by Kimbra Swain
“No!” I screamed clutching my stomach. I dropped to my knees in pain.
“Get this place evacuated,” Nestor said taking control. “Everybody out. Amanda get the kids back to Hot Tin.”
Betty’s soft voice broke through my screaming. “Grace. Grace. Come on, honey. We can’t do anything about that right now. We gotta get out of here before it takes the rest of it.”
The ground rumbled again. Another trailer sank into the depths of the unseen sinkhole.
“Now Grace! Let’s go!” Nestor ordered. He grabbed my shoulders. “Let him go.”
“I just got him back,” I cried. “I just got him back.”
“He was, is and will always be with you,” Nestor said. “But Gracie, we have to go.”
I nodded as the ground shook again. Turning my back on the growing sinkhole, I walked up the hill in a daze. Walking past my trailer, I heard the whine of my little dachshund.
“Rufus,” I said, running toward the trailer before they could stop me. I ran up the steps of the trailer, forcing the door open. “Rufus! Come here, boy! Bramble! Briar!” I couldn’t hear the dog anymore. The earth shook the whole trailer. I teetered toward the bedroom. The trailer shimmed. I heard Nestor screaming my name outside.
I grumbled as I got down on my hands and knees to look under the bed. He liked to hide down there sometimes. “Rufus. Come on, buddy. We gotta go!” I called out to him. The trailer tilted toward the growing sinkhole. I hit my knees. In the mirror across the room, I saw myself. Dark brown locks, brown eyes, muddy and bloody dress. Brown eyes. My tattoo was red and black. Brown eyes. I took a deep breath trying to draw power enough to get out of the trailer. I couldn’t look for Rufus anymore.
Nothing.
No magic.
I opened my sight but couldn’t see anything except for what my normal eyes could see. As I looked around the room, the trailer lurched again. The door to the bedroom slammed. On the back side of the door, a sigil was drawn in blood. A magic dampener.
“Shit,” I said trying to get to my feet. The world swirled around me. Bile crept up my throat as nausea took over. Heaving up the contents of my stomach, I hit my knees again. More water surrounded me. I poured sweat and hurled again. I continued to throw up until I dry heaved. I dragged myself to the door of the bedroom, yanking on the handle to open it. When I got it open, I tried to crawl through on my knees.
My body was shutting down on me. The last few days were taking their toll on me. The trailer tilted on its side, and I slid downward smashing into the mirror on the wall which was now the ground of the trailer. I felt the warmth of my blood, flowing out of cuts on my body from the shards of glass.
Warm blood. My blood should have been cold.
“Oh, Dylan, I’m so sorry,” I cried. “Dylan.”
I felt like I was falling, and for a moment, I was weightless until the trailer hit the bottom of the sinkhole. It began to fill with water. My will had surrendered to the coming deep. I couldn’t fight anymore. I clutched the tiny teacup around my neck and cried. Holding my breath, the water rushed in on me now, covering me completely. I pushed upward hoping I could find a pocket of air. Finding one in the corner, I gasped for air knowing that the pocket was closing quickly as the trailer sank.
“Help,” I muttered. “Help me.” I knew no one could hear me.
One last inhale, and I fell into the darkness of the waters.
Over the years, I’d heard tales of the darkness of water. How its depths could rob you of your soul. The creatures of the waters were some of the nastiest of Unseelie. They could woo you, then rip out your heart, feasting on it before your eyes. I knew at any moment, that creature would show up to claim me. My lungs burned as I held the last seconds of my breath before giving into the deep. The water around me shifted suddenly. The monster had come.
The tingle of touch snaked down my right arm stopping at my wrist. I couldn’t see anything in the depths, but I jerked away from it. My lungs couldn’t hold anymore, and I sucked in water. Drowning sucked. I hoped the creature would kill me before the water suffocated me.
It's tentacle wrapped around my waist, pulling me toward it. The sensation of fingers digging into my side confused me. Fingers. Hands. Arms.
Someone was here.
I felt a forehead against mine. Dylan. Dylan was here.
