The Heart of the Darkness

by M. J. Padgett

  “So... it’s over?” Kai asked, standing beside Stella.

  “I cannot say for sure what will happen next, but Snow is good and dead this time. Cole made sure of it,” she said, glancing at the man.

  “Is he still a dragon? We can’t shift,” Larkin said.

  “No, he is not. He burned his sister to a... well, you see, and then he shifted and fell unconscious. I feel no magic in him now.”

  “Do you still have magic?” I asked, concerned we were mere mortals with no way of protecting our families should the darkness return.

  “No, I do not. None of us do. Perhaps it will return, but I believe the Canis Lupus spell has been permanently broken. Even I cannot enact it again. I tried when Caleb asked, and nothing happened.” Ravenna was tired, so I inhaled and looked for my twin, the king. “Where’s Marcus?”

  “Recovering,” Brant said. “He took a nasty fall and was crushed when Snow attacked the castle, but he is doing well and should make a full recovery. Remarkably, the witches' plan saved many from death. All, actually, except Snow.”

  “What? You mean to say we lost no one?” Wil asked.

  Brant chuckled. “Well, we do live in a fairy tale land, after all.”

  With that, people began milling around and working through their confusion. There would be many meetings and discussions ahead of us, especially since I had no idea where half of our people were. Things had gone from bad to worse in a nanosecond, but all I wanted was to sink into my bed and snuggle my son. Unfortunately, that would have to wait.

  “What’s happening to her?” Hayden cried, holding Annabell’s hand.

  “It’s the darkness. It’s killing her,” Cole said, tears spilling over his cheeks. The sarcastic part of me wanted to ask if we’d taken him in as a straggler now, too, but it was not the time—not even close.

  “Help her!” Hayden screamed, shaking Cole.

  “I can’t! She... changed me. I’m not a vessel anymore,” he said.

  “Hayden, baby, let the man go!” Jack said, grasping his wife.

  Kai nudged Stella and leaned in close, then they both looked up at Ari, who narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips, then replied. Their conversation continued until Kai finally spoke to everyone. “What if... for argument’s sake, there is a way I can preserve her until we can find a way to heal her? Is it possible she can finish fighting the darkness and survive?” he asked Cole.

  “I...” He glanced back down at Annabell, whose skin was pale, but darkness bubbled underneath. “I... can’t say for sure. This has never happened before, not in all the millennium we have existed as vessels for it.”

  “So, what you’re saying is, we might still be screwed?” Kai asked.

  Cole eased away from Annabell and let Hayden hold her daughter. “Possibly, but if she is contained, it is possible the stones could drain the energy from—”

  “But Snow destroyed them!” Hayden yelled.

  Cole pressed his palms to his eyes. “I had forgotten, but there are more. My family had an heirloom, a sapphire that held unimaginable power, but it was lost long ago.”

  “How convenient,” Stella said, practically growling.

  “But you might be able to save her? If you find this heirloom sapphire, you could... what?” Kai asked.

  “If the stone can be found, it might still be enchanted. Its purpose was the same as the rubies, but it was stronger. We often used it to help us control large doses of the Darkness, but it was lost to me soon after Elfriede died,” Cole said.

  “Could it kill her instead of healing her?” Hayden asked.

  “She’ll die if we do nothing,” he replied, but his tone was soft and gentle.

  Hayden nodded. “Do it. Whatever you need to do, just do it.”

  “We have no magic and no way to perform a location spell. Kai, can you freeze her as you did the others for a time? Perhaps our magic will return, or some good old-fashioned searching will pay off.”

  “That was my thought, yes,” Kai said.

  “Then do it. Preserve her, and we will find a way to do what Cole has said. We cannot let this be her fate, not after she saved the world.” Aline waved her hand, seemingly dismissing everyone but those who would help Annabell.

  Wil tugged on my hand, then leaned over and whispered, “The time is all wrong, but I must remind you of the day anyway since our son will be missing you soon. Merry Christmas, my love.”

