Huntsman's Prey

by Marie Hall

  “What is this about?” The headmistress sneered, glancing between the lot of them.

  “Judgment has been called,” Esmeralda the Green (fairy of truth and justice) intoned in a deep, throaty breath. Her eyes had gone completely black, as they always did when she peered into the realm of truth and justice.

  When a fairy, or denizen of Kingdom broke law or faith with their realm and the matter was severe enough, they had to go before the fairy council. But sentencing always fell to the Green.

  The wind whipped up then, rushing through the trees and bowing branches as they rustled and shook from Esmeralda’s gathering powers. A green mist rolled from beneath her feet, and her body crackled and sparked with raw volts of energy.

  With a loud inhale, she rolled her head toward Chrysalis and shook it. “There are many present inside this one, but one who stole her way in at precisely five minutes after birth.”

  Suddenly Galeta seemed more interested, and listening intently to what was being said.

  Esmeralda continued speaking into the absolute and sudden quiet around them. “Siria, daughter of the sun, has broken faith with all of Kingdom. She has trespassed where she does not belong. To do it she made a deal with the broker.”

  “Damn that imp to the bowels of hell,” Danika snapped. Esmeralda didn’t startle or blink out from her trance at Danika’s sudden intrusion.

  Finally the fury of Chrysalis ceased, and a sudden keening took over. “No, no. Please, no. I only wished…”

  Galeta hissed and if Aeric wasn’t mistaken, looked genuinely shocked. Which he found to be oddly shocking in and of itself, Galeta was known far and wide as being no sympathizer of Danika.

  Esmeralda pointed a clawed finger. “Before punishment can commence, the souls must be untwined.”

  Jericho nodded and glanced at Aeric. “You ready?”

  That night in the woods when Chrysalis had confessed the truth, Aeric hadn’t understood what she’d meant about his sand. How the sand could strip and burn, but how it would ultimately cleanse. He’d thought it nonsense, but she’d told him what to do.

  “Yes,” he nodded, “I’m ready.”

  Everyone stared on as Jericho took the first step into the water, carrying a sobbing Chrysalis in his arms. She no longer fought him, she’d lost and she knew it.

  Immediately a burst of pure moonbeam encased them, shooting straight up toward the eternal reach of the sky.

  “Now you.” Esmeralda inclined her head at Aeric.

  None of what he was about to do would hurt him, but it would torture Lissa and the thought made him ill. Chrysalis had begged just before turning back to do it, to make it right again. Lissa would want that too.

  The moment he stepped foot into the water the cold shocked him, made his limbs want to lock up and freeze, but he shoved it aside as he parted the curtain of light.

  Blinking against the sting of its white intensity, he looked at the man in the moon who no longer resembled flesh and blood, but was now only light.

  “Are you ready, hunter?” Jericho asked in the disembodied whisper of a ghost.

  “Yes.” He muttered, and then, not giving himself time to rethink it, Aeric called forth his sand.

  His body was nothing but millions upon millions of particles of sand. He whirled toward the limp body in Jericho’s arms. The second he touched her flesh she screamed.

  He didn’t want to do this, didn’t relish the thought of hurting her. So he chanted the only thing in his head that gave him strength enough to do it. Save them.

  He poured his sand down her mouth, and filled her body.

  Her dying screams echoed through him, filled his brain with raw pain. She was hurting, she was hurting. And even as he scrubbed at the blackness that clung to every inch of her, he wanted to leave. He wanted to escape, wanted to hold his woman and never hurt her like this again. Never cause her such harm.

  But Chrysalis had begged and Lissa had loved him.

  Her love kept him moving. Kept him gathering every bit of the darkness that did not belong. It wasn’t easy, and took so much longer than he’d hoped it would. But finally, finally he was down to the last part.

  Her black, beating heart.

  The darkness clung like parasitic tentacles, sinking its roots so deep inside her that Aeric knew one wrong move and he’d kill the host. He’d kill his Lissa.

  Savethemsavethemsavethem… repeated like a litany throughout his awareness. It was the only way.

