The Heart of the Darkness

by M. J. Padgett

  Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a princess who went unseen by her mother and father because she was not the child they had longed to have. Without a boy to take over the throne, little Princess Elfriede was the eternal disappointment of the entire Land of Friedens. Though beautiful, no man would ask for her hand; they did not dare, for her father was cold and ruthless, and no kingdom would bind their beloved son to the daughter of a tyrant king—a man as dark as the forest had become.

  And so, it went, day in and day out, that the little princess found herself wandering in the forest alone. Not even the creatures of the woods wanted anything to do with her, and they ran when they heard her footsteps. On the day of her eighteenth birthday, Princess Elfriede traveled deeper into the forest than ever before. She wished to become lost so that she would not have to return to her father’s home. He had always been cruel to her, but on that day, he lashed her eighteen times, once for each year she had been a disappointment to him.

  Elfriede still felt the sting of his switch upon her back each time she stepped, but the pain would soon abate if she could only find the cliffs. Once a villager found her body, her father could stop worrying that he was the laughing stock of all the world—the feared King Lampanadas with only a weak daughter to inherit the throne.

  As she traveled, her tears slipped over her cheeks and landed upon the darkened soil of the forest. Each tear sprouted a beautiful flower, but the princess’s powers were of no consolation. If her father knew she possessed magic of any sort, he would surely have her killed himself. She would not give him the satisfaction. If she were to die for the sin of simply being born, then she would do so by her own choosing.

  Deeper into the forest, she went until she came upon a shocking sight. There, so deep in the trees that the only light came from the princess’s glowing hands, she found a boy about her own age. He huddled beneath a sickly pine, shivering.

  “You there, are you alright?” Elfriede asked.

  The boy raised his head, his face streaked with mud and tears. “I am lonely and hungry,” he said, his voice weak.

  Elfriede moved closer and sat beside the boy, rummaged through her small bag until she found her only crust of bread, and offered it to him. He took it with wide eyes and a shaking hand, then inhaled it as if he had not eaten in years. Once he was through, she offered him an apple, which he also ate half of before returning it to her.

  “You should eat, too,” he said.

  Elfriede’s stomach growled, but she had already decided her fate. No sense taking a full belly over the edge of a cliff, not when the poor boy needed food. She shook her head and pushed the apple back toward him. Now that he stared at her, she saw he was quite handsome and much closer to her own age than she had initially suspected. In fact, his health seemed to improve drastically with each bite.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  The boy offered his hand and a grin. “My name is Cole.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Stella

  The Vogel Castle, Goldene Stadt

  “STELLA... I’M... I’M so sorry.” Brant took a few tentative steps closer as if he were afraid I would lash out or run away. The truth was, I was frozen in place and couldn’t do those things even if I wanted to. I didn’t. The most appropriate emotion felt like... fear. Instant worry that this person was not my brother, despite everything telling me he was, washed over me. Then betrayal started to seep in.

  He licked his lips and sucked in a breath as people stared at him. “You... you’ve grown so much. I hardly recognize you. You’re beautiful, and just like Mom.”

  I felt Cecily’s hand still firmly pressed against my lower back, possibly the only thing keeping me from falling over. I heard Marcus’ heavy breaths behind me, and it occurred to me that he probably felt equally as betrayed in some ways. There stood the man he’d been accused of murdering, alive and well. He’d still killed my parents, but Brant was one strike he could erase from his list.

  Ari tightened his grip on my hand, pulling me back into reality as I stood staring at my brother.

  “You’re dead,” I said, pointing my free hand toward him. “You died. After the attack, once the wolf left, I checked, and you were dead, Brant. I had to crawl on my stomach to get to you, but I did it. I had to know for sure. How are you not dead?”

  Brant swallowed and fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. Meanwhile, Jay looked like he wanted to vomit. He had, after so many years of beautiful reunions, probably anticipated something much different. Jay had likely hoped for hugs and crying and general happiness, but I felt too betrayed for that just yet.