  “Oh, my gosh! It’s Christmas!” I dragged my husband along until we reached the bunker where the children had been safely tucked away. It wasn’t until we reached the area that I realized the stars—Caroline, Pieter, and Dannie—were nowhere to be found. I wondered what became of fallen stars whose power was drained and used to control ultimate evil but supposed that was one story I could hear another time.

  “Mama!” Little Wil leaped into my arms when I opened the door, leaving my brother Ely behind when he did. Ely and Sierra were already in the bunker, checking on them, and behind us were Jay and Elizabeth. More parents would arrive soon, so I smiled at Ely and carried my son to his bedroom.

  Once there, he tore into his presents as if nothing had ever happened. Perhaps we had shielded him too well, and he would never know the evils of the world, but in my heart, I knew it was best to protect him from it for as long as I could. After all, he was only little once.

  “Mama, where is Annabell? Is she back now? Can we play?”

  Wil swallowed and ran his hands over his face, then said, “Son, Annabell... she had to go to sleep for a while, but maybe one day she’ll wake up, and you can be friends again.”

  “Oh... but... why does she need such a long nap? Was she cranky?”

  I chuckled. “No, son. Annabell... she’s a hero, and sometimes heroes need long naps.”

  “Okay. Will my dreams go away now that she’s a grown-up?” he asked his attention on both of us.

  “What dreams, baby?” I asked, stroking his cheek.

  “The ones where Annabell is my friend when we are big.” Little Wil spied another package in the corner and darted toward it before we could answer, not that we would know what to say if we did. Wil and I shared a look, one that said that even if we had finally found our happy ending, there was still work to be done to ensure our son received his.

  “What will we do with Cole?” Wil asked. His eyes reflected the firelight, showing they were full of sorrow.

  “I don’t know. I suppose that’s up to Marcus and the other kings and queens,” I said, but I knew that wasn’t what he was really asking. He wondered the same thing I did—was Cole good beneath all the bad, and if he was, could we ever trust him?

  EPILOGUE

  Little Wil

  The Salien Castle, Schwarzwald

  Exactly sixteen years later...

  PEOPLE FILED THROUGH the front gate every so often, many of whom I had not seen since summer or before, but as we did every year, the entire family got together for our Christmas Day Ball. My uncle insisted it was important for everyone to celebrate the occasion together, especially with everyone so busy, and some spread across the world. All I wanted was a nice, quiet Christmas for once, but that was something a Grimm was never granted.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t love my family—quite the contrary. Somehow, though our family extended into other kingdoms and across seas, I managed to feel close to all of them—some more than others, but there wasn’t a single person in our masses that would turn their back on me or ignore their phone if I called. I had the kind of solidarity most people could only dream about, and I’d had it all my life.

  But something was missing—someone. I couldn’t put my finger on it for the longest time, not really. When I was a small boy, my best friend in all the world almost died, but she was frozen like a people-pop in a tower instead. I never got to grow up with her, never got to see her again after she gave her life to save the forest from evil, and yet...

  “Wil!” Hans called from inside.

  My fingers gripped the stone wall that
surrounded the balcony, wishing I’d inherited my mother’s ability to shift into a wolf before it was lost to her permanently. If I had, I would have leaped from the platform and ran away into the woods for some relief. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t do it anymore. I still wished it were genetic.

  Instead, I answered. “In here!”

  Hans ducked his head into my room, the one I’d had all my life. “Almost everyone is here. Are you joining us, or will you be sulking some more?”

  I threw a heated glare his way, but he brushed it off as always. A lot like his father, Hans had a certain devil-may-care attitude, but underneath he was reliable, steadfast, and trustworthy beyond measure. He was also my closest friend, along with Dominic, Annabell’s brother. The three of us found more trouble than a little in the forest behind my castle as we grew up.

  I sighed. “Yes, I’m coming.”

  “Still having the weird dreams?” Hans asked as he leaned against the door frame.

