered with tracks of tears. The wet dress she wore exposed her body to us, leaving nothing to the imagination. She didn’t have a bruise or mark on her. Upon her head, she wore my father’s helmet, Goswhit.
Stephanie Davis had been saved from my wrath only to find herself imprisoned by the man she thought would become her king. Instead, he married her niece, Robin.
“Grace, please help me,” she whimpered. “You know this is a trap.”
I stared at her with indignation. I didn’t care what kind of trauma she had been through, she had tried for months to tear Dylan and I apart. She brought Brockton into Shady Grove knowing who and what he was. Most of all, as a mother, I despised her. She used her son as a pawn in her games. Anger welled up inside of me as I lifted my fingers to snap her out of existence.
“No, wait!” Levi said, grabbing my hand.
My anger unleased on him. “Levi Rearden, this is not the time for you to turn into my conscious,” I growled.
“He wants you to kill her. Just wait. He knows you would do it. Please listen to me,” he said trying to break through the anger and pain. Just seeing her brought back all the memories of Dylan and me.
“He’s right, Grace. He put the helmet on me to lure you here. He wants you to kill me, because he can’t do it himself. He swore an oath to me. Breaking it would mean his death,” she pleaded.
“Shut the fuck up right now!” I said, pointing at her.
“I know Dylan is dead. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry. He was a wonderful man, and I kept you from him. I have been horrible, but please don’t let Brockton win. Please, Grace,” she continued to cry out.
“Do not speak of him. Do you hear me? I was prepared to do this with little pain to you, but I will torture you by cutting your tongue out if you speak his name again!” I warned.
“She’s right, Glory. This is a trap and she is part of it,” Finley said. “I know you want to kill her, but you can’t. There is a reason.”
“I’ll kill her,” Luther said. Stephanie’s eyes widened. She hadn’t expected to hear that from him. Hell, I didn’t expect it from him either. “In my opinion, all of this is your fault because you just had to have him. He never wanted you, but you manipulated him, keeping him in your grasp. You knew he loved her. Don’t get me started on Devin.”
“My son! Is my son okay? What did you do to him?” she cried.
“Sister, be calm. Devin is fine. Grace returned him to his father, and they live in Shady Grove now,” Astor said with more kindness than any of us could muster.
“Brother, you know all of this started with her. She was supposed to marry you!” she snarled. “If anyone is to blame, it’s her. Filthy, trailer trash whore!”
She had flipped a switch from begging me for her life to berating me. Either she was insane or Levi was right and she was playing a game. Fucking Levi was always right, but he didn’t know everything.
“So, Dublin, if you are so smart, then tell me what the end game is?” I asked.
“Hell, if I know, Grace,” he huffed.
A thundering noise reverberated around the walls. “That doesn’t sound good,” Luther said. His wings stretched out behind him, flaring with fire. Troy lifted Driggs, pointing the lighting gun at Stephanie. Levi took his place at my right side, and Dominick stepped up on my left with a pair of pistols. Finley turned to face the door behind us with Astor.
“Mommy’s here,” Stephanie sing-songed.
The back wall exploded in a cloud of dust and mortar. Centaurs poured into my bathroom, but stayed on the opposite end of the large pool. Marshall entered just before the Queen of Summer waltzed into the room.
“Well, lookie here. Someone let the trash out,” Rhiannon smirked.
“Get out of my bathroom,” I yelled at her.
She laughed her snide bitchy laugh and shook her head. “Oh, Gloriana, you rush head-long into things without thinking. Did you think you could leave here with the helmet? Along with the pipe dream that you will ever be more than just a banished fairy.”
Her words sunk into me. She was right. My father didn’t overturn my sentence. He never had. He only said that I was his heir.
“Oh, you get it now. Daddy couldn’t do anything about your banishment. It was the law. Granted he wrote the law, but he never expected his only daughter to defy him,” she drolled. “It’s too perfect. Standing here in the middle of the inheritance that you can never have, you finally get it. You are no better than Brockton. He was banished too. It’s why he can’t rule this place. Even a marriage to a Summer Queen wasn’t enough to break his curse. You will never break yours either. Winter will never be yours.”
Brockton walked through the wall to our left flanked by another couple of ogres. If I didn’t know better, I could have sworn he had an ogre factory somewhere. He carried a royal blue piece of folded fabric and some black poles. He snapped out the device to reveal a camp chair like the ones that you can fold up in a bag. He sat down, and the ogre to the left handed him a box o
f popcorn.
“Oh, don’t mind me. Carry on,” he said waving at us.
“Brockton! Why is my daughter wearing that helmet?” Rhiannon demanded.
“What part of spectator did you not understand?” he asked her.
“Let her go,” she said.
“Please. You never liked her, because she found a way around your obsession with red-headed children,” Brock prodded. We stood silently allowing them to talk. Looking through my sight, I saw that Stephanie was held inside the pool with some sort of binding. She couldn’t move from that spot. So, partially, she was here against her will or persuaded to do it with incentive, but Brock guaranteed her cooperation with insurance.
“Do you see the binding?” I asked Levi.
“Yes. It’s a heavy-duty spell. I don’t know if I can break it,” he said.
“Don’t doubt yourself. That would result in the downfall of us all. Levi pull Winter to you. It will respond. You carry my father’s sword. The elements know who you are and will obey,” I said.
“Thanks for the pep talk,” he said. Pretty sure I detected a brood in his tone. I lifted an eyebrow without looking at him. “Shut up.” Yep, brood. Yay! At least this trip wasn’t a total waste.
“I’m not playing. Thanks, anyway,” I said to Brockton as he popped a piece of his snack into his mouth.
“Really?” he asked.
“Yep. Good to see all of you. Especially you Stephanie, I was getting so worried about what happened to you,” I said, turning my back on all of them.
“No! Grace please don’t leave me here!” Stephanie cried. I ignored her, pacing to the door.
“She’s bluffing,” Brockton said.
I looked at him over my shoulder. “What would a girl like me do with a helmet like that?” I asked.
“Give it to me, Stephanie,” Rhiannon said.
“No!” Stephanie yelled. Rhiannon hadn’t noticed that she couldn’t move, or Rhiannon was in on the ruse. Probably the latter.