  “I know. I did die, Stella. That was real, but when I woke up here in my homeland... I was inside... I had to...” Brant looked at his own feet, lost for words.

  “Oh,” Ari said. “Oh! Oh, wow.”

  “What? What is it?” Cecily asked, her hand tensing just a bit on my back as if she could somehow shield me from what Ari would say.

  “He... had to dig from his own grave, didn’t you?” Ari asked, moving his attention to Brant.

  Brant raised his gaze from his shoes to Ari and nodded, then cleared his throat and looked to Jay. “Isn’t there someplace we can sit and talk? I feel so exposed out here, and I think my sister should hear everything.”

  “I actually came to meet with King Agustus, so maybe we could... I mean, I’m sure he’d like to know...” Marcus faded.

  I let out a breath and looked over my shoulder. Marcus was practically green, but he clenched his jaw and stiffened his back as a king should when faced with surprising news.

  “Yes, yes, let’s move to the meeting room.” Cecily guided me toward the castle as the rest followed, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of my brother. He offered a faint smile as he followed, but his eyes hid so much. He never could lie to me—except about being alive, of course—and his eyes always gave away his secrets. Whatever they were must have been extraordinary for him to keep his identity a secret from his biological family and, it seemed, his adoptive sister.

  The ramifications of that fact fell on me like a ton of bricks. I hadn’t considered what it meant if Brant were Daniel—that my brother, who I thought was my biological brother since birth, had actually been adopted. I wondered if he knew. And if he did, had he always known? I hated how it felt to see myself as his sister by adoption and not biology, but if he was alive, it hardly mattered how he was my brother. It only mattered that he was my brother, and he was alive.

  Inside the castle, people scrambled about performing their daily chores, which included repairs to the damaged castle, mostly ignoring us as we filed through the halls toward the meeting room. King Agustus was already there waiting for Marcus, as were Jack, Sierra, and Ely.

  “Oh, my,” Sierra gasped as we surrounded the long table. Ely grasped her upper arm to steady her since she swayed when she saw Daniel.

  “Daniel?” Agustus gripped the back of a chair, his eyes trained on his first-born son.

  Brant only nodded slightly and flushed a deep shade of crimson. His eyes darted toward me, then he said, “Yes, it’s me, Father.”

  It stung to hear him call Agustus father, yet it warmed my heart at the same time. It was a strange feeling, to both hate and love something at once, but our stories were nothing if not filled with paradoxes of emotion.

  “Jack, would you please retrieve your mother, Aunt Clara, and Jemma?” Agustus asked.

  Jack stared at his brother, a near doppelganger except for the freckle pattern, a misplaced mole, and a few inches of height—Brant had always towered over the other boys his age. Jack ignored his father’s request to retrieve his mother, aunt, and cousin and stepped closer to Brant. A guard was sent to perform the duty instead, leaving the room quiet.

  “Perhaps we should sit and gather ourselves,” Ely said, pulling out a chair for his wife. Sierra all but fell into the seat as she gaped at my brother.

  I realized then why Brant was silent. Of course, it was a lot to take in, but that wa
sn’t the reason he was so tight-lipped and why his fingers trembled as he continued to toy with the hem of his shirt. Brant hated to be the center of attention more than he hated anything in the world, even the monsters we fought. He was uncomfortable for many reasons, not the least of which were all the eyeballs staring at him. All the tell-tale signs were there, the same he’d had when I knew him before. Just like that, the worry that he might not be my real brother drifted away.

  “Brant,” I said, earning myself a desperate glance from him. His eyes connected with mine as he sucked in deep breaths and gripped his shirt. His knuckles blanched, and his feet shuffled. It was that expression that made me realize I would always be important to him, no matter what his reason was for hiding from me. After all this time, I was still his lifeline, his anchor to reality when he couldn’t find one on his own. “Here, sit.”