  “Worse now. When I was a child, they were pleasant. Now they’re just... they’re so vivid... and bloody,” I admitted, remembering the horrific scene of my death—that had never happened.

  “Maybe it’s time to tell your parents? What if it means something?” Hans pushed off the doorframe and stepped onto the balcony. It overlooked a small pond where we often went ice-fishing or skating.

  “Maybe. How exactly do I go about telling my parents I’m dreaming about Annabell as a teenager, holding me while I die?”

  Hans shrugged. “Beats me. Maybe you just spend too much time in that tower with her, and it’s affecting your sleep cycle. Your obsession with her is a little creepy, Wil.”

  I shook my head. “It’s not that, Hans. It’s not like something I’m making up. I feel her in my dreams. I see the years we grew up together, but people are missing. It’s almost like they never existed, my parents among them, and like we grew up in this...” I stumbled searching for words, then said, “I’m not sure, like an alternate world or time or something.”

  A soft knock on my door distracted us both. “Come in,” I said.

  My mother, donned in her best gown, pushed the door open and smiled. “Wil, the last of the family, has arrived from America. You’re not even dressed yet. Are you sick?” She came at me with her wrist to check my temperature, the same thing Oma Jeanine did all the time. It was exhausting.

  I dodged her wrist and shook my head. “I’m not sick, just tired. I didn’t sleep well. I think I’m just stressing over this semester’s finals, that’s all.”

  My mother laughed. “I’m sure Aunt Kylie will help you if you only ask her. For tonight, put a pin in your worries about school and come enjoy everything. Your Uncle Marcus really has gone all out this year.”

  “We’ll be right there. I’ll just get dressed,” I said, urging her out the door. I heard my father calling for her, perfect timing, and pushed a bit more. Once she had kissed my cheek, leaving a bright red imprint, I shut the door behind her and wiped my face.

  “Did you hear Aunt Stella and Uncle Ari will be staying for a while? A few months this time to help train... Wil, are you listening?” Hans’s concerned tone brought me back to reality. I’d heard every word he said, but my mind still wandered back to Annabell, frozen in ice in a tall tower where no one would ever see her and remember the horrible things that had happened... things our parents refused to explain to us.

  “Do you ever get angry with them?” I asked.

  “Our family?”

  “Yes, at how they refuse to tell us what happened to Annabell, exactly, I mean. They tell us some sugar-coated version but never the whole truth. Why do you suppose that is? Isn’t history important to remember?”

  “To tell you the truth...” Hans hesitated, then said, “It’s why I decided to join the program instead of staying here.”

  “You joined the program? That’s why Aunt Stella is sticking around? To train you?”

  Hans nodded. “Yeah. Uncle Brant is too busy with the new office in France, so she’s doing it. I’m excited, Wil. Can you just be excited for me?”

  I smiled. He had no idea how excited I was for him. Hans would, no doubt, make one of the best hunters in the world. He’d certainly lived long enough to see all the evil it contained. “I am happy for you, Hans, truly. I’m sorry if my face doesn’t show it, but I am. I must ask though, why do you think doing so will somehow reveal the truth?”

  “Two words... the Organization Archives.”

  “That’s three words,” I taunted.

  Hans sighed and pursed his lips. “I’ve lived literal centuries, was ten when everything happened, yet they still treat me as if I am too innocent to know the truth about what happened in the end. If I can get my hands on the records in that archive, then maybe I can piece together the missing parts of the story.”

  I ran my hand through my hair and messed it up but didn’t care. “Let me change and visit Annabell, then I’ll make an appearance at the ball, and we can talk more after. I think you’re on to something, but if we keep them waiting much longer, they’ll send the guards to drag us out.”

  Hans agreed and disappeared into the hall. He never mentioned my comment about visiting Annabell, likely since it had become a habit beginning when I was a child. I was forbidden to go to the tower, but I studied the changing of the guard, knew the schedules of every royal by heart, and found ways to sneak into the tower undetected. Annabell called to me like a siren, and I couldn’t ignore her.

