The Heart of the Darkness

by M. J. Padgett

  “Snow, you’re hurting me,” I said, but she only smiled more.

  “I wonder if my brother will still dote over you when you’re all filled up with evil? It’ll be worth weakening myself to see what you become when the darkness invades your soul.” Snow tightened her grip, and the full surge of her power hit me. I was unconscious within seconds.

  A jostling woke me, but only slightly. We were outdoors among the beautiful colors of the forest, far from our home.

  “Just hold on, Ellie. Not much longer,” Cole said. He carried me, barely clinging to life until he reached the outskirts of a small village where we often watched the people carry on their daily tasks. Once we arrived, he gently placed me on a bed of thick leaves and perched beside me, his eyes trained on the village.

  One of the baker’s daughters, a sweet girl with gentle magic that made the flowers bloom, entered the trees in search of something to occupy her while her bread rose. She hummed a melody that drifted toward my ears, but the darkness inside cringed. It surged forth, grasping my mind as she passed within a few paces.

  Cole pressed his hand on my chest, keeping me in place. “I’ll do it,” he said. In a flash, the girl was by my side, screaming for her life.

  I reached for her, grazed my fingers over her cheek, and whispered. Her screams ceased as her light soaked my soul with a brilliance that swallowed the darkness. Just a little... just a little more... until finally, the darkness was gone, and I could breathe again. I sucked in the air and let my eyes settle on Cole’s face.

  “Thank goodness,” he said and pressed his forehead against mine. “I thought I lost you. I cannot lose you, Ellie. You’re all I have.”

  “You won’t lose me, Cole. We must be more careful, that is all,” I said.

  My eyes settled on a shadow in the distance—a wolf. I jerked upward, almost smashing my face into Cole’s. The baker’s daughter was pale, but she was alive. Cole reached for her to remove the darkness she had absorbed to save me, but before I could utter a word, Snow darted forward and lunged at him. Cole rolled away, unable to help the girl as he fought with his sister.

  I scrambled toward her, hoping to absorb back enough of the darkness to save her before it took her entirely. Once I was over her, her eyes went wild with fright.

  “Shh, it’s okay. I am sorry this happened to you, but I will help you.” I hadn’t meant to steal so much of her light, but Cole had never flooded me with as much darkness as Snow did, and I was unaccustomed to such power.

  The girl let me grip her hand, and the transference began, but Snow was determined to have her die. Snow was too far gone to save, but those observations did little to help me. Cole had been knocked down a hillside, but he scrambled back toward us. He was too late. Snow knocked me away from the girl and sank her teeth deep into her throat. The baker’s daughter let out a single strangled cry, then her head rolled to the side.

  Her lifeless eyes stared back at me, hollow and accusing. I gasped and leaped to my feet. “She’s dead!”

  Snow licked her lips and charged into the forest before Cole reached us.

  I turned on my heel and vomited, but even that did not ease my nausea. I had done it, the one thing I swore I would not let happen. It was the reason I let Cole take my light on occasion, to stem his own darkness so that he would not kill others. But I had instead. Too much of my own light was doused in darkness, and my body fed on it like a starved animal. And then... then I weakened the girl so much she could not even save herself from the wretched Snow.

  “What have I done?”

  “We had no choice. This was not your fault, but Snow’s. If you had not—”

  “No.” I shook my head. “NO! I cannot excuse this!” I ran back toward our home, determined to find Snow and end her once and for all. I was not keen on murder, but when it was due punishment for such crimes, then... well, it was justice and not murder.

  “Ellie!” Cole screamed behind me, but even he could not stop what was to come. No... when I saw Snow again, her head was mine.

  I sucked in another breath, aware of just how well Snow had twisted my memories. She not only erased herself, but she twisted the story so that Cole was always the bad guy. He was not innocent, of course, but he was not the monster I believed he had turned into. The only thing I didn’t know for sure was how I had died. Had I really ended my own life, or had Snow helped me along?

