A Darkness Found

by T K White

  The door creaked open and Kal, with her many smiles, offered her most dazzling yet. It brightened her entire face. “You made the right choice. You’re going to get everything you could ever want and more.”

  “And what about you?” Grishelda couldn’t help but be curious about Kal’s lofty goals.

  Kal paused. “What?”

  “What do you want from all of this?”

  She shrugged, flicking a speck of dirt from her shirt. “To kill my mother . . . and that little brat she calls a daughter.”

  “What daughter?”

  Kal gripped the bars as if she was squeezing the life out of them, or squeezing the life out of who she imagined them to be. “Just the child my mother wishes she had instead of all of us ‘miscreants.’ As the years have gone on, my mother’s hate for us has only gotten worse, and it’s because of her. All she had to do was write back, to respond to my mother’s countless letters. Encourage my mother to visit. Let my mother into her life. My siblings and I would have been safe from my mother’s rage, spurred on by the prodigy child’s absence.”

  Wait. The dark witch had never mentioned hating anyone other than her mother. Kal tried to push past Grishelda but she stepped in the way, blocking her from escaping. Before anyone went anywhere, she wanted answers.

  “You have another sister?”

  “My mother’s one-night stand with a king doesn’t mean I have a sister. I’ve never even met the princess. But I hear she’s a royal pain. And I will have my revenge on her, for causing all of my mother’s hate toward us. I wonder if she even knows we exist.”

  A princess? Kal was related to an actual princess?

  “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

  “Because I didn’t feel like revealing my entire life story to a stranger. I told you the bare minimum to get what I wanted. Now, you’re helping me break free from prison. You’ve earned more information.”

  “What’s the princess’s name?”

  “Ugh, I don’t want to even speak it. Apparently, my mother had a say in it. She birthed the girl and then begged the king to name her Brier Rose. It was the one thing my mother gave her.”

  Grishelda didn’t like the creeping suspicion that Kal was full of secrets. “What else are you hiding from me?”

  Murmurs from the prisoners arose around them. Kal shifted from foot to foot, and Grishelda noticed the growing hum and buzz of chatter.

  “We have to get going.” Kal tried to shoulder past Grishelda again. “These prisoners won’t stay silent for long.”

  “Then tell me what else you’re hiding.”

  “Nothing! Look.” Kal reached inside her shirt and pulled out a green pendant. It had a name etched on the back. Kalypsis.

  “Who’s Kalypsis?”

  “Me, you dolt. That’s my full name. You have it now. Names have great power over people. Just ask Rumplestiltskin. Should I ever betray you, say his name three times and he’ll exact revenge for you.”

  The prisoners began shouting as they realized there was an escape in progress. Their voices created thousands of echoes that would alert the guards.

  Satisfied enough and knowing she had no choice with the growing unrest around them, Grishelda opened a pathway for Kal. She also made a mental note of the valuable information she had just gleaned. From this moment on, she wouldn’t tell any strangers her full name.

  “Okay, Kal. Any idea how to subdue them?”

  “I don’t have any of my magic left. And if they’re not sleeping, then I can’t do a whole lot to force them to shut their traps.”

  Great. This plan was already going awry. Prisoners began to bang on their doors, creating a loud clanging that mixed with their shouts. An idea fluttered into Grishelda’s mind. She handed the key to Kal.

  “Quick, release the prisoners! They’ll distract the guards and we can slip through the chaos.”

  Wasting no time, Kal unlocked cell after cell, keys jangling as prisoners flooded the dim room. By the time the guards arrived, the dingy prison was a scene of mayhem. Some prisoners bowled over the guards, climbing their way to freedom. Other prisoners clambered atop each other in attempts to reach the small windows and break free. Grishelda and Kal, who both had more strength than these malnourished prisoners, deftly climbed over them and made their way to the next level of the prison.

  More guards ran their way and Grishelda grabbed Kal, pulling her into the shadows. “We wait,” Grishelda whispered, “for the prisoners to come and pave our way out of this dungeon.”