  I quickly pulled on my uniform, the one my mother insisted I wear despite my aversion to wearing such elaborate nonsense and combed my hair. It wasn’t as if Annabell could see how messed up it was, but I felt the need to be as neat as possible when I went to see her. Once presentable, I slipped into the hallway and stuck to the shadows—a harder feat than imaginable in a castle. Once at the end, I ducked right instead of heading left toward the ballroom. Down that hall was a secret door that led to an ancient library. It hadn’t been used in some time, but I still crept along the walls until I reached the tunnel that led to the dungeons. I had to go down to go up, so I waited for the guard to begin his nightly rounds.

  At nine sharp, he marched down the long corridor toward another guard where they exchanged information. During that time, I stepped across the space and slowly slid the door open. Once it was closed behind me, I ascended the gazillion stairs that led to her room.

  Annabell, the girl who saved the world, slept encased in a block of ice that never thawed thanks to good old Uncle Kai, a real Jack Frost. The rectangle of ice was encased in another casket made of glass, gilded around the edges, and covered with etches of stars. It was quite beautiful, but it could not compare to the woman inside.

  My fingers slid over the smooth glass, aching to touch her. But why? I’d known her when I was small, hardly a toddler when she died, yet I felt as if I knew her my entire life—all eighteen years of it. I closed my eyes and tried to remember more, anything to place the feelings that overwhelmed me, but nothing ever worked.

  “Why? Why do I have the dreams, Annabell? Why can I remember every moment we ever spent together growing up, yet none of those moments exist? You have been frozen this way since I was a little kid, but the dreams are so real,” I said. I swallowed hard, almost afraid to say the rest of what weighed on my mind. It was crazy.

  “I remember everything. I know some people were missing, and I remember going to live in America for a long time, then we... we grew closer, and we fought monsters of all kinds. I remember dying, Annabell, and I know... I know we were in love, and it just doesn’t make sense to me. Help me. Help me make sense of it because it’s killing me.”

  Annabell remained asleep, ticking away the seconds that led to years. There were no answers, at least, I didn’t think I would ever get them. But just when I thought all hope was lost, I was reminded of where I grew up—a magical, fairy tale land—and hope was never all lost.

  “Son,” my father said from the shadows. I hadn’t seen him there, hid
ing in the corner in a chair.

  I was startled and grasped the edge of Annabell’s casket. “Dad? What are you doing here?”

  “I should ask you the same, but I already know the answer,” he said, stepping forward. “Your mother and I have known for some time that you come here. Surely, you did not think the guards were that incapable?”

  I frowned. “They saw me?”

  My father chuckled. “They saw you, heard you, told us about it years ago, and have reported to us ever since.”

  I rolled my eyes and stared up toward the high ceiling. “Why does that not surprise me? I can’t get away with anything around here.”

  He only chuckled and urged me to sit in one of the chairs near the fireplace that never had a fire but always seemed to glow. He sat across from me and clasped his hands together. He was in story-telling mode, and no one wove a better tale than my father, Wilhelm Grimm, except perhaps his brother, Jacob.

  “You know part of the story surrounding the forest, especially the part that involves your mother, but what you don’t know is the ending of the story.”

  I held my breath, my heart racing. Could this be it? Was he going to tell me the truth? He sighed and settled in.

  “Annabell came to us after we discovered Hayden. You know that part of the story, but what you don’t know is how she came to us.”

  “Like the other adopted children, right? Like Dominic and...” I faded, realizing Dominic had always been more distant than the other kids who were rescued from Bianca. I always chalked it up to Annabell being closest to him and never questioned it. Dominic was just Dominic, a little weird and quiet, but always the first to leap in head-first to save the day. He was already in the program and had a head start on all of us.

  “Dominic is another story, but I will get to that,” Dad said. “Annabell was discovered with the children, yes, but that was by design. You see, she was a star, Wil. A beautiful, shining star who came down from the Heavens to help us correct a mistake she made long ago.”