  “I’m not afraid of you, not anymore!” I shouted, but Snow kept pushing and pushing, testing my resolve. I had no intention of yielding an inch, but she was strong. “You must be stopped!”

  “You won’t be the one to do it, little princess,” Snow scolded and pushed against me with her power harder with each word.

  Hunting her had been difficult, especially since Cole sought to stop me at every pass. His concern that his sister was more powerful than me had been correct, but what Snow lacked was an unselfish reason to fight. Her only drive was to further her own agenda, to gain more power for herself, and to own everything she laid eyes on. But I wanted something different—a world where Cole could stop making up for his sister’s wrongs and live unencumbered by her ever-darkening tantrums and abuses of power.

  I fought back, pushing my own light magic toward her. It clashed with hers in a thunderous explosion, but it was not enough once again. The moment I decided to retreat and regroup was the same moment a small child wandered from the forest and into Snow’s vision. The small boy gasped and tried to run, but he was caught in her crosshairs.

  “No!” I screamed and lunged toward them. I toppled the boy and took the brunt of Snow’s steady stream of magic—darkness that sent a frigid chill and a bolt of pain straight down my spine. I cried out, but my scream was drowned by the earth opening beneath me. The boy fell with me, deep into an abyss with no end.

  I managed to thrust my magic upward, pushing the boy back toward the surface. If he could run, he might escape Snow, but if he continued to fall with me, he would die. It was then the realization of my future came to me. I was weak and had only enough energy to save the boy or save myself. I chose the boy.

  With one final push, the child reached the edge of the ever-widening crevasse and climbed over it. I heard no screams above, so I could only pray he managed to escape unseen by Snow. I, on the other hand, plummeted deeper into the darkness until I saw nothing, heard nothing, sensed nothing but the emptiness of death, reaching her clawed fingers toward me. And then... nothing.

  I fought to bring myself back to the present, but there was one more thing the past wanted me to see. I had suspected my memory was wrong already, but my mind forced me to relive the scene just to be sure there was no mistaking the truth—Cole hadn’t killed Little Wil. It was Snow White.

  “Dominic!” I screamed, dodging a bolt of lightning that shot from the sky like a bullet. Snow was in rare form, but we wouldn’t get another chance to end her once and for all, so I had to move fast. Even though half of our family had died when Hayden’s darkness took her, we still had a lot to fight for, and I wouldn’t go down without giving it all I had.

  Dominic limped toward me but pointed down the half-lit street. The town was all but destroyed, but that was the least of our worries if Snow got away.

  “Hurry! She took Wil! Hans went after them, but he needs help!” Dominic shouted.

  “Where are the others?” I screamed over the sound of thunder. The wind whipped so hard it stung my face.

  “On their way! Go!”

  I raced down the darkened street as the last streetlamp flickered and died. Pelted by heavy rain, I pushed on until I saw a lump ahead of me. The red jacket was familiar—Hans. I fell to my knees beside him and checked his pulse. He was alive, only a little banged up. I shook him awake but darted down the street again once his eyes opened.

  Snow had a significant head start, but I was determined to catch her before she made good on her threat to kill Wil, the only person I loved as much as I had loved... I shook my head. I couldn’t think of Cole anymore. He was
gone, and Wil was not.

  Ahead I saw two figures, one a bit taller than the other, with his hands up. Wil backed away but did not get far as Snow raised her hands. She thrust them forward and moved a pole toward Wil. I pushed my own light toward them and managed to shove Wil to the ground before it impaled him, but Snow was angrier than ever.

  She turned on me and grasped her hand into a fist, magically strangling me. I clawed at my own neck, but it was useless. I had to focus my energy on her, and then she would be forced to release me. My mind settled on the task, and I focused on concentrating my energy into one steady assault on Snow—but nothing happened.

  I felt the familiar tingling of a magical transference and realized too late that Snow was siphoning her darkness into me, weakening my magic. Before long, there was nothing I could do but dangle in her grip, nothing more than a bested mediocre princess capable of little more than watching people she loved die at every turn.