  The only way.

  Wrapping himself around the black, he pulled, and the echoing cries of her agony almost undid him.

  First one dark tentacle came off, and then another, and then another—until only one remained, the one deepest in the center of her heart.

  This one would kill her. There was no way he could undo it without causing massive damage. He couldn’t do this. He wouldn’t do this to her. If they had to live with a daughter and he with a woman who sometimes hated him, then that was what they’d have to do. They’d figure out another way. But he wouldn’t end her life.

  Aeric turned, but then he heard a voice whispering to him inside the beating. A gentle stillness that fluttered all around him and it was warm and inviting and so pure it made his own heart cry out in despair.

  Do not leave me like this…

  This time it wasn’t Chrysalis’ voice he heard, it was Lissa’s and his soul bled.

  Lissa!

  Aeric… I feel you inside me. I didn’t know I was sick, I swear it, my love. I swear it.

  I know.

  Her sadness was heavy as it settled on him.

  You have to do this. You have to take her out of us.

  How do you even know I’m here? He asked. Chrysalis said you did not know of your other side?

  Just then he felt the fluttering awareness of a second presence. It was as soft and gentle as Lissa’s, but tempered with a hint of passionate madness.

  She told me the truth, Lissa’s words felt like a caress on his soul.

  I’m sorry, Lissa. I can’t do this. I can’t kill you. I won’t. I’m not going to lose you again.

  That’s not your choice to make. Chrysa showed me the things we’ve done, the peoples we’ve hurt, I will not live that way. Not again. Do what you must to take reflection out of us. I will come back to you. I vow it.

  Her absolute belief in him made him feel a level of self-loathing like he’d never known before. Aeric could still feel the agony of her body, and yet she spoke to him with love. The things he was doing to her, it was killing her. She had to know it. And yet she begged him to continue.

  No matter what happens, Aeric, I’ll never regret knowing you and loving you. But you must take her out of us. I’m sorry to ask you to do it, but you are the only one I truly trust to fix us.

  I’m killing you Lissa, I feel it with each slice of the darkness. I feel you tremble around me, I can’t do this. Please don’t ask me to end you this way. I…love you.

  The warmth of her own love flooded him, filled every empty, hollow spot inside of him and all he wanted to do was close his eyes and drift away on it. With her. He’d finally found his truth, found his one true love.

  I love you too, so much. Now you have to let me go…

  Breathing a final word of adoration to her, Aeric forced his sands to split the final root of darkness in half.

  Chrysalis jerked, her body spasmed all around his. Aeric had just seconds to gather up every fleck of black and rush from out of her, before she heaved a final breath and died in her godfather’s arms.

  Reforming immediately, he tossed the dark, jelly like matter to the ground and pulled Chrysa into his arms. She was limp; her head dangled and there was no warmth. No life. No laughter.

  She was gone.

  “Lissa? Chrysa?” He lightly tapped her cheeks. His eyes frantically searching for any spark of life, or hope…

  But there was nothing there.

  And he didn’t know how to take it. There should be tears. There should be wail
ing and moaning. But he felt strangely void. Just… empty.

  Then another set of arms was snatching her out of his and he didn’t fight it, he didn’t move.

  And now there was wailing. Female wailing—great and keening and loud and so full of pain that it hurt to listen to it.

  A large hand clapped his back, making him stumble in the water. He turned, and Jericho just shook his head and there was a wet sheen reflected in his dark eyes. “I’m sorry, Huntsman, I know you tried.”

  He may have muttered something back, Aeric wasn’t sure.

  There was so much droning of noise all around.

  The mad chattering of a broken man. The agony of a mother’s shattered heart. And the quarreling of fairies casting blame all around.

  “Aeric!” Danika’s voice finally cut through his stupor.

  “Huh?” He glanced up.

  “I said,” she took a deep breath, but he could see that her lower lip was quivering, she fought to keep herself together, “you’ll catch a chill in that water.”