“Grace,” Levi’s voice echoed in my head.
Not Dylan. “Levi, I’m dying,” I panicked.
“I can’t jump us out. There must be a spell. I have no magic,” he said.
The creaking and groans of the trailer filled our heads. It split in two. Lights from above illuminated the water. Levi pushed upward dragging me with him. When we reached the surface, I tried to gasp, but my airways were full of water. Levi pounded on my back, as I coughed up water. None of the breaths I took in were all air. They were laced with the water still in my throat.
“Come on,” Levi said. “Breathe, Grace. Keep breathing.”
His grip was steady, as he moved us toward a tree floating in the water. I grabbed on to it. “Dylan,” I said.
“I’ll come back for him,” he said. “We have to get you out of this water.”
“No, he’s dead,” I said. “Jeremiah is dead.”
“What the hell?” he asked.
“This is hell,” I said. Searching for a way out of the sinkhole, he looked frantically around us. “Tree. Use the tree.”
“It will take us into the Otherworld. What if Brock catches us?” he said.
“Then, he will kill us,” I said. “But if that beast is here, we’ve got better chances with Brock.”
The power stored in my tattoo was long gone, but I hoped that Levi had enough to open the way into the Otherworld. The other variable was that the oak that we were touching had been ripped from the ground. I couldn’t guarantee that it was still connected to the Otherworld. I’d never tried using a way of a tree floating in a sinkhole. Believe it or not, this was a first for me.
“When we go through, you stay close to me,” Levi said.
“I’m not sure I can walk, Levi,” I said honestly. “I threw up before the trailer went down. I don’t have a lot of strength.”
“I’ll carry you,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Holding on to my waist, he touched the tree. I felt the power move, opening the way. Less than a hundred yards away, something moved toward us in the water. It moved so quickly the debris and water made a wake big enough to surf on.
“Levi!” I said.
He muttered something under his breath, and we shot through the portal in the tree. He immediately closed it behind us. We laid on the floor of a corridor in the Otherworld. The musty smell turned my stomach. I rolled away from Levi and began to dry heave again.
“Grace,” he said as he stood. My body still convulsed when he picked me up. The roots in the corridor reached out to touch me as we walked through. I’d seen them do the same thing to my father as the ruler of their realm, but I wasn’t the ruler here. Each touch fed power into my body. I felt myself strengthening. Levi touched the roots as we went by looking for one close to home. “This one is out on the highway close to Dylan’s house.”
“Dylan’s house burned down,” I said.
“What?”
“Stephanie,” I replied.
“I should have never left you,” he said, kissing me on the cheek. “Let’s use this one.”
He reached out for the root. It curled around his hand as he opened the way. Voices floated down the corridor with the clanging of metal armor. “Hurry,” I said.
“Stop!” one of the soldiers said as he rounded the corner. The emblem on his chest I did not recognize. A jagged knotwork crescent moon glowed as he approached us. We hesitated too long, and he rushed forward. Levi shoved me through the portal, but I clamped down on his wrist to pull him through with me. However, I felt them pulling him on the other side.
“Let go, Grace,” he said.
“No! I won’t let them take you!”
“They can’t get you,” he said, wrenching my fingers off of his wrist. Another cold hand touched mine and started to yank me back through. Putting my feet on the base of the tree as leverage, I pulled as hard as I could, but Levi was stronger. He had peeled my last finger off, then the other hand let go of me. I went flying away from the tree to the side of the highway just outside of Shady Grove.
“Levi!” I screamed, scrambling to get back to the tree.
“I love you,” he said, as the tree crumbled to dust. He had killed the root to keep me from coming back. Frantically, I started touching all the trees nearby, but none of them lead back to that same spot in the Otherworld. Running out of steam, the walk to town seemed too much to bear. I sank to the wet grass, releasing all the pent-up emotions.
My body shook with sobs to the point where I was gasping for air. I didn’t notice when a car pulled over on the side of the road.
“Miss Bryant,” Tennyson Schuyler’s voice broke through my sorrow.
