by Holly Hook
I bolted back down the dark hallway, foot hitting an occasional coin on the floor. They thinned and vanished as we left all the treasure behind. At last, the faint light returned and we got back to the area with all the cells.
"Stilt!" I shouted.
"Brie?"
He was alive. Stilt was actually still alive. I stood on my toes and peeked into the first door, then the next.
And I found him.
He was lying on his back on a disgusting floor way worse than the dungeon I'd woken up in. Stilt breathed heavily and his shirt was stained with spots of blood. This was the real Stilt. He managed to lift his head. "Brie."
"I'm sorry," I said. "We're going to get you out. Henrik is gone. He's never going to come back. He's in the underworld now."
"Hurry," he begged. "I think the magic mirror could be in Henrik's throne room now, but if Alric figures this out, we'll never get there. You have to get me out. Henrik threw me in here and told me all about his plan to make you think he was me. He said he was going to leave me in here to rot."
"Can you use magic to get out?" We had nothing to break him out with.
"I'm too weak. Find something."
I had dropped the axe. That would have worked. There had to be something.
"Let me go and look," the cook said, and ran back towards the treasure room.
While he was gone, I talked to Stilt. Told him this would all be okay and we could use the mirror to at least go back to the lighter region. I couldn't stop the tears from blurring my vision. Stilt couldn't even sit up. We needed to get him help. Water, at least. At last, the cook returned with the axe. It had taken him a while to find it and it was a miracle he'd been able to pick it out in all the gold of the room.
The cook cut the door down and sweat beaded on his forehead by time he was done. We carried Stilt out and he managed to stand after a minute or so. His shirt was torn and fresh whip marks were raised on his skin. He needed something for that. I wondered if elves could take medicine.
Should I even go back to the other world?
What did I have there?
I let Stilt wrap his arm around me, and the other around Sylvia. "You don't need to do anything for me," I told him. "We have this covered."
"That's good," Stilt said. "I don't like doing that to you." He glanced at me. His eyes were still dark, but there was nothing smoldering inside of them. Nothing red and evil. His fingernails were a bit longer, but not as bad as the fake Stilt's. We could reverse this. We only needed to go back to the lighter region and get him a healer, or something.
I asked Sylvia where the throne room was. We headed back upstairs and down another couple of halls, each one wider and more ornate than the last. Finally we came to a large set of double doors. One was cracked.
I opened it.
And stepped into the biggest throne room I could imagine.
The carpet was blood red. Huge torches blazed on the walls and two burned on either side of a huge golden throne, one large enough for five people. An empty dinner platter sat before the throne, with crumbs waiting to be cleaned up. Henrik had been eating right before he'd planted himself in that cell to trick me. He thought he would win my vows. Maybe he even allowed Stilt and I to meet the first two nights, all to build up to the moment.
And hanging on the wall next to the throne was a long mirror.
"That's the one," Stilt said. "I used that to take you to the other world so many years ago. He moved it in here after that. You can go back there now."
I thought of Hardy, hounding me to come back. He'd ditch me as soon as he figured out I'd gotten rid of my curse.
And my parents...they'd be furious. They'd have no room for me anymore.
I looked at Stilt. He flashed me a sad smile. "You can go, if you want. You can have a normal life there. Neither one of us can spin gold now. We can escape our stories now for at least this lifetime." Even though he'd spent three days in the dark region, his eyes still held a trace of that bright blue. The struggle was still there in his face, worse than ever.
"Screw that," I told him. "I'm going to the light region with you."
"You...but I..." Stilt sputtered.
"You heard me," I said. "I'm not going back. Besides, King Franz is nowhere to be found at the moment. None of us knows where he is. Until someone rescues him--and someone will--you don't have to keep your promise to him."
Stilt smiled. "You're right."
There he was. The one I had originally met.
I pulled his face to mine. His lips brushed mine, leaving a warm flush spreading through my face. I was able to ignore the growing cold energy inside, an energy which, in just a few days, would be gone.
"Come on!" Sylvia shouted. She and the others were over by the mirror, which rippled with magic. On the other side, I spotted blurry sunlight, green trees and even a low house which promised safety. The lighter region.
I took Stilt's weary hand and led him to the other side of the room, just as I heard an indistinct shout from none other than Alric.
"Time to go," Stilt said.
We ran for the mirror. The cook jumped through, hand in hand with Lavine, and Sylvia followed. I tightened my grip on Stilt's hand, held my breath, and jumped through.
Thank you for reading Thread and Spool, my first young adult fairy tale novel! If you enjoyed this book, you may want to leave a review or tell your friends! Readers like you help me reach a new audience every day. If it wasn’t for you, there would be no Twisted Fairy Tale series. If you want to follow me and know when I release my next series, and also when I have something cool like a free book or sale, be sure to sign up HERE for the latest news. You also just might get some free stuff just by signing up...and you can also visit my website at www.hollyhookauthor.com to contact me or see my other titles!
--Holly Hook
If you liked what you read, be sure to check out the rest of the series. Wolves and Paths is the next book in this series.
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You can find it by tapping HERE for the US, HERE for the UK, HERE for CA, and HERE for AU.
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www.hollyhookauthor.com/books
Holly Hook is the author of several Young Adult fantasy, science fiction, fairytale, post-apocalyptic and adventure series. She has been writing since very young and publishing her work since September of 2010.