  Snow dropped me, then turned her attention back to Wil. He ran toward me, but he never reached me. Instead, he fell on his knees with wide eyes, then fell forward. The pole jutted at an angle from his back.

  I screamed and shot up again, this time fully awake. Hot tears sprang from my eyes as I remembered the agonizing moments after Wil’s death. Hans had reached him first, then Dominic and the others as I lay there, half-unconscious. I willed death to take me, to rip my life from my body and toss me away like it had all those centuries before, but it wouldn’t. Instead, it mocked me for months until I found the spell that would send me back again, once more to try to make things right. And now, as I sat staring into Caroline’s kind eyes, everything was slipping from my grasp again.

  “Annabell?” Hayden’s sweet voice interrupted my misery.

  “It was Snow that killed Wil, not Cole,” I said.

  “Then... why did he taunt you about it? You said he took glee in—”

  “It’s the Darkness. He’s spent so many centuries absorbing everything he can,” I said. “He’s barely hanging onto the man he was when I loved him, and the man Snow wanted him to be is just beneath the surface.”

  “Uh... yeah, no, that doesn’t make any sense,” Jack said, scratching his head.

  “Snow found a way to erase my memory of her and to overwrite them with her own versions, then insinuated herself into my spell. When I returned, she weaseled her way in with false prophecy and all manner of tricks and trials.”

  “So... are you trying to say Cole is a good guy?” Jack asked.

  Dannie settled her hand on her friend’s arm. “Not exactly good, but not all bad either. He’s not much different from us, cursed by darkness we fight each day.”

  “And... everything about the Seven and the prophecy and all we have done through all these years is... a lie?” Hayden asked, her voice laced with a tone that said she felt everything I did—betrayed, tricked, and pushed to the brink of fury the likes of which only Snow’s head on a platter would abate.

  “No. Our family and everything we built, that’s not a lie,” Jack said.

  “And the Seven are not a lie, either. Their power does offer a balance for Cole, but it would offer something different to Snow,” I said.

  “What’s that?” Hayden asked.

  “If Cole absorbs them, it is merely a way to bring himself back to neutral. If Snow does, it is so the greatest source of power in the world is eliminated. Once the Seven are dead, there is no one to stop her.”

  “But won’t she be weakened by absorbing that much light?”

  “Yes, but only for so long,” I admitted, knowing what that meant for Cole as well. “But I don’t intend to let anyone absorb them. I’ll take all the darkness myself. Once I do—”

  “No, Annabell! This is too much for one person. I know what that felt like, and if you do this, then it will kill you!” Hayden grasped my hands and pulled me into a hug. I hugged her in return, but I knew my place. I knew what I had to do to save everyone.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Stella

  The Salien Castle, Schwarzwald

  ANNABELL’S MAGICAL mind-melding was taking its toll on me, but her latest revelation flipped my world—and everyone else’s—on its axis.

  “What do you mean Snow was the one who killed my son?” Wil Grimm asked, his hazel eyes flashing darker green than ever before. He was a bit scary when he was infuriated, but I wouldn’t be the one to admit that.

  “I only know what Annabell relayed to me telepathically... or... however she does it. Cole is a concern, of course, but it was Snow who manipulated the prophecy and distorted Annabell’s memories to make her think she was the good guy when all along, she was as evil as you thought she was in the beginning,” I said.

  Wil sighed and grumbled, then paced while everyone else filed into the dining hall. There was no point in gathering, not when we were on the brink of war. I had a good feeling the brink had just spilled over into reality when the earth shook, prompting everyone to either scream or scramble to grab something stable.

  Outside, the dark sky lit with a flame I could only assume was Cole’s—but I was wrong. Guards sounded the alarm, giving us only seconds to prepare before all manner of chaos broke. Ari grasped my hand, his chest heaving as he fought his fear.