“Grace!” I heard Remy call out, then the slamming of a door.
“She’s covered in blood,” Schuyler said. “Miss Mistborne needs to look at her.”
“Yes,” Remy said, touching my cheek. He lifted me off the ground, but I didn’t respond to either of them. Remy careful lowered himself into the large car, guarding my head. The door shut behind us, then after a moment, Schuyler got back into the car.
“Back to Shady Grove,” he ordered the driver.
“Yes, sir,” the man responded.
“Grace, what happened?” Remy asked as the checked me for wounds. “We left after the wedding but made a stop at one of Schuyler’s businesses before leaving town.”
“Jeremiah’s dead,” I managed.
“Is this his blood?” he asked.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Where is Dylan?” he asked.
“Dead,” I choked.
“No, that’s not possible. He will rise, Grace,” he said.
“I don’t think he will this time,” I said. I couldn’t speak any longer except to say, “Brock took Levi.”
“Bloody hell,” Schuyler exclaimed. “This is bad. They are making their move now. Not on Summer. On Shady Grove.”
“We don’t know that yet,” Remy replied. “It could be just a set of unfortunate events.”
“Who killed Jeremiah, Miss Bryant?” Schuyler asked.
“Leave her alone. We will get answers later,” Remy said, pulling me closer to him. “Call the doctor.”
Schuyler dialed a number on his cell phone. The light from it illuminated his face. I could see the resemblance to my father now that I knew who he was.
“Miss Mistborne, please meet us at the clinic. Miss Bryant is injured,” he said.
I heard her voice asking questions through the phone.
“Just meet us there. I am aware that the clinic is shut down, but I own it, therefore I have the keys,” he replied. “Yes, yes. Bring them as well.”
“Who else?” Remy asked when Schuyler hung up the phone.
“The wolf and his son,” Schuyler replied rubbing his forehead.
The car pulled up in front of the now abandoned med center. The driver of the car took keys from Mr. Schuyler, opening the main doors. He rushed inside. Lights began to illuminate the rooms, as Remy carried me down the hallway to the emergency room. He laid me down on the first bed which didn’t have any sheets on it. I heard Schuyler and the driver searching for items in the room. As Remy started checking my body for more wounds. He opened a drawer in a cart next to him, then rambled through it, pulling out a pair of scissors. He began cutting away the dress Dylan had given me. My heart ached.
“She is bleeding,” Remy called out to them.
Schuyler walked up with a sheet in his hand, then looked down at me in horror. “Get that doctor here now,” he growled.
“What is it?” I muttered. “Where is Winnie?”
“Just rest. It’s okay. Tabitha is coming,” he assured me as my eyes rolled back in my head, and darkness took me.
Sunlight filtered through a window beside the bed that I laid in. I stared at it blankly. All the days of rain, and now the sun wanted to shine. I felt a cold hand slip into mine. Rolling over, I saw Nestor sitting beside me. Remy stood in the back of the room with his arm around Tabitha.
“Grace, how do you feel?” Nestor asked.
“Like death,” I muttered. “Dylan?”
Nestor’s eyes darkened, and he shook his head. “He didn’t rise.”
“How long have I been here?” I asked.
“Just overnight,” he said. “What happened when the trailer went down?”
“Levi showed up. Our magic was blocked, but we used a tree to escape the sinkhole,” I said. “But when we got to the Otherworld, the guards came up too quickly. He held them off while shoving me back here. Brock will kill him, too.”
“No, he won’t. Levi is too powerful. He will try to turn him first, but we know that Levi will never betray you,” Nestor assured me. “We will get him back.”
I was about to ask about Winnie, when Tennyson Schuyler walked in the door. “We have a problem,” he said.
“What is it?” Nestor asked.
“Stephanie has called a town meeting. With no one to guard her, she’s stirring up the masses,” he said.
“I’ll go down there,” Nestor said.
“No, I will,” I said, jerking the sheets off my body. “But I’m going to need some clothes.”
“Out!” Tabitha ordered the men. They all left the room at her command.