  Clashes of swords, agonizing screams, and yells of triumph filled the air. Eventually, the wayward prisoners made their way to the level where Grishelda and Kal waited and the witches joined the revolt. As the prisoners neared the steps that led out of the dungeon, Grishelda led Kal down a tunnel dimly lit by torches attached to the walls.

  Grishelda ran ahead. “This is the way to the vaults.”

  “I hope you’re right about this.”

  “You and me both.”

  The two witches hurried down the tunnel, but the heavy stomping of feet rushed after them.

  “The guards are following us,” Grishelda yelled. “Hurry!”

  The steps behind them echoed enough that Grishelda guessed the guards were at a lengthy distance. There was still time. She and Kal rounded a corner and came face-to-face with a knight.

  “Wha—”

  Kal covered Grishelda’s mouth, snuffing out her voice. “He’s sleeping.”

  The guard’s chest rose and fell, and a slight dribble glistened on his chin in the torchlight. Kal was right.

  Grishelda’s gaze moved to the thick, bronze doors in front of her. There was no handle, no lock, no keyhole. They were solid. Now, in addition to footsteps, Grishelda heard the hushed voices of the guards behind them. Soon, she and Kal would be prisoners. And everything would be ruined.

  In the center of the door, a single eyeball peeked open. “An eye for an eye.”

  “What does that mean?” There was no hiding the frenzied panic in her voice. “How do we give it an eye?”

  Kal stood tall and stared right into the eye’s dark pupil. A stream of fire spurted from the pupil, straight toward her. Grishelda yanked her from harm’s path.

  “Wait, maybe it just has to be the right eye.” Kal nodded toward the guard. “Help me prop him up.”

  “What if he wakes up?”

  “He’s not going to wake up. I’d appreciate it if you had a little more faith in me.” Kal grunted as she pushed her weight behind him. “Open his eye. See if it opens the vault.”

  Grishelda used her fingers to stretch the eye open. Just then, the group of guards chasing them arrived at the scene.

  “Stop them!” one shouted.

  The door swung open and Grishelda stepped aside, using the sleeping guard as a shield. The guards ran right through the door. Their screams transformed to faded yells that turned into an eerie silence.

  Wide-eyed, breathing ragged, Grishelda met Kal’s equally terrified gaze. “What just happened?”

  Kal helped her lay the sleeping guard on the floor. “I don’t know. What’s in that vault? What’s guarding my magic?”

  Grishelda never was one to back away from the unknown. “There’s only one way to find out.” She pushed the door open and took one step inside.

  It was lucky she only took one step. One more and she would have fallen to her death, just like the guards who ran in before her.

  The vault was a deep, black abyss. All the king’s treasure hung in the air, inaccessible and impossible to reach. Unless you had the right kind of magic, which neither Grishelda nor Kal possessed.

  “There it is! My magic!” Kal pointed to the dark bottles floating in the depths of the cavern. Grishelda would have missed them had it not been for the shimmering glitter of the powder.

  “How do we get to them?”

  Silence reigned, as neither witch had any ideas.

  The thrumming in Grishelda’s veins was faint, but detectable.
Where there was thrumming, there was power. Craning her neck, she looked up into the inky blackness. She raised her hands toward it.

  “What are you doing?” There was an edge of panic in Kal’s voice. “One wrong move and you could topple us over the edge to our demise.”

  But Kal’s nagging concerns drifted away, unheard. When her magic was involved, Grishelda was never frightened. The room shook, and they grabbed the doorframe, careful to back away from the cliff that could easily crumble underneath them. From the seemingly never-ending ceiling shot thick vines. The vibrant green brought a new kind of light to the darkness that surrounded the plants.

  “You did it. You actually did it.”

  Grishelda didn’t know why Kal was so surprised. She was rather good with her magic when given the chance. Twisting her wrist, Grishelda instructed the vines to snatch the fairy powder out of the air and bring it to the door. As they writhed through the air, Kal reached out. The vines dropped the bottles in her hands.

  Power back in the hands of its owner, Kal turned to Grishelda. “You might just be the better witch.”