  My word seemed final, and everyone sat. Brant took a seat beside me while Ari took the other side. Soon enough, everyone was settled about the time Aline, Clara, and Jemma entered. Aline burst into tears the second her eyes landed on her son, prompting Brant to stand again to take her in an embrace before she fell on him.

  Ari leaned toward me. “Are you...” His mouth hung open, but the words were lost.

  “I don’t know, honestly.” I squeezed his hand. “Just be here with me, and I’ll survive it.”

  He kissed my forehead and settled back into his chair while Brant managed to extricate himself from his birth mother with some soothing words and a bit of prying.

  “It’s okay, Mother. I’m not leaving, but I think I should begin my explanation,” Brant said. “I know you all have questions, and this is such a shock, but I really must return to my people soon.”

  “You just got here,” Agustus said. “Why would you leave your family? We are your people.” His indignant tone bristled my nerves, but I let it slide since Brant had it under control.

  “They are my family, too,” Brant said. “You see, I have reasons for keeping myself a secret. To everyone here, I was dead.” He glanced at me, then mustered up the strength to continue. “This mission I have begun is dangerous, but you all know that already. How could I come to you and tell you that the son you buried centuries ago had returned? How could I go to Stella and tell her the same when I could die on this mission?”

  “So, you didn’t want to...” Ely waved his hand around as if searching for the kindest words before blurting, “die twice.”

  “Something like that. I couldn’t bear the thought of putting anyone I loved through that torture again,” Brant said. “A happy reunion marred by death again? How unfair could I be to all of you by offering such a thing?”

  Jay and Marcus whispered at one end of the table, but their conversation was of little concern to me unless it explained for sure how my brother was sitting beside me.

  “I learned about the fate of my biological family after I returned. This was well after I dug from my—” Brant bit off his own statement and peered at me from the corner of his eye. “I found people who knew what was happening in the forest, and they took me in. When the Salien’s were found, we realized there was a chance we could find everyone. When Ely found Sierra, Cecily, and Jack, I began researching how I might have also been sent away, but nothing seemed to fit since I had died before my siblings were grown, even before the girls were born. But when Jack found Hayden, it all came together. I learned that Helena had inadvertently sent me into the future with Jack.”

  “Did you know you were adopted?” I asked.

  Brant shook his head. “No, I didn’t. Not until I came back here.” Brant shifted in his chair and faced me. He took my hands in his and blocked out the rest of the world, seemingly unfazed by the rest of his biological family staring at him.

  “Stella, I want you to know that I wanted to come back to you. I even went to America, but when I found out that you were with the Lanes and you were doing okay, I realized I couldn’t just spring all of this on you, not when I could die again in this fight. It was selfish to lie to you, but it felt more selfish to intrude into your life when I wasn’t sure what would happen to me.”

  In my heart, I knew he meant to spare me the pain of losing him all over again, so I tried to shove the feelings of betrayal deep inside where they might morph into something useable in the fight ahead.

  “Would... would you have come for me when everything was done? If you’d won the fight here and the Darkness was gone?” I asked.

  “Oh, Stella, nothing could have kept me away from my very best friend, not if everything was over and it was safe again,” he admitted. “I would have gotten on a plane and flown straight to you.”

  It was everything I needed to hear from my big brother, and it uncorked the dam. I fell across the armrest of my chair and sobbed into his shoulder. He hid my face from the others, but it was impossible not to hear the body-racking gasps for air and my choked cries. For so long, I believed the last image I would ever see of my brother was him staring at the sky, lifeless and covered in blood. But now he was here, and the nightmares could end.

  “Shh, Stella, I’m so sorry,” he said.

  I heard Marcus clear his throat again, then he said, “Perhaps another time would be better for our conversation, King Agustus. Just send communication when you’re—”

  “Wait,” Brant said, holding up his hand. He used the other to wipe away my tears and said, “Give me one minute, then we’ll talk, okay? There’s something I need to say to Marcus.”