  He looked down, only just realizing he was still standing in the moon pond, but no longer did it glow, no magic to fill the night. Wonderland rang with the sounds of a happy forest. Buzzing bugs, hooting owls and the strange laughter of a vaporous cat.

  Hatter was on the ground, Alice beside him, Chrysalis was in his arms and they were rubbing her limp arms, cooing and humming to her.

  The sight made a hard lump work its way to the back of Aeric’s throat. Swallowing hard, he walked out of the water.

  He needed to get away. To go back to his court, to his people and away from the madness of a world that for a moment had filled his bleak existence with laughter and light.

  “Wait.” Esmeralda shook her head. He turned to her.

  She looked as she normally did. Her eyes were a deep mossy green. “I need you here to help me pass down final verdict in this case.”

  He wasn’t exactly sure what it was that they still needed, but Aeric was too exhausted to care. “What?” he snapped.

  But rather than get angry or hurt at him, she merely gave him a soft smile, as if she sympathized with him. It infuriated him to receive such a pitying glance. He didn’t need anyone’s pity or remorse.

  “Aeric, what was it that you found inside of Chrysalis?”

  Closing his eyes, hating all of them for all their past sins that caused the death of his woman, he snarled and pointed at the pile of gelatinous goo. “That.”

  “And that is what exactly?” Esmeralda continued to ask softly, being so much more patient with him than he would have been with her. “Is it a soul, hunter?”

  Aeric knew what it was, and he knew she knew what it was. He looked into the eyes of all of them. Galeta and her petty jealousies. Danika and her foolishness that led her into being cursed in the first place. Jericho and his desire for more than he’d been allotted. Alice and Hatter with fat tears still streaming from the corners of their eyes. Esmeralda and her guileless eyes.

  He sighed. His anger was distorting everything. None of them had asked for Siria’s duplicity in this matter. Even Galeta with all her flaws, hadn’t known what the sun planned to do to Chrysalis.

  And it would be so easy to fix all his hate into that black puddle on the forest floor, but what purpose would it serve? Siria’s plan had worked perfectly. It didn’t matter that she’d been caught and that now she’d be punished. All she’d ever wanted was to hurt Danika and Jericho, using their goddaughter had been the perfect way to get back at them.

  She won.

  “That thing is a sliver of Siria’s own soul.”

  Danika’s lips curled.

  “Thank you,” Esmeralda whispered and gently rubbed his arm. “Galeta, have you any words?” The Green asked the headmistress.

  Hugging her icy robe tighter, the Blue dipped her head. But instead of looking haughty and gleeful, as was her usual manner, her tone was subdued and tinged with a touch of remorse.

  “As much as I’ve warred with Danika,” she glanced at the fairy in particular, “I did not know what Siria had planned when we’d passed judgment all those years ago. You must know, Danika and Jericho,” she looked at them both, “I would never have condoned this.”

  Everyone’s eyes immediately turned to Esmeralda, because she was the one fairy who could see through any lie to the real truth beneath. The Green nodded.

  “She speaks from the heart. There is no duplicity in there. Then if that is all that is to be said,” she quirked a brow at Galeta who nodded an assent, “I shall pronounce judgment.”

  Suddenly the mass of black began to take shape and coalesce into a shadowy figure that sparkled with veins of brightest onyx. A face formed, and then a mouth, and when it moved, it spoke. “Galeta, you hated her as much as I. How could this be wrong? I’ve done nothing,” the smoky mirage pleaded, holding out her arms in supplication toward the Blue.

  In a rare act of solidarity, Galeta hissed. “How dare you beg me for forgiveness.”

  The mirage that was Siria frowned.

  “But I thought—”

  Galeta snorted. “That I’d back you? Be okay with this? I’ve never, in all my days, hurt a child. And I never would. I understand the need for vengeance, but this…” she dusted her hands together, “even I am not so heartless. Esmeralda, if I may have some say in this punishment?”

  The Green frowned, as did everyone else. Judgment was the sole domain of justice, it wasn’t unheard of to have an outsider step in and dole out punishment, but it was exceedingly rare.