  After raiding the vaults, it was easy to sneak away from the castle. Kal used her newly recovered power to transport them to safer location. Deep in a dark forest outside of Chionti, she showed Grishelda how to use the fairy magic.

  “It goes just like this.” She sprinkled some in the air, and like it knew what she wanted, the magic swirled around Kal and melted into her skin. She breathed in deeply and the dark circles under her eyes disappeared. Her skin shined like a polished pearl. Her hair became thicker and luminous.

  “There. Now you try.” Kal threw the powder in the air and Grishelda stepped underneath it.

  Although the tiny bits of dust couldn’t have weighed anything, Grishelda felt each speck as it struck her. Her body absorbed the power like a thirsty plant drinking up the sun. Everything Kal had said was true. With the fairy magic inside of her, Grishelda felt like she could take on the king’s entire guard.

  Kal smiled. “Isn’t it magnificent?”

  “Why doesn’t everyone do this?” Grishelda looked at her hands, in awe of the power they now held.

  “One: it’s incredibly difficult to find dark fairies. Two: not everyone knows they can use dark fairy magic. Three: you have to have the stomach to kill a fairy, and you risk getting killed first. It’s not an easy task.”

  Grishelda thought she could kill a hundred dark fairies if it meant having this kind of power within her. Any qualms she had about this dark magic had been burned away by the fire racing through her veins.

  “Now, all you have to do is think about what you want. Think about what it might look like, what it might feel like. And then create it.”

  Grishelda closed her eyes and held out her hand. She envisioned Theo looking at her like he looked at Snow. She thought of him saying the words she so longed to hear from him. She thought of his lips and his arms and his body, all wanting Grishelda and only Grishelda.

  Before she knew what was happening, a glassy object pressed against her palm. She opened her eyes, feeling the fairy magic drain away.

  In her hand sat a bottle filled with red liquid.

  “One or two drops should do it,” Kal instructed. “Dark magic is much more potent than light magic.”

  Grishelda was too excited to heed the other witch’s words. She was going to catch herself a king.

  “I assume that’s all you need?”

  “Actually, I need your help with one other thing.” Grishelda had one more trick up her sleeve, and it didn’t involve the king.

  16

  Sweeping into the hall for dinner, the tension bled from Grishelda’s taut body. Everything would unfold as it should. She would have her husband’s love. Really, she could have anything she wanted. But love was enough. Love would be enough. Grishelda hoped that as the potion wore off, Theo’s true feelings would begin to develop by itself. If her plan worked, she wouldn’t need more dark magic.

  “Oh, thank the gods!” Her strong huband’s muscled arms crushed Grishelda. “I was worried sick about you. All the prisoners from the bottom floor of our dungeon have escaped, and you weren’t in your quarters.”

  “I was in the library,” she said without skipping a beat.

  “I’m just glad you’re all right.” He ushered Grishelda toward a chair, pulling it out for her. “Please sit.”

  Something felt off. A tenseness hung heavy; it was hard to miss as Snow’s eyes shifted to and fro and the king squirmed in his chair.

  “Is everything all right?” Grishelda asked.

  Theo straightened. “We’re just concerned about the escaped prisoners. It has us all a little on edge.”

  Grishelda couldn’t entirely blame them. She had once been the subject of Kal’s wrath and it was not pleasant. She couldn’t imagine the wrath of so many prisoners. Truth be told, she felt a little guilty. But she reminded herself of the good this would do for their relationship.

  After a meal of awkward conversation and minds far away, Grishelda took her last bite of dessert. Though she normally loved cake, its delicate flavor tasted more like ash as she swallowed. There was a nefarious feeling around the table, and it wasn’t coming from Grishelda. The king sipped from his chalice. Snow finished her apple tartlet. Silence held their tongues, words unable to break free.

  “Theo, would you—” Before Grishelda could finish her sentence, cuffs popped up from her chair’s armrests and clamped themselves down on her arms. Panic sent her heart pounding. Had Theo found out about his wife’s dark dealings?