  I nodded and let Ari wrap me in his comforting embrace while Brant stood and walked to Marcus. The King of Schwarzwald paled and swallowed hard, then all but passed out when Brant took him in a hug. I’d almost forgotten that about him, that he loved to hug people, and the sight alone made me smile.

  “I forgive you. You didn’t know what you were doing back then, and you have more than made up for what you did with your ability as a leader. Did you even know you saved my life once?”

  “Wha... what?” Marcus asked when Brant released him.

  “One of the earlier fights soon after my siblings arrived back in the forest, I was with a group of villagers trying to hold off a nasty band of trolls when you and your pack swooped in. I was an inch from being bitten, and you sailed over me and tackled the troll, so I could escape.” Brant chuckled.

  “You... knew it was me who... You knew then?” Marcus’s eyes darted toward me, then back to Brant.

  “Yeah, it’s kind of hard to get the image of that night out of my head. It was tough for a long time to see you and not think about what happened, but none of us asked for this. We’ve all done things we can’t take back, but now it’s more important to move forward and try to end this once and for all.”

  I felt the overwhelming urge to stand with my brother, so I did. I pushed myself up and walked over to Brant, hooked his arm with mine, and nodded at Marcus.

  “He’s right,” I said. “I know you wouldn’t harm anyone, not intentionally, and I see now how having a beast inside of you, especially one put there by something dark and sinister, might affect how you behave.”

  Marcus raised his hand and shook his head. “Stella, I would never ask you to—”

  “You’re not asking, Marcus. I’m giving you this because you earned it, and I want your help to get rid of the Darkness, to put an end to the monster that cursed us all.”

  Brant squeezed my arm and smiled at me. It was his, I’m so proud of my little sister, smile, and it made a warmth spread through me that was more encouraging than any surge of adrenaline. I had my brother, new friends, new family, and one amazing boyfriend. I had it all—except for that pesky Darkness hanging over us.

  “Can I ask you a question,” Jack said, standing.

  “Not now, Jack,” Ely fussed.

  Brant chuckled. “It’s fine, really. I know everyone has questions. I didn’t expect to jump back into your lives and pick up where we left off.”

  “Uh... except, none of us have actually ever met you,” Jack sa
id. “And I was just wondering, I mean, not that I care but... This brings into question the entire line of succession, and I know that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but with everything going on—”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Brant said, releasing my arm so he could raise both in defense. “I want no part of the throne. It’s all yours... little brother.”

  Jack cocked his head to the side and observed Brant top to bottom. “Little brother?”

  Brant chuckled again. “Well, you are, are you not?”

  “And we’re your little sisters!” Cecily squealed. I was happy she had some distraction from thinking about Felix and his sister, Scarlett.

  “Oh, boy,” Ely said and smacked his forehead on the table. It made me laugh, and soon the entire room was rolling in laughter. It seemed if only for a while, laughter was the best medicine. Ely raised his head, sporting a bright red mark right on his forehead. “Any more long-lost siblings we should know about on either side of my family?”

  Agustus bellowed. “No, my boy, none that I can claim.”

  “Good. That’s good because deceased siblings keep popping back up everywhere, and I’m not sure I can keep up with this family tree any longer.” Ely smiled and nodded toward me. “What about you? You okay?”

  I sucked in a breath and accepted that I could not control everything—or anything, for that matter—and let it out. “Yeah. I’m okay.”

  “So... is now a good time to ask what you’ve been doing since you returned?” Jemma asked while her mother stared at Brant. Both Clara and Aline were still a bit shocked, but I understood. Even so, I knew Brant was uncomfortable with the staring.

  “Not much to tell, really. I knew the fight was coming after the Salien’s returned, and with my training as a hunter, I decided the best way I could help was to create an underground army of sorts.” Brant waved it off as nothing.