  Galeta’s smile was nothing but sharp pointed teeth. “I think I know exactly how to hurt her.”

  “Galeta,” Esmeralda warned, holding up a finger. “You might be head mistress but justice is justice and I will hand it down to whoever deserves it.” The threat to Galeta was obvious.

  But the head mistress didn’t miss a beat.

  “Indeed, I should hope so. I am not the monster you all assume me.”

  Danika snorted, to which Galeta merely rolled her eyes.

  “All I’ve done, I’ve done with purpose, as have the both of you.” She pinned both fairies with frosty glares. “I swear to you now, that the punishment I have in mind will favor us all and will be good for Kingdom as well. Do I have your trust?”

  Aeric didn’t know much of fairy machinations, but he did understand that justice could only be handed down once. That was the way of magic justice, what was done could not be undone.

  “I don’t know if we should,” Danika hedged.

  But Esmeralda held up a hand. “I believe her. Galeta, I cede the right to you.” The Green stepped aside. “Just this once, mind.”

  The Blue nodded. Danika held tight to Jericho’s hand. Alice and Hatter didn’t seem to be paying any of this much mind. They were still peppering their daughter’s brow with kisses.

  Aeric had to squeeze his eyes shut against the sight of it. The sooner they finished here, the sooner he could go. And he had to go. Wonderland held nothing for him anymore. All its allure was gone with her.

  Lissa had made everything sparkle, had made the beautiful ten times more beautiful and the dangerous even more exciting. Now it just looked like a spooky forest with a couple of twisted multi-colored trees. The excitement, the verve of the place… it was all gone.

  He clenched his jaw.

  “Siria, daughter of the son,” Galeta intoned.

  Siria trembled.

  “No longer are you guardian of the sun.”

  “What!” Siria cried, eyes going wide in her hazy face. “You cannot do this, Esmeralda, please, she cannot do this!”

  Danika and Esmeralda both sucked in loud breaths. Aeric wasn’t sure he fully understood why.

  “Not only that,” Galeta continued, and staring deep into Siria’s eyes, the gleeful smile she always wore was nowhere to be seen, there was only determination and a fine hint of sadness, “you are now mortal.”

  “Dear Gods,” someone breathed, and it sounded suspiciously like Jericho.r />
  Esmeralda looked stunned. “But the sun, the sun requires a guardian, Galeta, what have you done?”

  Galeta shook her head. “And the sun will have it, there will be an interim guardian until we find someone who can honor their position with the same type of class and grace as Jericho has exhibited.”

  Danika sobbed and hugged Jericho’s neck with such joy that Aeric couldn’t understand it. Something had just happened, but it was more than he could currently process.

  He was stunned when he turned to look at the smoky mirage to note that no longer was it smoky or hazy, but now there was a woman there. A very mundane looking woman dressed in a red silk gown that fitted her poorly. Her blond hair hung around her shoulders, lank and lifeless. Her eyes were a cloudy shade of blue and her face wrinkled and pitted, as if from sun damage.

  He could only assume her to be Siria, she was hunched over, sobbing loudly and muttering that they’d gone too far.

  That was enough to make his deadened emotions flare to life.

  “Too far?” he snarled, shaking his fist at her. “Not far enough in my opinion. You deserve to die for what you did. For how you used her. She is dead and you’re still living.” He spat.

  “Siria, no longer are you a denizen of Kingdom, your home is Earth now. You cannot stay and you can never return,” Esmeralda said with a shake of her head, and there was a glow of tears in her green eyes—as if somehow she felt bad for the hunched over woman before them.

  “No, please. This cannot be. This…”

  His lip curled, and before he gave in to his need to strangle a woman, Aeric turned on his heels and walked away. No longer caring what happened or what they did.

  No one tried to stop him, or called his name. They no longer cared. He didn’t matter to them, and the one person to whom he had mattered was gone.

  The second he made to step foot out of the demarcation between Wonderland and the rest of Kingdom the roar of a steel horse caught his attention.

  A gloating Rumpel lifted devilish brows. “And now, huntsman, you belong to me…”

  Three months later