  “I’m sorry, Grishelda. But it has to be this way.” Theo bit his lip, an uncharacteristic move for him.

  “What has to be this way?” Grishelda struggled against the shackles. “What’s going on, Theo?”

  He swallowed, like the words were caught in his throat. “The way the magic worked, I had to wait for you to proclaim your love for me.”

  Her initial panic faded and a sludgy dread spread through her, weighing down her limbs, her heart. “Proclaim my love?”

  He shook his head. “Forgive me. I’m not doing a good job of explaining. You see, I searched far and wide for someone like you, someone with magic that could help my kingdom.”

  And there it was. Grishelda knew she had made the right choice in obtaining the dark magic from Kal. Theo would only ever value her magic, nothing more. She glanced at Snow, who remained silent as a ghost while the king continued to explain.

  “Your mother went on and on about your magic. How incredibly powerful it was. I knew you would be the one to break the curse.”

  So it had been her mother’s doing after all.

  “You see, my wife”—when he said “wife,” Grishelda knew he was no longer talking about her—“was cursed by a dark fairy. One with powerful magic that even a light fairy couldn’t undo. We needed a powerful witch to save her.”

  Oh no, this was worse than she thought. Much worse.

  “I can’t save your wife.” Grishelda had saved Bastian out of desperateness. She held no desire to save this queen. She wouldn’t do it. Didn’t he understand how asking this of her shattered her heart?

  “You won’t be saving her. But taking your magic will.” Theo nodded at her chair.

  Grishelda fought against her restraints, but they held tight. “What do you mean? What do these cuffs do?”

  “They steal magic, but only when love is professed. You see, the curse was cruel. I had to make another woman, a powerful witch, fall in love with me. Once she professed her true love, I could steal her magic. The dark fairy will release my wife from the curse only when I can trade her that magic. My wife’s life for your magic. By admitting your love for me, you allowed your power to be released.”

  Stupid. She had been so stupid. Why did she have to open her mouth and say those words? Grishelda could already feel the power she held draining from her.

  Her mother had been right all along: love was weakness. Never again would Grishelda make the mist
ake of loving anybody. That she swore, as strongly as she swore she’d never let them steal her magic. She would lose everything if they did. She wouldn’t be queen, she wouldn’t be able to return to Mageia, her mother would never accept her. She would be truly alone.

  “You can’t do this!” Grishelda continued to struggle against the taut cuffs.

  Theo opened his mouth to respond and sputtered, clutching his chest.

  “Father?” Snow shot up, pushing back her chair. “What’s wrong?”

  Grishelda laughed, relief flooding her body. “It’s too late.”

  Snow ran to Theo’s side, helping him into a chair as his face turned purple. Grishelda had to admit, she didn’t expect this kind of reaction from the potion.

  Snow’s frantic eyes found Grishelda. “What have you done to him?”

  As the princess’s voice became more desperate and Theo’s choking more pronounced, sweat beaded Grishelda’s forehead. Something was wrong.

  “You’re killing him! Stop!” Snow screamed, tears streaming down her face.

  “I-I can’t, I didn’t mean to, the potion wasn’t supposed to kill him!”

  Cuffed to the chair, Grishelda could do nothing but watch the king suffer before her.

  “My heart,” he rasped. “My heart.”

  “He was supposed to love me. That was it. I gave him a potion to make him love me.”

  A drop or two, that’s what Kal had said. Grishelda had given him the whole bottle. She hadn’t thought the ramifications would be death. She thought his love would be stronger, would last longer, if she gave him more.

  “I love you.” The king said the words Grishelda had wanted to hear, but they weren’t directed at her. He stared into his daughter’s eyes and then slumped in his chair, his purple face bloated. His handsome features stripped away by pain and death.

  “Daddy no. Please, don’t leave me. First her, now you. I’ll be all alone in the world.” Snow turned to the still-captive Grishelda, grief and hatred entwined in her voice. “Bring him back!”

  The cuffs snapped open and Grishelda’s power returned. Snow’s eyes darted to the broken cuffs, and she cowered.