  “I love you,” I said. “Be safe and stay with Kylie.”

  “I love you, too. And you... just don’t die,” he said, then leaned down and kissed me before leaving to prepare with Kylie and the villagers trained in medicine. We had a small infirmary, but the majority of the library had been turned into a makeshift hospital we were sure to fill to capacity. I only hoped there were injuries and no deaths, but I knew that was unlikely.

  “You ready?” Brant asked, gathering around me with my family. Denise and Andrew were already in fight mode, which reminded me there was a giant dragon outside that wanted to kill us even more than Cole... and I was ashamed that we never saw it coming. We were hunters, the ones tasked with fighting the darkest things in the world, but we never saw this twist coming.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” I said.

  The wall of the castle was swept away when a long, black tail swiped through the dining hall. Most people avoided the appendage, but some were smacked by the weight of it—including Marcus. I heard him shouting orders moments before he disappeared under the rubble.

  People screamed all around, and things fell into disarray before they even got started.

  “I’ll get him,” Brant said, then darted toward the last place we saw Marcus. Behind me, Nathan and Katie darted outside while Niyah, Denise, and Andrew darted in the other direction to scout the situation. I, on the other hand, was still assessing the situation from inside.

  There was only one way to figure out what to do next. I reached deep into the recesses of my mind. Annabell... are you there?

  I’m here, she responded. That’s not Cole. I think it’s Snow!

  I assumed as much. What’s next? I asked, but Annabell burst through the door with Jack, Hayden, the missing Seven, and the four naughty people who’d snuck away to search for them. Larkin and Luzia blushed when my eyes settled on them, but Ulrich just shrugged. Kai grit his teeth and came to my side.

  “Are you—” Kai began.

  “Please don’t ask if I’m ready. Just tell me what we do next,” I said, offering my hand to Annabell.

  “The stars are outside. All we need to do is—”

  A screech interrupted Annabell, proving our trouble had only just begun. Cole had arrived, and he was angry. From inside, the fight outside sounded like a prehistoric cage match between equally weighted opponents, but once Larkin and Ulrich fled toward the gaping hole in the wall, it was even more disorienting. They shifted and took to the skies along with Kirsten, Isla, and Ethan.

  “Well, I guess everyone knows their places,” Parker said, then shifted and went after them.

  “What about the Seven?” I asked, but Annabell’s focus was outside. She dragged me out, where everyone either ran around screaming
or was stunned into a frozen position as they watched dragons go to battle. I had been correct in my assumption about the chaos as the Austerlitz den merged into their single dragon, large enough to aid Cole in taking down Snow. The problem was what we would do with him after that.

  “We have a plan... I think,” Jack said. “I don’t know anymore. Let’s just... fight.” With that, he ran to help Brant dig Marcus from the rubble while I assessed the situation from a different vantage point.

  “We need to draw her away from the castle and toward the field. There, I will absorb the light from the stars then the darkness from Snow and Cole. If my calculations are correct and all things go according to plan, I can destroy the darkness,” Annabell said.

  “Um... what?” I asked. “You think I can help you do all of that?”

  “I think it was supposed to be you all along, Stella.”

  The remainder of the Seven dispersed to take up weapons alongside their families, likely already past the point of asking questions. I wondered how Elizabeth managed to see her mother that way, as a fallen star, then remembered what Pieter meant to Parker and Dannie to the Vogel siblings. I shook my head clear again and jogged with Annabell toward the stars.

  “I can create a distraction with the best of them,” I said. “Just give me a second. Kai, could you help me?”

  “What’ll it be? A little blood rain? A field of frozen dragon-pops?” he teased but offered me his hand all the same.

  “Nope. This time it’s just some good old Snow Queen magic,” I said and focused my energy toward Snow White, who had, by all accounts, leveled up into the most fierce monster the land had ever seen. When she learned the dragon trick, I would never know, but she systematically ripped apart the Salien castle stone by stone.