“Thank you,” I said.
“As your doctor, I’m ordering you to stay in bed,” she said.
“You know that isn’t going to work,” I said.
“Grace, you need rest,” she said.
“Is everything okay?” I said, holding my stomach.
“Yes, but you need to rest,” she repeated.
“I’ll rest after I kill a bitch,” I said. “I should have done it before when I had the chance.”
She knew better than to argue with me any further. Reaching into a duffle bag by the bed, she produced undergarments, a pair of cotton yoga pants, and a t-shirt. I held the t-shirt up to her and asked, “Where the hell did you get this?”
“I saw it in a store, and I knew you had to have it. I just haven’t had time to give it to you,” she said.
I slipped it over my head and despite the horror of the life I had to live now, I smiled at the shirt which said, “She’s beauty. She’s grace. She will punch you in the face.”
“It’s perfect,” I said, marching out the door as Tabitha handed me a pair of slip-on flats. “Meet me there.” I waved my hand and appeared outside the community center. The parking lot was jammed with cars. I could hear angry voices inside. Taking a page from Levi’s book, I concealed myself after walking through the doors.
“Just calm down,” Stephanie told the crowd as she stood on the platform at the front of the room. Devin stood behind her but only made eye-contact with his feet. “I know this has been a disturbing turn of events, but I assure you that I am just as equipped for the job as Grace was. Since we aren’t sure where she is or if she is alive, I will humbly take her spot to lead this town.”
“You were with Brock. We won’t follow you,” a man in the crowd shouted up at her. It was Lamar, one of the Yule Lads. Bless his peg-legged self.
“I am no longer with him. I admit my mistakes. When he tried to kill Devin, I had to leave him. My child was more important than anything,” she said. “You need a queen, and I’m the only one here that can do it. No one else has the royal credibility.”
“You are far from credible,” Betty called out to her. “Get off that stage. You will never lead us.”
“Maybe we should give her a chance,” Mayor Jenkins said. “We need a royal leader.”
At that point, the crowd descended into chaos. From my concealed position, it hit me that if I weren’t leading these people, then my kingdom
of Exiles would destroy itself allowing Brock to have free reign in the human realm. I still had supporters, but without Dylan or Levi, I wasn’t sure my emotions could take leading these people. Part of me wanted to curl up and die, but I knew I couldn’t do that anymore. My life was no longer my own. I hardened my heart, dismissing the pain. An icy chill flowed through my veins as I prepared to reveal myself. I walked steadily to the stage hoping no one could see me.
“Please. Be quiet!” Stephanie shouted, but the crowd didn’t listen to her. She had no power here despite her weak attempt to seize it.
When I reached the top step, I dropped the concealment spell. Her eyes widened, and fear washed over her. She visibly trembled. Devin looked at me sensing my presence. I nodded to him to assure him that I wasn’t here to hurt him.
“Silence,” I whispered. The roar ceased immediately. All eyes turned on me. The back doors of the center opened, and Remy, Tennyson, Tabitha and Nestor filed in.
“You are no longer in charge here,” Stephanie whimpered.
“The quiet of this room begs to differ,” I said narrowing my eyes at her. “How dare you come into my town and try to take my place? You are a sad excuse for a woman, much less a queen. I can’t believe the deciding vote to keep you alive rested on me, and I allowed you to live. It was a mistake.”
“You can’t kill me. You voted,” she said backing away from.
“I demand a re-vote per my rights as the leader of the fairy council of Shady Grove,” I said. “Tabitha Mistborne.”
“Death,” she called from the back of the room.
“Nestor Gwinn.”
“Death,” he responded.
She began to beg. “Please my queen. I beg of you. Spare my life. I am a mother,” she said looking at Devin.
“Is he really your son? I am doubting that among all your other lies. Betty Stallworth.”
“Death,” Betty said from the crowd.
“He is my son. He is Dylan’s son. You would kill the woman who gave birth to Dylan’s son!” she screeched in horror.
“He isn’t Dylan’s son,” I said. “Amanda Maynard.”